X99 Strix VS MSI X99A GAMING PRO CARBON

[Dackzy]

I have done a LOT of research for the last 4-5 hours and those are the two motherboards I have left.

 

I have looked at user reviews and pro reviews of them both and they seem to trade blows.

[Cereal5]

The only thing you need to be worried about with motherboards are features. That being said I spend a lot of time in the BIOS and Asus' looks great and is easy to use. Can't speak for MSI though. The Asus also has built in wifi should you need it

[Dackzy]

Just now, Cereal5 said:

The only thing you need to be worried about with motherboards are features. That being said I spend a lot of time in the BIOS and Asus' looks great and is easy to use. Can't speak for MSI though. The Asus also has built in wifi should you need it

Oh I am worried about build quality, I do not need the build in wifi, if I needed wifi I would get a mimo wifi card.

I will run SLI or CF and have a m.2 NVMe SSD. Not sure of how many features I would use. I OC my things and then I basically let my motherboard be.

 

My nr.1 is stability and then OC.

[Cereal5]

1 minute ago, Dackzy said:

Oh I am worried about build quality, I do not need the build in wifi, if I needed wifi I would get a mimo wifi card.

I will run SLI or CF and have a m.2 NVMe SSD. Not sure of how many features I would use. I OC my things and then I basically let my motherboard be.

 

My nr.1 is stability and then OC.

I wouldn't worry about that with any X99 motherboard over about $130. I have the Asus X99-A and it's great. I used to run SLI (before I bought a 1080) and it ran with no complications what so ever, I run my CPU overclocked by 1GHz and no problems there either. I actually Have room to go higher, but that's more due to my cooler than motherboard. I mean with motherboards these days there's really not much to be worried about. You're either shipped a board that is DOA, or it's fine

[ARikozuM]

Go with the Asus. Trust me on this.

[ELSknutson]

24 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

I have done a LOT of research for the last 4-5 hours and those are the two motherboards I have left.

 

I have looked at user reviews and pro reviews of them both and they seem to trade blows.

Get the Strix It is sexy and a great value for the money. 

[Sintezza]

I would go with the Asus X99 strix.

Based on the vrm implementation on both boards in compairisson.

I personaly prefer the Asus board simply because they offer 8 true phases fully digital vrm implementation controlled by the IR3580 pwm for the main cpu vrm.

And powered by IR3535 60A powerstages.

 

Msi is using a a hybrid vrm implementation from ISL on all their X99 boards.

The ISL6388 is a 6+1 true phase hybrid pwm controller.

On the Msi X99 gaming pro carbon, they took 4 true phases of the pwm and

doubled them to 8 pwm phases using ISL6617 phase doublers.

And i´m very sorry to say, but at an enthusiast X99 platform that is realy cheapo.

I´m totaly not a fan of Msi X99 boards in particular personaly.

They put too much bling on their boards that makes no sense.

And they cheap out on the important part of their boards which is the vrm.

And thats just a bad thing imo.

They also ask top dolar for their board, and there is totaly no logic on it.

[Dackzy]

7 hours ago, Sintezza said:

I would go with the Asus X99 strix.

Based on the vrm implementation on both boards in compairisson.

I personaly prefer the Asus board simply because they offer 8 true phases fully digital vrm implementation controlled by the IR3580 pwm for the main cpu vrm.

And powered by IR3535 60A powerstages.

 

Msi is using a a hybrid vrm implementation from ISL on all their X99 boards.

The ISL6388 is a 6+1 true phase hybrid pwm controller.

On the Msi X99 gaming pro carbon, they took 4 true phases of the pwm and

doubled them to 8 pwm phases using ISL6617 phase doublers.

And i´m very sorry to say, but at an enthusiast X99 platform that is realy cheapo.

I´m totaly not a fan of Msi X99 boards in particular personaly.

They put too much bling on their boards that makes no sense.

And they cheap out on the important part of their boards which is the vrm.

And thats just a bad thing imo.

They also ask top dolar for their board, and there is totaly no logic on it.

what do you think about the Asrock fatal1ty x99 professional?

[Sintezza]

11 hours ago, Dackzy said:

what do you think about the Asrock fatal1ty x99 professional?

Basicly a good board.

But it does not support the Broadwell-E cpu´s out of the box.

It needs a bios update, and since Asrock does not offer a feuture to flash the bios without supported cpu installed.

You will need to ask the shop if they could flash the bios for you.

 

All Asrock X99 boards feuture an ISL implementation for the vrm aswell.

They use an ISL6379 6+1 true phase hybrid pwm for the cpu main power delivery.

6 phases being doubled to 12 for the main Vcore using ISL6611A doublers, and powered by Fairchild dual-N mostfet powerpacks.

60A inductors and 12K nichcon capacitors.

 

But if you are looking for an Asrock X99 board for a Broadwell-E cpu.

Then i would recommend to look at either the Asrock X99 Tachi, or X99 Fatal1ty pro gaming.

Because those 2 boards will support Broadwell-E out of the box.

However since your goal is to populate 3 graphics cards and eventualy a wifi card or what ever.

I dont think that the pci-e lane layout of the Taichi, or the X99 Fatal1ty pro gaming would suite you.

The Gigabyte X99 Ultra gaming or Phoenix Sli might suite you better.

 

 

[Dackzy]

9 hours ago, Sintezza said:

Basicly a good board.

But it does not support the Broadwell-E cpu´s out of the box.

It needs a bios update, and since Asrock does not offer a feuture to flash the bios without supported cpu installed.

You will need to ask the shop if they could flash the bios for you.

 

All Asrock X99 boards feuture an ISL implementation for the vrm aswell.

They use an ISL6379 6+1 true phase hybrid pwm for the cpu main power delivery.

6 phases being doubled to 12 for the main Vcore using ISL6611A doublers, and powered by Fairchild dual-N mostfet powerpacks.

60A inductors and 12K nichcon capacitors.

 

But if you are looking for an Asrock X99 board for a Broadwell-E cpu.

Then i would recommend to look at either the Asrock X99 Tachi, or X99 Fatal1ty pro gaming.

Because those 2 boards will support Broadwell-E out of the box.

However since your goal is to populate 3 graphics cards and eventualy a wifi card or what ever.

I dont think that the pci-e lane layout of the Taichi, or the X99 Fatal1ty pro gaming would suite you.

The Gigabyte X99 Ultra gaming or Phoenix Sli might suite you better.

 

 

I am just looking for the best board I can get. Stability is nr.1 for me

[Dackzy]

On 23/10/2016 at 10:11 PM, Sintezza said:

SHIP

Thank you for all the help I have one last question.

A guy I have talked to says that he would suggest the ASRock X99 OC Formula/3.1 and the EVGA X99 CF, because I focus more on stability than anything else, both have been updated for Broadwell-e.

[Sintezza]

9 hours ago, Dackzy said:

Thank you for all the help I have one last question.

A guy I have talked to says that he would suggest the ASRock X99 OC Formula/3.1 and the EVGA X99 CF, because I focus more on stability than anything else, both have been updated for Broadwell-e.

Basicly both of those boards dont come with a bios update out of the box.

Unless the boards you are looking at, have had a bios update at the shop.

Basicly both the EVGA CF and the Asrock OC Formula are very good boards indeed.

But like i told before the EVGA does have some annoying design flaws like ram slots with pop latches on both sides, and those ram slots are too close to the first pci-e slot.

Which would make it allmost impossible to install your memory once you allready have installed a gpu.

Basicly if dont have any plans with custom loop setups or what not.

Then those minor flaws can be lived with, since you can basicly install your ram before you install the gpu etc.

But still its pretty inconvenient.

Other then that, the Classified had some minor bios issues in the beginning.

But i suppose that those issues are allready be adressed due bios updates.

 

About the Asrock X99 OC Formula 3.1 i cannot realy think of anything that i could complain about.

Its basicly a decent board, but they dont dont come with Broadwell-E support standard out of the box.

But if you buy at a local shop, they should  definitely be able to flash the bios for you.

On the other hand, the Asrock X99 Taichi or X99 Fatal1ty pro gaming are also nice boards which do come with Broadwell-E support out of the box.

But yeah like i said earlier the Taichi and the Fatality pro gaming might not have the most ideal pci-e slot layout if you want to use 3 gpu´s.

 

On a side note, i dont know if EVGA has released a new version of the Classified board.

I have not looked at that yet.

They do have a new X99 FTW-K board.