Need Advice on Motherboard and Memory

[loukur]

I have a build posted at http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=31&post=304284&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0

I can't decide between two motherboards: GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 and ASUS Crosshair IV Formula.

The GA-890FXA-UD5 has everything I want on it, but it just smells like a cheapie board. The Crosshair IV Formula "looks" like quality, but I see a lot of negative posts about memory and ASUS boards. I don't have the experience you folks have with these two companies or these two boards. I need someone who has "been there and done that" to tell me what I am not seeing yet.

Also, I want to put 16GB of memory into whichever motherboard I pick for running VMWare virtual machines and memory intensive computer aided software engineering (C.A.S.E.) tools. Problem is, they both have four memory slots and I can't find any 4GB memory strips on the QVLs for either machine. Does anyone have any experience with 4GM memory modules and either of these two cards? Does anyone know if either of these two cards is better at handling memory? I don’t want to wind up with four 2GB cards and having to replace them.

Another problem I am having with memory is finding a place that sells the full amount as one item. I don’t want strips from different lots. I want them all perfectly matched. Newegg had an option for this at 2,133MHz (F3-17000CL9Q-16GBXLD: 4 x4GB as one item), but I don’t see the option at 2,000MHz.

Finally, as new as I am to all of this--I am newer at AMD. I had a P67 Sandy Bridge build planned, and had to scrub that on the news that Intel is stopping shipment and every P67 motherboard seems to be off the shelves at Newegg. Consequently, I just redid this whole build from P67 to AMD. I am worried that I made a lot of mistakes with my limited reading and research on the AMD chipsets and CPUs. What I did so far was try to match a motherboard to a CPU and memory. I also changed from an NVIDIA graphics cards to an ATI (err, AMD) graphics card. Everything else is left over from my Intel P67 build, because I don't think any of the other components are affected. Should I be picking a different cabinet? PSU? Other.

 

[jaquith]

I would never do that build on anything that you've mentioned. You need to choose your primary use WORK or FUN then prioritize from there in your build.

If WORK is the goal then you need a Xeon Workstation, if FUN is the goal then I would build off X58. If you are planning some RAID 0 with 3 SSDs then don't and look at the RevoDrive.

Q - FUN or WORK??

 

[loukur]

Thanks for your response jaquith. Unfortunately it fails to answer any of my questions, which are very specific.

 

[jaquith]

It's like going to a Counselor and only expecting them to agree with you about everything.

If your render off of Maya then the 1100T is an excellent choice, but for most everything else go the Intel route. I build all sort of extreme high-end and Workstations as a hobby, and I know to ask the right questions. Also, I would never run more than 1 RAID off a MOBO and then only RAID 0, 1, or 10 with no parity calcs. Next, if my business depends on mission-critical work then only Xeon + ECC, and never a 'consumer' GPU.

In my case I have a Gaming rig for 'play', Xeon WS for rendering, pseudo WS for terminals & testing, Severs for the real work.

For starters, I'd need to know what Apps you are running then I need to check them against 'supported' H/W and/or acceleration i.e. plug-ins/native.

 

[loukur]

Again, thanks for your reply.