Which x99 matx board to choose?

Hardware Hub Motherboards
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My priorities are the following:

1.  It must have Intel nic onboard.  I don't care if it has more than one onboard nic regardless of brand/company manufacturer.

2.  It must have 140mm clearance ( width-wise) for the best of the best air cpu coolers allowing using top pci express slot with video card ( the cryorig r1 ultimate fits this measurement).

3.  It must external either rear or onboard cmos clear/reset buttons.  

4.  It must support 64GBs of total ram.  Thus, the Gigabyte x99m gaming-m5 micro atx motherboard is not an option.

Anything else ( nichicon caps, etc) is pretty much a bonus as both boards seem to support anything else 99% of people would need.

 I don't completely understand Power phase delivery designs though.  In a video of either Tek Syndicate or Tech of Tomorrow a long time back,  J J from Asus once mentioned that you can have a 16 phase power delivery system on a board that WON'T work/support your cpu overclocking as well as a BETTER-built 6 or 8 phase power delivery system.

I must choose ONE of the two choices:

ASrock x99m Extreme4 microatx board or EVGA x99 micro matx board.  

The ASrock board has a 12 phase power delivery design while the EVGA has an " efficient 6 phase digital vrm design."  I'm unsure which is better as I'll overclock the 5960x within PRACTICAL limits of the Cryorig r1 Ultimate's and the motherboard's cooling and stable performance parameters. ( no more than 4.2ghz

Also, I'm unsure either company's reputations for service after the sale in terms of tech troubleshooting support and rma support/satisfaction.  I KNOW I will NEVER choose MSI ever again.

Thanks for all the thoughts, help, and your time good people.  \m/  And thank you Pistol the Tact, Qain the Insane, Wendell the Wise, and Logan the Beard for keeping Tek Syndicate my favorite pc tech channel! 

 

 

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I kinda like this  ... and I don't often say that about an Asrock mobo

ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-x99mkiller

12K capacitors and 12 phase power design and a 60a alloy power choke  ... color me impressed by the numbers on their site ...

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20X99M%20Killer/index.asp?cat=

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Unless you are using 16gb un-buffered dimms, you cant put 64 gb ram on 4 slots

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I forgot about that one.  It appears to be the EXACT same motherboard except color scheme, " key master" software/feature(s) and the gold plating inside the pci express slots.  

Honestly I don't think the extra 40 to 50 ish bucks warrants those three things for the same motherboard with a different color scheme, but thank you for bringing that Fatal1ty version motherboard to my attention.  I'm a window-shopping-( Rain Main)-and I must be able to compare ALL possible coherent products to find the absolute best choice. *See the movie Rain Main with Dustin Hoffman and you'll understand someone with compulsive issues lol.  I was named after the crazy m#$%f#$ker after all.*

Unless I discover it before purchase time, so far I have seen no where on the net about any who has used the AsRock extreme x99m extreme4 microatx reporting ANY problems where as I see there are a few threads about memory issues with the evga x99 micro.

Given the price difference, the fact that I have nothing bad to say about EITHER company's after-the-sale support good or bad, the fact that the front usb 3.0 front panel header on the Asrock board seems in the better place vs EVga's, the Asrock will be declared the Winner of my wallet for now. 

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Yeap 16GB dimm's are extremely difficult/impossible to find for now, but by the time I need to get them ( before or during Black friday 2015 when I'll finish this build), they will be available.

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EVGA all the way

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The only real problem I have with EVGA, possibly, is the placement of the front panel usb 3.0 port header.  Many dual slot vid cards just BARELY encroach beyond the 2nd pciExpress slot's physical "line of sight" ( if you'll follow me for a moment) ..measurement wise.  I can't risk not being able to use front usb 3.0 as I plug and unplug a couple of different usb 3.0 hdd's and thumb drives often and at least 4 days weekly.  The usb 3.0 front head cable is very thick and NOT very flexible or easily flexible.  

Normally I'd have no reason to agree " EVGA all the way", but in this case it appears it is possibly a design flaw that I cannot afford to risk the money and mobo-swap-out time with.

I've chosen the Asrock x99m extreme 4 matx motherboard for now.  HOwever, I'll keep monitoring all motherboard manufacturer options as they arise ( except MSI for obvious reasons) and will change my choice if applicable.  Thanks for all the info everyone.  

Don't forget to support the Beard :P

1 Like
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I'd love to hear about the finished build.
Will probably go X99 mAtx myself, and currently Asrock seem like one of the very few good options. (liked the Asus WS, but that M.2 slot killed it...)