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How We Tested X99 Motherboards

Three-Way X99 LGA 2011-v3 ATX Motherboard Shootout
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Test System Configuration
CPUIntel Core i7-5960X (Haswell-E): 3.0-3.5 GHz, 20 MB L3 Cache, LGA 2011-v3
CPU CoolerSwiftech Apogee GTX, MCP 655b, Triple-Fan Radiator Kit
RAMG.Skill F4-3000C15Q-16GRR (16 GB) DDR4-3000 Quad Channel Kit
GraphicsPowerColor LCS AXR9 290X 4GBD5-PPDHE: 1060 MHz GPU, 4 GB GDDR5-5400
Hard DriveSamsung 470 Series MZ-5PA256, 256 GB SSD
SoundIntegrated HD Audio
NetworkIntegrated Gigabit Networking
PowerAntec HCP-1200: ATX12V v2.3, EPS12V, 80 PLUS Gold
Software
OSMicrosoft Windows 8 Professional RTM x64
GraphicsAMD Catalyst 14.4
ChipsetIntel INF 9.4.2.1019

Swiftech’s ancient Apogee GTX keeps appearing in my “Big Socket” reviews, and for good reasons: it has monster capacity, and it’s built into my test bench.

This Prescott-era workhorse was updated six years ago with an LGA 1366 bracket, and today uses that same bracket with newer spring-loaded screws to fit both LGA 2011 and LGA 2011-v3 support mechanisms.

Rumored power-on troubles with C7s-enabled motherboards and certain power supplies finally hit home when I tried to pair our earlier SS-760KM unit with one of the boards in today’s test. Since my newer AX860i was already being used to test other parts, I hauled Antec’s HCP-1200 out of storage. Success!

PowerColor’s LCS AXR9 290X runs quietly on a second cooling loop.

This is a new platform, so memory and the CPU couldn’t be pulled from spare parts. G.Skill’s quad-channel F4-3000C15Q-16GRR DDR4-3000 kit was added with Intel’s Core i7-5960X to today’s parts list.

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  • 1 Hide
    dgingeri , September 18, 2014 7:02 AM
    "LGA 2111-v3"??

    Did something change?
  • 0 Hide
    west7 , September 18, 2014 7:24 AM
    In the 3D gaming page it should been i7-5760x not i7-4790 and fix the LGA 2111-v3 typo and why there in no SLI/crossfire test?!
  • 1 Hide
    Amdlova , September 18, 2014 7:30 AM

    12 Phases Six Phases Eight Phases what!
  • 0 Hide
    Daniel Ladishew , September 18, 2014 7:55 AM
    Can't wait for them to review some of the other manufacturer's products in the X99 category. The ASUS board especially.
  • -3 Hide
    chiefpiggy , September 18, 2014 8:09 AM
    Noob question: would my socket 1150 i5 4670k work with one of these motherboards or do I need one of the Haswell-E processors?
  • 0 Hide
    sportfreak23 , September 18, 2014 8:44 AM
    Quote:
    Can't wait for them to review some of the other manufacturer's products in the X99 category. The ASUS board especially.


    +1
  • -1 Hide
    InvalidError , September 18, 2014 8:44 AM
    Quote:
    "LGA 2111-v3"??

    Did something change?

    LGA 2011 uses DDR3 while LGA2011-3 uses DDR4 so the sockets are different to prevent people from putting the wrong CPU in the wrong motherboard.

    I think there were other changes but this is the big obvious one.
  • 0 Hide
    firefoxx04 , September 18, 2014 9:32 AM
    it should be mentioned (and maybe it was, just not on the first page) that you only get the 40 pci e lanes if you purchase the two higher tiered haswell-E chips. The lowest end model does not support 40 lanes, I think it supports 28.
  • 2 Hide
    dgingeri , September 18, 2014 9:36 AM
    I was commenting on the typo of "2111" vs "2011".
  • 1 Hide
    vincevdc , September 18, 2014 11:52 AM
    The MB grid on page one shows that the MSI X99S Gaming 7 mb has an Intel Z97 Express chipset. This is a typo...
  • 1 Hide
    Computer LVR , September 18, 2014 2:05 PM
    @west 7 and Thomas Soderstrom it should be 5960x not 5760x
  • 0 Hide
    Crashman , September 18, 2014 2:50 PM
    Quote:

    12 Phases Six Phases Eight Phases what!
    There aren't any lines to separate columns, only spaces. Editors can't fix that. Hopefully you'll be able to separate things visually using the spaces.

    Quote:
    Can't wait for them to review some of the other manufacturer's products in the X99 category. The ASUS board especially.
    Asus won't come back for this price range, but I expect they'll want to be in the higher-priced and lower-priced roundups.

    Quote:
    Noob question: would my socket 1150 i5 4670k work with one of these motherboards or do I need one of the Haswell-E processors?
    1150 is less than 2011. The socket is smaller, mostly because it has 2/5 as many lanes and 1/2 as many DRAM channels.

    Quote:
    it should be mentioned (and maybe it was, just not on the first page) that you only get the 40 pci e lanes if you purchase the two higher tiered haswell-E chips. The lowest end model does not support 40 lanes, I think it supports 28.
    There was a whole paragraph on the first page dedicated to this limitation. Second one below the chipset diagram.

  • 0 Hide
    Gurg , September 18, 2014 4:53 PM
    Question I have when looking at this is why don't manufacturers design a board that addresses what standard users need with a 5820. How about sufficient usb3s for mouse, keyboard, printer backup drive, bluetooth and maybe a couple extra. How about sata6 for four internal drives. How about just two 16/16/8 for crossfire/sli. Wouldn't this provide high performance gaming with a 5820 while keeping costs reasonable?
  • 2 Hide
    Azotsky , September 18, 2014 5:06 PM
    LGA 2011-3 = LGA 2008
    I see what you did there Intel :p 
  • 0 Hide
    Crashman , September 19, 2014 1:44 AM
    Quote:
    Question I have when looking at this is why don't manufacturers design a board that addresses what standard users need with a 5820. How about sufficient usb3s for mouse, keyboard, printer backup drive, bluetooth and maybe a couple extra. How about sata6 for four internal drives. How about just two 16/16/8 for crossfire/sli. Wouldn't this provide high performance gaming with a 5820 while keeping costs reasonable?
    You mean a cheaper board? Because the ASRock board has the stuff you were looking for, if you ignore the Ultra M.2 slot, but you have to pay more.

    It has the features you need because your keyboard and mouse are USB 2.0, not "USB3".

  • 0 Hide
    Eyeshield , September 19, 2014 7:15 AM
    MSI definitely improved so much and should be an elite brand!
  • 0 Hide
    Crass Spektakel , September 21, 2014 7:20 AM
    Gigabyte fixed BULLSHIT.

    The Firmware-Downgrade-Bug is present since P55 boards and I saw it on EVERY generation, be it 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90 series boards. Not necesserilly on every version of the chipset, e.g. I saw it on a P65 but not on a G61 chipset. But if you have the bug then rest assured they will NEVER fix it.

    The P65 was especially nasty, it downgraded the bios even when actually nothing went wrong and all BIOS settings were "default". EG I once pressed Reset and voila, back to F3. Also happens if I disconnect from power, even if the system is actually already shut down. Only way to avoid this is to power down the system safely by the OS. But then you have to switch the system on at least every couple of days or it will downgrade to F3 immediatly after power on.

    Gigabyte? No thanks.

    (writing this from my old P35 gigabyte system, my last gigabyte in private use)
  • 0 Hide
    Crashman , September 21, 2014 7:42 AM
    Quote:
    Gigabyte fixed BULLSHIT.

    The Firmware-Downgrade-Bug is present since P55 boards and I saw it on EVERY generation, be it 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90 series boards. Not necesserilly on every version of the chipset, e.g. I saw it on a P65 but not on a G61 chipset. But if you have the bug then rest assured they will NEVER fix it.

    The P65 was especially nasty, it downgraded the bios even when actually nothing went wrong and all BIOS settings were "default". EG I once pressed Reset and voila, back to F3. Also happens if I disconnect from power, even if the system is actually already shut down. Only way to avoid this is to power down the system safely by the OS. But then you have to switch the system on at least every couple of days or it will downgrade to F3 immediatly after power on.

    Gigabyte? No thanks.

    (writing this from my old P35 gigabyte system, my last gigabyte in private use)
    Gigabyte occasionally released a firmware update that modified the detection scheme so that BIOS downgrade is less likely to happen on past products. As you've indicated, they haven't fixed every board and the fix doesn't work for every configuration.

    Gigabyte also has true dual-BIOS motherboards at the high-end, where the forced downgrade can be disabled. You've probably just missed that little tidbit if you think all Gigabyte boards are like this one.

    This is the worst board Gigabyte has sent in a long time, and the first one that I've had to recommend against buying. It's been a few years since I've had a Gigabyte board fail after continuous forced-downgrades.
  • 0 Hide
    akula2 , September 23, 2014 7:47 AM
    I'm interested in Asrock X99 WS and Asus X99-E WS. But I don't find the latter in the market yet. Anyone knows when will it arrive? Thanks
  • 0 Hide
    dgingeri , September 23, 2014 11:19 AM
    Quote:
    Gigabyte occasionally released a firmware update that modified the detection scheme so that BIOS downgrade is less likely to happen on past products. As you've indicated, they haven't fixed every board and the fix doesn't work for every configuration.

    Gigabyte also has true dual-BIOS motherboards at the high-end, where the forced downgrade can be disabled. You've probably just missed that little tidbit if you think all Gigabyte boards are like this one.

    This is the worst board Gigabyte has sent in a long time, and the first one that I've had to recommend against buying. It's been a few years since I've had a Gigabyte board fail after continuous forced-downgrades.

    Gigabyte obviously doesn't like that we told you any of this. But to not tell you would be to lie. Its PR are nice people, but I can't lie for them, so it looks like they'll probably pack up their toys and go home.



    Gigabyte PR people might be nice people, but there's only so much one can do about pumping up poor hardware design.

    I've had four Gigabyte motherboards, and I've had hardware compatibility issues with them all. I've had bios issues with three, where I've needed a new bios to support a new generation of processors, but the new version doesn't work well. The latest one was my x79-UP4 board, where it didn't like my EVGA GTX 680 with the F2 bios, and the F4 bios caused the screen saver and power saver features to never turn on, and it took their support nearly two weeks to get me a program that would allow back dating the bios to the F3, which finally worked. The audio plugs never detected when speakers were plugged in, so I couldn't use the on-board audio. Finally, after 9 months of annoyances, it stopped giving power to the USB ports and the PCIe x1 slots, so I lost access to pretty much everything. It was a slow, horrible death for a bad motherboard. I'm not buying a Gigabyte product again.

    They don't need PR. They need to get their heads on straight and engineer their boards better, and test better. Testing is a basic necessity for any technology design. I am a systems admin for three test labs for enterprise level hardware and software. I have seen how many bugs we find and exterminate through our testing, and I have seen how it has affected the quality of our products as management decided to reduce the complexity of our testing. Above all, I have seen how it has affected our sales. Gigabyte has never been very good at their testing. If they want to compete, they need to get off their high horse and confront the criticisms for what they are: a chance to change. If they're pulling their products from being reviewed on this site because of these criticisms, then they have shown their attitude, and nobody should be buying from them anyway.

    The response from APC on the power strip teardown shows how a successful company reacts to criticism. Gigabyte's reaction will show if they're up to the task of staying in business.
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