The Intel Haswell-E X99 Motherboard Roundup with ASUS, GIGABYTE, ASRock and MSI
by Ian Cutress on September 25, 2014 11:30 AM ESTMSI X99S SLI Plus Conclusion
The X99 SLI Plus is the cheapest X99 model in our initial review at $230, coming in at just over half the price of the X99-Deluxe. Despite the large price difference there are some similarities from both products. The aesthetics of a motherboard has been a common battleground in recent generations and boards like the MSI and ASUS in this regard hit the nail on the head when answering calls for sleek designs that look polished and not too forced.
At $230, MSI is attempting to snap up the budget X99 market with the SLI Plus. This takes me back to my first X58 system – I wanted the i7 920 at the time, but my budget was small so I got the cheapest motherboard and DDR3 available at the time (X58A-UD3R and 3x2GB DDR3-1333 if I recall correctly). This is the sort of buyer that the MSI X99S SLI Plus is aiming for: those willing to put down $230 for a motherboard and $390 for the i7-5820K. The only downside with this plan, much like when I bought into X58, is that the cost of DDR4 is still pretty high, at $250 per 4x4GB kit, making an $870 minimum buy-in.
At $230, it is obvious that MSI skimps on a few details. We are limited to 3-way multi-GPU setups, we get a single network port (Intel I218-V) and the audio codec is a Realtek ALC892 solution. While we do get 12 USB 3.0 ports total, four on the rear panel are behind a VIA 4-to-1 controller, which is one of the cheapest cost-per-USB solutions available. On the plus side, SATA Express is here, and the M.2 slot can feed off of the CPU for a full 32 Gbps bandwidth if needed. M.2 is unfortunately limited to a maximum of 2280 sized devices however.
MSI did miss a trick slightly by not theming the BIOS and software packages in black similar to the motherboard, but MSI has a nice BIOS/software combination in general. The BIOS is growing on me as a user, especially as MSI seems receptive to advice on how to make the BIOS better. The software is still propped up by Live Update 6 as the best update tool available, however offering 2.1 volts as an overclock is a little absurd and needs to be adjusted.
Stock performance on the MSI X99S SLI Plus is near the top of the chain due to the aggressive way it implements MultiCore Turbo. In the system benchmarks it had a high power consumption under load and poor audio characteristics, but came top in DPC Latency and stripped POST times. Overclocking results were average, although the deficit in performance when overclocked is alarming – overclocked to 4.4 GHz, one of the other X99 motherboards scored similar when overclocked to only 4.2 GHz. This indicates there might be an efficiency issue somewhere along the line, though it is difficult to point the finger at either the BIOS, the software, or something fundamental at the hardware level.
The strength of the MSI X99S SLI Plus lies in the sleek design combined with the low price point. It forms a substantial line in the sand for any X99 system builder, and is very attractive to those who are more budget conscious and not keen on overclocking. For anyone wanting to dabble in the 6-core domain before putting down some serious money, pair it with an i7-5820K and take it for a spin.
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gostan - Friday, September 26, 2014 - link
feel like I'm transported back to 2001good job AT!
xunknownx - Saturday, September 27, 2014 - link
what settings on povray is being used in this article? i would love to compare my results against theirs.todo1 - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
X79 supports TRIPLE CHANNEL DDR3, not quad!I don't how it is even possible to make such a mistake?!?
tyaiyama - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
After reading the following:http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-x99-motherboard-...
Is it worth recommendation from Anadtech? Almost 1 month has passed without Asus solving the problem. What's good about this M/B unable to certain hours operations(^^)
tyaiyama - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
BTW, MSI M/B also has an issue.http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&...
Both of these M/B happened to be recommended by Anand over the other two: AsRock & Giga. What does it mean? I personally likes AsRock X99 WS which seems Asus X99-E WS w/o PLX.
Haravikk - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Is there a reason the motherboards with moulded shapes over the various I/O ports don't include the I/O shield built-in? I hate adding those damned things; seems unnecessary if your motherboard is shaped around the ports already.Oxford Guy - Saturday, October 4, 2014 - link
Power phases?Also, it seems really lazy to not check what changing the MSI load line calibration setting would actually do if changed. "This is quite odd. It would seem the efficiency of the MSI motherboard when overclocked is somehow stunted..." vdroop is supposed to be part of the Intel specification and load line calibration defeats it, right? So, it looks like there is your answer. Auto isn't the optimal setting.
Also, if you tested these motherboards in the order you reviewed the overclocking results in, you may have fatigued the chip which explains why the results kept getting worse.
woj666 - Monday, October 6, 2014 - link
Agreed, it seems very obvious that that Load Line Calibration setting of "auto" on this MSI board is in fact quite aggressive and applying vboost as described here http://www.anandtech.com/show/2404/5 and here http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/24019-load-lin...The OC section of this article is not comparing apples to apples as the default LLC settings are not the same for the different boards.
akula2 - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
It was a great review, appreciate it very much.1) why Asus X99-E WS is missing out of action?
2) Asus X99-E WS ($510) or Asrock X99 WS ($310)?
My ten X99 ultra Workstations will have the upcoming Maxwell based Nvidia Quadro and Tesla cards? I'm also evaluating Firepro W9100 card too. I don't know if there will be Maxwell based Titan Black (II or whatever name)?
Five builds will have Xeon E5-2680 v3 (more like due to price/performance) or Xeon E5-2690 v3
Five builds will have i7-5760X CPUs
I never used Asrock WS boards earlier, but have many Asus WS boards (X79/Z97). So, what do you think of Asrock WS over Asus X99-E WS in the given configuration above?
Yeah, all Xeon workstations will have Intel P3700 NVMe storage solution. Also, I'm pondering on Synology DiskStation DS2413+ for 48TB NAS solution using WD Red Pro HDDs for those planned ten X99 builds.
Hence, what do you think about those two boards?
3) Did you observe any PCI-e 3.0 limitations/bottleneck on those two boards? Asus X99-E board has 16-four lanes solution? Please clarify on this count.
Thank you
eng.michael - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link
HELLOPLEASE HELP ME
I have one , and i install O.S windows server 2012R2 ,and install all drivers correctly EXCEPT LAN driver , any one can help me in this BIG Problem.
THANKS