ASUS SABERTOOTH X99 LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

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ASUS SABERTOOTH X99 LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard Review - ASUS’ SABERTOOTH X99 promises premium quality and unmatched stability alongside industry leading fan control. Saberooth motherboards have in the past all been universally excellent and this motherboard is one of the newest in the TUF series. Can ASUS keep that streak going? It's going to be TUF.
 
Nice article, thanks.
Typo on page 1's specs? Memory says up to 64GB, shouldn't it be 128GB?
 
That's a sexy board I'll never have or have use for (8 slots of RAM, wow)

As a little side note I love that Lost Planet is still being used. 8 years old, from a Japanese developer and engine and still a fantastic game when it comes to utilizing multiple cores.
 
"It is also interesting to note that 1.92v CPU input is stock on this motherboard; ASUS has just recently raised this voltage specification."

Is 1.92V a typo? That seems really high for stock voltage.
 
Will stick with my EVGA for now. Even though lacking features or wow factor it's rock solid stable. 4.6 was a cinch on my 5820k with very good memory clock/timings and I haven't seen a need to push it further... I started with a much nicer Asus board, but returned it cause had far too many problems and have never looked back.

Edit: misrepresented my OC.
 
I love Asus motherboards. I'm basically scared to not use them that's how good they've been.

I got 4.5ghz on my 5820k at 1.295v stable
 
Nice review guys. Always glad when you guys put your steps to achieve stable overlock, that helped me out on this asus x58 board I still run 6 years later :)

Any chance we might see an ASUS X99-E WS reviewed? I ask because a lot of the user reviews on the previous generation of the asus mobo with lots of slots like this, was mixed. Was part of the reason I put off upgrading.
 
Nice review guys. Always glad when you guys put your steps to achieve stable overlock, that helped me out on this asus x58 board I still run 6 years later :)

Any chance we might see an ASUS X99-E WS reviewed? I ask because a lot of the user reviews on the previous generation of the asus mobo with lots of slots like this, was mixed. Was part of the reason I put off upgrading.

Indeed. I actually like that it failed, because we got all the steps for troubleshooting when things go wrong. That said, like Dan/Kyle, I don't get why they don't have the OC options in the tool Isn't it assumed that someone running this chipset is going to OC?
 
not in the x99 market but that 'armor' is sexy. not sure about the color but in general i love that type of thing.
 
The Sabertooth series is by far my favorite out of all the ASUS motherboard lines.
 
"It is also interesting to note that 1.92v CPU input is stock on this motherboard; ASUS has just recently raised this voltage specification."

Is 1.92V a typo? That seems really high for stock voltage.

nope, CPU input voltage isn't the same as CPU voltage or Vcore, CPU input voltage AKA VRIN (voltage regulator input), is the voltage provided to the VRMs by the motherboard, then the CPU ondie VRM take this voltage and produce the other voltage (Vcore) the default value for VRIN is 1.8v but its well known that most people have to use between 1.9 and 2.0 to achieve higher OC and better stability, increased VRIN automatically increase the delta between this and CPU voltage so it make the ondie VRM run hotter at above 1.95v, Asus I guess to provide the maximum stability out of the box and easily high overclock increased the stock VRIN to 1.92v which is certainly good as it not put any extra stress in the motherboard as is designed to run at 1.92v by default.

definitively as Kyle said ASUS TUF series are in my opinion the best and more reliable Motherboard line, but not only Asus, I think overall. and its the main reason 8 of my 10 machines and personal are powered by Asus Sabertooth motherboards, is a trend I will continue forever if possible.
 
I love Asus boards but doesn't all of that bolt on crap just build up heat?
 
had this board since it came out.popped in my 5930 upped it to 4.5 and and runs cool with my h110.haven't had time to push it harder but i know i can get 4.6 - 4.7 out of it.
 
oh and one other thing don't waste your time with that ai suite software stuff.
 
The new BIOS 1801 Helped stabilize my ram issues. Corsair Vengeance 2800 16Meg, runs at 3k, XMP stable now.

Spread Spectrum had to be ON, Not Auto, Not Disabled. I was getting a lot of EMI feedback in my network which killed my Comcast Internet, and Phone. I am running 4 systems on my wired network and it dropped my speed from 180Mbs to dial up. I ragged on Comcast who did a line test and also heard all the static. WTF all my cable is new from the street to the house. After I scheduled a tech visit, I pulled the Sabertooth from the network and all was stable. Then I remembered I had disabled Spread Spectrum. I enabled it. Then called Comcast back ate my bag of poop and apologized.

I am running a 5930 @ 3.7, (a 7% overclock) and Win8.1. The only thing I see now is my DDR 4 speed seems a little slow. 50.3k, Aida write. DDR 3, 1866 on my X79 is at 55k. Pepper and Fly Shit, can you really tell the difference?

The only over voltage adjust I did was to manually set the RAM to 1.35. At 2800 it ran stable at 1.2. It probably would be OK at 3k but the spec was 1.35 so I put it at that.
 
Just building a new system with the X99 Sabertooth. Part of the holdup had been waiting to see if Asus was going to release the Sabertooth version for X99--glad they finally did. The old X79 has been stable as all get-out and a pleasure to use. Hoping this version will be the same.
 
I was about to wait for this motherboard when I built my gaming rig / PC workstation, but after reading this review, I'm glad I didn't. By the way, any chance that you guys will review the EVGA X99 Classified? Is that a good motherboard?
 
There is one other thing that this board will not do, at least I have not found a way. I run my main systems with a UPS backup. With my other boards, all Asus I could set the BIOS to restart after a power loss and power is reapplied. In other words shut the system down and turn off the UPS. When restarting push the on switch for the UPS and it should be a go. Not for this board, if you set the BIOS for a restart on power loss this board will lock up. It BIOS has to be set to Power OFF. The UPS power is turned on and then you have to start the system by the case power switch. Not a big deal but it should not be that way.
 
Is this included with the motherboard? Mine didn't have one, nor did it have a 3 way sli bridge.

Mine didn't have those either. Must have been their review sample as its not in Newegg's pictures either. The Hyper kit is like $26 shipped at Newegg right now.
 
Negative. According to ASUS' website the Sabertooth X99 only supports 64GB of DDR4 RAM. There are two things that ultimately determine memory compatibility above all else. 1.) Chipset specification. 2.) Memory QVL Testing. That latter is ultimately what matters. 16GB DIMMs were obviously not tested. Memory that dense, especially DDR4 modules are ridiculously expensive if you can even find them.

The latest BIOS 1801 has added support for 16GB modules. There are a few 128GB kits out there but they are horrendously expensive at this time.

I am running 64GB (8x8GB) Crucial DDR4 2400 memory on my X99 Sabertooth, and everything has been good so far. I had to manually set the DRAM voltage to 1.25V to get the board to consistently recognize all 64GB, but I understand that has more to do with the IMC on the processor than the board. Coupled with a 5930K that does 4.3GHz on all 6 cores at 1.16V stress test stable at load temps of 66degC, I am happy with my setup.
 
Beyond what the chipset and IMC are capable of supporting, memory support is a matter of what the manufacturer has tested. Its good that ASUS is continuing to validate additional modules, especially those with greater densities.
 
Asus has been my board of choice for my personal builds as well as builds that don't have a constrained budget for the past 20 years.
My 2 main machines both have Sabertooth boards, which I chose mainly since they look really cool.
 
Can someone help me understand how I get a motherboard like this to work with NVM Express?
 
Can someone help me understand how I get a motherboard like this to work with NVM Express?

There should be a BIOS setting for it. Beyond that you need to install the NVMe driver for Windows.
 
Given that this review is 5 months old, would this board still be suggested? Im about to build a X99 system and Im in need of a good board.
 
Given that this review is 5 months old, would this board still be suggested? Im about to build a X99 system and Im in need of a good board.

I'm in the same boat.. I've read that it's actually gotten better with bios updates.

I'm considering this or the EVGA X99 FTW....

any help would be great.
 
Given that this review is 5 months old, would this board still be suggested? Im about to build a X99 system and Im in need of a good board.

If anything this motherboard will be better than it was when we reviewed it.
 
I see this board being referenced as a server board, will it suffice as a work/gaming board too?
 
ok good to know, one more question. I see it lists DDR4 as "DDR4 2400/ 2133", I have access to some DDR4 2666 by a friend, will that not work with this board, or are there limitations to using it?
 
Dan do you know if this board can boot windows from the m.2 SSD? I saw a video talking about making sure that in order to boot from a m.2 the board has to support nvme. Board specs shows this board having NVM Express storage capabilities but a reviewer said it does not support NVME drives.

Im confused as what to make of this as I was going to get SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 and have that be my main drive for OS and other important programs I would use.
 
I really wish that I could pull the trigger on the Sabertooth, but after my problems in the past with customer service and the low rating on Newegg of 3/5 eggs with 31% giving it a one I just can't take the chance of getting a bad board and not being able to get it replaced. I bought four of the asus windows tablets for my children and ran into the bad ribbon cable on three. I'm not sure what they did to "fix" them but one failed again soon after it was returned. The result, $1600 worth of tablets are stacked on my desk. So no Asus for me until they understand that making great products isn't enough, you have to support them.
 
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