Upgrade time! Help me choose MB

RoXQi3x · Mar 19, 2016

I intend to take my main rig to X99 and i7-5930 and 40 PCI 3.0- lanes, but need tips on motherboards .
I want the best possible folding possibilities ahead and I'm thinking particularly about PCI speeds/lanes.
One thing is what the current WU / GPUs need, but I'd like to buy a little more forward-thinking
My experience is, however, only from 28-lanes Intel, so there is a risk that I'm thinking too big.
4x 980ti same rig ?

Which Asus card should I choose?
X99-A - cheapest, manages 16x/16x/8x max
X99-DELUXE - manages 16x/16x/8x or 8x/8x/16x/ 8x
X99-WS/USB3.1 - most expensive - manages 16x/16x/16x/16x ( has PLX chip )

Someone said the 5820 + WS makes for plenty of PCI lanes, which I guess is true

WhitehawkEQ · Mar 21, 2016

You must have some deep pockets to buy any 1 of those MB's and 4 980 ti's :rofl:

how about passing some of that money my way :rofl:

JK

Nathan_P · Mar 21, 2016

If money is no object then go for the WS, failing that go with the deluxe.

Of course you could be really wild and max out its 2p brother, the Z10PE-D8, 7 PCIe 3 and watercool 7 980ti's. :drool:

RoXQi3x · Mar 21, 2016

Well, I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone

My soon 4 year folding career has almost exclusively used "craigslist" hardware, and it's path is riddled with GPU carcasses.
I wanted to go X99, and getting the expensive MB with PLX means i can go "low" on the CPU now, hoping I open up to new CPUs later.
By the way back in 2012 "lots" of people were building expensive 2P/4P rigs!

Also, I am in the process of selling off several of my 970; I do own 4x980ti as of today but they will go in two different rigs.

Nathan: Nice! But only "quad x8" PCI I see? WS is better

wingman99 · Mar 21, 2016

I would go with the X99-DELUXE you don't need the PLX chip there is only less than 1% difference that 8x to 16x brings with a GTX 980Ti.

RoXQi3x · Mar 22, 2016

That is sound advice indeed, and fully in line with my questions.

However, as I've developed from mostly cheap AMD to mostly Nvidia hardware, I have seen CPU/PCI demands go up, and I feel the next years of cards/WUs will only need more bandwith.
Also, I'ts nice to finally splurge after years of cheapo cheapo

prime81 · Mar 22, 2016

If your truely wanting to future proof, the 5930K is what you will want with PCI-E lanes. Now whether the folding will actually utilize those lanes to their design parameters depends on the motherboard as well.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/haswell-e-i7-5820k-pci-express,27507.html

RipD · Mar 26, 2016

Good to read this - I'm planning to upgrade my folding rig as well to X99. Two things I'm considering before spending on a processor now:

1. New ~~Haswell~~ Broadwell 14nm processors likely coming in the next couple of months. I would wait to see how these look. Or if buying now, I'm looking at the lowest end 2011-3 socket processor I can find to minimize loss when I upgrade.

2. Go middle of the road now and wait for Cannonlake. It will have several advantages over Haswell, but is a year+ away.

RoXQi3x · Mar 28, 2016

RiPD: That is excactly what I'm thinking - if there is some deal on a new Broadwell I might.
I need this rig three weeks ago

Prime 81: It is my understanding is that a "cut down" 5820 + PLX chip will give even more PCI lanes than 5830 with standard MB - even though 4x "next gen high end GPU that needs 16x" is some time off

wingman99 · Mar 28, 2016

X99 PCI-E lanes explanation.

Nathan_P · Mar 31, 2016

@Pcie 3.0 speeds x8 won't make a difference to performance, you will start to see a drop at 2.0 x8 and it gets worse from there

RoXQi3x · Mar 31, 2016

Well that's a good explaination for gamers on a non-PLX motherboard (did actually watch that video when it was new

)
I have confidence in the PCI situation after some more googling, the two PLXes do all the difference!

wingman99 · Mar 31, 2016

RoXQi3x said:
Well that's a good explaination for gamers on a non-PLX motherboard (did actually watch that video when it was new )
I have confidence in the PCI situation after some more googling, the two PLXes do all the difference!
View attachment 177614

Well if there is no difference for 8X-16X, PLX wont do jack for 4 Graphic cards.

prime81 · Mar 31, 2016

My main concern was the 5820k vs the 5930k. 28 lanes vs 40 lanes with cpu specs. Now whether folding is going to populate and utilize those lanes is something I know nothing about. The MB and PLX chips was not in my thinking. I personally run a Rampage Extreme V, I've used Deluxe, sabertooth and other ASUS boards and the ROG line seems to have the highest build quality and longevity. For reference I had an old i7 950 Rampage II Extreme mobo and it is still in perfect working order and it was originally bought in 2009.

All depends on your budget, you do for the most part get what you pay for.

RipD · Apr 8, 2016

RoXQi3x said:
RiPD: That is excactly what I'm thinking - if there is some deal on a new Broadwell I might.
I need this rig three weeks ago

Prime 81: It is my understanding is that a "cut down" 5820 + PLX chip will give even more PCI lanes than 5830 with standard MB - even though 4x "next gen high end GPU that needs 16x" is some time off

Now rethinking my approach. Was sure I wanted to go X99. But since this will mostly be a folding and general purpose PC, and non-gaming, I'm reconsidering a 6700K. X99 gets me compatibilty for Broadwell-E and 10 core goodness. But the only thing I'd use 10 cores for is folding. I'd be better with another GTX 970 than a 10-core CPU. So.... as much as my ego and build history tell me to go X99, my more evolved left brain is telling me to go 6700K.

Any reason to not go 6700K for a folding rig? I really want more PCIe slots and care less about CPU.

wingman99 · Apr 8, 2016

You can get just as many PCI-E slots with the Z170, you wont have any trouble with using all the slots with a i7 6700k.

RipD · Apr 8, 2016

wingman99 said:
You can get just as many PCI-E slots with the Z170, you wont have any trouble with using all the slots with a i7 6700k.

Right. Plenty of 3 and 4 slot MBs. Fewer PCIe lanes - doesn't seem to matter for folding. Only downside may be fewer processor upgrades with 1151 socket. Not sure that's the case, and not sure it matters much.

wingman99 · Apr 8, 2016

I would think you would have the same luck for CPU upgrades with the X99. If you were using video cards you can't use all the bandwidth with the X99.

Nathan_P · Apr 9, 2016

If you are going socket 1151 you won't need a 6700k, I'm looking to pull back on power usage for the rig itself - no need for a high end cpu if its just feeding a couple of gfx cards so I'm in the process of building a haswell rig with a low end E3-1220L cpu, a WS mobo that will do either 2 slots at x16 or 4 at x8 and moving my gpu's out of my current 2p. That way I should cut back on none folding power consumption by about 50-60w.

Expect a build thread in a few weeks when I've got all the parts together.

RipD · Apr 9, 2016

Nathan_P said:
If you are going socket 1151 you won't need a 6700k, I'm looking to pull back on power usage for the rig itself - no need for a high end cpu if its just feeding a couple of gfx cards so I'm in the process of building a haswell rig with a low end E3-1220L cpu, a WS mobo that will do either 2 slots at x16 or 4 at x8 and moving my gpu's out of my current 2p. That way I should cut back on none folding power consumption by about 50-60w.

Interesting option. I haven't run anything less than 4 cores for 8 years or so - I'd have to think about the implications of that if I'm folding 3-4 cards and still using the machine as a general purpose PC.

Upgrade time! Help me choose MB

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