Best X99 mobo for features and value?

Gazb

Gazb

Gazb

Associate
Joined
12 Nov 2008
Posts
1,238
As the title says, what is the best X99 motherboard for features and value for money.

Features wise, they are all pretty similar. Only really USB 3.1 separates some of them, and some also mention native NVMe support.

Gigabyte have several interesting boards, but I see they seem to like the Atheros Killer NIC's and I'm really not sure about those, the only NIC's I've had consistant performance and reliability with (certainly in my work) has been Intel NIC's.

I've had mixed success with Asrock in the past that would make me rather not buy another one of their boards.

MSI have some motherboards in a good price range, like the MSI X99A SLI Krait is a good contender (though I've not had good luck with MSI motherboards in the past, so I'm not in a rush to buy another. Plus I'm not sure what their support is like now either, I'm guessing Gigabyte (and EVGA) win for support these days).

Asus have many motherboards all around the 220-270 range that seem to differ very little in terms of features, the Asus X99-S looks like the best value of Asus's offerings, though the TUF seems to be a very decent motherboard too.

Anyhow, I'm looking for some opinions on what is probably the best value/featured X99 currently. (I should add this would be for a single graphics card setup)
 
Gigabytes boards on the whole only appear to do PCIe v2 m.2 slots rather than the faster PCIe v3 m.2 slots on most other x99 boards. 10Gb/s vs 32Gb/s. So if that's a concern for you I'd double check on that, the faster slots seem to all be referred to as Ultra m.2.

I've also seen complaints of USB problems with some of the ASUS boards, maybe someone else can chime in further on this.
 
EVGA seem very solid going by user reports. Not sure why OCUK aren't selling any of their X99 boards currently though. I'm also uncertain if they will be releasing updated USB 3.1 versions soon, but I can't imagine they won't. I know they have a new MATX Micro2 on the way, but that's the only new X99 board from them I've heard about. It's actually a stunning looking board, so hopefully they'll do a full ATX version that looks similar.

I don't think the USB problems are unique to Asus from what I've read. I did have some issues with my Asus X99-S initially, but a BIOS update sorted that.
 
I think the USB issues I have had could be a problem will the USB hubs in my displays. Since I disconnected them all the problems have gone. That said, if I was buying now I would get an MSI board.
 
I've got the MSI X99S SLI. It's a good motherboard.
I think the X99A SLI adds USB 3.1
My mate had the Gigabyte SOC force and the M2 slot on the motherboard only runs at PCI-E 2.0 as opposed to 3.0. This lead to him getting slower speeds on his Samsung SM951 so he sold it and got an MSI motherboard.
 
FredFlint said:
I think the USB issues I have had could be a problem will the USB hubs in my displays. Since I disconnected them all the problems have gone. That said, if I was buying now I would get an MSI board.
Click to expand...

The here's the thing, you really shouldn't have to do that.
The hub in my monitor is really useful as is the port on my corsair keyboard.

Have MSI motherboards improved in the last few years? Previous MSI boards I've had were extremely temperamental.
 
I just went for the MSI x99A krait...I haven't used it yet..and truthfully I did pick it because of the black/white colours.

It seems pretty feature packed though like USB 3.1 and M.2 Ultra etc.
 
AFAIK, the USB issue has mostly been reported by users of Asus's X99 series. I haven't heard anything specific yet from users with the revised USB 3.1 versions of those boards so it might have just affected the first revisions.

The way the issue has been reported by users its appears to derive from the third party chipset (ASMedia) that Asus used to provide extra USB 3.0 ports. This is only speculation and it could just be a BIOS issue or something else. However, Gigabyte use a Renesas chipset to provide extra USB lanes on their X-99 boards for example and there have been no reported USB issues with their boards.

I'm upgrading to an X99 system myself next month after Windows 10 releases and was pretty set on getting an Asus X99 Pro until I heard about the USB issues. Some of the MSI and EVGA X99 boards look decent and well specced, but I'm leaning towards an E-ATX Gigabyte board at the moment (mainly due to past experience of reliability), even though most of their X99 boards lack USB 3.1 and have poor M2 implementations.
 
Last edited:
USB issues with my Gigabyte board too. I had the same with my x58 board. Beginning to think its a x58/x99 issue. Which is **** considering how much you pay for high end.

Also Gigabyte boards run at pci-e so 20Gb/s not 32Gb/s like other boards. Doesnt bother me as still get 1600Mb/s with my 951 though obviously not as good as the 2100Mb you should get. Real world difference = zero. Still 3 times faster and a sata ssd
 
For "bang for the buck" features rather than outright overclocking potential, I'd be tempted by either the...

MSI X99A Gaming 7
Asrock X99 Extreme 4/3.1

OCuk appear to be very slow at getting hold of the USB 3.1 revisions of X99 motherboards, they have a few MSI left in stock, but looking around a little this morning I discovered there are more out there from other brands like Asrock and Asus at least.

For outright overclocking, the Gigabyte X99 SOC looks the way forward (it is also the only X99 mobo I've spotted so far with official support for 3400MHz DDR4 speeds). Their slight weakness appears to be that they do not have an "Ultra m.2" 32Gb/s socket, which will bottleneck the fastest m.2 storage devices such as the SM951.
 
Gigabyte SOC force is the best Overclocking board in terms of total OC, memory OC and efficiency at this price level for sure.
 
BrynS said:
Which Gigabyte board are you using, Greebo?
Click to expand...

SOC Force. Dont get me wrong, its a great board but if the pc fails to boot due to the bios (pushing overclocking too far) then all the usb ports stop working (well they work but appear to not give any power) and I can't use my keyboard to enter the bios again. GRRRRR

Luckily i have an old ps2 one which does work but hate having to keep a second keyboard around while I sort the overclocking out.
 
UTmaniac said:
For outright overclocking, the Gigabyte X99 SOC looks the way forward (it is also the only X99 mobo I've spotted so far with official support for 3400MHz DDR4 speeds). Their slight weakness appears to be that they do not have an "Ultra m.2" 32Gb/s socket, which will bottleneck the fastest m.2 storage devices such as the SM951.
Click to expand...

Not really an issue unless u like benchmarks. My sm951 still has 1600Mb/s speeds comapred with the 2100 it should have on other boards. Thats still about 4 times faster than my old ssd. At least its a Turbo socket at 20Mb/s and not a 10Mb/s normal socket which would limit your SM951 to around 750Mb/s.

In reality i doubt you would ever notice the difference without the use of benchmark program.

Windows boots up so quickly and every app opens instantly so far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom