Motherboard suggestions for theorycrafting a new PC?

[Krusty]

It was with some surprise that I had to look up when I ordered my current Phantom NZXT case, and realized it was in 2011. It's hard to believe the core components of my rig are that old. I future-proofed it as much as possible at the time, but I chose the wrong chipset and the wrong socket type. It's a dead end and I cannot upgrade it efficiently.


Looking at what I want to do and what I might want to do in the future, I would like to theory craft a new rig. I think I want an SSD primary and my platter secondary HDD, with option to run a RAID of platter drives if I want.

Notwithstanding the peripherals, the I/O, the power, and add-ons, I want a rig that runs high resolutions well (3x monitor setup or Oculus in the future). That means PCIe slots. At least 2, if not 3 or 4 for high speed SSDs. I'm planning on a single video card but wouldn't be against room for SLI.

Based on high-end i7 CPU, what would folks suggest for a good, reliable, BIOS-friendly motherboard that has a good-to-great RAM capacity, at least 2 to 3 PCIe slots or more, onboard sound but NO onboard video.

I just don't have a feel for motherboard brands. I have a handle on CPUs, GPUs, and even some SSDs I'm interested in, but I always have to ask for help on motherboards.


Welcome to suggestions. Thank you.

[AKIron]

I'll only speak to the video card issue. Currently, the Oculus is not benefited by SLI and I've read about lag otherwise associated with multiple cards. Top end right now of course is the GTX 1080ti. Lot to spend for a video card and of course there's no such thing as future proofing.

[Krusty]

Future proofing to me is building in enough overhead power and expansion capability to allow for upgrades down the line. Such as: Having capacity for 32GB of DDR but only using 16. Or, having an extra PCIe slot for SLI even though I prefer a single, more powerful card. Like, spending an extra bit of $$ on a video card that's stronger so that you can play games comfortably that have yet to come out.

I do prefer a single stronger card to SLI or anything, but I won't rule out the option. It also gives me room for aftermarket cooling to have that second slot next to the first.

[Skuzzy]

Hard to go wrong with ASUS motherboards and they have a full range of them.

Power supply, go with Seasonic.

[JTs]

PCPartPicker.com build away to your hearts content. It's free and has a compatability checker. Even recommend s the best prices

[DREDIOCK]

It was with some surprise that I had to look up when I ordered my current Phantom NZXT case, and realized it was in 2011. It's hard to believe the core components of my rig are that old. I future-proofed it as much as possible at the time, but I chose the wrong chipset and the wrong socket type. It's a dead end and I cannot upgrade it efficiently.


Looking at what I want to do and what I might want to do in the future, I would like to theory craft a new rig. I think I want an SSD primary and my platter secondary HDD, with option to run a RAID of platter drives if I want.

Notwithstanding the peripherals, the I/O, the power, and add-ons, I want a rig that runs high resolutions well (3x monitor setup or Oculus in the future). That means PCIe slots. At least 2, if not 3 or 4 for high speed SSDs. I'm planning on a single video card but wouldn't be against room for SLI.

Based on high-end i7 CPU, what would folks suggest for a good, reliable, BIOS-friendly motherboard that has a good-to-great RAM capacity, at least 2 to 3 PCIe slots or more, onboard sound but NO onboard video.

I just don't have a feel for motherboard brands. I have a handle on CPUs, GPUs, and even some SSDs I'm interested in, but I always have to ask for help on motherboards.


Welcome to suggestions. Thank you.

Built my current rig on 08 with the E8400 CPU and Gigabyte MB. The only changes I made were to the sound card and video card I am astounded this thing is still running as good as it is

[TequilaChaser]

Hard to go wrong with ASUS motherboards and they have a full range of them.

Power supply, go with Seasonic.

Agreed, especially the top shelf ASUS MB models  like the ASUS ROG (republic of gamers) models, etc... but even the mid range and lower level ASUS MB's are still better than other boards... phasing, North bridge and South bridge chipsets specs can tell you a lot about the MB's capabilities ....

Always do thorough research..... when piecing together a new computer build


Hope this helps, Good luck

TC

[AKIron]

Hard to go wrong with ASUS motherboards and they have a full range of them.

Power supply, go with Seasonic.

Asus and Intel are the best boards I've bought in the last 20 years. No regrets.

[MADe]

my sig reflects a build with some of whats currently available, for what you described. built last fall

u want pcie 3.0,
usb 3.0 and 3.1,
you want vid card with hdmi and displayport and VR capable, GTX970 and up,
u mention ssd then u might as well get the m.2 socket version of latest.........check out kingstons latest release, 6000K+ reads........................ ....sic

research the cpu for number of pcie lanes it accommodates, u want 40!

do not sli

u have some catching up to do my friend, its amazing whats available.

u will be dealing with uefi bios, make sure all hardware choices uefi ready. what OS? I failed at installing w7 with uefi. after agonizing for days..... I installed w10, took 20 minutes...................... .....many have installed w7 np!
 

[BaldEagl]

You can't future proof a computer.  They are meant to exist over a short period of time as technology advances.

From the Intel X series processors through the various Pentium series to Core2 to I series and several slot/socket options in each to RAM from PC66 to PC100 to DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, upgrades in video handling, storage technology, etc., etc., etc.  By the time you need to upgrade you're already multiple generations behind.  And guess what?  If you want old technology new it costs more than the new technology.  Sure you can upgrade used but you're not really sure what you're getting and you're still behind.

I say build all that you can afford and plan to replace it at it's end of life.  You might get a smallish upgrade in along the way but I wouldn't plan on it if you've done a solid build.  Replacing will give you a bigger, better, faster, cheaper system than what you're replacing (or trying to upgrade) and it will likely use less power.  And, you can sell or donate your old system to someone less fortunate.  There's a saying about throwing good money after bad...

As to mobos I'm using an MSI Gaming model.  Very nice.  The BIOS allows you to interact in idiot, novice and advanced modes and is very flexible but somewhat difficult to totally understand in advanced mode (there's more options than even most advanced users will need).  I liked my old EVGA/NVIDIA mobo but I think they've fallen off the mobo map.  Gigabyte still looks good but are seemingly still prone to compatibility issues with other HW, particularly RAM.  I've also got an MSI laptop I've been very impressed with.

[Bizman]

BaldEagl has a point there. Hardware gets old right when carried out of the shop.

My recipe has been to get a motherboard which supports more than I can afford, getting a decent CPU and RAM for the tasks I need and upgrading when the used top gear prices have dropped to a reasonable level. My current rig is still going strong after 8 years with minor upgrades, the video card having been the biggest change - and probably also the next.

[DaddyAce]

My approach is similar to Bizman's.  I recently built a system with an new MSI Gaming board, i3 6100 dual core CPU, 8 GB RAM, 3 GB GTX 1060.  It's most demanding use is to run AH3 on a 1440 p monitor, and it does it well and very much to my satisfaction.  Meanwhile I can use the saved $ (compared to a more high end build) to help fund going see Komodo Dragons, and scuba diving in Indonesia, for example.  I understand if I decide to go for VR down the road I'll likely have to upgrade my GPU and perhaps CPU, but the upgrades will be some combo of cheaper/better by then, and I don't think I'll have a hard time finding a use for mu current GPU.....

A couple of other thoughts on Mobos.  At least on my MSI, I believe the BIOS would let me control the GPU fans and read GPU temp, if I had a MSI GPU (mine is a Gigabyte GPU).  Another consideration for me was that I wanted the mobo to easily support my USB needs.

Good luck with your upgrade whatever you decide to do!

[AKIron]

Only really iffy motherboards I've bought over the years were the ECS brand. Fry's used to have those pretty cheap. "You get what you pay for". If you pay a lot you hope that's true. If you don't, you don't.

[Gman]

If you want a very tough/robust board that has all the features you want, any of the Asus Sabertooth boards are excellent, I've had them in both x79, x99, and Z170 sets.  Very rugged, and functional.

If you want pretty and capable, the RGB ROG Asus boards are alright too, for my 6850 Broadwell E system I'm using the Asus STRIX board.  Lots of RGB color options/patterns if you care about that sort of thing, and good fan controls/bios/etc too, easy to overclock and do other gamer-y type things simply.

I think it's hard to get a "bad" MB if you stick with the major manufacturers.

RE SLI - I've been using SLI since the 12mb Creative Labs cards were around in the late 90s.  Had 680s in SLI, 780ti's in SLI, and now have a couple systems with 1080s in SLI (and a single Titan XP).  I won't get SLI again unless they radically improve both the amount of titles it supports, add VR support across the board, and also improve how it performs overall.  There are only a few titles I've found that it has really made a difference that I cared about with, and that's running on 27 to 34" Gsync 1440p to 4k monitors all capable of 100 to 165hz display.  As others have said, there are only a couple very obscure things that SLI works with in VR, and even on regular LCDs, it's not worth the cost to performance, or cost to PITA ratio to bother with SLI anymore.  For flight sim players, AH, DCS, IL2, etc - SLI works either poorly or not at all in LCD mode, and not at all in VR.  I've come to the conclusion now "what's the point"...

I ordered 2 1080tis to replace the 4 1080s in 2 of our systems, and won't be SLI'ing them other than perhaps plunking both ti cards into one system just to fool around a bit with 3dmark/tests. 

Put the extra $ into either a VR Rift or a better LCD IMO.

[Skuzzy]

I have an ASUS Sabertooth motherboard in my computer as well.  You would be hard pressed to find a more stable or reliable motherboard (long haul) than that one.