Search the Community

I was at PAX West 2016 over the weekend, and on display at the AMD booth, is a ASUS TUF Sabertooth 990FX R3.0 motherboard. Yes, for socket AM3+. This is real; the one on display was the final, mass production ready product. Some pictures of the motherboard from PAX West 2016. Please note, I was not able to convince them to take it out of the display case, so apology for the "less professional" pictures. (I was able to get them to show me the new Wraith Cooler, and the RX-480's and RX-470's though -- like the Gigabyte RX-470 WindForce 2X) The R3.0 Sabertooth comes with the following feature highlights: Aura RGB Lighting on the PCI-Express slots Re-enforced PCI-E X16 slots (top PCI-E slot only); PCI-Express 2.0 native from the 990FX chipset USB 3.1 with USB Type-C (through third-party ASMedia Controller) M.2 support (through the SB 950 chipset; PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth) Two front USB 3.0 headers Support for a 40mm fan to cool the VRM's (not included with the motherboard; bought separately) The AMD representative told me ASUS launched it just a two (?) weeks ago, and should be available for retail (e.g. NewEgg) now. I have absolutely NO idea why ASUS introduced a new 990FX motherboard at this time -- with 'Zen' and socket AM4 being launched in Q4 2016 (or Q1 2017). ASUS was at PAX as well, but there was nobody I could ask there. (Plus, they were showcasing Intel-related products at their booth). Thankfully, there are NO plans to introduce a new R.O.G. motherboard for socket AM3+. The Crosshair V Formula-Z will be it. The older, limited run, Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 had PCI-Express 3.0 support, but was through a third-party controller. I think they could have re-used that on this R3.0, so full it can take full advantage of PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth on the X16 and the M.2 slots -- even if it introduced some latency. EDIT: More detail available on the ASUS website here: https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/TUF-SABERTOOTH-990FX-R3-0/overview/

Hello, I am planning to build myself a new gaming PC. I am planning to get the Asus x99 Sabertooth Mainboard because i hgeard these are good for overclocking. When I was browsing the pictures, Isaw the backplate of that Mainboard. And I see, that it has some offset to the Mobo. Now I am wondering, if this even fits in a normal case or if i need some special standoffs. I am planning to build in a Fractal Design Define S because I really like Fractal cases. Also, I am wondering if this Mainboard is by default compatibile with the i7-6800K or if i have do perform a BIOS upgrade. Will i even be able to get to the BIOS if there is a incompatible CPU installed? I hope, someone can help me, and I already thank you for your replies.

Hello! I'm buying my first PC, so take in consideration I'm a newbie . I'm buying http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VUK54F0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=ASF0S1GFIHF5V and I want to know if I have to buy a seperate Wifi wireless card or if it comes with one already... Thanks!

Hi mate MSI GAMING M7 vs ASUS SABERTOOTH Z170 S Which is better for 1080 gaming rig ? Both are almost similar price at my place malaysia.. Which will perform better ? My friend asked me to build a gaming rig for him not budget but balance price rig..he now got 2 options he gave me..my place hard to find out gigabyte motherboard ..most are asus and msi ..hope u all can help me with this

So I have been debating my new build for a while, back and forth with the pros and cons of both. Here's where I am currently at and what I want to know is what is some of the opinions of other users: Current Build: z87 Sabertooth TUF i7 3770K overclocked to 4.9ghz at 39 on idle max 70 under heavy load using GTS V8 Cooler Master Cooler 32GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 2133mhz Corsair CXM850 Power Supply HAF-X Case EVGA 970 SSC 2.0+ clocked at 1314mhz boosts up to 1470mhz Seagate SSHD Hybrid Drive 1TB with 32GB SSD Cache Next Build: Either X99 Sabertooth or Z170 Sabertooth i7 5930K Haswell-E or i7 6700K Skylake 32 GB Corsair Dominator 3100 mhz (RAM Clock speed I am still debating as the improvements don't seem much for a 200+ price difference) Corsair RM1200 (might be RX) modular Genome Full Tower Green and Black Case with built in helix and water cooling block EVGA GTX 1080 Classified m.2 SSD 950 PRO 512GB 2TB SSD (unsure of what I am picking at this point) So here's what I have surmised: X99 Sabertooth Z170 Sabertooth Quad Channel Memory Dual Channel Memory Extra OC pins on CPU Socket Smaller CPU Architecture allows for less heat and TDP allowing for higher overclock SATA Express Ports SATA Express Ports? (not sure didn't see any) Better motherboard cooling with heatsinks Still uses heatsinks separate from fans for motherboard cooling Processors: 5930K 6700K More heat and less efficiency Highly efficient and less heat More Cores Better Single Core Functions (for games is better as most games don't utilize multi-core tech yet) New socket pins allow for better OC High overclocks but lacking multi core power Quad Channel Memory is the future Still using dual channel Better for strategy games and work Better for FPS and other games that are less CPU intensive So the question is this: I am a straight forward user and enthusiast. I built my computer about 2 years ago (it took about 1 year to build), and have been saving up for this build for a while. My computer has been around the world with me (Africa, Afghanistan, a couple other places) where the AC wasn't great or at time non existent, but still it ran great and everytime I came back to the states I had to disassemble it and give it a good cleaning (Afghani dust smells the worst). I love my Sabertooth boards because they are decent to good at OC and they survive heat, cold, all kinds of issues that would have busted other motherboards. I love the heat shields, thermal armor and TUF armor on the bottom protecting it (on one move it actually saved my board when a crate smashed my old case and the TUF armor kept it from touching the board, after which I promptly switched to a metal tower made by Cooler Master and never again will buy a case with plastic side panels). And I game on my off time and like to crank up the settings, stream my games, write code and do some animation stuff. So compiling is key as well as game playbility. ASUS backs their TUF stuff 5 years and I am giving my old rig to my younger brother because he is about to start college. I hate to build computers that will not be usable 5 years down the road, minus graphics card upgrades. So which one is better? Which one will get more power? Which one should I go with and why do you think so? and lastly do you think Skylake-E will eliminate all the disadvantages of a hexacore processor has in Broadwell-E and is it better to wait for that?

Hey all, I've got a minor question that hopefully can be resolved quickly. I have an Asus X99 Sabertooth mobo. The small assistant fan that blows air into the TUF Guard (upper left hand corner) continues to run when the system is fully powered down. The only time it actually turns off is when the power supply is switched off. Anybody know how to remedy this? (Yes, I know, unplug it and don't use it, but I'd prefer a fix instead of a workaround.) Thanks!

So i am building a computer for a friend and i was wondering if i can go with asus's sabertooth z97 mark s retail motherboard and the gtx 960 by gigabyte gtx 960 : http://www.e-shop.gr/vga-gigabyte-nvidia-geforce-gtx960-g1-gaming-gv-n960g1-gaming-4gd-4gb-gddr5-pci-e-retail-p-PER.516557 Sabertooth : http://www.e-shop.gr/mitriki-asus-sabertooth-z97-mark-s-retail-p-PER.524383 Can y'all help ?

Hey people! Need help deciding which ram modules should i pick for my x99 Sabertooth + 5820k CPU. ASUS compatible RAM for Sabertooth x99! I've tested Kingstone hyper X fury 2400 8gb modules bat they are not compatible Keep in mind i use a Deepcool Assasin II CPU cooler so it can't be high profile ram If someone here has this rig please tell me the model n° of your kits thx in advanced!

So I picked up a used a used Xeon e5 2670 because they're extremely cheap at the moment and got a used Sabertooth x79 to go with it. On the asus website it doesn't list official support for the e5 2670 but rather for the e5 2670 v2. I've seen people on different forums saying that it should work but I can't get it to post. I flashed the bios to the latest version that lists any cpu compatibility changes (version 4005) hoping it might make a difference but it didn't. It spins up all the fans for about a second with the cpu LED on solid red the whole time with no beeps from the speaker. Any suggestions?

So a year ago I built a PC with the following specs: Gigabyte GA-X99-Gaming 5P Intel Core i7 5960X @ 4.25ghz 1.275v NZXT Kraken X61 All-In-One Liquid Cooling Solution 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX PC3-24000 (3000) CAS 15-17-17-35 CMK16GX4M4B3000C15 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980Ti G1 Gaming 500GB Samsung 850 EVO TB Seagate ST2000DM001 Barracuda 7200 860W Corsair AX860 Everything worked perfectly for a while, but after a few months sometimes my PC would go into a boot loop when I turned it on. Looking online, this seems to be a big problem with Gigabyte X99 motherboards. It would normally only reset a few times before working again and being fine for a few weeks. As time went on, this became more common place and took more resets to fix. Everytime Gigabyte released a new BIOS, I would update to it in the hopes it would solve the problem permanently, tried various BIOS settings, etc, but unfortunately it did not seem to help. For the past month or 2 I had actually had no problems whatsoever and thought I had managed to fix it somehow, but a week ago the boot loop returned and did not end. For a few days I tried everything I could think of, tried suggestions people gave others with the same problem, but nothing I tried helped and I eventually decided to replace the motherboard with a non Gigabyte one and hope for the best. Yesterday my new ASUS Sabertooth X99 arrived and I hooked everything up, turned on the PC, the fans started going, lights came on, but then nothing would appear on my monitor. The DRAM led remained on, indicating a problem with the RAM, and when I plugged my phone into the TUF Detective slot the post code that came up was 0053 - Detect Memory. I tried the MemOK! button, pressing it instantly reset the PC (was under the impression I was meant to hold it and that the test would just start) but then the DRAM light started to flash, and the post code changed to 00B6 - MemOK! Tuning. Unfortunately, after a while the light would become solid again and the mesage on TUF Detective would say MemOK! Fail. I've tried resetting the CMOS, updating the BIOS to the latest version (1901 updated to 3101), removing all but one stick of RAM then trying it in each of the slots, etc, then using the MemOK! to test it each time, but it always failed. Looking online, I found a reviewer of the board having the same trouble (link) and they also had 1.35v RAM, and they had to use a different set of 1.2v RAM to actually get it to POST, then changed the voltage in the BIOS to 1.35v manually and swapped the other RAM back in to get it to work. I managed to borrow some RAM from a friend that was 1.2v (CMK16GX4M2A2400C14) and tried the same thing, but their RAM was also having the same issues and causing MemOK! Fails. I tried testing one in all the slots too, but nothing helped. The RAM has since gone back into his PC and is working fine. So now I'm out of ideas. I've sent all this information to ASUS and am currently waiting for them to get back to me, but was hoping some of you might have some ideas that could help me in the meantime. Thanks in advance!

Hi, i have had a few problems with my system recently and i have sourced the problem to a BIOS error, i am trying to update the BIOS on the motherboard. my motherboard is an ASUS Sabertooth X79, it has an EZ BIOS flash port on the back, so i download the BIOS ROMs online, unzip them into a USB formatted in Fat32 (I have tried NTFS aswell) and rename the file to SABERX79.rom, plug the USB into the dedicated BIOS flash port on the rear of the motherboard (the White USB port) and hold the BIOS button down for 3 second until it starts flashing. now my understanding is, if the BIOS update is successful then the BIOS button will flash for a few minutes and then stop and the light will go out, but when i do it, the light flashes for arounrd 3-5 seconds and then turns solid which i understand indicates a problem. Does anyone know where i can find a good version of the BIOS for my board? or is there anything else i need to download and put on the USB other than the BIOS? Thanks

the computer is: asus sabertooth z170 mark 1 Skylake i7 6700k gskill ripjaws 32 gig (2X16) 2400 nvidia evga 980 ti samsung m.2 500 gig evga supernova 750 p2 platinum the computer was working fine for the last month, my only problem that i was having was some shocks that will turn off the computer sometimes. i have it in my office and there is not carpet only concrete, and the power supply is grounded. the last time that happen the computer did not turn on, i check the power supply with a multi meter and the powersupply is working fine. i reconect the cables and i only leave the cpu power and the 24 pin connected and my fan. the only thing that tun on i s the power led from the motherboard, i click the power switch and nothing. the motherboard power led stays on but nothing happens. i try to turn the switch on manually from the motherboard but i get the same problem. from what i know the mother board should tell me if the cpu, ram or sata have problems by showing me an led signal but only the power led stays on.

where can i find Motherboard Revision and Motherboard BIOS Revision for asus sabertooth z170? i need to return the motherboard because it stop working, but i had the motherboard with a friend and the motherboard is dead so i cannot search for the bios and revision. i updated the motherboard to the lastest bios, but i dont remember what was it and the usb was formated a while ago.

Ok, i know the Asus Sabertooth Z77 has been released wayback and most likely, i wouldn't find a brand new unit. Here's the thing, i have an Intel Core i7 3770 that's only 3 months old after we bought it and used it (actually using it right now) and was wondering what good motherboards are good for LGA 1155 processors until i came across the Sabertooth Z77. It is quite perfect since it has USB 3.0 ports, supports RAID 0, has 2 PCI-E 16x slots, supports SLI and some other good stuff. It piqued my interest, yet have been frustrated lately that i can't find one, even used units. I have seen some rigs that has that specific motherboard that they still use up to now and wouldn't give it up, haha... Now here's my question..........DOES ANY ONE OF YOU STILL HAVE IT IN GOOD CONDITION, COMPLETE ACCESSORIES AND JUST LYING AROUND SOMEWHERE IN YOUR HOUSE? haha, you can feel my desperation on that all caps sentence... yes, I AM desperate to find one because im thinking of having the thermal armor painted white to fit my black and white theme build. I don't know how to go about this if you have one, i think i can do Paypal then have it shipped here... or if you're really generous, i can handle the shipping and handling fee. .....................................either that or i'm stuck with the crappy Asus H61M-K, lmao!

Hey there! i have an X99 Sabertooth 2011 v3 Mobo with the boot disk being an M.2 disk that is mounted right on to the MB. what im trying to change is to put my 2nd gpu in the pci-e x16_3 slot to both ventilate the cards better and to use a better SLI bridge i have laying around. the problem is that my m.2 is using the 16x_3 slot for power, so it disabels the Slot itself. what im trying to do is to get the m.2 disk to use the 16x_2 slot insted. so i can drop down the gpu one slot. ive read trough the MB manual and serched trough google and LTT forums but have so far not found anything pointing me twards where to change such a setting. any help would be greatly apprichiated

I updated my BIOS to the latest ver.(Sabertooth X99 BIOS 2001)and I can not boot again..... The system would not respond to anything.. I tried BIOS flash back by naming X99ST.CAP The BIOS flashback button lit up a few times for the first three try. Then I clicked on flashback the fifth time. The light won't even light up to blue. Now the system just turns on and turns off. Nothing responds. There is only a red light on the right bottom side of my motherboard. Anyone tried flashback before or similar experience? Here are my components: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/psjhbv

Hey Guys I recently tried to overclock my PC for the first time and it went ok got good temps at a decent overclock. However in games like Rainbow Six Siege it caused a BSOD. I immediately turned off the overclock and set my BIOS back to default. CPU-Z says everything is back to normal but I still get BSODs. In normal use I don't have a problem but it seems when I play taxing games like R6S or ARK it results in a BSOD. I tried updating my BIOS and this actually worked a little while. I actually managed to load into the actual game in R6S and play a round but then I got another BSOD. It says system service exception win32k.sys. My specs are ASUS Z77 Sabertooth i7-3770k Corsair H80 watercooler 8GB G.Skill Sniper RAM 390 Nitro I've gone into my BIOS and tried messing with the settings to see what the problem is. My temps are fine in game. I've updated my BIOS and I'm out of ideas. How do I fix this? My BSOD stuff the forum asked for are in this link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9uk3zdhI2obbFNXNGdPWnAzcWc/view?usp=sharing If there is anything you need clarified or I should try please let me know. I just want to get this fixed. EDIT: The blue screens have the message System_service_exception. Windows32k.sys

Was using my puter and suddenly everything shut off. At first I thought it was a power outage but the monitors were still on, just no signal. This was built in 2012, I have since added 2 more HD and some ram. No recent changes in the last 2 months. Case lights (the fractal blue lights) were on along with LAN blinkies, keyboard, mobo standby light. Fans and everything were off. Tried to restart, I get the standby light on the mobo and my fans would twitch a tiny bit. Components are: - Windows 7 Ultimate - Intel i7 3820 (Stock clock and using a Noctua NH-D14 ) - Asus X79 Sabertooth - 4x4GB Kingston Hyper X Genesis (1600MHz XMP profile 1) - 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance loprofile (1600HHz XMP profile 1) (added about 3 months ago) - MSI GTX 570 twinfrozr II (top PCI slot) - Kingston HyperX Predator 240GB PCIe mounted (boot drive, bottom PCI slot) (added about 6 months ago) - Crucial M4 Micron C400 SSD 256GB - WD Red 3tb (added about 2 months ago) - Asus optical drive - Corsair TX750M - Fractal Define R3, 4 fans began troubleshooting and did the following: - tested PSU (confirmed it turned on and checked voltages on the 24 pin and 8 pin) - removed GPU - removed all ram sticks, reorganized, tried different slots, single sticks, different sticks... - disconnected all drives - clear CMOS - BIOS flashback through USB (yes i was able to do this. I was originally on I THINK the original BIOS 0709, updated to 1203) - swapped to a different CPU - removed all fans, usb, audio, everything from the mobo -tried shorting the pins for the power button instead of using the case button No matter how much or how little components were arranged on the mobo, I would not get any post. No beeps, no lights, no fans, nothing... I am able to power the board and have the green standby LED on, but none of the troubleshooting lights would turn on (for instance no GPU should put the light on. It does nothing.) I can get the LAN blinky going and I can flash the bios and the fans to twitch for a fraction of a second, but cannot make it post. I'm thinking the board is cooked. Before I go and get another board and have this one RMA, should I try anything else? I don't have a spare PSU to try but from my tests, it seems fine. Thanks!

Looking to purchase this mobo for gaming and cinema 4d. Would you recommend it for a higher performance pc build or some other ATX motherboard ( and, if so, which one )?

I've contacted ASUS Customer Support already, I'm waiting for their response and will post that here too. I had this custom built PC up and running for at least 3 weeks already and everything was working fine. I then noticed that there was a new BIOS version 1101 which would "Improve system stability" and "Support TPM function". My BIOS version was 0234, the one that the Motherboard shipped with. I decided to update the BIOS to 1101 by using the USB BIOS Flashback feature, by using the following procedure: Download the driver from the ASUS Support Page for my Motherboard (https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH-Z170-MARK-1/HelpDesk_Download/) Extract the CAP file from the downloaded ZIP file. Renamed the SABERTOOTH-Z170-MARK-1-ASUS-1101.CAP file to Z170ST1.CAP Format a FAT32 USB pen drive new and copy the new Z170ST1.CAP to the root of the pen drive Shutdown the computer, but leave the PSU on Stick the pen drive to the USB BIOS Flashback port Hold the USB BIOS Flashback button for 3 seconds Watch as it starts blinking Wait for it to stop blinking (took some minutes) Take the pen drive out Power on the computer The result was that the PC wouldn't make it to POST anymore and that the CPU LED was now on. I can't get the PC to startup anymore. I've tried clearing the CMOS by using a jumper for 10 seconds in the CLRTC connector when the PC was off and without the power cord. I've also trying flashing all the available BIOS (0234, 0901 and 1101 again). I've tried powering the PC with the Motherboard DVD on the disc drive as well. Removing the GPUs and RAM also didn't help. Nothing of that worked. The PC used to work just fine before, with all the same components, but after a BIOS update attempt via Flashback, it won't work anymore. Any clue on how can I fix this? The PC: Windows 10 Pro 64 bit ASUS Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 Intel Skylake 6700K Corsair H100i Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB DDR4 3000MHz 4x4 2x EVGA 980Ti SC+ ACX 2.0 Corsair AX1200i Corsair Force GT 120GB (for Windows) Crucial MX100 256GB (for Games) 3x WD Green WD20EZRX 2TB (in RAID 5, for Media)

There isn't much info out on this board. I have a sabertooth z170 and have ordered a samsung 950 pro. The board comes with a hyper x4 pcie adapter and a dedicated m.2 slot on mb. Running a single 390x , and don't plan on crossfiring at any point. Can I use the hyper x4 with 950 pro in a pcie slot to full benefit(16x4), then add an 850 evo m.2 ssd to the dedicated slot(sata mode/pcie mode) for less used programs, without taking any pcie lanes away from graphics card? Or even vise versa with the 850 in the adapter and the 950 pro in the dedicated slot? I'm learning, but my research on this has only brought confusion. Hope one of you guys can help. specs for sabertooth z170 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8) 1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (max at x4 mode) *1 3 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1 1 x SATA Express portCompatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports 1 x M.2 x4 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (both SATA & PCIE mode)*2 6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10 Intel® Rapid Storage Technology supports*3 Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology*4 ASMedia® SATA 6Gb/s controller : *5 2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), black *1: The PCIe x16_3 slot shares bandwidth with SATA6G_56. The PCIe x16_3 is default set at x2 mode. Supports Intel® RST for PCIE RAID storage. *2: The M.2 socket shares SATA ports with SATA Express. Adjust BIOS settings to use an M.2 SATA device. *3: Supports PCIE RAID configurations via onboard M.2 and PCIEX16_3 slot storages. *4: These functions will work depending on the CPU installed. *5: These SATA ports are for data hard drivers only. ATAPI devices are not supported.

Hey guys I just recently upgraded my system from x79 to x99. After installing everything and having everything up to date I did the Valley Benchmark. Odd thing was I got a lower score on my new system. I had around a score of 3700 on my x79 but I'm only getting around 3100 on the new. I was expecting it to be the same but to my surprise it was a lot lower. Could anyone tell me what is going on? This is all stock no overclocks. x79 system i7 3820k Rampage Extreme IV Corsair H100 cooler 2 Way Sli Asus 980ti Strix OCZ Vertex 4 SSD 256gb Seagate 1TB HDD AX1200 PSU Windows 7 Pro x99 System i7 5930k Asus Sabertooth TUF x99 Corsair H110 GT 2 Way Sli Asus 980ti Strix Samsung Pro 512gb SSD WD Black 4TB HDD HX1200i PSU Windows 7 Pro Resolution of 2560x1440 at 144hz Thank you if anyone could help.

Hey guys I posted recently about my Valley benchmarks being lower than my previous system but was told to use games as a real test. When I came around to testing games. They were also underperforming compared to my previous build. Benchmarking on Tomb Raider on the x79, my max fps would easily hit 144 while on the x99 I can only hit 116. On Valley I had around a score of 3700 on my x79 but I'm only getting around 3100 on the new. I even noticed that the GPU usage for both GPU's is not 100% or close. It ranges between 50%-80%. As I said in the previous post, I was expecting the performance to be very similar or at least a little better. The difference is a little too much especially since it is under performing. All stock speed. No overclocks. The SLI setup in my x99 system is 1 expansion slot closer compared to the x79 which had 2 slot gap between the cards. Also airflow from Side fans on the x99. Though the temperature on the x99 build is only a little bit hotter by 1-4 degrees. Resolution of 2560x1440 at 144hz on both systems, Settings maxed out in benchmarks x79 system i7 3820k Rampage Extreme IV Corsair H100 cooler 2 Way Sli Asus 980ti Strix OCZ Vertex 4 SSD 256gb Ripjaw Z 2133MHZ 32GB Seagate 1TB HDD AX1200 PSU Windows 7 Pro HAF X 932 x99 System i7 5930k Asus Sabertooth TUF x99 Corsair H110 GT 2 Way Sli Asus 980ti Strix Ripjaws V 2400MHZ 16gb Samsung Pro 512gb SSD WD Black 4TB HDD HX1200i PSU Windows 7 Pro Phanteks Enthoo Primo Thank you if anyone could help.

Hello again guys, I am currently running ASUS Sabertooth x99 motherboard with 8GB RAM (HyperX-Fury, CL15, 2666MHz, DDR-4) in a one stick (so I could max it out to 64GB total in the far future). The question is, as I would like to upgrade and there are no Kit-of-3 packs of 8-GB sticks, is it worth buying a pack of 2 sticks and running 3 of them all together? My mobo supports quad-channel and I thought that getting 3 sticks to have 4 in total would be the best, but I would have to buy 1 + kit-of2. Now, this is not really economic, since I save 25$+ while buying 2-pack so... There you have it. 1. What should I do? Buy all 3 sticks (to run 4 total) or just a pair of them (3 in total)? 2. Will I benefit much from running quad-channel? 3. Will I lose much from running 3-stick config?

I'm trying to figure out what cpu to get. I'm buying used and I've found an r9 290 for 200$ cad. I would like to know what cpu would be a good match. I've found some good deals for fx 6300 100$ and fx 8350 with msi 970 mobo 150$. I'm considering an Intel but since recently with games like far cry 4 requiring a quad core I'm not sure about it.