The Intel Haswell-E X99 Motherboard Roundup with ASUS, GIGABYTE, ASRock and MSI
by Ian Cutress on September 25, 2014 11:30 AM ESTGIGABYTE X99-UD7 WiFi Conclusion
GIGABYTE and ASUS are locked in a battle with each other to sell the most motherboards this year. Despite a few recent quarters of lower sales, the upswing in the gaming PC market driven by high resolution gaming and renewed interest sees both manufacturers aiming well above 20 million units each, despite a global motherboard sales number about 75-80 million expected for 2014. Each of these companies has a different tactic – ASUS goes for fewer SKUs and focuses on each one, whereas GIGABYTE offers more SKUs to appeal to more users. There are certain challenges in both lineups, and it reflects in the fact that ASUS had two motherboards at the launch of X99 and GIGABYTE aimed at eight.
The X99 UD7-WiFi sits at the top of GIGABYTE’s Ultra Durable line at $310, followed by the similar UD5, then UD4 and UD3. For overclocking there is the X99-SOC Force (and SOC Force-LN2 for extreme overclockers) with gaming relying on the Gaming 5, the Gaming 7 and the Gaming G1. This encompasses a price range from $245 (UD3) to $350 (SOC Force), so while we are aiming at the cheaper end of X99, the more $400 oriented products might be further down the line.
For the X99-UD7 WiFi, GIGABYTE certainly did a number of things right. Supplying WiFi via M.2 is a nice touch, giving a new way to introduce WiFi and then stacking another M.2 for storage on top. By placing the extra circuitry needed, GIGABYTE also ensures that every motherboard across its range can support full-bandwidth four-way GPU configurations. Things like the 30 micron gold pins and extra space for mounting holes also helps reduce issues from screwdrivers that stray or corrosion oriented climates.
Despite all this, my biggest WOW moment with the GIGABYTE X99-UD7 WiFi was the bundled sleeved cables. Perhaps I spend too much time indoors reviewing CPUs and motherboards, but it is a nice touch that needs to be commonplace across all $150 and up motherboards. A positive about the PCIe area is the VGA power being provided by a SATA cable in the right area. The USB 3.0 layout is also good, giving two PCH headers and two Renesas hubs for eight ports on the rear to free up PCIe lanes.
There are some issues to take with the design, such as PCIe storage still being an issue depending on which route you take meaning that only one type can be used. While M.2 WiFi is a cool idea, and our sample had the WiFi antenna kept close to the motherboard by a plastic tool, it is not always wise to have those cables about on the motherboard.
On the benchmark front, the GIGABYTE suffers a little similar to the ASUS by not implementing a totally aggressive MultiCore Turbo throughout any hardware setup. So at stock we had a few numbers lower than expected, although when overclocked this no longer mattered so much. Peak power consumption under load was very good, along with USB speeds, although there was an issue with the audio. Similar to Z97, there is some feature on GIGABYTE boards that causes software-detectable distortion at high volume levels. However if the volume is decreased, peak range is lowered. POST times were also around 25 seconds, matching the X99 WS.
Similar to my Z97 conclusions on GIGABYTE, the BIOS still needs work into making it the interactive tool we need. Fan controls are still lacking in depth, and all we end up with is a glorified menu with relatively few new features. The software is a plus point, making it easy to select the options the user needs however there is room for improvement, especially when it comes to Live Update.
The GIGABYTE X99-UD7 WiFi ends up being a nice motherboard to use with a decent technical portfolio. Delving into the features on an intricate level could come easier to hand, but it won’t stop users plugging in a Haswell-E for a high end gaming system.
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Ian Cutress - Friday, September 26, 2014 - link
Usually some of the 16xx series have some leeway, but the larger 26xx are definitely locked down. I've managed 107 MHz BCLK from an E5 2697 v3, but YMMV.halcyon - Thursday, September 25, 2014 - link
Is this correct:http://i.imgur.com/3AgxLfs.png
bebimbap - Thursday, September 25, 2014 - link
That's probably because the 5960x runs at 3.0-3.5ghz stock while the 4790k runs 4.0-4.4ghz stockso if it is single threaded MHz limited, then the 4790k can run 14%-47% faster than the 5960x can at stock settings.
Ian Cutress - Friday, September 26, 2014 - link
Minimum frame rate results are always tricky. If the system software initiates something critical in the foreground and causes a single frame to falter, then the whole minimum frame rate is reduced. That's why I'm not always too keen on reporting them, but have them included for completeness.The single thread speed is also another aspect, also depending on the cache orientation of the CPU, it might cause a frame or two to load faster/slower than others, again causing that one frame drop.
Given that this is more common across the Haswell-E line, compared to Haswell, it might be something that fundamental.
bebimbap - Thursday, September 25, 2014 - link
I had always thought MSI was a top tier vendor of MB and GPU's but after my gtx 8800 "malfunctioned," back when they were the best available, and then my z87 mpower MSI MB headers fall apart, and OC's at higher voltages compared to my z87 gigabyte ud5h and is hotter at the same voltages. It made me think about it, and MSI is very similar in marketing style as XFX. They are both usually heavy on rebates, and very cheap for the amount of product you get. But they lack quality. None of my XFX cards perform as well as their Asus/EVGA/Gigabyte counterparts. I now put them in the same tier as ECS and Biostar.The MSI board OC'd performance being less seemed more of the same, and I was expecting as much. Until something drastically changes, I'll only use Asus/Gigabyte/Asrock.
just4U - Thursday, September 25, 2014 - link
That's unfortunate.. however you do have to keep in mind that these are sensitive electronic components. I've had boards fail by all the major companies. It happens.. I had 3 dead boards in the Genie Rog Asus series all out of the first batch that came in (7 in total) did it stop me from using Asus? No.. again it happens. Had loose heatsinks dead chipset fans, a capacitor that fell off.. ugh.. Still if I dropped all the companies where that had happened I'd not have any companies to turn to lol.Msi is doing a lot of good things these days and their easily right up there with Gigabyte and Asus.
CFTheDragon - Thursday, September 25, 2014 - link
Why is there not the MSI X99 Gaming in the review? Is anyone really going to buy the normal version and not the Gaming one for a X99 build?Ian Cutress - Friday, September 26, 2014 - link
For review time, these are the samples we were sourced. Not every model is available for review, depending on how the manufacturer wants to focus on different titles. We asked MSI what their most popular/consumer focused board would be in terms of numbers, and they seem really pleased internally with the SLI Plus.The_Assimilator - Friday, September 26, 2014 - link
The only people who buy "Gaming" boards are the gullible who like bling and think that the KillerNIC is something desirable to have, rather than the liability it actually is.Flunk - Friday, September 26, 2014 - link
Unless the "Gaming" board happens to be cheaper, which happens a lot because I don't think they sell that great. Damn Killer NICs, just give me Intel and be done with it. Killer started off as nothing but marketing and since they've were bought out by Qualcomm they're just remarked Qualcomm parts with tweaked drivers. MSI's "Gaming" line is a really cynical take on the whole affair, it's just their regular boards with red highlights and (only on some models) a few small IC changes.