Bench/Stress testing outside a case?

liberty610 · Nov 5, 2016

Hi guys,

Here is my situation. I run a small project studio where I do video and audio production work. Recently I upgraded from a Gygabyte motherboard/AMD FX-8350 to a MSI x99a gaming pro carbon motherboard with an intel 6800k processor.

The MSI board gave me nothing but issues from day one. The first one had major USB 3.0 issues out of the box where Windows 10 was constantly making the USB connect/Disconnect sound and giving me some sort of USB warning. So I had to tear the board out, send it back. Here I am, not even 3 months later, and my second board needs RMAed due to random system crashes and PCIe slot issues and I am now back to my Gigabyte/AMD FX-8350 setup. It's not as fast, but it is reliable and stable. I stand behind Gigabyte boards, as they have been rock solid for me on all my builds and all my clients builds.

This was the first time I left them for the MSI board, and I'll admit, it was the pretty LED lighting addition that did me in.... that's what I get for abandoning my 'function over fashion' moto. The board had great specs, but it just wasn't reliable. I have a theme going for the stduio though, and this added to it.

I have fallen behind on a lot of studio projects dealing with this issue on the MSI board and I am looking to purchase a new board for my intel 6800k cpu. I didn't spend over $600 on that chip to let it sit in it's box. I went out and purchased a Corsair 760T case with the transparent door for the MSI's LED features, so I am looking to utlize the LED with some reliability.

I just discovered the Gigabyte GA-X99 Ultra Gaming board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128928

To make sure I don't fall further behind on my projects. I want to get this board along with a separate SSD drive to put together on the bench and test it out before I pull apart my current case and switch everything out. I want to make sure it runs solid and is ready to go so I can just jump back into my projects when i do swap it out without worrying about crashes and what not. I planned on stress testing the CPU in it and everything.

Can I run this board outside a case for a while to test it out and make sure it will be stable? And if so, what do you guys suggest as far as what kind of surface to set it on? What do you recommend I do for this?

Thanks in advance.

Tanyac · Nov 5, 2016

Before buying my Aerocool Strike X open case I used to attach several standoffs to the motherboard, as you would when install in case, and place on antistatic bag that the motherboard came in. Never had a problem with dozens of test beds.

Not a particularly elegant solution, but it worked. But that is why I bought the open case. It's suited to test scenarios.

Just never place the board on any conductive surface.

I have recently been through a number of X99 boards trying to find a stable one. ASUS X99 boards were nothing but problems, MSI has lousy BIOS features and was not good at silent cooling and had a faulty internal USB 3.0 port out of the box, and a Gigabyte SLI Phoenix just wouldn't boot. Eventually I settled on the ASRock X99 Professional Gaming I7 (Even though I'm not an avid gamer), as it was most compatible and stable and had no boot or configuration issues has dual M.2 slots, and ran my I7-6900 @ 4.2ghz and DDR4 @ 3200mhz without complaint

liberty610 · Nov 5, 2016

Thanks for the replay man!

The MSI board I had was USB 3.0 plagued as well. Would you think this is a x99 chipset issue? Or just a case of bad board luck. I don't wanna spend more money on another board for this CPU if it will be more problems. I hear good things about Asus boards, but I have NEVER had issues with my Gigabbyte boards, but I also have only been using AMD chips for the last few years....

Tanyac · Nov 5, 2016

I've never had a good experience with an ASUS board. I've had 5, four of which were X99 boards. All had problems with booting reliably.

I also have not used AMD for a couple of decades, so I can't comment - except to say that I wouldn't think there would be any different issues between Intel vs AMD from the same manufacturer. The manufacturing process would be the same.

I bought an MSI because I couldn't find an ASRock, Gigabyte or ASUS board that suited my needs. The USB problem I think was just bad luck. It had a broken pin. But the MSI is lacking in several features, and even though they advertise the boards having 7 x 4 pin fan headers, only 3 of them were legit PWM fan headers. The rest only have 3 pins connected, which I felt was a bit nasty.

As long as you're happy with the limited BIOS features, and only need a few fans there is nothing wrong with the MSI board. It also worked with all the memory kits I tried (2400, 2800, 3200 G.Skill and 3200 Corsair).

I am not a fan of Atheros Killer LAN... It's all hype and marketing rubbish. Which many Gigabyte boards are lumbered with. But again, it's a personal choice. Aside from that, I've had maybe 3 or 4 gigabyte boards die in the last 20 years. They are pretty stable.

The brand I've never had fail on me is the ASRock. I did have a memory issue with one of the Rampage boards, but swapped that for the X99 WS board which worked fine.

Vendors publish Qualified Vendor Lists for a reason. It gives them an out if the SSD or memory doesn't work. You should always check the QVL to make sure your memory is listed, or post here to see if anyone already has your combination working.

Having said that, I've never had a problem with a SATA or M.2 (AHCI or NVMe), drive working.

liberty610 · Nov 6, 2016

Tanyac :

I always goto the motherboard's website and make sure the Ram and CPU is on the support list. The gigabyte board has my G. Skill ram listed. I am not to familiar with the Lan port you mentioned, although I did see it on the board I am looking at. I'm not to worried about that, as I only need one port for internet connection/connection to my NAS unit.

I guess I'm just a tad paranoid right now, as this MSI board I had issues with was the very first board I have ever had died on me. Most the others I ended up swapping out before they ran their course because I needed upgraded speeds.

Tanyac · Nov 6, 2016

The only issue I've come across is having to flash the BIOS to get memory to work. Had to install older, 2133 DDR4, upgrade the BIOS then install my 3200mhz RAM. 2666mhz RAM I would think is supported out of the box, even on an older BIOS revision.

Testing it outside the case can be a real time saver. But hopefully, you won't have any problems and everything will work for you first time.

Hope it all goes well for you.

liberty610 · Nov 6, 2016

Thanks! I did see in some reviews that the board I am looking at had issues with a boot loop because it did not support broadwell E cpu's out of the box, but all you have to do is leave the board empty, give it power, and Q-Flash to the latest Bios. Hopefully I have no issues with it! Thanks for the feedback on this! I'll post back with my results.

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