SR-X or Asus Z9PE-D8-WS??

[006409]

Okay guys, so the title basically says it all.

For this rig i'm pulling together a fair amount of savings, sponsorships from companies i've worked with as well money from engineering budgets to put this up and coming build together. The main use of this rig will be for engineering very large 3D CAD files as well as running simulations in real time. Because of this my mind is basically set with the use of duel xeon E5-2687's and a nVidia maximus(2) set-up with two quadro cards and a tesla card strapped on the back.

Though this is being done this thing will be living at my house (for now) and for that reason i know i cant just stick it together and leave it. Instead ill be modding the graphics cards with custom water blocks to get rid of the annoying fan and all. If i do get the Asus Z9PE-D8-WS i will be ripping out the DIMM/PCI slots and changing them or spraying them to get the looks right.

But which motherboard should i get? i watched TTL's review and from what i hear overall he's hit the nail on the head with it. But with this said looking at a number of builds (coolmiester's in-particular) im just wanting to make the right choice as this is just such a big thing for me.

Any help/advice will be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Try reading the reviews first.

SRX is a complete waste of money and if you are using it for anything other than 3D rendering youd be better off with a normal 3960X build

Otherwise get the Asus its such a better board in comparison.

 

[BaMb1N0]

Got the asus, happy with that one because it is a real workstation board and there's almost no bling-bling you don't need. I'm using it primarily for video encoding (CPU and sometimes with GPU) and software testing in virtual machines as well as daily work and some gaming. Works fine for me.

Well, I'm running the much cheaper frequency optimized E5-2643 @3.3GHz. Would be running the E5-2687W but somewhere I had to draw the line .


Note about the Asus:
Make sure you upgrade the BIOS to the latest version because there were some PCIe resource issues when running multiple GPU's/Tesla cards. Those will prevent your workstation from POSTing. Took me a whole week to figure that out....:-(

 

[BaMb1N0]

btw: gonna try and fit two NH-D14's tomorrow - but you'll certainly loose the top PCIe x16 slot. PM me if you're interested in latest pictures from that experiment.

 

[006409]

Try reading the reviews first.

SRX is a complete waste of money and if you are using it for anything other than 3D rendering youd be better off with a normal 3960X build

Otherwise get the Asus its such a better board in comparison.

Thanks for your input tom I've done a fair bit of research on this choice as per my post, but i know but i know people can change there opinions of things as updates are shipped.

Got the asus, happy with that one because it is a real workstation board and there's almost no bling-bling you don't need. I'm using it primarily for video encoding (CPU and sometimes with GPU) and software testing in virtual machines as well as daily work and some gaming. Works fine for me.

Well, I'm running the much cheaper frequency optimized E5-2643 @3.3GHz. Would be running the E5-2687W but somewhere I had to draw the line .


Note about the Asus:
Make sure you upgrade the BIOS to the latest version because there were some PCIe resource issues when running multiple GPU's/Tesla cards. Those will prevent your workstation from POSTing. Took me a whole week to figure that out....:-(

The fact i has no bling on it does appeal though i will be spraying it up and adding custom water blocks mainly to keep it cool, quite and with the looks 8k deserve B) Thanks for the hint about the BIOS, its usualy something i do reasonably fast but ill now know to do it first

 

[Goldskis45]

Read any pair of reviews and you will see it is 100% the ASUS... Used to love EVGA but its started to go downhill imo... (High end Motherboard wise)

 

[tinytomlogan]

I think the Asus looks MUCH better than the SRX.

As for sprayings slots etc that has so many ways where you can ruin it by not doing it right youve got me worried.

And it honestly does NOT need water. The xeons and the mobo run stupidly cool.