Suggest Motherboard for 3930K 2011 CPU

[pox67]

Hey All, I am looking to replace my Gigabyte X79 G1.Assassin.2 motherboard. It is a giant piece of junk. It regularly takes 10 minutes of fiddling to get it started through boot loops and "losing" the second video card so SLI is broken. I have had enough!

All the parts for this build were used with an Asus P9X79 Pro board so I know it isn't the components.

There seem to be a lot of issues with motherboards for the 2011 CPUs and I don't want another dud.
Can people recommend boards that are working well with SLI and the components in my sig.

I could just go with another Asus all though P9X79 Pro had a few BIOS hiccups and had to be RMAd due to faulty power connector (specifically it melted, no overclocking done). The P9X79 Pro is now in my home server and performing adequately.

I am hearing good things about the ASROCK boards, any issues to report?
How about Intel boards?

[Poppy Ann]

Hey All, I am looking to replace my Gigabyte X79 G1.Assassin.2 motherboard. It is a giant piece of junk. It regularly takes 10 minutes of fiddling to get it started through boot loops and "losing" the second video card so SLI is broken. I have had enough!

All the parts for this build were used with an Asus P9X79 Pro board so I know it isn't the components.

There seem to be a lot of issues with motherboards for the 2011 CPUs and I don't want another dud.
Can people recommend boards that are working well with SLI and the components in my sig.

I could just go with another Asus all though P9X79 Pro had a few BIOS hiccups and had to be RMAd due to faulty power connector (specifically it melted, no overclocking done). The P9X79 Pro is now in my home server and performing adequately.

I am hearing good things about the ASROCK boards, any issues to report?
How about Intel boards?

hi i have the ASRock board X79 Extreme 4-M and i am using the I7-3820 processor and i have had all sorts of problems, after having it running with no problems it suddenly would not carry out the POST and gave a error code that the ide drive was missing which is funny as it does not have a connector for the ide drive and as it hung before any video was powered up i could not get into the bios settings to see what the problem was i returned it to Ebuyer and they said they tested it and there was no problem with it so i returned everything processor ram video-card and motherboard again and asked them to test the lot in the end they said that everything was faulty and replaced the lot then after it running for a couple of days it stopped again again before the video was installed and came up with a different error code so i returned the whole lot again and they replaced the motherboard for the second time and at the moment it has carried on working, i have not altered any of the bios settings at any time and just hope it continues to run as it is, from power on to running takes it around 15 seconds if i shut it down and around 5 to 7 seconds if i just put it in hibernation mode i fitted a SSD 120 drive as the boot drive and it is great when i put it in hibernate mode and disconnect the power it still boots in the same time which is great when it is working but i have to admit every time i go to power it up i hold my breath wondering if it will boot or hang again i have no faith in this board even if it has been working for a couple of months now, i would not advise anyone to buy it unless you have lots of spare parts to use to test if it is the board or something else causing the problem, it sounds like most of the LGA 2011 mother boards are having problems at the moment.
good luck with finding a board that works all of the time, regards Poppy Ann

[InspectahACE]

Expensive as it is, I've had no issues with my Rampage IV Extreme. I've had hokey Gigabyte boards so I gave up on them long ago, even when I built a system with an using a Gigabyte X58 board I had way too many problems. I keep reading about issues with ASRock boards in general so I would stay away from them too. I would stick with ASUS honestly. Intel boards are generally decent as well.

[pox67]

Thanks for the responses Poppy Ann and InspectahACE.

I'll give Asrock a miss, can't stand those whiny little fans on motherboards.

I had great luck with Gigabyte boards up until this X79 one. Two computers in the house are still running with them.

I think I will go with the straight Asus P9X79 or the P9X79 LE. I want to put as little money in to this platform as possible now and hope a new round of boards come out later.

[kzinti1]

I was about to ask the exact same question. I bought an i7-3930K the 1st day it became available and have yet to find a motherboard to use it in.
I've been through a heap of reviews by both review sites and customer reviews and am still at a loss as to which would be the best.
I really don't need all the features, but I guess that I'll be choosing the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme since the Forums I've asked this in have mainly suggested it above all the others.
Does this board have any quirks that I should know about? What would be the fastest memory I should buy? I bought a quad set of Corsair Platinum, DDR-2666, which I've found is way too fast for the chipsets of these boards. I'll be using this memory in an Asrock OC Formula board instead with an i7-3770K.
Or, would my DDR-2666 memory downclock smoothly to the 2400 OC standard of an X79 board or would that just be a waste of excellent memory and I should just buy another, slower set of memory for the X79 system?
I have a very nice collection of videocards to use with the ASUS board. From a pair of MSI GTX 580 Lightning II's to a pair of EVGA GTX 590's, a pair of EVGA GTX 680's and an EVGA GTX 690. I already have aftermarket waterblocks for the EVGA cards and the MSI's run perfectly cool on stock air.
I already have cpu blocks for both cpu's and only need a chipset block for the ASUS board for a full dual loop system.
Any recommendations and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I almost forgot to mention that I'll be overclocking as high as possible while keeping it stable and mostly for gaming. I'm also considering 3D modeling as another hobby.

[pox67]

kzinti1, my suggestion (and what I am going to do) is buy the cheapest Asus board and hope that Ivy B-E comes with a better chipset. Except you don't seem to be hurting for money, if that is the case then jump on the RIVE.
I personally don't think any X79 is worth that money though. Intel is very lucky that AMD has nothing to compete with in this sector as they would be badly punished for such a terrible chipset.

[kzinti1]

Thanks. I believe you're right. I waited and waited for a really top notch mobo for this cpu and one has yet to appear. I'm really disappointed.
I'm not exactly rich, but I guess I'll give the RIVE a try. I've found out, over the years, that you may as well go with higher priced components. This time, with the cpu, I burned myself pretty good.
I'm skipping the watercooling system this time, though. I have a new Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 I've been wanting to try out. Weird story there. I bought it from Aquatuning US since it was the only US site advertising them. It was exported from one of their stores in Germany directly to me. No extra shipping charge and it arrived 5 days after I ordered it by UPS Express. I tracked it all the way. If I'd known it wasn't in-stock, over here, I would've never ordered it. It's hard to look at the thing. It's so shiny black, your eyes just seem to slide off of it. I found out later, of course, that the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus cooled better at about 1/3rd the price. The Dark Rock is prettier, but not $60 worth.

[kzinti1]

Is the RIVE already EOL? I can't find any in stock.
Also, when I read the TT review, there was some mention, but no explanation as to why, that the OC Key doesn't work with a 30" monitor:
"So, OC Key didn't get off to a good start with me as I stomped around my office all annoyed by the fact that it didn't work on my 30" monitor. I knew it wouldn't because of the Dual-Link connectivity, but it didn't make it any less annoying when it came to trying it out."
No specific monitor was stated, but I use a Dell U3011, which has 2 x DVI-D connectors. Any idea what the author was talking about?

[pox67]

Update: I purchased an Asus P9x79 LE. Running SLi perfectly and my RAM at the rated 2133mhz. Comes out of sleep 100% of the time. Very pleased!