Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'vt-d'.
-
If not, where can I find it in BIOS on an IBM/Lenovo system? I wasn't able to find anything about it. That said, I know that my processor has VT-d capabilities.
- 19 replies
-
(Original post on Lvl1techs, but I figured I'd post here also) So step one, I'm asking for help to decide a motherboard + CPU combo for around the £200 ($125) mark, the plan is a new Linux build, and as I've been struggling on with my G3258 for two almost three years now I would like a good upgrade, VT-D would also be nice, as you know, games. Currently I have spied this deal on Ebay: SUPERMICRO X8DTL-3F DUAL SOCKET LGA1366 WITH 8 CORES 16T 24GB RAM INTEL ATX VT-d... 1 x SuperMicro X8DTL-3F ATX Dual-Socket LGA1366 motherboard! (with backplate). Standard ATX fittings, will fit any ATX or E-ATX case. Each CPU clocks at 2.66GHz but turbo's up to 2.80GHz even when at full load. | eBay! Sure its quite old, but dual X5550s will give me a real performance boost, the CPUs and motherboard support VT-D, it comes with 12GB of RAM, has a PCI-16x slot and best of all 'fits' in a standard ATX case. For £189 I feel you cant go wrong, as the ability to utilise both CPUs in VT-D usage would be great, and having these extra threads would be a treat for audio production, and of course just general use. However, I am concerned that the age of the platform may result in some issues, for one the power consumption is huge near 200W for the CPUs alone, which despite not being a deal breaker, keeping the bills down would be nice, also my upgrade path is pretty limited, as this motherboard does not support the newer E**** series 1366 Xeons, I'm not too bothered by that however It would be nice to have a bit more freedom in that sense. So I ask for your help, good people of this forum, please bless me with anything which you think could be a suitable contender for this Ebay listing, and falls in or around the same price range whilst also still maintaining the features I would be after. Any more info wanted? Just ask! Thanks! TLDR: Recommend £200 CPU + Motherboard combo
-
Hi Guys, I know this might be a bit controversial but I thought I would post this here to see what the communities opinion was. I am looking to build a new Virtual Lab at home for testing a few applications and servers on. I have a few basic requirements; Must support Direct I/O Virtualization - to be used simally to the 2 Gamers 1 CPU Video that Linux did Must support up to 64GB RAM Have at least 4 PCI Express x16 Slots Have Reasonable processing Power So my question to the community is as follows; what if any Ryzen CPU and Motherboard Combination would be good to complete this task and what would be a good Intel CPU and Motherboard combination to complete this task. I have already considered the ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS for an Intel based board but I am not so sure on the AMD side as I know more about Intel than I do about AMD. Any suggestion would be excellent. ** Linus would be good to see a build with a review on your channel if you feel up to it! Kind Regards,
- 1 reply
-
- virtual server
- ryzen
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
Current PCPartPicker list The second GPU I will be using is a R7 360. Should this work out? What would you change in the partlist? Is Threadripper a solid choice for this? What VM should I use? How will I split audio channels with only the case and motherboard jacks available? Thanks for any answers. If it turns out threadripper will be more of a doozy to use, than I'll take CPU suggestions. I'm sure my budget will thank me too, those TR motherboards and DDR4 3000mHz memory kits aren't cheap. In terms of output: for the stronger GPU I'm aiming for 1080/1440p 120/144hz, and with the 360 1080p and 60ish will suffice. If it's really unnecessary to do this, I am somewhat open to just using my current R7 360 G3258 rig and building another more powerful one. Thanks for any help!
- 4 replies
-
- 2 users 1 cpu
- threadripper
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
Greetings everyone, So the other day I was trying to run VirtualBox but as soon as I started the virtual machine it crashed and my system restarted. Earlier I was trying to run Nox Player and it showed an error of 'Can't run virtual machine'. So I configured in the BIOS setting to enable Vt-d in the BIOS features and enable Hyper-v in windows features setting but the problem persists. I can't figure out what to do. Am I missing something or am I doing something wrong. My plan is to run Android in the background as I work on my regular applications. System specification: i7 6700 Ga-H170-gaming3 16gb Radeon 7870 2gb.
-
Hey all, I'm trying to build a citrix xenserver and have a gpu passed through to a vm to test some configurations for a project. I have Vt-d enabled on the server however every time I try to start the virtual machine with the GPU passed through it throws an error saying that the server does not have VT-d enabled. Why is this? Specs bellow: 4790k Asus z97 k(?) 32gb RAM 1tb hdd gpu1: gt210 gpu2: gtx 750ti
- 4 replies
-
- xenserver
- virtulization
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
does evga x99 micro2 motherboard support vt-d?
xoxollin posted a topic in Servers, NAS, and Home Lab
ok new poster here. i also posted this query in motherboards forum. i hope thats ok! long story short, ive been wanting to try an unraid build ever since i watched the ltt "2 gamers 1 cpu" video and i finally have the opportunity: i recently found some very reasonable deals on 6950x cpus on ebay and have decided to upgrade my main system from 5960x. so, rather than have the old cpu go to waste, i figure nows my chance to explore virtualization. ive laid out my planned build on pcpartpicker and mostly settled on the evga x99 micro2 board because it has enough space between the first two pcie slots to house a short pcie riser cable to fit my 1080ti gpus (pass through for each vm) with no-frills single slot gpu for unraid host in the first slot. heres my current build info: PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU Intel Core i7-5960X 3 GHz 8-Core Processor Purchased CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler Motherboard EVGA Micro 2 Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard $250.00 Memory Kingston HyperX Predator 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL12 Memory Purchased For $0.00 Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $69.00 @ Amazon Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $69.00 @ Amazon Storage Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $149.99 @ Amazon Storage Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $149.99 @ Amazon Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB FTW3 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI) Purchased For $0.00 Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB FTW3 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI) Purchased For $0.00 Case Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case $69.98 @ Amazon Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply Purchased For $0.00 Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $757.96 Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-24 00:10 EDT-0400 most of the components (cpu, gpus, psu, ram, etc) are from my main pc (plan to upgrade gpu to 3090 or 3090ti when they are available) so i just need motherboard, case and a few harddrives. my main question for this post is: does anyone know if this motherboard (evga x99 micro2) supports vt-d? ive seen evidence that it has vt-x but vt-d is crucial for unraid virtualization to work. has anyone else used this board for unraid? im pretty sure the asus x99m ws would work except for not having enough space for the riser card (damn you: pcie x1 slot!) but ive been scouring the internet and various manuals to find my answer to no avail. if anyone has info (or better yet, experience) please let me know!!-
- unraid
- virtualization
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
long story short, ive been wanting to try an unraid build ever since i watched the ltt "2 gamers 1 cpu" video and i finally have the opportunity: i recently found some very reasonable deals on 6950x cpus on ebay and have decided to upgrade my main system from 5960x. so, rather than have the old cpu go to waste, i figure nows my chance to explore virtualization. ive laid out my planned build on pcpartpicker and mostly settled on the evga x99 micro2 board because it has enough space between the first two pcie slots to house a short pcie riser cable to fit my 1080ti gpus (pass through for each vm) with no-frills single slot gpu for unraid host in the first slot. heres my current build info: PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU Intel Core i7-5960X 3 GHz 8-Core Processor Purchased CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler Motherboard EVGA Micro 2 Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard $250.00 Memory Kingston HyperX Predator 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL12 Memory Purchased For $0.00 Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $69.00 @ Amazon Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $69.00 @ Amazon Storage Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $149.99 @ Amazon Storage Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $149.99 @ Amazon Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB FTW3 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI) Purchased For $0.00 Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB FTW3 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI) Purchased For $0.00 Case Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case $69.98 @ Amazon Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply Purchased For $0.00 Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $757.96 Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-24 00:10 EDT-0400 most of the components (cpu, gpus, psu, ram, etc) are from my main pc (plan to upgrade gpu to 3090 or 3090ti when they are available) so i just need motherboard and case and a few harddrives. my main question for this post is: does anyone know if this motherboard (evga x99 micro2) supports vt-d? ive seen evidence that it has vt-x but vt-d is crucial for unraid virtualization to work. has anyone else used this board for unraid? im pretty sure the asus x99m ws would work except for not having enough space for the riser card (damn you: pcie x1 slot!) but ive been scouring the internet and various manuals to find my answer to no avail. if anyone has info (or better yet, experience) please let me know!!
-
NVIDIA GTX 960 + Windows 10 Pro (with multiple RDP sessions) = Nvidia tesla gamestream home server? I am going to take some computer science next year and I'm curious of whether or not I can make my future work available to everyone. By that I mean that one of my future projects involve just taking a single GPU and letting it do all of the work for the thin clients. How do I propose this idea? Basically, the idea is to make it so that I can take advantage of the H.264 encoder of the gpu to stream all of the RDP sessions to all of the thin clients whether they might be linux based, mac based or even a shittier windows vista-based computer. Laptop, tablet, or desktop or even HTPC. I know I will need to do some registry hacks in windows, but would I also need to try and see if I need to modify the software so that windows will force the nvidia gpu to mandatorily use it's built-in H.264 encoder for all thin clients as well. I wouldn't mind buying individual GPUs for each vm if that would be the case but still this solution would be better suited.
- 15 replies
-
- nvidia
- windows 10
-
(and 3 more)
Tagged with:
-
Looking to build a unraid server and trying to figure out what CPU is best for my use case (don't want to over or under buy). I want to be able to transcode videos with Plex to 1-2 users (most content is original BluRay/4K BluRay backups or encoded 1080p files), and run up to 3 VMs (e.g. Volumio, Kodi, Win 10). Ability to handle 1080p gaming on a VM (with passthrough) would be a plus, but not necessary if its going to drastically increase the price. ECC would be a plus, and it must support VT-d and VT-x for VMs with USB/GPU passthrough. Intel or AMD equivalent. Thank you.
-
So I started to plan for my next build, and decided I wanted a computer which can use it's GPU in virtual machines. But I like to know a few things, I know the processor needs to support TV-d. But I would like to know if the motherboard or any other hardware need to support a specific kind of technology, would like to know if the GPU is thin or fat provisioned, and if there is anything spesific I need to keep in mind. I know that the host OS needs some RAM, so I can't allocate all to the VM(s).
-
Greeting Linus Tech tips community! I have a spare q9400, Kingston SSD NOW V300 120gb, and a MSI R5450 lying around looking for: What I'm aiming to do: LGA 775 socket T motherboad a 2 user 1 system unit pc for officework and web browsing only can be as large as M-atx but preferably ITX Dual Channel DDR3 1333 up to 16gb VT-d support serial port at the rear I/O at least 1 sata 6gb/s
-
Hello LTT community I have some interesting new to share with the tech community and what better place to share it than here. I have been doing a lot of research on hypervisors and specifically GPU pass through to virtual machines, in my research i have found a number of skeptical and contradictory articles and posts. I plan to discuss and share my findings, first off ill list my system specs, installation of esxi 6.0.0 (aka vsphere), the creation of my windows vm, pci passthrough and finally gaming and benchmarks ( graphs to come in the future) The System: Bequiet Silent Base 800 Asus x99 deluxe Intel I7 5930K (OC'd to 4.1GHz) esxi stability is important so im not pushing it. Kingston fury x 16gb 4x4 2133mhz kit (upgrading to 32gb 4gbx8 2666 gskill kit) Bequiet Dark Rock Pro 2 Cpu cooler ( minor case mod to fit, one of the tabs on the side panel fan cover had to be cut down) EVGA GTX 970 SSC (for pass thru) PNY GTX 750ti (for esxi since the x99 platform has no igpu) Corsair HX 850i 850w platinum powersupply samsung ssd's; 256gb 950 pro for VM's and 250gb 850 evo for storage and a few other drives not configured in vmware yet Other components include an APC 1500va UPS for good measure ok now on to the installation, I started by downloading the free version of esxi the fired up vmware workstation to create a USB image of esxi so i didnt eat up my valuable drives instructions i followed are here http://www.vladan.fr/install-esxi-6-to-usb-as-destination-or-have-it-as-source/ once that was create i installed the usb in an nzxt internal usb extension that also has 2 usb "A" ports fire up the PC and mash F8 to get boot devices and pick the esxi usb next go to the address esxi gives you as there is no gui so your gonna need a laptop or a second computer to configure esxi from the web gui is how you configure esxi for pci pass thru and create your vm First you have to create a data store, i called mine VM's and Games as the evo would be attached to the vm as a secondary vdisk just for games click on storage, click create new data store and follow the steps and add the drives you want now click on virtual machines, click create virtual machine, the nice part about creating a vm with esxi is you have the ability to use the client machine as the CD/DVD drive so you can mount and install images from a laptop remotely my vm is using 8gb of ram and running on 4 virtual cores and as a side note use vmxnet3 for your network as e1000 and e1000e have issues getting to the internet once your virtual machine is up and running with Windows 10, (im using build 1607 for my vm) shut down your vm now we will add pci devices click on manage right under host then click the hardware tab, note that not all devices can be passed thru, on the devices that say disabled you can check the box and click toggle passthrough and that device will be unavailable to the host and now be available to add to your virtual machines. once youve toggled all the devices you want you will have to reboot the host before the devices will be passed through Once the host is back up and before you start your vm, click on virtual machines and click on your vm, click edit and add other device, select the pci devies you wish to add to your vm the click save now before you boot up you vm and this is IMPORTANT if you OWN an NVIDIA Consumer GPU (GEFORCE CARDS) you will have to edit the config file and add 2 lines. to get to the config click virtual machines, click the machine you want to edit, click edit settings, click the VM options tab, click advanced and scroll down and click edit configuration now that the config is open click add parameter and in the KEY: hypervisior.cpuid.v0 Value: FALSE and the second parameter is KEY: pciHole.start Value: 2048 not that in the first parameter that is a ZERO after the "v" Now your ready to start your VM fingers crossed you have an output on your display and your gpu passthrough is working correctly once your back into your vm you will need to download and install nvidia drivers and in device manager uninstall and delete the SVGA adapter. Now running games is to my eye showing now loss, i have yet to notice any frame rate dips Playing the Division i was getting between 35 and 45 fps on ultra @ 1440P and on a base windows install i was getting the same, i will however post some benchmarks of my vm and try to get some benchmarks of the pc running these games on windows on the baremetal if you have any questions dont hesitate to comment or PM me Thanks
-
The new (well last year's model) AW laptop has both a thunderbolt 3, and a proprietary pci connector. This is a skylake machine, and the architecture supports vt-d. Since a thunderbolt 3 connection can support an external gpu, and we have the razer core which will work on any thunderbolt (DSL-6540/6340) connector. Could we not create a single hypervisior, and run two clients utilizing the different external cards? Unlike the Razer the AW has a discrete gpu, so we can interact with the hypervisior while operating the two clients. I believe in the "7 gamers one pc" video it was a must for every pc including the HV to have discrete graphics cards. The AWR3 models have 970m & 980m, so I am not sure if that would be considered a possible 3 gamer, or would be needed for the HV. I don't entirely know how the AWXXR3 models handle switching between the external gpu, and the discrete gpu with the system. However, from general review videos it would seem a system restart is neccessary with a switch. Unlike the Razer, which is plug and play. This may be an issue in setting a third gamer, or even just 2 as theorized above, as you might lose connectivity with one as the other is connected. I don't think consumers have access to the Razer Core yet, but i would think that a group such as LMG would by now. I am still a newb at virtulization, so I apologise if I have missed something big here. I would appreciate any input, as I am an owner of a AW17R3, and would love to try this when the core's availability opens.
- 4 replies
-
- alien ware
- vt-d
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
Linus, Luke, John - if you’re out there, can you hear me calling? tl;dr: Does that AsRoc ITX x99 board support VT-d? Is the 5900 series if Core-i processors going to work with it (VT-d? If anyone else knows, can you help me out? 1. Budget & Location My budget is variable, and the shipping costs are my own concern. Basically, whatever it takes to complete the build. Location is Bermuda (The island in the middle of the Atlantic) 2. Aim Build a small (for portability and coolness factor), Linux based hypervisor for running everything from: A private mirror package repository for raspbian and other linux flavours A steam (on windows) gaming box (needs vt-d support) Emulation stuff that can't be handled by retroarch on a pi NAS controller (and possibly storage. Will be using Ceph to link multiple storage locations) Maybe even VDI for my SO. 3. Monitors I have all I need. There will be a 1080p dell for regular gaming, a 1080p TV for emulation and a 4k screen for testing, a bit of content creation, 3d modeling and possibly gaming. 4. Peripherals None needed at the moment, I have my trusty Apple USB keyboard and ssh for all configurations. 5. Why are you upgrading? I don't have a desktop at the moment. I thought about running with an eGPU setup on my macbook pro and bootcamping windows 10, but experience has broken me down and demands at the very least a dedicated machine for this. I may split it out in the future, but for now, this is what I’m going with. I want more than just gaming, I’m tired of kludges and virtualisation is my business - so I get to flesh out my professional knowledge whilst building a sweet hypervisor for personal profit! I've wanted to try out VT-d with graphics for a long time, but never could get used to the form factor of having a honking great big tower somewhere near me, as opposed to in a datacenter somewhere. LTT gets full credit for tickling my inner nerd enough to move ahead with this. Inspirations: My inspirations for this build were “2 gamers one CPU” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuJYMCbIbPk, “7 gamers 1 CPU” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOaCkbt4lI and “The MOST Compact Gaming PC” https://youtu.be/MjDJNwAANwA Hardware: I have already purchased the Silverstone sg13 mesh as used in the LTT video “The MOST Compact Gaming PC” I have gone with the Silverstone 80+ Gold 600W SFX power supply. ---- The Remainder ---- I’m currently looking at: The AsRoc mini itx x99 motherboard The 59xx series of processors (which combination of mobo and CPU is going to give me vt-d and the gaming performance I need) Titan X over 980ti I may possibly wait for the Pascal line up to have a few options as well. (I have an old EVGA 660ti to tide me over until I can afford either of the cards, so price doesn't really factor in this decision) ---- So here’s where I am so far. Between listings on wikipedia and Intel ARK for which CPU’s support VT-d I have leanerd: The 5920k will The 5930k will The 5960x will The motherboard appears to. The problem lies in that, RMA’ing from Bermuda or even just returns would really suck (if they'd even take an open box CPU back) Has anyone tried VT-d with this board, does it work? I would really like the NVMe slot and 3.1 USB slots for 10GBit networking, but will downgrade if I have to. Cheers! sunbear
-
So I have been attempting to pass through one of my 760's to use in a VM in Arch GNU/Linux using the guide found in this reddit post. Everything has gone smoothly so far except for the fact that when I run: lspci -nnk I get this: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] [10de:1187] (rev a1) Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device [1458:360b] Kernel driver in use: nvidia Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia 01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 HDMI Audio Controller [10de:0e0a] (rev a1) Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device [1458:360b] Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] [10de:1187] (rev a1) Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device [1458:360b] Kernel driver in use: nvidia Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia 02:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 HDMI Audio Controller [10de:0e0a] (rev a1) Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device [1458:360b] Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel The issue is that both GPU's have the same PCI ID (10de:1187, 10de:0e0a). This is stopping me from binding only the second card to pci-stub so the nvidia driver wont use it, and I can then pass it through to a VM. When I try binding the two given id's to pci-stub it stops nvidia from using both cards, and when I run "startx" it errors. I also compiled the linux-vfio kernel and I am currently using that. Does anyone know a way to get the GPU's to have different PCI ID's? Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.
-
I am trying to determine if the i7-4770K supports Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d). Every site I read says that the K versions do not support VT-d, yet Intel ARK says that it does: http://ark.intel.com/products/75123 Does anyone know for sure?
-
I recently got some money together to get a better CPU. I got an ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer motherboard, and bought an i5-4670K the other day for it (won't get here till tomorrow). I've been pretty brand loyal to AMD (still am), but I decided to give Intel a go since I got that motherboard. I should also note that I'm kind of bias against Intel (due to some legal situation a good while back I was part of). The only real problem I see with the 4670K so far is that it lacks VT-d (I needed this feature specifically for GPU-passthrough and virtualization). Considering the old Phenom II X3 720 and the discontinued ASRock 970 Extreme3 R1.0 board I have provides IOMMU (AMD-equivalent of VT-d needed for the passthrough), it didn't even occur to me to check for such a feature before buying that CPU. I figured "it's unlocked and costs a good bit", and just assumed it would have all the features the non-K version had, but just unlocked. Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed with that to the point of almost not even wanting to give Intel a chance (I don't like encouraging such behavior from companies). The way I also see it as, I could buy the FX-8350, get it unlocked, have full virtualization support, be pretty well set for multi-threading, and get it under $200; or I could choose the i5-4670K, get it unlocked, pay $60-more, and deal with botched virtualization support, but have decent multi-threading, and (significantly?) better single-threaded performance. On the other hand, I'm kind of questioning how viable GPU passthrough would be. Technically, I couldn't do it at all with my current setup on AMD due to me lacking a second GPU anyway, but it would be a fun thing to look into later. Could possibly do it on Intel if I just make the iGPU primary and dedicate my 7850 to the passthrough, but from what I understand, passthrough can be pretty annoying or just not work at all (I hear the guest reboot issue still exists). If I get an additional $200 later, I may want to buy a second GPU, but that'll likely be way down the road at some point if ever. I'm also interested in PCI-E 3.0. I sometimes do Eyefinity with my 7850, and I'm curious to see if it would offer any boost in-comparison to PCI-E 2.0. I'll play around with the 4670K while I have it, but I'm considering either keeping it, returning it (if Newegg allows it), or just re-selling it (but I am open to suggestions). As for what CPU i'll get, that depends on a pending RMA-request from ASRock. The 970 Extreme3 I have now had support for the FX-8350, but it was later removed. There are mixed reviews as to how this mobo handles that CPU. ASRock support told me that it should be fine as long as the VRM is sufficiently cooled, but I'm not 100% sure if I want to take the risk or not (kind of tempted to though; I have some fans lying around). Alternatively, if ASRock does accept my RMA request to exchange the motherboard for one that can handle the 8350 without question, I'm pretty confident I'd just go for that. I could also probably sell the Fatal1ty H97 Killer and buy a new motherboard too. On the note of the 4670K lacking VT-d, my other option is to try for the upcoming 4690K. Intel's product page lists VT-d compatibility (which according to others is strange considering K series usually lacked virtualization features). It seems to be around the same price I paid for the 4670K, so this may also be a valid option depending on how much money I can get back returning or selling the 4670K. As for my computer usage, I don't really play anything too high-end nowadays. I have some interest in getting better performance out of Guild Wars 2. I use Windows 8.1 primarily, but I keep looking to try to make Linux my main OS; gaming usually end up putting me back on Windows though. I have a slight interest in trying out OS X also. Aside from GW2, the only other really resource-intensive games I plan on playing are GTA IV, and possible V later down the road. I don't have a lot of money currently, and also lack patience for the most part (I could of waited a little less than a week to get the 4690K). I do like considering future-usage scenarios though. I would base my decision on overall performance, but I don't really know what sites or people to trust to do accurate/legitimate benchmarks. Some sites show the 4670K being significantly better, others show the 8350 being close or slightly better. Most people that I've seen said they would go with Intel, but I'm almost positive most of those claims have no "legitimate" reasoning for such (other than the usual "Intel + NVIDIA = masterrace tier all day without need of reasoning" bs I tend to hear). I want to see trustworthy comparisons. And then there's the FX-9370 that seems to be $230 on Newegg, which I could probably get with selling or returning the i5-4670K. I'll definitely need a new motherboard though (that i'd probably have to buy; not sure how far ASRock's kindness would extend on that regard), and likely even a new PSU (only have a 3-4 year old hec 585W PSU). I don't think it would really be worth the hassle though personally. And as for another interesting decision, I could go for a micro-ATX APU build, but that might sacrifice a good deal of CPU performance? I have my eyes on a FM2+ motherboard (nothing specific), and the A10-7850K (would still use my 7850 GPU). If I could find a relatively small/portable case to go with such a setup, it might be interesting to have for portability. So without drawing that story any further, here's my main options: - Keep the Fatal1ty H97 Killer motherboard and i5-4670K (it's a sure deal as long as neither the board or CPU are DOA) - Keep the Fatal1ty H97 Killer motherboard, attempt to sell the i5-4670K and get an i5-4690K (not sure how popular a used i5-4670K would be to sell for nearly $240) - Use the 970 Extreme3 board (or exchange with ASRock if they accept), attempt to sell the i5-4670K and get an FX-8350 (could probably sell the i5-4670K for around or more than $200 at least) I'm not too sure how Newegg would handle me trying to return the i5-4670K, but if they allowed for a return, that would be $240. If I recall right, if they wanted a restocking fee, I believe it would be $30. This is the exact i5-4670K I purchased.