Advice on Motherboard to Buy - Chipset:

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nelsonwcf

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Hi guys,

After 10 years using only notebook, I decided to build my own desktop again.
I've already purchased a Gigabyte GF 1080 but I will purchase another one for a SLI system. I'm also considering getting the Intel Core i7-6900K as the processor.

With this information, which motherboard with which chipset should I buy since I want to run both video-cards at x16? Most motherboards allow the second one to run only in x8 (and consequently the first one run also in x8).

Should I look for x170 or x99?

The only and only motherboard I found having z170 chipset and two real x16 PCIe is the extremely expensive GA-Z170X-Gaming G1. Some x99 have two x16 PCIe SLOTS but some people say I will have problems with my processor in this chipset.

Any help is welcome here.

BTW, is this a good processor to buy for this configuration or should I look for a Haswell?

Best regards,
Nelson
 
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Karadjgne
A lot depends on other factors. A gtx1080 can handle anything on a 1080p monitor, its serious overkill for the vast majority of games at that resolution. It's imminently more suited to 1440p or even 4k resolutions. Sli doesn't double the ability in this, that all depends on the game engine. Some engines will add @70% some that aren't so optimized will add a lot less, and there are some games that are so badly sli supported that performance will suffer in sli vrs single gpu. That's just the gpu.

As strong as a gtx1080 is, it still won't fill the bandwidth possible in pcie 3.0 x8, so running x8/x8 on any mobo won't affect the performance of sli 1080's. You'll only get x16/x8 on mobo's if paired with a 28 Lane cpu like the i7-5820k or...
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anti-duck

anti-duck

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You'll need an X99 motherboard (sometimes called X99 v2 (or ASUS suffix their Broadwell-E X99 motherboards with 'II')) to denote that those boards support Broadwell-E out the box without a BIOS update).

The CPU you're looking at has 40 PCIe lanes, so you just need an X99 motherboard that has the available PCIe slots to use that bandwidth, something like the ASUS X99-DELUIXE II.

Going from A Notebook suggests you probably won't need all the power of an enthusiast CPU, what are you gonna be doing?
 
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nelsonwcf

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In fact, I still know very little about all that so if you can give more details about it it would be greatly appreciated.

Aren't the 6700 and 6900 the same family of processors? If so, why the 6900 only works on x99?

Also, gaming is good but two 1080 should be enough for any games right now, correct?

What's the practical difference between the z170 and the x99?

Again, thank you.

 
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Snipergod87

Snipergod87

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6900k while it is a 6 series processor it is a a broadwell-e chip, is a generation old (based off the 5xxx chip). The 6700k is a Skylake chip (current generation) and supports more instructions per clock than the Broadwell E 6900k. Broadwell E, like Haswell E and the generations before it are basically consumer versions of Xeons, primarily aimed not at gaming but doing rendering and heavy editing.

Advantages to the X99 chipset are really limited to the extra PCI-Express lanes (determined by the processor). In 2 way SLI even running at 8x-8x (on a Z170 chipset) you will see a 1-2 frame rate drop if any, very minimal.

Games are not utilizing more than 4 processing cores, and the higher clock rate of 4 cores vs the slower clock rate of 8 cores will be better when gaming.
 
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nelsonwcf

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While I'm not really an enthusiast who would go for 4-way SLI and OC with Water cooling, I'd like to have a nice computer that can run anything for some time, potentially in 4k near future. I occasionally use one or two VMs concurrently for development and testing.

I saved money for some time and now I'm quite flexible with the machine I can buy (as long as it is not unreal, like having these Xeons of 5k processors), which doesn't mean I will buy anything just because people say it's the best (that's why I'm not going for the 6950x, it's not worth $1,700).

I was considering the Intel Core i7-5820K some time ago, but it looked that the 6900k is significantly faster than it, reason I'm considering it now.

I also don't want to OC anything now. Had problems in the past and even when it works flawlessly, you have to spend a lot of time setting it correctly.

Any suggestions on my current spec?


 
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anti-duck

anti-duck

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Even though you're not going to overclock, I'd recommend the 6700k with a Z170 motherboard just for the IPC. Should be plenty of horsepower for 2 GTX 1080's and VM's. If you must have 40 PCIe lanes, then the 6850k would be better value than the 6900k.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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A lot depends on other factors. A gtx1080 can handle anything on a 1080p monitor, its serious overkill for the vast majority of games at that resolution. It's imminently more suited to 1440p or even 4k resolutions. Sli doesn't double the ability in this, that all depends on the game engine. Some engines will add @70% some that aren't so optimized will add a lot less, and there are some games that are so badly sli supported that performance will suffer in sli vrs single gpu. That's just the gpu.

As strong as a gtx1080 is, it still won't fill the bandwidth possible in pcie 3.0 x8, so running x8/x8 on any mobo won't affect the performance of sli 1080's. You'll only get x16/x8 on mobo's if paired with a 28 Lane cpu like the i7-5820k or the full x16/x16 on 40 Lane cpus. Since the 1000 series gpus don't support more than 2x sli, gone are the days of needing huge amounts of pcie lanes to carry upto 4x gpus, necessitating the lga2011 builds.

Basically, not only is Z170 machine with an i7-6700k considerably cheaper, but the level of performance is the same, if not better, than an x99, whose sole advantage is in cpu bound apps like rendering.

Start out with a decent Z170 + i7-6700k, good 1440p/144Hz monitor, a single gtx1080. If you are unimpressed, then opt for the second gtx1080.
 
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