The Intel Haswell-E X99 Motherboard Roundup with ASUS, GIGABYTE, ASRock and MSI
by Ian Cutress on September 25, 2014 11:30 AM ESTX99 Conclusion
Back in the early 2000s, some motherboard manufacturers had trouble getting the basics to work. Fast forward ten years and the basics are easily pushed aside – motherboard manufacturers now end up attempting to differentiate with new features and the user experience. At some point, motherboard design becomes less about electrical engineering and more about psychological interaction between the user and the product. We end up saying ‘they all work out of the box, but it is the added bits that make or break the experience’.
X99 as a platform has been anticipated for a long while. Putting the fact that every user has access to six or eight cores aside, the fact that X79 has been around for so long and lacked the modern features means that some will happily upgrade despite the cost. We get a full set of SATA 6 Gbps ports, more USB 3.0 ports, Thunderbolt support, DDR4 and PCIe storage. X99 also brings the first motherboards with tri-antenna 802.11ac, which is exciting in itself. Haswell-E gives a chance for all the motherboard manufacturers to stretch their engineering departments into creating something new for the high end, and it is interesting to see which manufacturers grasp that opportunity.
From our reviews today, there exists three clear markets.
The ASUS X99-Deluxe is aimed at the i7-5960X buyer who wants everything and they want it today. By only releasing two motherboards for X99 launch, both $400 and up, ASUS clearly wants to make its mark on the high-end.
On the opposite side of the scale is the MSI X99S SLI Plus at $230, which wants to hoover up all the i7-5820K market for those limited on budget by providing something cheap but works well. Sure, it does not get the bells and whistles of the high end stuff aimed at gamers and overclockers, but it makes sense for some get-up and go.
In the middle, in that $280-$350 range, is somewhat of a no-man’s land. These motherboards have to offer something more than the base but cannot be too extravagant. For the ASRock X99 WS, this means workstation like features at a non-workstation like price. Unfortunately beyond RDIMM and ECC support, along with 1U height limitations, a vPro enabled NIC and large heatsinks, it feels uncharacteristic of ASRock by not having plenty of extra usable functionality for its price. The GIGABYTE X99-UD7 WiFi performs better by being at the top of the Ultra Durable line and playing around with M.2 WiFi, extra durability in the sockets and hole spacing, using USB 3.0 hubs to expand functionality without losing PCIe lanes and aiming at four-way graphics GPU setups up and down its product line. Then the sleeved SATA cables are a nice touch too.
Haswell-E is still young. The processors, X99 and DDR4 were eventually rushed to market due to a release date change which means that manufacturers are still playing around trying to optimize settings. This is exemplified most in rush to improve DRAM verification, with not all memory kits being verified on all motherboards as of yet. This comes in conjunction with some motherboards reporting issues with the high end kits resulting in BIOS updates coming thick and fast. For those users who want super fast memory, it might make sense to wait a month until this is all sorted out. X99 is not going anywhere soon.
In the end, the market for X99 is small in comparison to the mainstream market, but it does represent the consumer halo of awesome PCs and ultimate PC builds. The extreme processor platform will always be for the server crowd who demand performance, and it ends up being positive marketing for those who deal with the consumer cut-offs. The question to answer is this: we were as excited moving from X58 to X79, but we eventually got frustrated with X79 due to Z97's feature set. How long will it be before X99 feels old?
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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.