Motherboard Choice ???

[STE\/E]

I looking to Upgrade 9 of my Box's, the other 6 don't need it because their fairly new. Anywho I've sorta narrowed it down to this:

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231569

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116501

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121606 or
Motherboard: http://204.14.213.185/Product/Produc...82E16813130573

I don't need any PSU's or Case's as what I have will do just Fine, the smallest PSU I'm running right now is 750 Watt's with some 850's & up also. All the Box's I'd be redoing have ANTEC 900 Cases so I don't see replacing them either. I will have to get a few SATA Drives as the IDE's I have in a few Box's I won't have anywhere to hook them up to but that's no big Deal as small SATA Drives are fairly cheap anyway & going to SATA makes for better Air Flow to as the Cables are smaller.

The Intel Motherboard I'm sort interested in because from everything I can tell about it it would run 2 GPU's at x16 unless I'm Mistaken, the MSI Board is the one Triggl posted about & for the price is a very nice board too: Any opinions about either board ? & correct me if I'm mistaken about the Intel Board ... Thanks

[Robert7]

MSI is working very well, better than others, but if you want to participate in POEM, then you do not have a choice, you have to take PCIE 3.0 (Z77).

BTW, very impressive investment! SG should be worried about.

[John P. Myers]

Between those 2 boards, you have no choice but to get the Intel since the MSI won't support Ivy Bridge without a BIOS update which can't be done unless you have a Sandy Bridge laying around you can install first. Pain in the ass. But even if it did support IB out of the box, i'd say get the Intel anyway. It has PCIe 3.0 where the MSI only has 2.0. Intel also has 2x more SATA 6Gb connections than MSI and 10-channel sound (you never know what may come in handy). Coronicus found both boards have 1 x16 and 1 x8 PCIe slot.

As for the expense of switching to SATA drives, this may be a bit cheaper and less hassle too: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815280001 **Edit: nevermind. Won't let you boot from it :/

Unfortunately, this product is not intended to be sold and bundled with Ivy Bridge processors and we do not plan to recall them at the moment.

Please be advised that the board was originally designed for Sandy Bridge platform using 2nd gen, 2xxx processors and we've added support for existing owners to upgrade to Ivy Bridge processor with BIOS update which was released earlier this year.
Therefore, all Ivy Bridge processor will not work with this motherboard right out of box without a new BIOS update.

[coronicus]

Quoted from intel for that motherboard


Two PCI Express* 3.0 x16 connectors (one x8 electrical)

Supports ATI CrossFireX* and NVIDIA SLI*

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...z77bh-55k.html

[coronicus]

MSI is working very well, better than others, but if you want to participate in POEM, then you do not have a choice, you have to take PCIE 3.0 (Z77).

BTW, very impressive investment! SG should be worried about.

Have to agree for the video cards with 3.0 capabilities i would go with the z77 which runs both x16 slot at x8 PCIE 3.0.. Fyi you cannot mix the 2.0 card and still have one running @ 3.0.. the link will drop to x8 PCIE 2.0 standards.

If poem is what your optimizing for then for the video cards that run at 2.0 i would sugest going with the 2011 sandy so you can have two true PCIE 2.0 x16 specially for those beast 2.0 dual gpus imo.

I know there are some motherboards with that PCIE chip that allows more PCIE lanes but i dont understand how that makes things faster when it connects to the same single PCIE lane going to the CPU.. Maybe someone can answer this one

[John P. Myers]

I know there are some motherboards with that PCIE chip that allows more PCIE lanes but i dont understand how that makes things faster when it connects to the same single PCIE lane going to the CPU.. Maybe someone can answer this one

Basically they take advantage of there not being data flowing through the lanes 100% of the time and switch packets from 1 GPU to another. There is some additional latency added to systems that use these chips though, as it takes a moment to decide which GPU the data needs to be sent to, or which it just came from. I don't know how much they've improved lately, but using these chips to change 2 x8 slots to 2 x16 slots will actually slow you down. Their best use is preventing any slots from running at x0, such as on the MSI Big Bang Marshal. Personally i think PLX makes the best PCIe switches, but i'm really only basing that on a hunch. Nvidia and Lucid also make PCIe switches.

[Fire$torm]

WTG Ste\/e! Can't wait to see your production curve...

@JPM: Regarding that add-on card you posted about. They note that the card will boot using IB but only after a BIOS update. I would suggest doing the update from a SB system just to be safe.

[STE\/E]

... Now I'm really Confused, Thanks Guy'z ...

1'st off I don't have any particular Project in mind that I'm thinking of Updating the Box's for, all of them I guess. The Q6600 Quad Cores in them now I've been running for 6 Years as I got them as soon as they came out. Their just old & inefficient power wasters when compared to today's CPU's so it's time to Upgrade them, if not now then when the Haswells come out next year. From what I'm reading about the Haswells though is their not going to be much if any faster than whats being offered now, I'm sure they'll be a little faster in some areas but nothing dramatic.

I knew about the MSI Board having problems with the Ivy Bridge CPU's but should have read more I guess. Here's a MSI Board that might work & is $30 cheaper than the Intel Board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130644

WTG Ste\/e! Can't wait to see your production curve...

@JPM: Regarding that add-on card you posted about. They note that the card will boot using IB but only after a BIOS update. I would suggest doing the update from a SB system just to be safe.

Probably won't be any more than what it's now, the Upgrades are for the CPU's mainly so my GPU Output isn't going to increase much if any ...

[John P. Myers]

I knew about the MSI Board having problems with the Ivy Bridge CPU's but should have read more I guess. Here's a MSI Board that might work & is $30 cheaper than the Intel Board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130644

Much better Plus you get some free RAM you can sell off for a few extra $$ too.

[Fire$torm]

... Now I'm really Confused, Thanks Guy'z ...

1'st off I don't have any particular Project in mind that I'm thinking of Updating the Box's for, all of them I guess. The Q6600 Quad Cores in them now I've been running for 6 Years as I got them as soon as they came out. Their just old & inefficient power wasters when compared to today's CPU's so it's time to Upgrade them, if not now then when the Haswells come out next year. From what I'm reading about the Haswells though is their not going to be much if any faster than whats being offered now, I'm sure they'll be a little faster in some areas but nothing dramatic.

I knew about the MSI Board having problems with the Ivy Bridge CPU's but should have read more I guess. Here's a MSI Board that might work & is $30 cheaper than the Intel Board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130644

The free RAM that comes with that last board would help to offset costs.

WTG Ste\/e! Can't wait to see your production curve...

@JPM: Regarding that add-on card you posted about. They note that the card will boot using IB but only after a BIOS update. I would suggest doing the update from a SB system just to be safe.

Probably won't be any more than what it's now, the Upgrades are for the CPU's mainly so my GPU Output isn't going to increase much if any ...

Sorry Ste\/e, I was confusing the SATA add-on card with the quote JPM posted from MSI. Plz ignore my ignorance....