Tempting motherboard upgrade - EVGA X99

[Tywais]

EVGA new X99 motherboards now released.

EVGA X99 Classified EVGA Articles

The EVGA X99 Classified was engineered from the ground up to be the best overclocking motherboard on the planet. It all starts with power. Dual 8 PIN CPU power inputs provide up to 600W of dedicated power for the CPU, along with a highly efficient 10-phase Digital VRM providing the cleanest power to the CPU possible, fed through a CPU socket that has 1.5X the amount of gold content. A total of 8 DIMM slots support up to 128GB of DDR4 memory, and a 4 layer memory T-routing design allows for extreme memory speeds such as 3000MHz+* (OC). The PCI-E layout is optimized for improved lane distribution and better performance, and with native support for NVIDIA 4-Way SLI, this is the ultimate platform for the enthusiast.

EVGA Debuts Trio Of X99 Motherboards: Classified, FTW, Micro

EVGA has three motherboards landing today with the X99 launch, all of which feature the LGA2011-3 socket, giving them support for the new Haswell-E processors. The X99 Classified, the X99 FTW, and the X99 Micro target different users, as you can see by the difference in specifications and pricing.

Both the X99 Classified and the X99 FTW boards have very similar designs, with just a couple of differences. Both are E-ATX boards with support for up to 4-way CrossFire or SLI configurations, and both have ten SATA3 (6 Gb/s) ports along with six USB 3.0 ports and room for up to eight DDR4 memory modules.

More here at Tomshardware.com

[Tywais]

[DogNo1]

Thanks Tywais. I'll consider using this motherboard for my next build. I usually use Gigabyte motherboards or sometimes ASUS. I'll have to check to see if they have any new motherboards to compare with this. Here's a link to a Tom's Hardware article about the three types of X99 boards. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/evga-x99-haswell-e-intel-motherboard,27568.html

They are said to range in price from $249 to $399. I don't expect the street price to be much lower to start.

[DogNo1]

Oops. I just noticed that you had posted the Tom's Hardware link. Sorry for the redundancy.

[Tywais]

Thanks Tywais. I'll consider using this motherboard for my next build. I usually use Gigabyte motherboards or sometimes ASUS.

I usually use ASUS myself. Gigabyte has been having problems with their recent releases. Had some friends with recent Gigabyte's and switched them out for ASUS, ASUSROCK or similar after too many issues with them.

EVGA is highly rated brand in the US. I recently got an EVGA GTX770 SC video card and it is awesome.

[crabdog]

I used to use mainly Gigabyte and sometimes ASUS but last time I did a build I bought an ASROCK and have been / still am very happy with it. ASROCK boards have all the same features but usually come at a cheaper price.

Was very excited about X99 but after reading some early reviews it seems that there's not a whole lot new they bring to the table in terms of performance particularly for gaming. That said I still want to upgrade but am more than happy to wait for prices to settle - especially on DDR4.

[JSixpack]

Motherboard failure rates, 2013:

http://dgxtech.com/hardware-failure-rates-2013-h2

[keeniau96]

AnandTech has a detailed review of the EVGA X79 a year ago (http://www.anandtech.com/show/7426/evga-x79-dark-review), which should give a good clue for the X99. I have the EVGA SR-2 with dual Xeon and have a very high regard for EVGA and their service people. Also their forum is very active and generally high level, helpful enthusiasts. If I was thinking of a real top mobo the EVGA would be the one for me.