Looking for Suitable Motherboard

[jimmytractorboy]

Hello everyone,

This is my first ever post! I've found this forum very helpful in the past from looking at past problems and the solutions to them. Everyone seems to be very polite and knowledgeable, so i'm hoping someone can help me with a small problem im having designing a PC.

I had a list of parts for a build as follows:
-Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP7 motherboard
-Intel i7-2700k processor
-16Gb 1600MHz Kingston HyperX
-Gigabyte GeForce GTX580 x2 in SLi
-WD1600HLHX Velociraptor HDD x2 in RAID0
-Zalman Z9 plus case
-OCZ 720w PSU (which i have already in my old rig)

Heres my dilemma- I have bought the case, the hard drives and the RAM, i was just about to order the motherboard but i noticed that its an extended ATX board, which wont fit in the case

If the worst comes to the worst i will ditch the case and get a bigger one. But i wanted to ask what you would recommend for my setup in the way of an ATX motherboard?
The setup will be used mainly for gaming, but also some graphic design (solidworks etc). I am interested in overclocking so a board which is good for that would be a bonus, but im not that mad on it, it would just be nice to tweak it up slightly.

The main reason i chose the Z77X-UP7 is it has multiple pci-e ports running at 16x, rather than 1 at 16x, 1 at 8x and 1 and 4x or whatever.
Are there any standard ATX boards you could recommend which have this feature?
And would there be a noticable performance difference between having the GTX580S in 2 16x ports compared to a 16x port and an 8x port?

Thank you very much in advance,
James

 

[Maxx_Power]

That is a pretty good board, featuring the new power phases "UP" instead of "UD" in the name/model number of the motherboard.

If I were you, I would switch the case, unfortunately...

EDIT: This is your board, right ?

It measures "30.5cm x 26.4cm", which is not quite full E-ATX "(305×330 mm)".

And this is your case ?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811235027

It LOOKS LIKE the board WILL FIT the case (notice the measurements provided by Zalman in that picture)! The E-ATX designation is abused a little bit sometimes, the ATX case will fit the same hole pattern on that board.

As for your x16 ports vs. x8 ports, there isn't much difference, because the Z77 platform only provides 1x16 PCI-E 3.0 or 2x8 PCI-E 3.0, so you will be getting 2x8 PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth (all x16 ports share this total bandwidth from the CPU, moderated by switching logic on the board, those tiny chips flanking the 1st PCI-E board on your motherboard, which is the same as 2x16 PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth. Your GTX580 is a PCI-E 2.0 generation product, which means this is all the bandwidth it will need.

 

[jimmytractorboy]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, that is the correct board and the correct case. But i have looked up the actual dimensions from gigabyte and there is no way it will fit in the case.

Thanks for explaining the pci-e bandwidth to me aswell. So it doesnt actually matter about the twin 16x ports then.

That does look like a cracking board, but i think i will try to find something else similar which will fit my case.

I know computers are the most non-futureproof things in existance, but i just want the most futureproof board i can buy really! I remember on my build before last, i didnt research it enough, and i used and AGP graphics interface......6 months later they stopped developing graphics cards for agp lol! That mistake has made me paranoid about my choice of motherboard ha!

 

[Maxx_Power]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, that is the correct board and the correct case. But i have looked up the actual dimensions from gigabyte and there is no way it will fit in the case.

Thanks for explaining the pci-e bandwidth to me aswell. So it doesnt actually matter about the twin 16x ports then.

That does look like a cracking board, but i think i will try to find something else similar which will fit my case.

I know computers are the most non-futureproof things in existance, but i just want the most futureproof board i can buy really! I remember on my build before last, i didnt research it enough, and i used and AGP graphics interface......6 months later they stopped developing graphics cards for agp lol! That mistake has made me paranoid about my choice of motherboard ha!

If you are determined to get a different board, may I suggest the P8Z77 series ? Depending on how much you want to spend, something like a P8Z77-V:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820

The x16 ports is really not a big deal, this board will offer you 2x8 PCI-E 3.0 ports, that's plenty of bandwidth for a long time into the future.

EDIT: But I still think the board will fit in your case because gigabyte says it measures "30.5cm x 26.4cm", and the case is shown to fit a 300mm long video card. However, if you are not comfortable trying it out, please DO try a different board.

 

[jimmytractorboy]

Yes, I was looking at that as a possibility. Specifically the ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE.

So the Z77 chipset is definitely the way forward is it? Definately the most future proof?

I was also looking at the ASRock Z77 OC Formula:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20OC%20Formula/

And the Asus sabertooth Z77:
http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/SABERTOOTH_Z77/

Yes gigabyte say 30.5cm, but Zalman's measurements of the case are a little generous! The longest board i would risk squeezing in there after masuring the case would be 29.5cm, any longer and i can see no way of getting it in without modifying the case! Otherwise i would go with that as it looks like an awesome board.

Thanks again,
James

 

[Maxx_Power]

Yes, I was looking at that as a possibility. Specifically the ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE.

So the Z77 chipset is definitely the way forward is it? Definately the most future proof?

I was also looking at the ASRock Z77 OC Formula:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20OC%20Formula/

And the Asus sabertooth Z77:
http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/SABERTOOTH_Z77/

Yes gigabyte say 30.5cm, but Zalman's measurements of the case are a little generous! The longest board i would risk squeezing in there after masuring the case would be 29.5cm, any longer and i can see no way of getting it in without modifying the case! Otherwise i would go with that as it looks like an awesome board.

Thanks again,
James

Hey James,

The Gigabyte measurement of 30.5 cm is the HEIGHT of the board, you are concerned with the WIDTH. All ATX-EATX boards have the same height, but different width, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atxscale.svg. That's why I mean I think it will fit, because the width is 26.4 cm, and the case fits 300 mm wide (long) video cards, and also have the 3 additional mounting holes on that far-right side. When I linked the picture, the board is laid on its side, so to align with your case vertically, you have to rotate that image mentally by 90 degrees counter-clock wise.

As far as future-proofing goes, be aware that:

1) Intel will release Haswell which will run on LGA 1150 this summer (mid to late summer). This processor will NOT be backwards compatible with LGA 1155 boards. Intel does this every full tick-tock cycle (from Clarkdale to Sandybridge, and from Ivy bridge to Haswell). Intel will release new chipsets under the guise of Z8x series and H8x series, and so on to support their future platforms. However, as far as total CPU performance is concerned, your 2700K will last a long time (with lots of room to OC later on).

2) PCI-E wise, you are set. There are no new PCI-E revisions on the horizon for now, and as far as upgrading RAM is concerned, DDR3 will last a long time, since you can get large capacity sticks right now, so you won't be left behind when DDR4 hits and have no means to expand your memory capacity.

If you HAVEN'T bought the 2700K already, why not a 3770K ? For ~the same price, the ivy Bridge variant is slightly faster and more power efficient.