So, I happen to have enough money to switch to another X79 motherboard; my current one is riddled with unreliable usage, but there have been so many upsides to it; including the C606 chipset it's actually using, meaning that there's an extra 8 SAS ports, of which all can be operated as a SATA protocol, taking the total usable internal SATA ports up to 14. That aside, the Intel NIC that it has kinda wants to stay put asleep after booting it from cold or warm, so I had to go into Device Manager and attempt to revive it. This could be the time when the BIOS flash could've corrupt its ROM, so I am not even bothered to pursue the fix for it and decided to move on.
So, as for my following planned X79 boards (which all actually uses the X79 chipset for once), what's your pick for me?
First one is the ASUS X79-E WS.
Reasons I would like this board: This is a workstation-graded board, so it has some extra features that primarily businesses and enterprises use, including 2x high quality Intel I210 NICs, TPM and COM header and even an internal USB port, not a front panel header, which it would've been but in this case converted into a port. It is the most expensive but what do you expect for a motherboard built for stability 24/7? Oh, and it even has a PS/2 port, perfect when you have older keyboards; not many boards today would have this which is shameful.
Second option is the EVGA X79 Dark.
Reasons for this board: It's made by EVGA, so expect superior warranty and support. 2x Intel NICs, but not the same as the previous one, lots of overclocking features, so a good bench for my 3970x CPU. Downsides are; no PS/2 port, what a pity EVGA, and the theme overall seems really flamboyant, out the 3. Plus, has EVGA lately been concentrating less on the quality of the components they are using to manufacture their products? This is after reports their lower end X79 boards suffers from issues relating to build quality.
On a foot note, Amazon doesn't have it in their stock but EVGA still does and at a cheaper price.
Third option is the ASUS Rampage IV Black.
Reasons: Would be a nice alternative to the EVGA board, in terms of features, like that PS/2 port (insert Spongebob stares) and the theme is much less flamboyant, while retaining the wide range of overclocking features. And also an onboard Wifi/Bluetooth; my current board has those features but the come separately on a PCIe card. Downsides:
One Ethernet port (but a reduction by one would save some space on the rear I/O panel, would it?), price is a bit steep and the slowly redundant ROG branding.
As far as usage goes, I happen to do mostly high end stuff like 3D modelling, multimedia editing, running lotsa VMs and muh games. I also would like to do some brilliant overclocking, like 4.5GHz or above, so I think that would rule out the X79-E WS as a possibility for that task.
So yeah, all 3 are high ends and that's how I want to roll for a while. No point in upgrading to X99 unless I needed DDR4, more PCIE lanes, power efficiency and native USB3/SATA3. And as you can see, 2 boards for the lower level consumer market and the first option, a board for the higher end market, for stability but it seems overclocking can be done on it. I usually don't go for the reviews on Amazon but maybe you people have inputs on my options. And this is how I want to roll for a while, as my wish.
