What motherboard should i use ?
- Thread starter Leubi
- Start date
OcUK Staff
Maximus 9 hero Asus for 7700k
Associate
Yes. This is a spectacular motherboard!
Just throwing in another option, with even better spacing for SLI:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £270.49
(includes shipping: £10.50)
This one has been used for breaking a lot of records recently, and price is close to the Hero while on offer. But it's E-ATX so have to check if it fits your case. Note it's very focused on overclocking and only has two DIMM slots for memory, not that many SATA ports etc if that's an issue. The Hero is obviously a great choice already and more consumer-focused, but the Apex would be even better for triple slot-thickness cards for example (if you're not putting them under water). One of the nice special features is a DIMM.2 socket for dual M.2 SSDs. It also includes the riser card for them. It comes with a high-bandwidth SLI bridge but the spacing for this is not for PCIe 3.0 x16 slots 1 & 3 but for 1 & 2* so looking for another bridge would be better. Any of these will do:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £122.63
(includes shipping: £8.70)
EVGA label their bridges by a different rule to Nvidia/Asus (e.g. 2 slot v 4 slot) but these are all the same length.
* I'm not 100% sure about the motherboard's included HB SLI bridge. Just guessing with my eyes looking at a few unboxing vids. It would be strange that the SLI slots on the Apex are the first and third (and bypass the second), which they are, but that Asus would bundle a HB bridge for the wrong slots. It just looks a bit short to me. The tiny lettering on the motherboard does confirm that the third PCIe 3.0 slot is x8/x4 whereas the lettering on the second PCIe 3.0 slot says only x4.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £270.49
(includes shipping: £10.50)
This one has been used for breaking a lot of records recently, and price is close to the Hero while on offer. But it's E-ATX so have to check if it fits your case. Note it's very focused on overclocking and only has two DIMM slots for memory, not that many SATA ports etc if that's an issue. The Hero is obviously a great choice already and more consumer-focused, but the Apex would be even better for triple slot-thickness cards for example (if you're not putting them under water). One of the nice special features is a DIMM.2 socket for dual M.2 SSDs. It also includes the riser card for them. It comes with a high-bandwidth SLI bridge but the spacing for this is not for PCIe 3.0 x16 slots 1 & 3 but for 1 & 2* so looking for another bridge would be better. Any of these will do:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
- 1 x Asus ROG SLI HB Bridge with RGB Lighting - 4 Slot= £49.99
- 1 x GEFORCE GTX SLI HB BRIDGE 4-SLOT (L380218)= £38.99
- 1 x EVGA 2 way Pro HB SLI bridge (2 slot gap)= £24.95
Total: £122.63
(includes shipping: £8.70)
EVGA label their bridges by a different rule to Nvidia/Asus (e.g. 2 slot v 4 slot) but these are all the same length.
* I'm not 100% sure about the motherboard's included HB SLI bridge. Just guessing with my eyes looking at a few unboxing vids. It would be strange that the SLI slots on the Apex are the first and third (and bypass the second), which they are, but that Asus would bundle a HB bridge for the wrong slots. It just looks a bit short to me. The tiny lettering on the motherboard does confirm that the third PCIe 3.0 slot is x8/x4 whereas the lettering on the second PCIe 3.0 slot says only x4.
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Is this the board you referenced ??
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £250.49
(includes shipping: £10.50)
Just throwing in another option, with even better spacing for SLI:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £270.49
(includes shipping: £10.50)
This one has been used for breaking a lot of records recently, and price is close to the Hero while on offer. But it's E-ATX so have to check if it fits your case. Note it's very focused on overclocking and only has two DIMM slots for memory, not that many SATA ports etc if that's an issue. The Hero is obviously a great choice already and more consumer-focused, but the Apex would be even better for triple slot-thickness cards for example (if you're not putting them under water). One of the nice special features is a DIMM.2 socket for dual M.2 SSDs. It also includes the riser card for them. It comes with a high-bandwidth SLI bridge but the spacing for this is not for PCIe 3.0 x16 slots 1 & 3 but for 1 & 2* so looking for another bridge would be better. Any of these will do:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
- 1 x Asus ROG SLI HB Bridge with RGB Lighting - 4 Slot= £49.99
- 1 x GEFORCE GTX SLI HB BRIDGE 4-SLOT (L380218)= £38.99
- 1 x EVGA 2 way Pro HB SLI bridge (2 slot gap)= £24.95
Total: £122.63
(includes shipping: £8.70)
EVGA label their bridges by a different rule to Nvidia/Asus (e.g. 2 slot v 4 slot) but these are all the same length.
* I'm not 100% sure about the motherboard's included HB SLI bridge. Just guessing with my eyes looking at a few unboxing vids. It would be strange that the SLI slots on the Apex are the first and third (and bypass the second), which they are, but that Asus would bundle a HB bridge for the wrong slots. It just looks a bit short to me. The tiny lettering on the motherboard does confirm that the third PCIe 3.0 slot is x8/x4 whereas the lettering on the second PCIe 3.0 slot says only x4.
That board does look nice but is there any performance difference between 2x RAM sticks and 4x RAM sticks (If the total memory were to be the same)?
No performance difference for dual channel platforms, which all the 1151 boards are. Having only 2 sticks rather than 4 usually help to get better overclocking potential which is why the IX Apex only has 2 slots but if you're not bothered about that and want some expandability options in the future then go for the IX Hero.
Soldato
- Joined
- 1 Dec 2015
- Posts
- 18,514
Hi guys
I am looking to build a new computer with an Intel i7 and SLI 1080 TI's. Can anyone suggest a spacious motherboard so I get decent air flow and preferably enough USB 3.0 so i can run the Oculus Rift ??
Thanks in advance.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
- 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z270X-Gaming SOC Intel Z270 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £244.99
- 2 x Gigabyte Aorus GeForce GTX 1080Ti "Xtreme Edition" 11264MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card= £788.99
Total: £1,834.07
(includes shipping: £11.10)
Enough VRM and spacing for you
Also Aorus cards have internal HDMI headers to link to front of the case - if your case has the ability
Sli is hard to recommend these days due to poor support. If you want to go down the multi GPU route with m.2 drives and maybe other devices that will want pci-e lanes you may want to look at a platform with more lanes then z270......
Additionally the Intel '300' series boards looks likely to be out later this year and it looks like the upcoming Intel consumer hex cores won't be compatible with 200 series boards so you may also have a bit of buyers regret with a kabylake/200 series setup....
Additionally the Intel '300' series boards looks likely to be out later this year and it looks like the upcoming Intel consumer hex cores won't be compatible with 200 series boards so you may also have a bit of buyers regret with a kabylake/200 series setup....
When are the 300s likely to come out ? I very much doubt ill be overclocking. My main focus is to future proof for at very least 3 years.
No firm release date yet just 2nd half of year...
https://www.kitguru.net/components/...ts-to-provide-usb-3-1-gen2-and-gigabit-wi-fi/
I would bet on a late September or October launch..... Failing that it's November 'in time for holiday seasons'
As per previous if your looking for longevity without overclocking you may want to consider either a Ryzen setup (principal weakness is not many pci-e lanes from CPU, but can be had at reasonable stock speeds albeit little oc headroom), a thread ripper setup (8+ cores... Probably best to stick with the 8 core chip, otherwise similar to Ryzen but more expensive but with a lot more pci-e lanes) or an Intel x299 setup (anywhere from 4 to 18 cores... Don't bother paying for more than 10 cores unless you have a specific need, fast with more oc headroom than amd chips but needs very good cooling to get most out o platform-think custom water cooling, consider paying for ocuk's binned delided chips as run cooler... V. Expensive)
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Okay guys ive had a think and im going to go with the Maximus IX Hero ! this is what ive got in the basket so far , Im going to get the other 1080 TI at a later date. Can anyone recommend some decent RAM for this setup ??
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,547.02
(includes shipping: £14.10)
My basket at Overclockers UK:
- 1 x In-Win 509 Design Full Tower Tempered Glass Case - Black/Grey= £162.95
- 1 x Asus GeForce GTX 1080Ti ROG Strix OC 11264MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card= £779.99
- 1 x Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero Intel Z270 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £239.99
- 1 x Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £349.99
Total: £1,547.02
(includes shipping: £14.10)
It should be October. In their video, Intel had coffee cups with "October" written on them. I guess they didn't outright say it to cover their ***** in case there's some delay but that's the month they are working towards.
Buying that stuff just a month+a bit before the six cores hit the market is a pity, especially if you want to future-proof for about three years. I mean, I have a 4770K from 2013, with the same cores and same threads as a 7700K. No way would I "upgrade" to a similar CPU that's only 10-15% faster, when more cores are hitting the market both from AMD and Intel, signalling a greater use of these in future.
Buying that stuff just a month+a bit before the six cores hit the market is a pity, especially if you want to future-proof for about three years. I mean, I have a 4770K from 2013, with the same cores and same threads as a 7700K. No way would I "upgrade" to a similar CPU that's only 10-15% faster, when more cores are hitting the market both from AMD and Intel, signalling a greater use of these in future.
Well i guess i can hold off untill then if you guys recommend it, i dont have to upgrade this very second but i just really wanted to start a new build!
