# Need Help to pick a right gaming x99 motherboard



## MartinNixon0422 (Sep 2, 2014)

At last Friday
asus/ msi/ gigabyte were launched the new x99 platform motherboard

i am planning to build a high-end gaming/streaming pc
wiht will play some game like Watch-dogs, or do the live streaming with League of legends/dota2/diablo3

And I did the google search, I found two x99 motherboards which has the spec I am looking for

first of all, the pc spec is
cpu - i7 5960x
motherboard - need help with
DDR4 - 16G up
GPU - not sure, but most of motherboard support 3-4ways sli / CF, so I may get twi 770 or 270x for the 2 ways sli use.
Power - I already get the thermaltake 1050w power for use, so no need
case - not sure yet, but not the big problem at all

so, for the motherboard
1. msi x99s gaming 9 ac, the price for this mb is around $430 on newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...re=msi_x99_gaming_9_ac-_-13-130-794-_-Product
this mb is cool, get the build-in Video Capture Card.
as we know, the video capture card's price is around $150 - $200,
and for host a good live streaming for gaming, the video capture card is really important.
Also, this one get m.2, with the Gen3*4 spec, I really dont know what's this, can someone tell?

2. asus rampage V Extreme, the price for this mb is around $500 on newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3132262&cm_re=asus_x99-_-13-132-262-_-Product
well, this one is amazing, get the 3t3r new tech for the wifi speed
but not sure is this new tech good for live stream or not
(I believe the wired connect may be better during the streaming)

both mb get the wifi on their spec, but I really dont know how fast will the asus wifi do?
and not sure if I do the streaming with wifi will be a good idea or not?

anyway, both get really similar price and spec
but one get the build-in video capture care, and the other get the speed-up wifi

which one should I choose?


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 2, 2014)

m.2 is basically a place to stick a SSD.  It is usually tucked between two PCI Express x16 slots.

I'm a sucker for MSI.  Their ClickBIOS impresses.

You should only buy features you intend to use.  For example, integrated wireless doesn't make much sense if you expect it to always be wired.  There's also no sense shelling out big bucks for an integrated capture card if you don't intend to record video often.  I find that whenever I buy bells and whistles for something that I didn't originally want when I began searching, I never got enough use out of it to bother having it.  Case in point: IEEE 1394 (aka Firewire).


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## RCoon (Sep 2, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> i am planning to build a high-end gaming/streaming pc wiht will play some game like Watch-dogs, or do the live streaming with League of legends/dota2/diablo3



The cheapest X99 motherboard available. You don't need anything from a board except for it to work in order to play games. You don't even need to overclock to play them, or stream them, just a few spare cores to offload the encoding load.
I can game and stream on high settings @ 1440p on an i5 and a 780. I don't think you need to pick a fancy motherboard for anything other than slotting things in.



MartinNixon0422 said:


> get the 3t3r new tech for the wifi speed



If you're streaming via wireless, you're probably doin it wrong.


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## ne6togadno (Sep 2, 2014)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130796
with money saved from mb get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...100100&cm_re=avermedia-_-15-100-100-_-Product
and instead of cf or sli get any of this list beside xfx or from this list and save yourself problems.


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## MartinNixon0422 (Sep 2, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130796
> with money saved from mb get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...100100&cm_re=avermedia-_-15-100-100-_-Product
> and instead of cf or sli get any of this list beside xfx or from this list and save yourself problems.


well, this combo make sence, but the price between this and gaming 9 ac is like $20, not that much, but gaming 9 ac do give more sata/ and otheer feature I believe, so that why I only want to choose between msi and asus mb



RCoon said:


> The cheapest X99 motherboard available. You don't need anything from a board except for it to work in order to play games. You don't even need to overclock to play them, or stream them, just a few spare cores to offload the encoding load.
> I can game and stream on high settings @ 1440p on an i5 and a 780. I don't think you need to pick a fancy motherboard for anything other than slotting things in.
> If you're streaming via wireless, you're probably doin it wrong.



Well, because I have no idea the different for 3t3r wireless tech, if it only increase the uploard wifi speed, I do think that will not help for streaming.! well, cant fine more info with it


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## RCoon (Sep 2, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> well, this combo make sence, but the price between this and gaming 9 ac is like $20, not that much, but gaming 9 ac do give more sata/ and otheer feature I believe, so that why I only want to choose between msi and asus mb
> 
> 
> 
> Well, because I have no idea the different for 3t3r wireless tech, if it only increase the uploard wifi speed, I do think that will not help for streaming.! well, cant fine more info with it



I've been working on a wireless project for almost a year now, and I can say that if the motherboard has 3x3 spatial streams on AC, and your router is 3x3 and AC, you'll a potential of a 1Gbit link speed(held back by the 1Gbit ports on routers). Actual figures will differ, but that is the best possible situation for bandwidth. That would work for streaming. The latency is another issue, dependent upon the materials and interference between the MoBo and router. I doubt your router or the MoBo has 3x3 spatial streams though, so you're better off with a cable for streaming games. Less chance of downtime, lower latency,


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## ne6togadno (Sep 2, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> well, this combo make sence, but the price between this and gaming 9 ac is like $20, not that much, but gaming 9 ac do give more sata/ and otheer feature I believe, so that why I only want to choose between msi and asus mb
> 
> 
> 
> Well, because I have no idea the different for 3t3r wireless tech, if it only increase the uploard wifi speed, I do think that will not help for streaming.! well, cant fine more info with it


428-228 is more like 200 rather then 20 as for sata --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627 50001312 600533617&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=280|13-130-796^13-130-796-02#,13-130-794^13-130-794-02#,13-130-795^13-130-795-02#&percm=13-130-796:$$$$$$$;13-130-794:$$$$$$$;13-130-795:$$$$$$$
with all my respect to everyone's believes, often there is a big difference between reality and what someone believe to

edit:
M.2 Gen3 x4 performance is related to m.2 being linked to 4x pci-e gen3 lines.


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## mlee49 (Sep 2, 2014)

Both boards you listed are beasts!  They both have 3 year warranties which is great.  The MSI does support more RAM, 128GB, which shouldn't be a problem because 64GB of RAM is like $1200, 128 would be like $2500. 
Personally, between these two I would go with the MSI.  I owned a 939 board back in the day and it sucked balls but I'd be willing to try them again. Heck I have their 780 Ti Gaming card and its amazingly quiet and cool.


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## MartinNixon0422 (Sep 3, 2014)

Well, the biggest problem is, I truly get not idea with the 3t3r tech
look like it given a super fast uplord/download speed
but is that feel _available_?
I mean, I really dont want to buy it, if I cant feel any different!


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## Aquinus (Sep 3, 2014)

If you're just gaming, investing in X99 is probably a waste of money. You could get the same performance out of a machine that costs half as much.


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## springs113 (Sep 3, 2014)

okuangrlukv said:


> I don't think you need to pick a fancy motherboard for anything other than slotting things in.



true, you have a point to a degree but if that was ok there wouldn't be different tiers of mobos.




Aquinus said:


> If you're just gaming, investing in X99 is probably a waste of money. You could  get the same performance out of a machine that costs half as much.


It's not always the way you make it seem, because I was going to buy a4790k and had spent 350 on a z97 mobo...when you think about the price of those 2 combined, I might as well invest in an x99 system which should hold me off from upgrading a tad longer than the z97 system.  I agree the cost of upgrading is high but It is worth it.  I believe we need to stop to deter people from what  want.


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## Aquinus (Sep 3, 2014)

springs113 said:


> It's not always the way you make it seem, because I was going to buy a4790k and had spent 350 on a z97 mobo...when you think about the price of those 2 combined, I might as well invest in an x99 system which should hold me off from upgrading a tad longer than the z97 system.  I agree the cost of upgrading is high but It is worth it.  I believe we need to stop to deter people from what  want.



Why does that make sense? The 4770k will perform just as well as a skt2011 CPU for most workloads, including gaming. I'm not saying the OP can't do it, I'm just saying it's a waste of money that won't actually result in tangible benefits for gaming. So while you can do whatever you want, I don't advocate for paying twice as much for hardware that will do the same thing.

The simple fact is gamers don't use most of the features skt2011 has to offer and games don't run any better on that hardware than a skt1150 or 1155 machine, therefore the extra cost incurred for such technologies is a waste as you're paying more for something that does the same thing. Just saying.


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## the54thvoid (Sep 3, 2014)

In my most excellent and experienced opinion  - Don't waste your money unless you actually simply WANT to have a very expensive computer.  RCoon is very correct, get the cheaper mobo and buy the cheaper 6 core Haswell-E.  In gaming, the 5960 will be equalled by any Haswell (or Sandy) 4 core cpu with rough clock for clock comparison.   For people not encoding, transcoding and crossdressing, the 8 cores of 5960 are actually a hindrance.  They make it harder to overclock and frankly, if you don't overclock a $1000 cpu, you're a monster 

Buy a Z97 and a Devil's Canyon CPU and be done with it.  4Ghz is 4Ghz.  8 cores is overkill for your requirements.  It's not future proofing, it's just silly.


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## GhostRyder (Sep 3, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> At last Friday
> asus/ msi/ gigabyte were launched the new x99 platform motherboard
> 
> i am planning to build a high-end gaming/streaming pc
> ...


I just invested in the 5930K and an X99 motherboard so I will give you my reasoning on the motherboard choice and maybe it can help you.

I chose the MSI Gaming 9 AC for this round over Asus even though many of my last boards have been Asus for a few particular reasons:

1: The MSI Gaming 9 has a game streaming engine built in (May not be any game changer, but for a gamer it could be a nice feature)
2: Both have an 8 Phase CPU delivery so overclocking should amount to roughly the same
3: The Asus has a special OC socket that I have not seen enough information about yet but is supposedly got some odd rumors floating around about it.  It might improve overclocking but it could also void the warranty from what I have been hearing (Special thanks to one of the team for helping me out @cadaveca )
4: The feature set of both support 4 cards and are generally about the same for the most part
5: The MSI is cheaper.

I have other reasons but thanks to a talk with a forum member here helped me make up my mind with things and with the MSI you get a free Steel series headset with it.  Its a great deal overall!

My advice to you is this on the subject of the CPU:
1: The 8 Core is not going to be that great for gaming, get the 6 core because from preliminary results overclocking is limited on the 8 core (Best results seem to be 4.5 with average of 4.4) and temps get excessive very fast (Since gaming is mostly single threaded anyway and the 6 core has 12 threads).
2: Its 1k versus $600
3: If you want to eventually run 4 GPU's, get the 5930K.  Otherwise you can run up to 3 GPU's on the 5820K and achieve the same performance while paying $400.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 3, 2014)

I would go for either MSI Gaming 7 or Gaming 9 AC. cadaveca recently did a review on the Gaming 7 and sounds like a really good board. 

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/X99S_GAMING_7/

I was eyeing up the Asus X99 boards till a thread at OCN informed me otherwise. Intel has pretty much confirmed your chips warranty will be voided if you put it into one of their boards, due to their modified LGA2011-3 socket. 

Read through this page of the thread and the next couple. 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1444356/official-asus-rampage-iv-black-edition-owners-club/9730


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## springs113 (Sep 3, 2014)

Aquinus said:


> Why does that make sense? The 4770k will perform just as well as a skt2011 CPU for most workloads, including gaming. I'm not saying the OP can't do it, I'm just saying it's a waste of money that won't actually result in tangible benefits for gaming. So while you can do whatever you want, I don't advocate for paying twice as much for hardware that will do the same thing.
> 
> The simple fact is gamers don't use most of the features skt2011 has to offer and games don't run any better on that hardware than a skt1150 or 1155 machine, therefore the extra cost incurred for such technologies is a waste as you're paying more for something that does the same thing. Just saying.


What I'm saying is my cost for both systems was somewhat equal, so I deemed it necessary to select skt 2011.  Everyone's wont be the same but if it's only a few $ more oven $150 I would go 2011 all day everyday.


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## Aquinus (Sep 4, 2014)

You can get skt1150 boards and CPU a lot cheaper than skt2011 boards and CPUs. I'm not quite sure where you're getting your information from but a 2011 board of equal quality of a 1150 board will easily cost 100 to 150 USD more for the board alone. I will give you that the 5820k will probably have a price point similar to an i7 on 1150, but it's the board that kills you and now with 2011-3, DDR4 prices will be killer as well without anything really useful or tangible to show for it.

So despite the extra money spent, you won't notice any difference. This is probably the best advice and I would say the same is true of 6c/12t:


the54thvoid said:


> Buy a Z97 and a Devil's Canyon CPU and be done with it.  4Ghz is 4Ghz.  8 cores is overkill for your requirements.  It's not future proofing, it's just silly.


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## MartinNixon0422 (Sep 9, 2014)

GhostRyder said:


> I just invested in the 5930K and an X99 motherboard so I will give you my reasoning on the motherboard choice and maybe it can help you.
> 
> I chose the MSI Gaming 9 AC for this round over Asus even though many of my last boards have been Asus for a few particular reasons:
> 
> ...



cool, but what's the asus  special OC socket?
is that similar as the msi oc genies??
(havent seen the info of it)

so that means I dont need to get up to 5960x for 4 ways sli right?
5930k is good enough for me?


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## springs113 (Sep 9, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> cool, but what's the asus  special OC socket?
> is that similar as the msi oc genies??
> (havent seen the info of it)
> 
> ...


Check out my thread 
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/your-haswell-e-max-stable-oc.204965/page-2


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## GhostRyder (Sep 9, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> cool, but what's the asus  special OC socket?
> is that similar as the msi oc genies??
> (havent seen the info of it)
> 
> ...


If you want to 4 way cards, get the 5930K because thats has the full lanes and is going to be better for the gamer for overclocking over the 8 core (Which has already shown to be low on the gaming benefits).

The OC socket is a special socket that uses additional pins on the 2011-v3 chip to get "better stable overclocking" and some of the preliminary results seem to show that to be true.

Not sure though until I see full on tangible proof, but we will see.  I still like my new MSI Gaming 9 X99 board so much!


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## MartinNixon0422 (Sep 11, 2014)

For the OC Socket for ASUS
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/2014/09/09/haswell-e-controversey-intel-asus-socket-2084/

so if I use the asus oc socket with Haswell-E cpu
may lose the warranty from intel?


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## springs113 (Sep 11, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> For the OC Socket for ASUS
> http://www.brightsideofnews.com/2014/09/09/haswell-e-controversey-intel-asus-socket-2084/
> 
> so if I use the asus oc socket with Haswell-E cpu
> may lose the warranty from intel?


No you won't


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 15, 2014)

I'd suggest going with one of the Asus boards, personally I'd go with the x99 Deluxe. For streaming you want to avoid multi-GPU setups, so go with a single GTX780(ti) and I'd suggest you save some money and go with a 6 core CPU. Unless you plan on streaming at 1080p/60FPS you won't need the extra horsepower in those games. Even stuff like BF3/BF4 will run fine when streaming 1080/30 or 1080/48.

If you are serious about your gaming and streaming don't even bother with WiFi. Just use a cable, it's better that way.

I do hope you have a decent PSU, most Thermaltake ones I've seen are garbage. A good 650-750 seasonic/super flower unit will do fine with a 5960x and 780Ti.

Why are you looking at getting a capture card? I'd just use OBS and use the CPU for encoding, it's far more versatile and it allows you to take advantage of the extra CPU horsepower you have. If you are thinking of using a capture card you should just stick to Z97...


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## Aquinus (Sep 15, 2014)

I think the OP has a desire to waste money considering he's look at X99 for these purposes...


MartinNixon0422 said:


> i am planning to build a high-end gaming/streaming pc
> wiht will play some game like Watch-dogs, or do the live streaming with League of legends/dota2/diablo3



Get Devil's Canyon and don't spend twice as much money on a platform that will give you the same experience. X99 might be the biggest and best for *multi-threaded software* but in comparison to Intel's mainstream lineup, you won't be using any feature X99 (or X79 in the past,) has to offer.

Once again, I hate these "I want to spend as much money as possible to get the best computer" mentalities as the "best hardware" might not yield the best experience.

So unless you like to waste money, don't go skt2011-3. I'm actually disappointed in everyone egging you on to do it when it's really just a waste. 

For the games you mentioned, an i5 would do just as well for a fraction of the price. Lets be a little more sensible here, shall we? If you're gaming, you should be dumping more money in GPUs, not a skt2011-3 unless your planning on running 3 GPUs which is also (imho) not a bright idea because of how badly CFX/SLI tends to scale beyond 2 cards.

Lets start with this question:
What is your computer's specs now and what is it not doing well enough? I prefer targeted upgrades, not wasteful spending.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 15, 2014)

Knowing the demands of CPU encoded streaming I'd still recommend X99 or X79... The quad cores don't cut it for 1080p... BUT, that is assuming the OP is going to be streaming at 1080p, and therefore has the bandwidth. Now, if he's going with 720p, I'd agree with @Aquinus and go with a 4790k.


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## Aquinus (Sep 15, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> Knowing the demands of CPU encoded streaming I'd still recommend X99 or X79... The quad cores don't cut it for 1080p... BUT, that is assuming the OP is going to be streaming at 1080p, and therefore has the bandwidth. Now, if he's going with 720p, I'd agree with @Aquinus and go with a 4790k.


You shouldn't even be having the CPU handle that, you should be using dedicating recording software between the GPU and the display if you *really* care about streaming your game play and not impacting your gaming experience. The simple fact is that encoding 1080p on the fly can be a bear along side a video game, not to mention hosting it live.

If you're just recording, I would get a lot more disk space and I/O and just record raw video. It will result in the smoothest playback and then you can encode it on your own watch, granted that isn't live.

I'm questioning the purpose of doing this. Are you a "professional gamer"?


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 15, 2014)

Haven't tried NVenc, but i've heard good from that, which would be leaning to your argument. But I've used QuickSync, and personally think it's crap quality wise. That said, I'd say for a non-5k+ LoL stream it would probably be OK, at least bearable. But x264 video encoding is far better quality wise.

Recording wise, I've used DXTory, which has very limited CPU load, but is extremely taxing on I/O. In this case you'd have to do the rendering/compression afterwards, which is more time consuming, but keeps it separate from interfering with ingame performance.

I'm not a professional gamer as one that earns money off it. But I'd consider my self a competitive gamer in the same way that a professional plays to win. Therefore I demand a lot from my system in regards to smooth gameplay experience and keeping it from limiting my performance in game. I have also talked a lot with streamers who have played cometitively in regards to their performance requirements.


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## MartinNixon0422 (Sep 18, 2014)

Well, I think I will go for msi x99s gaming 9 ac (becasue the streaming engine)
but wait for the new 9 series graphic card now lol

also, I just want to make sure, is that possible to intall the OS on the Ramdisk?


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## springs113 (Sep 18, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> Well, I think I will go for msi x99s gaming 9 ac (becasue the streaming engine)
> but wait for the new 9 series graphic card now lol
> 
> also, I just want to make sure, is that possible to intall the OS on the Ramdisk?


Great board @GhostRyder  has that board(not to volunteer his services lol) but I guess you would want user opinion as well.  I believe Dave @cadaveca  does too, you could ask him about the features, he did the review on the gaming 7 if you wanna check that out. 
For me, if you ever decide to change your mind I have the Asus deluxe ask away if you need to know anything.


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## Aquinus (Sep 18, 2014)

MartinNixon0422 said:


> Well, I think I will go for msi x99s gaming 9 ac (becasue the streaming engine)
> but wait for the new 9 series graphic card now lol
> 
> also, I just want to make sure, is that possible to intall the OS on the Ramdisk?


You can't install anything on volatile storage and expect it to always be there. You need to reload data into a ram disk every time the machine is turned on. Therefore you would need something to copy the data into the RAMDisk before boot and then you need a BIOS (and OS) that supports booting off a ram disk, which is practically none.

Also are you trying to ignore me? It's like you're already hell bent on spending a lot of money all the while ignoring everyone who says you might not want to go that way. I have to agree with @the54thvoid on this one.


the54thvoid said:


> In my most excellent and experienced opinion  - Don't waste your money unless you actually simply WANT to have a very expensive computer.





the54thvoid said:


> Buy a Z97 and a Devil's Canyon CPU and be done with it.  4Ghz is 4Ghz.  8 cores is overkill for your requirements.  It's not future proofing, it's just silly.



Also you said...


MartinNixon0422 said:


> i am planning to build a high-end gaming/streaming pc
> wiht will play some game like Watch-dogs, or do the live streaming with League of legends/dota2/diablo3



None of those games use more than 2 full threads while running. skt2011 in any way, shape, or form is overkill for your purposes and you'll only be wasting money.

High-end gaming and a list of games like "LoL, DOTA, and Diablo 3" is actually quite laughable considering how light all of these games are on resources. (My machine with two 6870s runs LoL at 120FPS, very light CPU load and the GPUs don't even max out.)

Once again, I think you have a goal to spend a lot of money, not to built a decent costing computer that fits your needs. That's all.



GorbazTheDragon said:


> Knowing the demands of CPU encoded streaming I'd still recommend X99 or X79... The quad cores don't cut it for 1080p... BUT, that is assuming the OP is going to be streaming at 1080p, and therefore has the bandwidth. Now, if he's going with 720p, I'd agree with @Aquinus and go with a 4790k.


I don't. Quads are plenty and my 3820 has proved that to me in the past even more so with games that hardly touch your CPU. Read above and tell me how you disagree with me. Also I did see you agreed with Devil's Canyon, I think it's still the better option when encoding. Cheaper and just as well because more cores doesn't help with encoding on the fly. You need *fast* cores for that. Not more.

Edit: Also, why are all of you people egging the OP on for investing in skt2011-3 where all it will do for the OP is cost more? I don't think you people are thinking through the problem. How the heck can you say he needs 6c+ with that kind of game list? There is zero benefit. An i5 will perform just as well.


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## EarthDog (Sep 18, 2014)

About the only feature he can use on X99 is MSI's Streaming hardware on the Gaming 9.... otherwise, I agree with you Aquinas. 

I am in the middle of reviewing the Gaming 9 as well. Solid board so far.


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## springs113 (Sep 18, 2014)

Aquinus said:


> You can't install anything on volatile storage and expect it to always be there. You need to reload data into a ram disk every time the machine is turned on. Therefore you would need something to copy the data into the RAMDisk before boot and then you need a BIOS (and OS) that supports booting off a ram disk, which is practically none.
> 
> Also are you trying to ignore me? It's like you're already hell bent on spending a lot of money all the while ignoring everyone who says you might not want to go that way. I have to agree with @the54thvoid on this one.
> 
> ...



I understand where you're coming from but how can you say for him to just z97...It sends to me that if he chose the x99 gaming ac he would probably go about a similar price point on a mobo for a z97...this leaves just memory being a tad more expensive and the cpu around the same pricing.  I can't recommend for him to go anything but x99 and there are a neck of a lot more reasonably priced x99 board than there are expensive ones.  If you haven't seen the new crucial ddr4 then all I have to say is they aren't that more expensive especially being a new standard.  I remember my first ddr2 build a dual channel 1gig kit cost me 140, ddr3 1st build for 4gig cost me the same and these were the cheapest corsair/crucials at the time.  An 8 gig w/ heat spreader 8 gigs cost 115 I believe.  The platform is not as expensive as everyone is making it out to be. I for one rather go all out and not have to do incremental updates, it seems the OP feels the same.  The x99 judging by previous cycles shouldn't have an upgrade to it until 2 years time, z97 on the other hand update is next year.  By the way don't you have a 2011?  
Anyways have you played with an x99 system, for one it runs a whole lot smoother than any z97/87 system that is out, two overclocks just as good as any Devils Canyon, Haswell  or even Ivy...both my chips hit 4.6 with the same voltage as my z8/97 and run a heck of a lot cooler than both.  Don't downplay something unless you actually have it please.



EarthDog said:


> About the only feature he can use on X99 is MSI's Streaming hardware on the Gaming 9.... otherwise, I agree with you Aquinas.
> 
> I am in the middle of reviewing the Gaming 9 as well. Solid board so far.


He can use everything on the platform it's up to him to utilize every feature there.  I'm just picking on your statement but I don't think he plans on upgrading for quite some time so I do believe he can't go wrong on the x99.


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## EarthDog (Sep 18, 2014)

Yeah, if that isn't splitting hairs.......LOL! Im sure you get my point though that the Streaming Engine he can utilize... otherwise, Z97 would do.

Ive use it (reviewing Gaming 9 AC atm)... feels the same to me honestly outside of multi-threaded apps... but that is just my 'butt dyno'!

That said, its our job to inform. What/How the user spends his money is not our business. We lay it out, they choose what they want, for better or worse.


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## springs113 (Sep 18, 2014)

EarthDog said:


> Yeah, if that isn't splitting hairs.......LOL! Im sure you get my point though that the Streaming Engine he can utilize... otherwise, Z97 would do.
> 
> Ive use it (reviewing Gaming 9 AC atm)... feels the same to me honestly outside of multi-threaded apps... but that is just my 'butt dyno'!
> 
> That said, its our job to inform. What/How the user spends his money is not our business. We lay it out, they choose what they want, for better or worse.


Not denouncing anything, but overall the platform is not that expensive.  The only expensive piece is the ram.
My z97 mobo cost 50 less than the x99, the cpu cost about 130 less and that is only because I chose the 5930 due to adding a 3rd 290.  The memory cost about 70 more.  My initial x99 build mobo+cpu+mem cost roughly 800 bucks, that is not a bad price at all considering my z97 build of the same 3 cost around 20 dollars more.


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## EarthDog (Sep 18, 2014)

Well, here is the thing. You didn't remotely need an MPower ($240). An Extreme 6 would have been fine for any ambient air clocking and cost ~ $80 less. The CPU (4770K) is $50 less than a 5820K. The DDR4 quad channel ram is bawls more expensive (~$80 difference for say 2x8GB or 4x4GB DDR3/4 2133. The math here with comparable parts shows it to be around $210 difference. While $210 may not be much to some, when using $800 as a base, that is nearly 25% more. Its the OP that needs to figure out if paying that premium is worth it to him. to me 25% or $200+ is a heck of a chunk and can EASILY go up more with getting the 5930K or faster DDR4 ram. While the Z87/97  platform tops out there as the 4790K is what, $5 more than the 4770K?


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## springs113 (Sep 18, 2014)

EarthDog said:


> Well, here is the thing. You didn't remotely need an MPower ($240). An Extreme 6 would have been fine for any ambient air clocking and cost ~ $80 less. The CPU (4770K) is $50 less than a 5820K. The DDR4 quad channel ram is bawls more expensive (~$80 difference for say 2x8GB or 4x4GB DDR3/4 2133. The math here with comparable parts shows it to be around $210 difference. While $210 may not be much to some, when using $800 as a base, that is nearly 25% more. Its the OP that needs to figure out if paying that premium is worth it to him. to me 25% or $200+ is a heck of a chunk and can EASILY go up more with getting the 5930K or faster DDR4 ram. While the Z87/97  platform tops out there as the 4790K is what, $5 more than the 4770K?



True but as I was in the process of building another computer(z97) not realizing that the x99 was around the corner.  My board was the Gigabyte g1 wifi bk edition which cost roughly the same as my current x99 deluxe.  I look at my purchases this way...I waste money on silly things every week possibly around $150, so in my eyes that ~$210 can easily be justified.  Which is why I went the route I chose.

You are right though the OP must know what his/her threshold is in this regards and ultimately make a choice.


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