Need help deciding on LGA 2011 board

[generalissimo]

I am having trouble deciding on a motherboard for my x79 lga 2011 build I am doing. What are the best motherboards for lga 2011 under $330.

These are two I was looking at.

Biostar TPower X79
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138346&Tpk=biostar%20tpower%20x79

Asrock Extreme 6
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157289

 

[jaquith]

ASUS P9X79 PRO - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131800
ASUS Sabertooth X79 - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131801

 

[generalissimo]

What did you like about those boards?

 

[jaquith]

You couldn't give me a BIOSTAR MOBO for free to use, the ASRock is okay, but the ASUS MOBO's are a better choice.

 

[generalissimo]

Yeah I am looking at the Asus Sabertooth and it looks good (features). Plus it comes with a 5 year warranty.

 

[generalissimo]

Best answer selected by generalissimo.

 

[jaquith]

Yep, I like mine. Add to that Active Cooling to both the Chipset and VRM.

CPU-z - http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2261309

 

[Pinhedd]

Neither. The answer is Asus

Biostar is downright horrible. Their non-enthusiast boards are shoddy and their enthusiast boards are downright dangerous. If you're spending the money on an X79 board you best avoid them like the plague.

ASRock was spun off of Asus to compete with the likes of Biostar, MSI and Foxconn. Asus has since divested and ASRock has entered the enthusiast market somewhat but they've mostly stayed true to their roots. Their boards are decent enough but there are better options

Asus has the best non-reference motherboards available anywhere. I have a Rampage IV Extreme, I'll tell you what I think about it

1. The construction is amazing. Caps are solid, board construction is very clean, everything is nicely lined up. There are more headers and thingamabobs than you could ever use. The P9X79 boards are similarly equipped but lacks the various enthusiast addons.

2. The board is very stable. I'm running 8 DIMMs of DDR3-2133 with just an XMP profile and nothing else. Most Z77 boards have trouble doing that in dual channel mode. My 3960x turbos up to well over 4Ghz just by bumping the turbo multiplier, no tweaking necessary at all.

3. There's lots of things that you will use, and not a lot of things that you won't use. Plenty of SATA, eSATA, USB2/3 on the backpanel, USB2/3 headers for the front panel, decent onboard audio (if you use it), 40 PCIe lanes, fan headers galore.

4. Very nice set of firmware options.

5. Support for higher speed memory than other X79 boards

What I don't like:

1. The add-in ASMedia SATAIII controller is a complete flake. The OPROM isn't EFI compatible and stomps the Intel RSTe ROM. Having anything plugged into the ASMedia SATA ports while also having something plugged into the eSATA ports on the back panel will prevent you from booting from anything on the Intel controller if you also have the ASMedia boot ROM enabled. As a consequence of the ROM incompatibility, hooking up an optical drive to the ASMedia controller will make it impossible to Install Windows properly due to conflicts between BIOS/EFI boot sequences. The OS has to be installed from a drive on the Intel controller, to a drive on the Intel controller.

This is a severe issue that hasn't been fixed as of the latest firmware. Fortunately the 2 SATAIII and 4 SATAII ports on the Intel controller are usually enough for most people. The SATAIII ports on the ASMedia controller can only be used for non-boot storage.

2. The Auxiliary PCIe power is a bit of a pain to wire up due to its position to the left of the board

3. The board initially had some compatibility issues which made POSTing it difficult at times and necessitated a lot of setting resets. Firmware updates have much improved this though.

 

[jaquith]

^+10000000000

 

[generalissimo]

what case are you using

 

[generalissimo]

Thanks and any words of advice for a first time builder

 

[Pinhedd]

Looks to me like Jaquith has a Corsair 650D, I have a Corsair 800D which is larger but similar in design. Both are amongst the best of the best of the best

 

[jaquith]

Actually it's the Corsair 500R, my gaming rig uses the 800D and in general Corsair makes good products. Parts list:
i7-3930K (OC 4.8 GHz @ 1.36v~1.40v)
ASUS Sabertooth X79
32GB DDR3 1600MHz (2 Kits of Corsair CMZ16GX3M4X1600C9G) {1}
Corsair H100
Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F180GBGT-BK 180GB SSD {2}
RAID 1 Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache {3}
SLI GTX 560 ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 {4}
Corsair Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) {5}
Corsair Carbide Series 500R {6}
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS {7}
Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1

notes:
{1} ; I really like my DDR3L-1600 kits, 1.35v and low VCCSA requirements 1.0v, XMP sets as 1.20, but either is safe and zero issues.
{2} ; As big an SSD as you need/want, Corsair has been great but so are Samsung 830's and Intel SSD's
{3} ; get the Spinpoint F3's the prices at the turn of 2012 were outrageous for HDD's. The ST1000DM003 are faster but I've had failures - RAID 1 + Windows Home Server keeps me worry free.
{4} ; get the EVGA or ASUS GTX 670/680, this is 'not' for gaming it's for SQL coding/test. Originally I had (1) to keep myself from gaming (demo only)
{5} ; get the AX series IF you want to get sleeved cabling - http://www.corsair.com/us/power-supply-units/psu-accessories.html
{6} ; it works fine, and if you want a side window then 800D with USB 3.0 kit <or> newer Corsair models with USB 3.0 <or> whatever suits your appeal.
{7} ; BR Writer(s), depends on use and need.

OS Installation Guide, I strongly suggest you follow it - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/303873-30-wont-resume-sleep-booted-raid#t2068879