I got my tax return statement and I was thinking, with the money I'm getting with it, I could go LGA2011 and have a very strong machine ready for anything I throw at it for the next 5 years or so. Really only VMs for troubleshooting issues, and having that extra horsepower that LGA2011 offers for computing such things is really nice to have without having any worries.
So I was wondering if there are any X79 mobos that I should avoid, I'm going to be getting the same CPU that Logan has been using, the i7-3820, so as far as I know I can pretty much use anything on the market that isn't server grade.
It'd be great if anyone could help me with what to avoid with them, I won't be overclocking and I'm looking for a "lower end" board like the Gigabyte X79 UD3 or MSI X79 GD45 Plus
*Canadian prices and looking for around $300*
Thanks for any help that is offered. *Build will be documented and posted, looking at the H440 as my case of choice.
I'd really avoid the 3820. Tbh it is kind of a shitty CPU. As is the newer 4820. Like for what it is, it is expensive. Basically you are paying for the X79 platform.
Really if you are going X79 the only CPU to get is the 6 core 4930k. The other 6 core is way too expensive and the 4820 isn't a good value either.
An 8350 from AMD is excellent for VMs at a cheaper price point.
Honestly though, I'd wait. Haswell-E is coming out in a few months with an entirely new platform, X99, so I'd go with that.
As for mobos, the goto for X79 seems to be the Asus X79 Deluxe.
I personally have no interest really in haswell-E atm, until I have a really good reason to go there. I might go for the 4820K, but it's pushing my budget.
I was thinking about possibly going with the 8350, and it'd help a lot in the long run, but I want to look at what my LGA2011 options are, and if it's even a good idea for me. I know what I'd want for 8350 (as I originally planned for my current build for it, but the lack of budget for a mobo at that time pushed me to the 3570k as it was just for gaming and I got the CPU for a steal of a deal with my mobo)
Thanks though, I wasn't sure if any of the 4 core LGA2011 CPUs were really worth it for the hyper threading
Also if there's any AM3+ mobos that have dual on-board LAN that'd be super awesome if anyone could turn me on to that. I might just get an add-on Intel gigabit port though if there's no option for that.
I see. I am just a bit confused really. You want the horsepower that LGA 2011 provides you say, but most of that power comes from the CPU and the 4820k really isn't that great of a part. Especially for the price. I mean you do get more PCIE lanes and a few other cool features but most people really don't need it.
Although features like the dual NICs are pretty schweet not gonna lie haha but there are LGA 1150 boards with that.
Really if you are going Socket 2011 I strongly recommend you go with the 4930k.
I suggested Haswell-E because it is an improved Socket 2011. It would be faster than the Ivy-E parts and if you went that route you'd be able to upgrade the CPU in the future as the new parts won't be compatible with X79 and the old Socket 2011. So if they are similarly priced or only a bit more I'd go that route.
Now I have an 8350 and it is a really sweet CPU and competes well with the 4820k, being a little slower and a little faster depending on the application, but I'm not going to pretend that it is as good as a 4930k. It isn't. While it does run VMs well, I have no personal experience with them but that is what I hear, I don't know how it competes with the 4820k or the 4930k. I do know that all around, especially for the price, it is better than the 4820k though.
The issue with the 8350 though is that there are some better Intel parts, like the 4770k (which is slightly better than the 4820k and a bit better than the 8350 in most applications) and your motherboard options are limited. I don't believe any have dual NICs and the chipset is a bit old now and prob won't see any upgrades.
I might suggest going with a 4770k, that being said though, it lacks some of the VM extensions which sucks. You may want to look at the Xeons. The 1230 V3, is cheap and it is basically an i7-4770, that has support for VMs and ECC but no OCing. It is a beast though, I have it in an mITX rig and it is amazing.
Also if your big thing is VMs check out the higher end Xeons and the Opterons.
yeah my options I'm looking at, if I rule out LGA 2011 because price isn't practical IMO if 6core+ is where the sweet spot is for power,
are the 8350 with a really nice ROG mobo and a build I can look at and be "damn that looks beautiful" and have more life-time for my case (H440 with that option) and grab an Intel gigabit add-on card for the dual nic alternative and be able to get 16GB of ram within budget,
OR go mITX and get the Gigabyte GA-H87-WIFI (has dual gigabit nics) with a Xeon E3-1230 V3 that I can tote places, but have to rely on a NAS for storage expansion (that I don't currently own) but for a much cheaper price point but not have much RAM expansion at all and be limited to 8GB of ram.
So it'd be a longer-use case build with the 8350 that is beautiful but not super tiny or a potentially short-case build with the Xeon 1230 V3 that isn't pretty but tiny and portable/can fit in my backpack. (considering I'd be also running fairly light VMs I don't need much more horsepower than these systems)
(My current case and HW would be mostly moved to the new system and re-used as a home server/NAS box)
*I hate making these decisions, but I also love it because I end up playing around with different potentials for what I will have and it helps me understand hardware use cases even more.*
If you still want an LGA 2011 board, avoid what I am using right now. Basically, this is Gigabyte's pinnacle of failure of trying to combine workstation/server/desktop all in one. It is also using an Intel C606 server chipset.
Is there any reason for you to go with a socket 2011 build? cause basicly for gaming its a bit pointless.
For gaming you could better look to intel haswell or AMD FX8350. especialy the FX8350 for its price point, is alot cheaper then a i7-3820 build, the money you save, you could trow in a much better GPU.
Anyway back to your question, the Msi X79 GD45 is a board that i would personaly avoid.(could have some bios issues) i would say look at some of the Asus boards, or the Asrock Extreme 6. But its depending on how much you wanne spend on a mobo, the Asus X79 deluxe is a nice board.