LGA2011 Motherboard with 3920

[n-ster]

What exactly is your use for your computer?

 

[claylomax]

You want to go cheap on a motherboard with an enthusiast level CPU? You baffle me.

I think I'm changing my mind on motherboard. I really wanted to go with the MSI GD65 but it doesn't support the 3820 out of the box.

So my choice for motherboard is now ASUS Rampage IV Formula.
ASUS Rampage IV Formula LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6G...

This might be if the Zalman doesn't live up to my expectations, I have a push-pull fan on my Phenom II 940 right now that has two 120mm fans that blow 100cfm each (!!) and if I have two CPU fan headers, that can remain an option. Also the Motherboard I was looking at would have required me to replace my case with a workstation chassis.

Edit: Except not, I want 8-dimm slots. Gah. >_>

And you're getting the Formula with a I7 3820 ... now you baffle me.

 

[cadaveca]

My X79 motherboard should be here in a few hours:
http://media.bestofmicro.com/7/Q/326870/original/biostar_tpower-x79.jpg

Interesting looking product. I should have received one of these weeks ago for review, now that I think of it. Thanks for the reminder, will have to see what happened with that.

 

[Aquinus]

And you're getting the Formula with a I7 3820 ... now you baffle me.

Read further down, I got a different board... and the price point for the 3820 is much more reasonable than the 3930k. The 3820 is not a bad chip. It's just as capable as the 2(6/7)00k and costs about the same amount too. I do like a good fully-featured motherboard though and the 3820 is more than adequate for most tasks so why should I spend twice as much for only 2 more cores and a little more L3 cache? It isn't worth it for my purposes.

 

[Aquinus]

What exactly is your use for your computer?

Occasional high resolution gaming, video encoding, and software development (I run at least 3 virtual machines with 2gb of ram on a regular basis.) I also wanted it to be upgradable for the future and to last. Plus, having a Sandy Bridge-E has a status associated along with it and I was willing to dish out a little extra to have a machine that was "more than adequate."

Keep in mind that I tele-work most of the week so I easily spend 30 hours on my computer for work alone, not including free time when I play games, work with video, etc. I debated the 3930k and rejected it.

 

[n-ster]

Does the quicksync feature from SB not help in your case?

 

[Aquinus]

Does the quicksync feature from SB not help in your case?

QuickSync has very selective settings when encoding/decoding video and at that point it would make more sense to use my AMD video card with the same settings since the 6870 is a bit more powerful in that area (soon to be two video cards but I don't this transcoding uses both at once). Either way, depending on your settings, it may not support the format that I want to encode to or the format I'm transcoding from.

SB also doesn't support 8 dimms or VT-d (Virtualization w/ Directed I/O), at least on the k editions. Also the feature set that comes with the X79 chipset is pretty sexy. The 3820 however being limited to 45 bins on the multiplier has the more flexible bclk, and I've seen people who have hit >5ghz with the 3820. Not that I'm going to be over-clocking a whole lot because the 3820 is still a power house, but it good enough for I need without spending 600USD+ for the CPU alone. If I went with the 3930k, I would have had to get slower memory and ditch the second 6870 or ditch one of the SSDs, something I didn't want to do. The CPU drives a lot, but the 3820 is perfectly adequate.

 

[n-ster]

True you'd have to go i7 2600 @ 4.2Ghz If you had went without 1 SSD and gotten a 3930K C2 (C1 don't have Vt-d IIRC) then it would probably have been worth it IMO Oh well.

 

[Aquinus]

True you'd have to go i7 2600 @ 4.2Ghz If you had went without 1 SSD and gotten a 3930K C2 (C1 don't have Vt-d IIRC) then it would probably have been worth it IMO Oh well.

1 SSD doesn't cost 300USD. I bought two 120gb SSDs in hope to break the 1gb/s barrier in RAID-0. Even more so since Intel's raid driver supports TRIM in RAID now.

Edit: also looking at reviews, the only benefit the 3930k has is in some very select benchmarks. The 3820 is very well placed having the best of both the 3960x and the 2600k. It's a fair middle ground in my opinion. We shall see soon enough.

 

[n-ster]

Sure, but you were talking about IB-E and 8 cores, I was assuming you could benefit from 6 cores

 

[Aquinus]

Sure, but you were talking about IB-E and 8 cores, I was assuming you could benefit from 6 cores

Sure, it's just not worth it. As I said before I wanted something faster than my poor Phenom II 940 and with IVB-E around the corner, it doesn't make sense to invest in an expensive SB-E. Plus the 3820 is perfectly adequate.

 

[n-ster]

IVB-E isn't that close around the corner lol... actually pretty far away consider how fast tech moves in general

Did you get a CPU cooler?

 

[Aquinus]

IVB-E isn't that close around the corner lol... actually pretty far away consider how fast tech moves in general

Did you get a CPU cooler?

I did. I got a 130mm Zalman cooler and in case it can't keep up I have a dual 120mm Thermaltake heat sink with two 100 CFM fans attached to it in case the Zalman doesn't keep up which is currently on my Phenom II 940. I can run my Phenom II 940 at 1.55 volts without breaking 60*C with it, and I'm not sure about you but as I've gotten older I've realized that half a year to a year isn't that long of time and it will be here before you know it. Get married and have a child and you will quickly realize how quickly time flies by.

You're just nit picking my decision apart as much as you can, aren't you?

Edit: I do plan on keeping TPU updated with my upgrade with pictures, numbers, and all. Hopefully I can put some questions to rest over the next couple days.

 

[n-ster]

Don't worry I do that to myself as well xD I also don't want you to end up with something you didn't want or have something missing

ie: dumb mistake like not having a CPU cooler that works on LGA 2011 etc

 

[Aquinus]

Don't worry I do that to myself as well xD I also don't want you to end up with something you didn't want or have something missing

ie: dumb mistake like not having a CPU cooler that works on LGA 2011 etc

I'm only a System Administrator and I've only been building computers for 10 years.

 

[Aquinus]

Don't worry I do that to myself as well xD I also don't want you to end up with something you didn't want or have something missing

ie: dumb mistake like not having a CPU cooler that works on LGA 2011 etc

But now that you mention that I did notice a statement for the cooler:
* Note: For North America market only: Customers who purchased the product after October 9th, 2011 can receive the LGA 2011 mounting kits free of charge. Please contact support.usa@zalmanusa.com for more information.

Also a review says:

Other Thoughts: No screws for mounting it to a motherboard with a socket LGA 2011, but then it's not listed as being compatible. As it turns out, the screw needed is a metric M4-0.7 size screw, easily obtainable at a local hardware store. add in a couple or three small washers on each screw, and this cooler will bolt right on, no fuss-no muss.

But that is also for a review for this cooler from 2011. (Hah! No pun intended.) ...but it does list it as LGA2011 compatible.

 

[n-ster]

If you can get the mounting kit free, might as well get the proper mounting kit no?

 

[Aquinus]

I just did some research and it appears that LGA2011 is the same size as LGA1366 but uses threaded bolts instead of using a backplate. I also emailed Zalman, so we will see what they say.

 

[n-ster]

Now that you say that, I think I might have heard something similar but I haven't done any research

I'm really interested in the overclock when you do that oh and good luck with everything!

 

[Aquinus]

Now that you say that, I think I might have heard something similar but I haven't done any research

I'm really interested in the overclock when you do that oh and good luck with everything!

Apparently I just need some M4-0.7 bolts and a couple washers to bolt the cooler on using the Intel clips that come with the cooler. It is pretty astonishing the lack of coolers for the LGA 2011 though, but the hole spacing is the same, it's just a matter of not needing a back plate because it can screw right into the board.

edit: ...and thanks. I'm pretty excited about it.

 

[claylomax]

Read further down, I got a different board... and the price point for the 3820 is much more reasonable than the 3930k. The 3820 is not a bad chip. It's just as capable as the 2(6/7)00k and costs about the same amount too. I do like a good fully-featured motherboard though and the 3820 is more than adequate for most tasks so why should I spend twice as much for only 2 more cores and a little more L3 cache? It isn't worth it for my purposes.

Who said is a bad chip? I got one myself. Now I see you're going with the UD5, I think that board is not ATX, but I'm not sure; anyway it will fit in your case.

 

[Aquinus]

Who said is a bad chip? I got one myself. Now I see you're going with the UD5, I think that board is not ATX, but I'm not sure; anyway it will fit in your case.

Read the entire thread. I ordered an ASUS P9X79 Deluxe since Dave said he has had great success with the P9X79 board. I also currently have an ASUS motherboard and I'm happy with that too. The UD5 is a gigabyte board isn't it? I did initially pick out the P9X79 WS but realized very quickly that I don't have an Intel Workstation Chassis to hold it (before I ordered it of course.)

Also the 3820 isn't bad, it's like a souped-up 2600k. The only thing that makes it a little worse than the 2600k is the memory latency in quad-channel mode, but even that is pretty acceptable for the amount of bandwidth you get.

Edit: I think it was in reference to this.

True you'd have to go i7 2600 @ 4.2Ghz If you had went without 1 SSD and gotten a 3930K C2 (C1 don't have Vt-d IIRC) then it would probably have been worth it IMO Oh well.

No one has really said it is a bad chip, it just has a great price point for what it is. It's the i7 920 of SB-E.

 

[n-ster]

I wouldn't go as far as to say it compares to the i7 920 lol. The i7 920 was phenomenal while still being cheap at Microcenter. It was practically the best CPU you could get at the time, yet you could get it for 230$

it's as if the 3930 non-K (doesn't exist AFAIK but illustrating a point) would be 250$ or less

 

[Aquinus]

I wouldn't go as far as to say it compares to the i7 920 lol. The i7 920 was phenomenal while still being cheap at Microcenter. It was practically the best CPU you could get at the time, yet you could get it for 230$

it's as if the 3930 non-K (doesn't exist AFAIK but illustrating a point) would be 250$ or less

It doesn't exist for a reason!

All I was saying is that the placement of the 3820 is similar to the placement of the 920 for the X58 platform for both price and performance in comparison to the other models for that socket.

I'm just saying 3820 is to 920 as 3960x is to 990x.

 

[n-ster]

yea ofc because the 3820 is actually replacing the i7 920 lol sadly the bang/buck feature+power wise that was offered by the i7 920 doesn't exist with intel anymore, and the i7 3820 is the closest thing to it.

If you didn't want to spend that much money, I would have suggested a used X58 setup actually lol