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Sabertooth X79 or P9X79LE ?

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PolePosition

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2012
Location
Louisiana
Hello, this is my first thread and post here. I was trying to reply in a recent thread here but kept getting the login screen.

Anyway, I'm determined to build on the LGA 2011 platform, and undecided on going with a board that features the best cooling, durability, warranty vs one that features more features, performance, and lower price.

Thanks for your responses.
 
I'd look at the ASRock Extreme series as well.

Truth be told, any ASUS/Gigabyte/ASRock board is fine. ASUS tends to be a little more on the expensive side compared to the other two though.

How high end of a motherboard you need, in most cases, is directly linked to how much you want to push your overclocks.
 
I see a lot of promotion going on for ASRock, which is former ASUS engineers, but ASRock's boards are actually built by ECS, a low end motherboard mfg like Jetway. If you're buying ASRock, you might as well buy ECS and save even more when price is the only concern.

Regarding overclocks, I know this is a forum site totally driven to overclocking, but its something I personally have never done, and probably won't be doing much of it except on an experimental basis or occasional gaming use. Some of my computing tasks will be modeling in 3D environments, video editing, and mostly office apps/ internet surfing. I know I could easily get by with Socket 1155, but unlike most people here, I don't build new rigs every year, and don't want to find myself obsolete in 2 years time, when 64GBs of RAM is a necessity just to surf the internet.
 
I see a lot of promotion going on for ASRock, which is former ASUS engineers, but ASRock's boards are actually built by ECS, a low end motherboard mfg like Jetway. If you're buying ASRock, you might as well buy ECS and save even more when price is the only concern.

Regarding overclocks, I know this is a forum site totally driven to overclocking, but its something I personally have never done, and probably won't be doing much of it except on an experimental basis or occasional gaming use. Some of my computing tasks will be modeling in 3D environments, video editing, and mostly office apps/ internet surfing. I know I could easily get by with Socket 1155, but unlike most people here, I don't build new rigs every year, and don't want to find myself obsolete in 2 years time, when 64GBs of RAM is a necessity just to surf the internet.

Personally, I don't care who actually built the board. If I know that tons of people, reviewers and consumers a like, across this website and others use ASRock boards and 90%+ of them now consider them to be a top tier manufacturer out of experience, I'm going to go with that.

Also, I built my rig over three years ago and haven't made any significant upgrades since then and I can still play modern games lag free.

That being said, socket 2011 is the right choice for you, but not for the reasons you mentioned. 3D modeling and video editing are both highly threaded applications that will see significant benefits from as many threads (cores) as you'll throw at it.

If you're not overclocking much, you don't need a high end board at all. I like the ASRock Extreme6 as getting 8 RAM slots is an excellent feature at that price point. Other than that, you can look at the Gigabyte UD3H or a lower end ASRock. ASUS just can't match price/performance ratio.
 
If you hate ASUS that much, why even engage the thread? You're a loyal ASRock user and sponsor, I get that as well as the little dog (ASRock)always trying to knock off the big dog (ASUS) from the porch, but no other board on the market can match the performance, durability, and reliability as the ASUS P9X79 (The real deal). Its a simple fact that is well known by those who know motherboards and have been in the industry the longest (from a consumer desktop level perspective). Speaking performance ONLY, not "bang for buck". Thats why you get what you pay for, no more, no less. Pricing consideration is only for the poor or those who can't step up in the game. Also, this would be my first ASUS board, so its not like they have me in their back pocket.
A LOT of people have been disappointed in ASUS boards recently, simple because of the DOAs and POST issues, most of which are user induced for mishandling (some in youtube videos), which shouldn't reflect on the product because of incompetant builders. Needless to say, it does.
Second to ASUS I would say Gigabyte is quite a good brand among enthusiast and gaining market share more each day. Excellent good quality product with great reviews. I'm seeing a LOT of famous techs building with those boards, for obvious reasons.

Overall though, I got to say the Sabertooth is the best looking board on the market with their color scheme, which has a military look, but looks don't really matter much to anyone since the board is concealed in most cases, unless there's a side window.

I didn't come here to get into a debate, but rather find out which of MY 2 selections would be the better choice based on MY needs. I surely won't be sold on ASRock just because 1 out of 100 works for 2 years.

Its not a question of need, but rather versatility or the option to overclock should I desire. Buy a low end board and you're surely confined to office apps only.

I'm hoping I'll get some other responses here to my specific question. Surely there are more than 2 people on this forum.
 
I have never owned an ASRock board. I have owned ASUS boards. I make an effort to keep my personal experiences out of recommendations, and base the on data, statistics, market trends and reviews. I'm a firm believer that, in an educated community like OCF, the majority opinion is usually the correct one.

I don't disagree with anything you said. There is no doubt that ASUS is probably best motherboard manufacturer, bar none. There is also no doubt that most people who buy their boards are probably overspending on a overkill boars for your needs.

Speaking performance ONLY, not "bang for buck". Thats why you get what you pay for, no more, no less. Pricing consideration is only for the poor or those who can't step up in the game.

This is a, IMO, stupid sentiment that will cause you to spend a lot more money then you need to. Most here at OCF always consider price/performance. That's why i5s are often recommended over i7s. The most recommended 1155 board is $125. If you need to spend more to be emotionally satisfied with your purchase, be my guest.

I surely won't be sold on ASRock just because 1 out of 100 works for 2 years.

Bad exaggerations aren't helping.

Its not a question of need, but rather versatility or the option to overclock should I desire. Buy a low end board and you're surely confined to office apps only.

You're buying an enthusiast platform. Even the cheapest boards can OC fairly well.

If you want the best, go buy the best. I'm just going to repeat: the quality of the motherboard you buy is directly linked to how far you want to overclock. Even on a low end board, if you're on air or all-in-one liquid cooling, you are going to be thermal limited well before you are motherboard limited.

I'm also going to be a bit harsh on people who bad mouth a respectable company. Like I said before, in an educated community, the majority is almost always right, and the majority considers ASRock to be a leading motherboard manufacturer.
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Put it this way. Say I built your computer and put it in a black box. If I put an ASRock or an ASUS or a Gigabyte in there, would you ever know the difference? The point of researching builds is to get the price of your computer down far enough without making a perceptible difference, or making a perceptible difference that is worth the decrease in cost.
 
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My apologies if I appeared to "bad mouth" ASRock, and my opinion was based on what I've been reading on various websites.

I just took a look at the ASRock Extreme 6, and it really is a good looking board made of exceptional quality parts. The only downside I see is that while you get the high end board for much less than the competitors, you also get no PCI e 2.0 x16 support. It either PCI 3.0 or PCI, leaving one to fork out $500+ for a decent VGA card. Maybe I stand to be corrected on this? That would leave me spending about the same using ASUS with a PCI 2.0 x16 VGA card?

You're very right on me not knowing what is in the box if someone else built it. My former desktop and notebook are both Sony Vaio, and there's no telling what is inside, but both have served me well and been very reliable. I guess its been my faith in the brand over the decades. This build is however custom, and one I've always wanted to pursue. I've spent a month reading up and consulting trying to make a decision. I'm going LGA 2011 because (A) I can, and (B) I want to. Heck, you can't even buy a name brand (Dell,Gateway, etc) computer with LGA 2011. Its simply just not on the market, or maybe I'm wrong, but all I see is i3, i5, and i7 2600. My perspective is, an over-production of that technology needing to pushed off onto the consumer before 2011s become mainstream. This can keep people upgrading their systems every year. Who knows? I do know that "demand" drives the "price" downward, which is why 2011 is so expensive while 1155 is dirt cheap.

You could put OEM muscle cars (1155) in NASCAR, but that wouldn't be near as much fun to watch as the current ones (2011)
 
Intel never plans or tries to make their enthusiast platform mainstream. Their profit margins are so ridiculously high that they only need to sell a few. Volume sales are more meant for their performance (LGA 1155) line. They have maintained two separate lines of CPUs like this for a while, it's just their business model. Ivy Bridge E will come out to replace Sandy Bridge E on 2011 and Haswell will replace Ivy Bridge on 1155. Both remain concurrent; you even get the newer architecture on 1155. 2011 is for people who need ridiculous amounts of RAM, need a hexacore, or "just cause".

I don't understand what you mean about the the PCIe cards. It's forwards and backwards compatible and makes no difference performance wise. 2.0 cards work in 3.0 and vice versa. 2.0 lanes are only half the bandwidth of a 3.0 lane, but current video cards are the speed of PCIe 1.0 x16 = 2.0 x8 = 3.0 x4.
 
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ok, i don't know too much about the PCI 3.0/2.0/1.0 and just thought one had to use a particular card for a particular slot. I plan to go with a PCI 2.0 card, so I have to be certain it will work. Thanks for clarifying that for me.

Would it be fair to say that your name brand computers all use Intel boards/components?
This is something that companies like Dell, Gateway, HP, Sony, etc don't disclose. Or perhaps they manufacture their own boards and just use Intel chipsets?
 
Depends. That's what ASRock was initially (AFAIK), ASUS' OEM division before they split. Pretty sure ASUS now uses slightly tweaked versions of their retail boards in their own computers. I I know Foxconn makes a lot of OEM motherboards (they make all of the sockets for Intel motherboards).
 
So out of the three (ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock) which high end board would you say;
1) Runs the coolest for lasting reliability
2) Is easiest to precision tune for overclocking
3) Provides the easiest solution for building/connecting within the case.

Granted, no one board will probably provide all of the above, with one board having better characteristics in one area than the other, but my concerns would be in that order.
Thanks for your feedback and help
 
i would go for the x79 sabertooth ive had it for a little over a month now and it runs great and has fantastic bios(uefi) rock solid as they say and is a great overclocker with tons of options and the benefit of all the on-board censors top quality mil spec components and a 5 year warranty.

myself after spending two month researching what to buy there really wasn't any debate when i was ready to order it all.
 
So out of the three (ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock) which high end board would you say;
1) Runs the coolest for lasting reliability
2) Is easiest to precision tune for overclocking
3) Provides the easiest solution for building/connecting within the case.

Granted, no one board will probably provide all of the above, with one board having better characteristics in one area than the other, but my concerns would be in that order.
Thanks for your feedback and help

The motherboard, as long as it's not a dud, should last more than you care to keep it for. 3 is the same for all motherboards period, as they're built to a specific standard (The ATX standard to keep cases, motherboards, and power supplies compatible).

#2 is more BIOS layout, and each person has different preferences. Like I mentioned before, ASUS is a step above everyone else, but costs more. Gigabyte is solid across the board. ASRock beats both at the low end, but I don't think their high end board can really compete with a Gigabyte UD7 or ASUS ROG board. Midrange is really just up for grabs. I'm sure that, no matter what board you pick, you'll be happy with.

The Sabertooth is a good board and comes with a great warranty, but the TUF jacket is more of a marketing thing than anything else.

EDIT: Looks like they ditched the jacket on X79, never mind.
 
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The Sabertooth is a good board and comes with a great warranty, but the TUF jacket is more of a marketing thing than anything else.

Does that mean those "TUFF" caps, chokes, and MOFFSETS are of no better quality than say the ones on the P9X79PRO or Gigabyte's X79 UD3 ?

I really like those 24 carat gold caps on the ASRock Extreme 6. Down the road when its time to upgrade, the gold can be salvaged and sold at one of those "We buy gold" shops.
 
i would go for the x79 sabertooth ive had it for a little over a month now and it runs great and has fantastic bios(uefi) rock solid as they say and is a great overclocker with tons of options and the benefit of all the on-board censors top quality mil spec components and a 5 year warranty.

myself after spending two month researching what to buy there really wasn't any debate when i was ready to order it all.

Thanks, thats been one of my top choices throughout this venture, considering the overall construction of the board w/ quality components/cooling/durability plus the favorable reviews where few have had any issues. The limited RAM speed selection is sorta disappointing, but hey, it's 2011, so should be fast enough and less worry about overheating the sticks. The board seems to pair well with the i7 3820 too, which is the cpu I'm going with.
 
Wait, why are you getting LGA2011 but only a 3820? The 3820 is virtually the same CPU as the 2600K/2700K...the whole point of 2011 is being able to run the hexacores (mainly the 3930K).

I wasn't talking about those caps and stuff...though I doubt there hugely different from the P8X79 Pro. On some of the other Sabertooth boards, the entire PCB was covered in one giant heatsink/jacket thing, they called the TUF jacket.
asus-sabertooth-p67-tactical-vest,J-Y-268990-13.jpg
 
Thanks, thats been one of my top choices throughout this venture, considering the overall construction of the board w/ quality components/cooling/durability plus the favorable reviews where few have had any issues. The limited RAM speed selection is sorta disappointing, but hey, it's 2011, so should be fast enough and less worry about overheating the sticks. The board seems to pair well with the i7 3820 too, which is the cpu I'm going with.
if you look at there qualified vendors list it actually supports all ram speeds for some reason newegg and some other shops only show it going up to 1866 no idea why.
The parts truly are better for example there chokes:
“Ferrite Choke”, is a made of a compound of various types of metal instead standard iron, enables the support of up to a massive 50A of rated current, much higher than conventional components"

not that it would matter to most people but i like to have a system last as long as i need it to without having to spend more money down the road to replace parts,tho i typically replace my whole system every two years and most motherboards that are built well will do that but i like to be on the safe side,my old systems usualy get passed down to the family got gaming.

you getting the 3820 so you can get on the lga2011 cheaper with plans of getting a ivy-e cpu for it later like me?
 
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Wait, why are you getting LGA2011 but only a 3820? The 3820 is virtually the same CPU as the 2600K/2700K...the whole point of 2011 is being able to run the hexacores (mainly the 3930K).

That much is true strickly from cpu cores/speed for NOW, but the whole idea of going LGA 2011 is upgrade POTENTIAL, unlike with 1155 where you're stuck in a bottleneck with limited RAM and cpu upgrades. You see, somewhere down the road, when 3930 prices drop, it will be MUCH more less expensive and time consuming to switch a cpu and flash the BIOS as opposed to stripping the case and starting from scratch. Still, I do believe quad channel memory is better than dual channel, regardless of the cpu. I'm just not willing for fork out $600 for a cpu.

Sure, 64GB of RAM at this time is really unnecessary and a waste of money spent, which is why I'll be using 32GB on 4 sticks in a quad channel. The need for more RAM is simple to calculate given how much the demands have increased over the past 5 years and how that increase gets multiplied with each approaching year. In 5 years, 64GB will be mainstream if I had to guess.

Regarding the "TUFF" jacket, I would actually rather have it than not since it helps cut down on dust bunnies collecting in unused slots and around sensitive components, but I can live without it having a nice case with air filters.
 
if you look at there qualified vendors list it actually supports all ram speeds for some reason newegg and some other shops only show it going up to 1866 no idea why.

not that it would matter to most people but i like to have a system last as long as i need it to without having to spend more money down the road to replace parts,tho i typically replace my whole system every two years and most motherboards that are built well will do that but i like to be on the safe side,my old systems usualy get passed down to the family got gaming.

you getting the 3820 so you can get on the lga2011 cheaper with plans of getting a ivy-e cpu for it later like me?

I didn't see where the Sabertooth X79 supports 2400 ram speed in the vendors list. Only 1866 I see as the highest. I will double check the pdf though. 1600 should be fast enough considering RAM prices to performance.
Gotta cut back somewhere!!

I usually keep a system for 10+ years to get the maximum lifecycle for dollar spent. I like being an enthusiast, but its not a hobby for me, its rather out of necessity on a need basis, so why not go with the latest and greatest within a budget with potential upgrades along the way.

Yes, I will upgrade the cpu in a year or two when prices drop, but undecided on the ivy bridge or if that will become available. Some say the ivy bridge runs cooler while others say its runs hotter than sandy bridge. There is much debate and various opinions on that all based on preference with few facts.
 
I didn't see where the Sabertooth X79 supports 2400 ram speed in the vendors list. Only 1866 I see as the highest. I will double check the pdf though. 1600 should be fast enough considering RAM prices to performance.
Gotta cut back somewhere!!

I usually keep a system for 10+ years to get the maximum lifecycle for dollar spent. I like being an enthusiast, but its not a hobby for me, its rather out of necessity on a need basis, so why not go with the latest and greatest within a budget with potential upgrades along the way.

Yes, I will upgrade the cpu in a year or two when prices drop, but undecided on the ivy bridge or if that will become available. Some say the ivy bridge runs cooler while others say its runs hotter than sandy bridge. There is much debate and various opinions on that all based on preference with few facts.

There's plenty of facts out there. It's all basic physics. Ivy Bridge has a lower TDP than Sandy Bridge, so it produces less heat. However, under the IHS, Intel opted to use TIM, which had a lower thermal conductivity than the fluxless solder typically used. Therefore, even though it's producing less heat, more of the heat stays within the core, so it runs hotter. Most of the debate is fueled by overexaggerations of how hot in runs and public ignorance that heat doesn't equal temperature.

Ivy Bridge E is the only other CPUs coming out on 2011.
 
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