LGA1150 Motherboard choices choices!!!

sancco · Jun 10, 2013

Hi I'm looking to buy an i7 4770 non-K computer with dual 780's. I'm looking for a good quality motherboard, without spending any more than I need to on features I won't use. Most notably, I will not be overclocking and I will not be going Tri-SLI, only dual.

http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=4518,4491,4486,4489,4481,4483

This is the link I'm looking at but I can't really understand the expansion slots section. Will my 780 dual-SLI be limited by any of these motherboards?

Thanks for your time

n1ghtr4v3n · Jun 10, 2013

since you are using non-K version

there is no need for z87x ones. those are meant for overclocking with extra voltage tweaking abilities.

you shall be using either H87 or Z87.
GA-H87-D3H (rev. 1.0) ATX
GA-Z87-HD3 (rev. 1.0) ATX
GA-Z87M-D3H (rev. 1.0) microATX

if you are not in need of extra space on the motherboard I'd definitely go for micro-ATX one which is the most advanced one between those.
thumbs up for z87m-d3h

DarkSable · Jun 10, 2013

Is this for gaming?

If so, you're making a couple mistakes:

1) The i7 performs EXACTLY the same as the $100-cheaper i5. The only difference is that the i7 has hyperthreading, which games cannot be coded to take good advantage of.

2) If you're running TWO 780s, you're going to want to be able to overclock. Are you avoiding it just because you haven't done it before, or..?

sancco · Jun 10, 2013

DarkSable :

Yeah it's mostly a gaming PC but I do other things that utilize the hyper threading. As for overclocking, I've got absolutely no interest in trying it. I know everyone says it's easy and free upgrade but I really don't want to. Do you think 2x 780s will be CPU limited by a i7 4770k?

sancco · Jun 10, 2013

n1ghtr4v3n :

Ok sweet. I'm still unsure if those bus speeds will be an issue with dual-SLI and a H87 board though.

DarkSable · Jun 10, 2013

*Shrug* That's up to you, but you're losing out on a fairly easy 30% gain in CPU power.

That being said, as long as you have 8 lanes of PCIe 3.0, the 780s will be just fine. There might be a slight bottleneck with an i7 at stock speeds, but that's okay. However, I would ABSOLUTELY buy just one first. I think you underestimate what they can do - two 780s is overkill for pretty much any setup.

n1ghtr4v3n · Jun 10, 2013

DarkSable :

actually... if he is going for multiple monitor setups 780 on SLI is not an overkill. it is even a need...

edit: definitely go for Z series if you are going to use the second gpu. it worths the extra bucks
edit2: 4770 can still be overclocked. not as much as a K version but still it does if you ever need it. plus not even 3770 would ever bottleneck your gpu's even without overclocking. you know why? thanks to "hyper-threading"

3.4GHz stock frequency is good for anything these days. dont be worried!

DarkSable · Jun 10, 2013

Night, I'm sorry, but where are you getting this from?

Hyperthreading does NOTHING to increase processing power when it comes to gaming or to feeding information to GPUs, you can't overclock locked Haswell chips like you could with Ivy Bridge, and since a 670 can easily push medium-high settings on three screens by itself, there's no reason not to start with one 780 and get one later if you need it, rather than possibly wasting money.

n1ghtr4v3n · Jun 10, 2013

hyper threading actually is when you are in need of parallel processes. while driving 2x graphics card with 1 cpu, it benefits from parallel cores! basic electrics mate... basics... hyper threading is not just needed when you are using software. it benefits hardware too.

DarkSable · Jun 10, 2013

n1ghtr4v3n :

Hyperthreading is FAR from "basic electr[onics]," and you don't have a full grasp of how it works. Essentially it provides four more logical threads that are far weaker computationally, because they are processed in between they physical threads' calculations.

This has absolutely nothing to do with hardware, and gives you no benefit when gaming, as games struggle to use more than three threads effectively anyways. The only place it provides a noticeable benefit is for double-precision workloads in an application designed to take advantage of the technology.... i.e. NOT in the few, floating-point tasks that gaming requires.

sancco · Jun 10, 2013

Yeah I'm looking into what you guys are talking about. Seems that Hyper-Threading is basically a really weak set of 'phantom cores' that are only really useful/powerful/effective in programs specifically designed to use them, like heavy computation in video editing or similar tasks. Other than that, the ~$250 i5 is EXACTLY the same as the the ~$350 i7. Only noticeable difference seems to be 6MB vs 8MB of cache, which I read is a non-issue for my intended use.

As for the video cards, looking at benchmarks a second time, all games will run at highest settings and playable frame rates with just a single 780, excluding Crysis 3. I guess it's a matter of do I want to pay an extra $750 for a few more frames in Crysis 3?

DarkSable, you have saved me $100 + $750 with no performance loss so thank you! Kudos!

sancco · Jun 10, 2013

Although I am still no closer to choosing a motherboard haha

DarkSable · Jun 10, 2013

sancco :

That's a pretty good way of thinking about it. As for Crysis 3, one thing to keep in mind is that when it was built, they KNEW nobody could get good framerates with it. Because of that, it's optimized to play at lower framerates. I've got a 120Hz screen, and in most games, if I'm not playing at at least 100fps, it feels horribly laggy. On crysis 3, I can push about 40 frames a second... and be happy with the results.

One thing that I would definitely consider in your case is waiting for a little bit to see if a dual-GK110 790 comes out, because if it comes out priced at $1000 like it should be, well... that'll be an incredible buy.

As for the motherboard, I can give you a general bit of advice: Unless you absolutely need a specific feature set or number of ports that a more expensive motherboard gives you, you shouldn't spend somewhere around $150-$180. A motherboard in that price range will have a full feature set, and will overclock just as well as the more expensive ones, without gimmicks (like thermal armor) that do nothing but raise the cost.

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LGA1150 Motherboard choices choices!!!

sancco

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