Best X99 motherboard for my workstation and gaming?

[Melodist]

Hello there,

 

What is the best X99 motherboard for my workstation? I've seen the Sabertooth, regular X99 II and the Deluxe?, Rampage V and Strix: but which one should I pick?

 

At first, I would've picked the X99 II since I don't need the Deluxe's extras, however, it looks like it got more heatsink connectivity? which is better and worth the extra I pay? But then I've watched the Tek-Syndicate Video and the guy talked about inferior components quality compared with other Asus X99 motherboards?

 

Well, for now I'm stuck and really don't know what to pick.

 

I want to use this PC mainly for professional applications such as Avid's Pro Tools and gaming (1080). CPU-wise I'll go either with the i7 6-core or 8-core broadwell chips which I'd like to overclock to about 4 GHz with Corsairs's watercooling solution.

 

What are your thoughts? Can you help me pick the right motherboard for the job?

 

Mike

[airdeano]

welcome to the Linus Tech Tips forums!

 

the least expensive is the A-series. supports as much overclocking as the strix and deluxe.

do you need dual NIC support? do you need the RGB features?

 

determine what features you have to have and features that are optional, then determine via price which fills the bill.

[GSTARR]

I have the deluxe  Not sure about inferior quality it works and looks amazing

[Melodist]

1 minute ago, GSTARR said:

I have the deluxe  Not sure about inferior quality it works and looks amazing

 

I would rather pick the A, at least what I've intended. Is the Deluxe better quality-wise or just more features?

 

12 minutes ago, airdeano said:

welcome to the Linus Tech Tips forums!

 

the least expensive is the A-series. supports as much overclocking as the strix and deluxe.

do you need dual NIC support? do you need the RGB features?

 

determine what features you have to have and features that are optional, then determine via price which fills the bill.

 

 

Dual NIC would be nice but one would suffice, RGB is not at all and for me, it is rather about the built quality because the deluxe looks like it has more heatsinks which is necessary? How about the TUF series such as the sabertooth?

[airdeano]

you can save (depending on region) on just the plain A. unless your plans include 1.4v+ for overclocking, the beefier heatsinks are overkill and a non-issue for 1.35v or less. the TUF is essentially the pro with the plastical mobo cover and dust covers. the 40mm fan is not a quiet help. more aesthetics than functionality.

[Melodist]

2 hours ago, airdeano said:

you can save (depending on region) on just the plain A. unless your plans include 1.4v+ for overclocking, the beefier heatsinks are overkill and a non-issue for 1.35v or less. the TUF is essentially the pro with the plastical mobo cover and dust covers. the 40mm fan is not a quiet help. more aesthetics than functionality.

 

 

 

 

So aiming for a stable 5-year or so long 4.2 GHz operation level doesn't require the Deluxe? The thing that puts me off the most, is it's got the same 3 years limited warranty as the A board.

 

And what about this motherboard: Asus X99-WS/IPMI

[Sintezza]

In my opinnion the Asus X99 ROG strix is a very nice balanced board as far as price to feutures goes.

It would be my pick of the bunge wenn it comes to Asus X99 boards.

This board basicly has all the rog feutures that you would need as a gamer, and next to that it also comes with bluetooth and wifi.

 

 

 

[Melodist]

2 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

In my opinnion the Asus X99 ROG strix is a very nice balanced board as far as price to feutures goes.

It would be my pick of the bunge wenn it comes to Asus X99 boards.

 

 

 

What about the workstation grade motherboards? The question for me is, whether it is worth paying extra for example for their workstation motherboards because people mostly have average boards that last for more than 6 years or so.

[Sintezza]

3 minutes ago, Melodist said:

 

What about the workstation grade motherboards?

They are basicly good.

As far as the vrm implementation on Asus X99 boards are concerned.

They are all pretty decent, and feuture a 8 true phase fully digital implementation from IR.

I´m not sure if you would realy benefit from buying the Asus X99-E WS that much.

Unless you realy need allot of pci-e connectivity.

[Melodist]

24 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

They are basicly good.

As far as the vrm implementation on Asus X99 boards are concerned.

They are all pretty decent, and feuture a 8 true phase fully digital implementation from IR.

I´m not sure if you would realy benefit from buying the Asus X99-E WS that much.

Unless you realy need allot of pci-e connectivity.

 

Not really, I'd only need a quality-built motherboard that lasts at least 5 years... i'm an audio guy but i dunno if I'd benefit from the workstation series?

[GSTARR]

6 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Not really, I'd only need a quality-built motherboard that lasts at least 5 years... i'm an audio guy but i dunno if I'd benefit from the workstation series?

The x99 deluxe has good audio, that's one of the things I noticed. I want to say it has more features (in response to your earlier question), however the truth is that it has so many that I don't utilize, both because it's my first build, and because some are impractical for gaming which is what I mainly use this for now as due to time constraints I no longer work on edits because it was purely a hobby.

 

You say you're an audio guy, I say audio is one of the things they really pushed when they advertise this board. I also say don't trust me alone

[Melodist]

45 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

The x99 deluxe has good audio, that's one of the things I noticed. I want to say it has more features (in response to your earlier question), however the truth is that it has so many that I don't utilize, both because it's my first build, and because some are impractical for gaming which is what I mainly use this for now as due to time constraints I no longer work on edits because it was purely a hobby.

 

You say you're an audio guy, I say audio is one of the things they really pushed when they advertise this board. I also say don't trust me alone

 

 

Yes, post audio processing (mixing studio records). I'm currently making the transition from Mac to Windows again.

 

Well, the sabertooth seems promising but it is a generation behind and hasn't been updated...

[Melodist]

Is the Sabertooth X99 essentially the same chip and offers the same feature set such as the X99 II? But why does II allow for 128 GB ram if the chipset hasn't changed? 

 

Also, all these specs on the sabetooth, don't the other series such as the x99 deluxe offer the same specs, but aren't mentioned on the page? I mean, I noticed it on a review, which indicated the x99 deluxe ii had the same 10k pots, argh, this is all so confusing, probably intended by Asus to sell all their different products:

 

 

Do the ROG boards in general, the pricier ones, have better quality components than the deluxe ii? or is it all the same?

 

I think I have to call Asus to clear things up... because they are vague as f*

 

And DDR4-3000 memory, is it even useful to equip that kind of memory when CPUs such as the new 6800k  only support anyways? So I'm probably stuck with the sabertooth x99 for the future? When X99 socket cpus are released that support DDR4-3000 memory? So the sabertooth would only cater for this generation (6800, 6850k et cetera)?

[Sintezza]

The Deluxe and the ROG boards are basicly both aimed at a diffrent spectrum of the market.

The Deluxe II is Asus top of the line mainstream board, and is more geared to professional users and content creators.

On which the ROG boards are more aimed for gamers and enthusiast overclockers.

In my opinnion the ROG boards have better audio.

Allthough the Crystal sound implementation on the Deluxe II is also nice.

 

Asus recently released a new Asus rampage 5 Extreme ED10 board.

This board is rediculous expensive, but it also comes with allot of extra feutures like a sepperate supreme FX frontpanel headphone amp, decent onboard wifi and what not.

And its pretty much the best motherboard there is in terms of vrm implementation aswell.

However like i said its rediculous expensive.

 

I personaly dont realy see that much reasons to look at the older gen X99 boards in general, with the release of the newer Broadwell-e refresh motherboards out there.

 

The Deluxe II is definitely a great board.

But again it just highly depends if you realy need its feutures or not.

 

- Asus rampage 5 Extreme ED10

- Asus X99 Deluxe II

- Asus X99 ROG strix.

- Asus X99-A II

 

I would personaly look at those 4 boards.

 

As far as the Sabertooth is concerned, its more marketing then anything else.

The Sabertooth is not much more then a X99-A 3.1 with a plastic cover and a shit ton of thermal sensors.

 

[Melodist]

22 hours ago, airdeano said:

welcome to the Linus Tech Tips forums!

 

the least expensive is the A-series. supports as much overclocking as the strix and deluxe.

do you need dual NIC support? do you need the RGB features?

 

determine what features you have to have and features that are optional, then determine via price which fills the bill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I understand and utterly agree with your choice, which would've been funny enough mine as well, but I'm profoundly concerned about the quality of my mainboard of choice and that's why I've held out and deliberated for long, because otherwise I would've picked the the X99 II right away. 

 

The Asus rampage 5 Extreme does speak to me in terms of build quality but not so much with its feature-set, given the fact that I probably won't be using the board for half of its candies. I wish there is an X99 motherboard with superb build quality without too many unnecessary features. I do however appreciate an extended support for overclocking, just again more in terms of build quality. Uargh, I've even called the Asus hotline but nobody was capable enough to answer my questions. They've advised me to call Taiwan LOL, talking about not knowing what product you're selling to your customer base.