X99 Motherboard Help/Advice

M

MightyGeekMan

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
69
ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Professional Gaming
ASUS ROG Strix X99
Gigabyte GA-X99-Ultra Gaming
MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon

Hey everyone. Looking for a little advice on the above ATX X99 MBs, namely which one I should use as the basis of my new build. This is the first time I'm building on the X99 platform and I don't know which brand of MB to buy. I've read all the reviews I can find for every board below $350, and these four seem to be the "best" in my price range. They all have the basic features I'm looking for (M.2, USB 3.1, solid OC capabilities, etc.), but they each have some issues that cause me to hesitate. For example, Gigabyte has no POST readout, the ASRock doesn't have LED lights, the MSI has reports of USB failure problems, and while I'm normally partial to ASUS boards since I've used them in the past, there's currently a lot of noise on the web about their QC and customer support being suspect. All of which is making me gun shy.

Below is a link to a PCPartPicker list, but keep in mind the only pieces set in stone are the case and power supply, everything else is malleable. I love the design of the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv case with it's glass panels, and I already own the Seasonic X 850. Lastly, the build is for professional 2D graphic design and lots of video recording/editing, with some light gaming thrown in. Overall color scheme will be based on the final MB choice.

Thanks in advance for your help/advice!

PC Part Picker
 
I Personally would not use an MSI board on X99 purely from a massive issue with had with a few of them at my old job.

I really don't think The Asrock and Gigabyte boards 'issues' are issues lol. But to each their own. I, personally, will still buy Asus for the foreseeable future. I've had very reliable asus boards myself.

I think, given you're going for an Asus Strix, pair them together :p.
 
I can add actual knowledge to this thread as I own an asus x99a / x99a-II / asrock x99 profesional gaming i7 / asrock fatality x99 killer 3.1 motherboards and the best boards hands down in my opinion are the asrock boards... By far MUCH FASTER ssd/m.2 performance, simplicity in the uefi, overall imo the asrock boards are very polished.. Asus boards are ok, but m.2 performance blows ass and my x99a-II m.2 port is stuck on pcie 2.0 speeds for whatever reason, and after multi attempts with asus support, the only answer they give me is a RMA number to send it in. I wont be going back to asus for a while. Also, I have a 12c/24t Xeon ES cpu that will not boot in the asus boards... asrock boards have no issue.. just sayin.
 
newls1 said:
I can add actual knowledge to this thread as I own an asus x99a / x99a-II / asrock x99 profesional gaming i7 / asrock fatality x99 killer 3.1 motherboards and the best boards hands down in my opinion are the asrock boards... By far MUCH FASTER ssd/m.2 performance, simplicity in the uefi, overall imo the asrock boards are very polished.. Asus boards are ok, but m.2 performance blows ass and my x99a-II m.2 port is stuck on pcie 2.0 speeds for whatever reason, and after multi attempts with asus support, the only answer they give me is a RMA number to send it in. I wont be going back to asus for a while. Also, I have a 12c/24t Xeon ES cpu that will not boot in the asus boards... asrock boards have no issue.. just sayin.
Click to expand...

Had my fair issues with other brands until I got myself a Asrock board on a great deal, was not thinking about them but the price was really tempting... Now Asrock on most of my builds ever since.
 
xLegendary said:
Had my fair issues with other brands until I got myself a Asrock board on a great deal, was not thinking about them but the price was really tempting... Now Asrock on most of my builds ever since.
Click to expand...

I've been using asus boards all the way back to socket 7 days.... ive built (Honestly) 100's of pc's since that time for my personal self and always used to be a die hard asus customer.... since the skt 1155 days and my asus issues, i then discovered asrock (Which even tho i *think* at that time asrock and asus were in bed with each other) I still wanted to see if my oc'ing issues would be different on a different board... I bought a gigabyte,msi, asrock boards to see which my 2600k would oc better on, asrock won by 2 multi's and 200+ mhz, all while using less vcore. ive been stuck to asrock ever since and saved money on each purchase. My only complaint with asrock is their lack luster memory performance, but i can easily overlook that!
 
ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Professional Gaming, That's the board I'd get if I was in the market. Currently use an Asus x99-A.
 
the dual m.2 ports on my x99 professional gaming i7 board is so amazing to have. have my 950 pro boot drive in top m.2, and my sm951 in bottom m.2. Having 2 pcie 3.0 ssd's is something ill never go without again!
 
Thanks for all the help/advice people. Right now it seems that ASRock and ASUS are the two front runners. A couple of quick questions for the ASRock owners out there;
  • Have you run into any issues regarding the fan headers? i.e. not enough connections, bad placement, etc.? Also, are the fan headers 3 or 4 prong?
  • How hard/easy is it to add LEDs to the build? Can the lights be controlled via the BIOS like the ASUS, or will I need a separate controller?
  • Has anyone used the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX Computer Case, specifically the built-in PWM hub? How might that work with regards the LEDs?
I know these are a lot of questions about aesthetics that might not matter to most, but after years of building boxes that hide under my desk I want this new build to be part of the eye-candy on top of my desk.
 
Asrock is a big vote in my book, for a $200-250/non-flagship board it has the best features and slot layout, it is also a recent refresh model. Since you mention workstation, asrock is a no brainer if you want to try xeons, ECC and registered dimms, things that matter more for a professional system than some blinking leds.

They supported these by putting in all the microcodes and necessary traces, bios codes etc years before their counterpart/former oem partner asus ever dreamed of it. Hell for a long time asus would close any support issue or question that had the word "linux" or (windows) "server" in it. Meanwhile asrock put up a video to prove working VT-d passthru which is about as obscure as it gets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top