Thor the indecisive

[ThorBuildingLegos]

Not interested? Scroll down, you'll get the gist.

 

Hey there. First time poster and reader I guess. I'm glad to join any community

of hardware and computer enthusiasts. But, to the point: I'm... very indecisive.

It can take me 30 to 45 minutes inside of a convenience store just getting the

essentials and dinner. As such I spent an entire week I had off investigating

what hardware I wanted for my new computer. Something with Haswell, an ATI
graphics card for Mantle (yeah, I wanna see the difference for my self),

supporting native SLI/CrossFire (in case I want to experiment with that at
some point), to run OC ram in case that makes a difference in some of my

work. It took me some time to actually arrive at any of these conclusions

and I don't make them likely. I am a computer fanatic and to some extent

a gamer. I am in no way a benchmarker or overclocker, but I wouldn't mind

giving the ol' rig an extra boost when the time comes - or maybe feed my

curiosity when I've assembled the rig. But I have a problem... a first world

problem, a luxury problem... but a problem none the less.

 

My problem is this: I've ordered two motherboards. Yes. After ordering the

first I could not leave "well enough" alone. I had initially bought the MSI Z87

XPower (with all it's fixins and trimins'). I wanted it because the case I bought

was big enough for XL-ATX, and the bigger you go the more features you can

expect. But then after watching this I realised Linus had suggested exactly the

same MB a friend of mine suggested, a guy who loves eSports and works at a

computer retail store. Hey, if both Linus and he agrees, why not order the Asus

Maximus VI Extreme? It's got native SLI/CrossFire (which if I understand
correctly is much better than... the alternative -- I'm completely new to this).

It doesn't have the fancy audio, which could be a detriment to my surround

system, buuuut then again the Maximus does have plenty of slots and space
so I could get more out of that MB. The idea is getting a motherboard that

lasts and can be extended upon. As such bother motherboards fit the bill,

though the Maximus might have a better motherboard design in regards to

spacing between slots and all.

 

Again I'm completely new to this, so how cooling works on either motherboard,

what they are capable of, what limitations each version has, not only by comparing

features, but also what can actually be done with it. So... yeah. I am clueless. I'm

also incredibly bad at making decisions which makes this a pain for me.

 

Want do decide for me? Which should it be? I already have to return one and
I will get my money back for that particular motherboard.

 

The MSI Z87 Xpower or Asus Maximus VI Extreme? Please bregail me with why

one is better than the other so I can be even more confused.

 

Also, here are the components I've (finally) decided to go with on my rig:

• FRACTAL DESIGN Define XL R2 Black Pearl (w/ 3 fans)
• CORSAIR HX 850W PSU
   
• Intel Core i7-4770K
• Silverstone Tundra TD03
   
• 4X 4GB (16GB) Kingston HyperX Memory
• ASUS Radeon R9 280X 3GB (because... Asus)
• SAMSUNG SSD 840 EVO 250GB Basic
• SEAGATE Barracuda® 3TB

Whats that, you have an improvement to suggest? LALALALA! I can't hear you!
LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA!

[WoodenMarker]

Stick with whichever looks better to you.

[ThorBuildingLegos]

That's the problem... I'm not sure which one looks best.

EDIT: removed the long winded post that was a complete misunderstanding of the question...

Edited October 16, 2013 by ThorBuildingLegos

[ThorBuildingLegos]

And the answer is Asus. Both the Maximus and XPower use PLX chips, when not using just one

dedicated PCIe slot. Between the two they are both pretty good builds for newbies. Not your

"o'la'la" builder. So it really is about taste. I ended up with Asus because it had 5GHz WiFi
(using wifi on a gaming rig - fuck me, right?) rather than MSI's improved audio. That's about

the size of it...

 

Both mobos support SLI/CrossFire on either 16x/16x(8x), 8x,16x,8x or 8x,8x,8x,8x, both

have the Z87 chipset and LGA1150 socket, quality ethernet chips (both killer and gigabyte),

their own proprietary cooling ribs and a headscratching amount of I/O and leeway for OC'ing.

Ofc there are differences, different strategies, chipsets... the huge friggin' OC panel that comes

with the Asus package, which can also be implemented in to the drive of the PC case... but they

are pretty much the same in idea and promotion. I still don't know if there is a difference in the

PLX implamentation of either boards and if this factor any effect on bandwidth or latency (when

the slots are used as specified).

 

A bit expensive, but you're basically buying the "don't ask me, I don't want to know" package,

the AIO package, the "I could care less, JUST GIVE ME MY DANG RIG" package.

 

Asus mobo, Asus GFX (X280 OC so to speak). Let's see how that turns out.