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Hi everyone. Novice here when it comes to flight sim. I plan to build a PC dedicated for FSX

(Been left just a little unsatisfied with my Dell Inspiron which I bought 4 years ago. Not much fun with FSX or 2009. Hope you understand =\ hehe

 

Having trouble finding a motherboard best suiting the parts I already bought.

So far I ordered:

i7-4770k processor
evga nvidia gtx 780
cooler master haf-932
samsung evo 840 solid state

as far as motherboards go, I'm looking to the z87 mobo but have no idea really what the differences among them mean for FSX..

for example:

Asus Sabertooth
Asus Maximus Hero
Asus Maximus Formula
Asus Extreme

I've looked it up on newegg and asus and forums but i've been out of the loop with pc technology that the stuff I read is very unfamiliar...
Can anyone just tell in brief terms their recommendations and why? Thanks in advance. Can't wait to put this thing together

Will

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Interesting you should only list Asus motherboards. I wouldn't touch one again after my experience. A friend who bought at the same time as me had different problems but again, it was an Asus mobo. He swapped for a Gigabyte and hasn't looked back.

 

My Maximus VI Gene (Z87) had a frozen clock which Asus couldn't resolve. I wasn't alone. In the end I was able to have it swapped for a Gigabyte. It's behaved flawlessly since.

 

I'd recommend you have a look here at Gigabyte's Z87/1150 range and choose one of those. http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=2&p=2&v=31

 

How about the G1.Sniper Z5. That's the full-size version of my M5.

 

My case is micro ATX and if you haven't considered one it saves quite a bit of space over the full size.

Ray (Cheshire, England).

System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke, Fulcrum TQ (pre-production).

Cheadle Hulme Weather website.

chlive.php

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I've had numerous Asus motherboards over the years with only 1 having a fault back in the days of slot A AMD CPU's. They're my only choice these days, so I can't speak for other brands.

 

Only a few days ago I bought some new components and the motherboard I selected was the Z87 Sabretooth. It's a really solid board thanks to the 'TUF Fortifier'.

 

It has great airflow and 'dust defenders' which plug PCI Express, RAM, Sata and USB ports not in use. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending one.

Cheers,

John Tavendale
Textures by Tavers - https://www.facebook.com/texturesbytavers

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Asus have been superbly reliable for me over the years. I suspect the issues Ray had was just one of those things, not indicative of general reliability.

Asus Sabertooth: This is a great motherboard. It's built for reliability, with some military components, it has excellent thermal characteristics and monitoring software. It's pretty much the perfect board, as long as you don't require the Asus 4 way optimisation software to automatically overclock. It comes with Ai Suite 3, but without the auto overclocking. It has a fantastic guarantee, and is thoroughly tested before leaving the factory. It's up to you to look at the features and decide if it's right for you.




Asus Maximus Hero: This is a ROG board, part of the Asus Republic of gamers range. Nice overcloking features, but not as fully featured as the Formula and Extreme boards. Should do all you require though.



Asus Maximus Formula: Fantastic board, very good overclocking features, comes with thermal armour to aid MB cooling and stiffen the board, great for those with big heavy air coolers. The armour also helps to keep fingers off vital components. Great software with it, including 4 way optimisation.


Asus Extreme: Ultra expensive, top of the line ROG board. unnecessary, but if you have loads of money why not.
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Martin,

 

I accept my friend and I were probably victims of a bad batch of motherboards but it is still worrying that it covered more than one model.

 

Whilst the Asus could only be overclocked to 4.3GHz the Gigabyte was successfully overclocked to 4.4. Asus do make good motherboards but so do Gigabyte and I would recommend the OP consider both.

Ray (Cheshire, England).

System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke, Fulcrum TQ (pre-production).

Cheadle Hulme Weather website.

chlive.php

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I accept my friend and I were probably victims of a bad batch of motherboards but it is still worrying that it covered more than one model

 

Just coincidental I would say Ray, nothing to do with bad batches. Happens from time to time. As I said though it doesn't indicate that Asus boards are unreliable. Evidence suggests far from it. I understand why you would be reticent though, I probably would be as well.

 

 

Whilst the Asus could only be overclocked to 4.3GHz the Gigabyte was successfully overclocked to 4.4. Asus do make good motherboards but so do Gigabyte and I would recommend the OP consider both.

 

 

You have confirmed that the Asus board was faulty, so no surprise itwasn't a particularly good performer.

 

 

Setting aside the fact that it was a faulty board anyway, 100 MHz is nothing it has to be said, equates to a very small percentage in terms of frame rate. In addition, there are so many variables to tweak within the UEFI, I'm sure a none faulty Asus board would have equalled it or bettered it with experimentation. In addition there are other variables, enough air directed at the VRM's, etc.

 

But yes, absolutely Gigabyte do make nice motherboards.

 

The trouble is though, no hard core reliability data exists. I'm pretty sure the manufacturers wouldn't want us to have access to such information. Personally I go by my own experience over many builds, and reliability reports from others. The warranty is a good indicator, generally speaking, If a manufacturer is prepared to give you a lengthy warranty, then you would think they were confident in their product.

 

For the reasons stated above, I'd bet the Asus Sabertooth is among the best in terms of reliability. They subject it to far more testing than other boards, fit extremely high quality components and provide a much longer warranty.

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I had a Maximus 6 Extreme and could not get a stable OC with the NB higher than 39, I sent it back to Newegg for a credit and got the Sabertooth Z87.  The Sabertooth has been a great board with zero problems.

 

Regarding the frozen clock.  It does not affect every board and from what I have read on the net it mostly affects the Hero.  I saw one person with a Gryphon that had the problem and have seen no one with a Sabertooth with the problem.

 

If the Sabertooth has the number of SATA / ESATA ports, PCI-E 3.0 slots and other features that you need then go with the Sabertooth.  If you need some feature that the Sabertooth does not have then go with one of the other Asus boards that has what you need.

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For mainstream OC to 4.2 - 4.8 you can go for à Asus Sabertooth or Gigabyte Sniper dosent matter they do the work and ar more easy to OC .

I have booth à Asus Rampage IV BlackEdition and Maximus VI Extreme only have them for Extreme OC , with Rog Connect, OC Panel with Hotwire to the VGA dont think Its nessesary for the simmers .

Idahosurge, your M6E probaly was defect mine do up to 4.6 NB at 4.8 core with H110

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Martin,

 

I won't reply in detail to the points you make. At the end of the day it the OP who has to make the decision and so far, he's yet to respond to the many suggestions.

 

I should have added I had my system professionally built and o/c'd so any differences were down to the board and nothing else.

 

The OP will probably do fine with either Asus or Gigabyte but as I said earlier my confidence is shot with Asus.

Ray (Cheshire, England).

System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke, Fulcrum TQ (pre-production).

Cheadle Hulme Weather website.

chlive.php

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Thank you everyone for the discussion and feedback.

 

I'm thankful to have this forum and community where I can get advice and learn about all this flight sim stuff. Struggling to just breathe and have a moment in the midst of dealing with loads of stress and work. That's why I'm looking for an escape through this. I'm a little worried that I will not even have the time to use my FSX comp once it's built. I don't even know what all this overclocking and tweaking is about but suspect it is a must or at least very important. Got loads to read and learn. Hope I can get there.

 

I'm going to order the Sabertooth. I'm all for reliability and long warranty. I sincerely appreciate everyone else's input though. 

Now I just gotta find mobo memory sticks and a power supply unit. I don't have to be picky about those do I? I'll just get ones that fit into the Saber and get 750 to 850W PSU, right? 

 

Thank you again all. 

 

Will

 

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Now I just gotta find mobo memory sticks and a power supply unit. I don't have to be picky about those do I? I'll just get ones that fit into the Saber and get 750 to 850W PSU, right?

Yes, be picky!

 

Regarding RAM, I would go for 2133, 8 GB with good timings. The Corsair Dominator GT are nice, I have them in my system now. They are the same modules as the super expensive platinum, but with out the fancy, illuminated heat spreaders. Big heat spreaders are just a gimmick.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMT8GX3M2B2133C9-Dominator-Enthusiast-Desktop/dp/B006Y7GGH4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1392715622&sr=8-4&keywords=corsair+dominator+gt

 

Ignore the fan housing that comes with the kit, again, just a gimmick, RAM, even overclocked doesn't get that hot. Be advised, the fins on the RAM above can be removed for better cooler clearance. Doing so doesn't affect cooling one iota.

 

Do consider though, if you are going to overclock, then you will need a GOOD cooler. And big heat sinks can have issues with RAM that has tall heat spreaders. I would recommend the Thermal right Archon SB-E X2. No issues with RAM clearance and cools great.

 

For PSU's, theoretically you are okay with 650 Watt as long as it's a top-notch make, but yes, I would agree that 750-850 watt is wiser, to allow for future expansion. In addition, it's more likely that the PSU fan will run at a slower RPM with a higher wattage unit. Seasonic, and Corsair are my favourite PSU manufacturers.

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Martin,

 

I won't reply in detail to the points you make. At the end of the day it the OP who has to make the decision and so far, he's yet to respond to the many suggestions.

 

I should have added I had my system professionally built and o/c'd so any differences were down to the board and nothing else.

 

The OP will probably do fine with either Asus or Gigabyte but as I said earlier my confidence is shot with Asus.

Weird one the frozen clock issue, apparently, according to Asus, it's likely to be an issue with the Intel IME driver within windows, rather than the motherboard. Asus are looking at it now at their HQ.

 

Not relevant for you, as you have a Gigabyte board now, and I'm sure you tried the following [temporary] fix, but this was the recommended fix...

 

Frozen Time Clock in UEFI - The Fix

Is your motherboard suffering from the malady of a frozen time clock in UEFI?

 

If so try the following:

 

1) Reflash the latest UEFI, using EZ Flash 2 or USB BIOS flashback.

 

2) When the system POSTs, enter UEFI. Once in UEFI power down the motherboard. Keep the PSU attached and "on". Only the motherboard is powered off and in "standby". You will see the MB standby lights on (boards with start buttons onboard will be lit). Standby does not mean the board is actually running, standby means the board has power, but you have not pressed the power button to turn it on. Make sure the board is off before you go to the next step in this list. You will know if it is off because if you leave it for 5 seconds it should not POST~BOOT - this means it is in standby.

 

 

 

3) Clear CMOS (Clear RTC) for 10 seconds. This will clear the Management Engine.

 

4) Power up the system, enter UEFI, set the clock and then save and exit.

 

5) Update MEI driver to Version 9.5.14.1724 in the OS.

 

 

 

6 )Carry on using the system as normal.

 

The above steps should fix the issue.

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Will,

 

Don't buy just any power supply. 750watt is fine but look for Gold or Platinum rated units. They are more efficient than Silver or Bronze. This will help. http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/how-does-psu-efficiency-affect-me-and-do-i-really-need-an-80-plus-gold-power-supply.129456/

 

Martin, tried most of that without success. The only thing I didn't do was flash the BIOS as I would have lost my o/c settings. My supplier recommended I didn't anyway.

Ray (Cheshire, England).

System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke, Fulcrum TQ (pre-production).

Cheadle Hulme Weather website.

chlive.php

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Thank you everyone for the discussion and feedback.

 

I'm thankful to have this forum and community where I can get advice and learn about all this flight sim stuff. Struggling to just breathe and have a moment in the midst of dealing with loads of stress and work. That's why I'm looking for an escape through this. I'm a little worried that I will not even have the time to use my FSX comp once it's built. I don't even know what all this overclocking and tweaking is about but suspect it is a must or at least very important. Got loads to read and learn. Hope I can get there.

 

I'm going to order the Sabertooth. I'm all for reliability and long warranty. I sincerely appreciate everyone else's input though. 

Now I just gotta find mobo memory sticks and a power supply unit. I don't have to be picky about those do I? I'll just get ones that fit into the Saber and get 750 to 850W PSU, right? 

 

Thank you again all. 

 

Will

 

 

 

I have this ram.  It is out of stock at Newegg, but you maybe able to find it on Amazon.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611%2050008476%20600006157%20600006145&IsNodeId=1&name=DDR3%202400%20%28PC3%2019200%29

 

I have this PSU.  The big thing about the PSU is to get one that is Haswell certified so the PSU handles the C States correctly.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139041

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