Critique/ Help me choose motherboard

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

Hi, i will be planning on buying my parts from pccasegear ( i live in AUS ). here is the build i've decided to go with:

CPU: intel core i5 4590
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST1000DM003
memory: Kingston Hyper X Fury HX316C10FBK2/8 8GB (2x4GB) Black
video card: XFX Radeon R9 280X Double Dissipation 3GB
PSU: Seasonic G-650 80Plus Gold 650W
OD: LG GH24NSB0 24x SATA DVD-RW Drive OEM
case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-01 Mid Tower Gaming Case

I'm confused on what motherboard to choose for my build... i want a dual slot motherboard which allows crossfire. But the problem is, i want both slots to be x16 for a cheap priced motherboard ( not too worried about overclocking at the moment ), i've found 3 motherboards, can someone please tell me if they are x16 mode on both slots? so i can maximise my dual video cards in the future? thanks a lot:

- ASRock Fatal1ty B85 Killer Motherboard

- ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2 Motherboard

- ASRock H97M-Pro4 Motherboard

EDIT: any suggestions to improve my build, without any additional items ( on a budget )

laviniuc · Jul 17, 2014

the asrock 970 is a amd board. so clearly NOT that, the H97 has more features compared to the B85 so if you can afford it get that one.

actually, even though the b85 is an older chipset, that one is a enthusiast board so appart from the missing raid it's actually better...
http://www.asrock.com/mb/compare.asp?SelectedModel=H97+Pro4&SelectedModel=Fatal1ty+B85+Killer

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

laviniuc :

What's wrong with an amd board? im using an amd card, woudn't the board support it?

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

the fatality killer and pro4 boards will be fine with a dual gpu setup, you will not loose much if any performance when the cards are running at 8x, and that extreme3 board as an amd board which is not compatible with your cpu.

dingo07 · Jul 17, 2014

what he means is - you can't use an AMD motherboard with an Intel processor...

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

What does raid support do exactly? thanks guys

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

it has to do with hdd's/ssd's running together, its pretty complicated, nothing you have to worry about.

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

Danbuscus25 :

thanks buddy, would it affect any gaming performance? and since im not going iwth an SSD it's pretty much useless to me right
?

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

Danbuscus25 :

thanks buddy, would it affect any gaming performance? and since im not going iwth an SSD it's pretty much useless to me right
?

pm4 · Jul 17, 2014

Also no point for looking for 2 x16 boards. Sure you can find some, but your CPU can't use that.
i5 4590 support up to 16 PCIe lanes. That mean when you use 2 GPUs they both will run at max of x8 speed.
Which is still plenty for modern GPU cards and it should not bottleneck it, there will be probably no noticeable difference between PCIe 3.0 x16 or x8 and even PCIe 2.0 x16 or x8.
For reference you can look on this test where difference was very small if any at all
link.

So if you really want 2 GPUs, any 2 x16 or 2 x8 even if it's PCIe 2.0 will be able to do it.

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

it does not affect gaming performance, and you will probably never have a RAID setup on this build.

dingo07 · Jul 17, 2014

the best decision you can make is getting an SSD - 250GB actually - u can still get a seagate to use as a data drive

laviniuc · Jul 17, 2014

building a new pc :

yep, you probably don't need the raid anyway. and sorry for the brief answer above, yes, amd boards work only with amd cpu's and you had a intel cpu chosen so that's what i meant. amd graphics doeasn't need an amd board, those you can swap around as you want

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

pm4 :

if i get the fatality motherboard and run two gpu which are, xfx r9 280x , would i bottle neck the cards if theyre both running at x8? thanks for your answer

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

not much, and i think you could run the top card at 16x. the only cards that are hurt from 8x are the 290, 290x, and 295 x2.

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

pm4 :

Also PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 are same right? for the time being i can place my card in either slot without there being differences in performance right? because i dont plan o nbuying another graphics card until years to come

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

pcie 2.0 and 3.0 are not the same, however they are forwards and backwards compatible, so any pcie card will work in either slot.

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

Danbuscus25 :

thanks heaps, but one last question, how do you know what mode a GRAPHICS card is bottlenecked at? so whats the max mode of a certain graphics card?

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

it will be bottlenecked if its maximum bandwidth is lowered, and that can be calculated from the cards max bandwidth and the bandwidth and generation of the slot.

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

Danbuscus25 :

[quo[strike][/strike]temsg=13737316,0,1582632]it will be bottlenecked if its maximum bandwidth is lowered, and that can be calculated from the cards max bandwidth and the bandwidth and generation of the slot.[/quotemsg]

so i can pretty much put my xfx r80x in either PCIe slot and not worry about bottlenecked performace

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

Danbuscus25 :

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=27569

go down to the bottom of the page where it says slots. It says one is x16 mode and the other is x4 mode doees this affect anything at all?

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

for a single card, either a 2.0 or 3.0 slot at 16x is totally fine, but put it in the 3.0 slot just because it has some new features the card can take advantage of.

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

ah, i see, a 2.0 slot at 4x will bottleneck a 280x, how much, idk, you can put it in the 3.0 x16, and run a benchmark, then put it in the 2.0 4x slot and run the benchmark again, see what performance difference there is.

building a new pc · Jul 17, 2014

Danbuscus25 :

Thanks, can you please find me a motherboard which supports crossfire and contains two slots which run at x8 mode please, thanks.

Danbuscus25 · Jul 17, 2014

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-fatal1tyz87killer

this is the cheapest board that can run 2 cards at atleast 8x.

Critique/ Help me choose motherboard

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