The best matx motherboard?

funkydunk

New member
Firstly. In all your learned opinions which is the best matx board and would the best board get max performance out of an top of the range i7 and/or gpu? Still trying to get my head around possible bottleneck issues. I feel I'd need a decent i7 due to fem models that I may run, and obviously want to game hard but ideally would want it in as small a package as possible
 
Well first off you need to provide more info. Basically as of now you've given us no information that is relevant.

Which top range i7? 4790k? 5930K? Need specifics so we can actually provide a motherboard that would fit the CPU socket required. Will you be OC'ing? Or is this just a casual gaming machine? If it is for gaming then an i5 is more than enough and a cheaper motherboard will save you money for next to no performance loss.
 
What's the nature of your FEA work? If it's just educational or simple stuff for fun then I wouldn't worry too much about which platform/cpu you go with Z97 and a 4690k or 4790k will work out great. If your looking at doing huge complicated models and it's time critical work that pays well then maybe look to X99 and Xeons however i'm struggling to imagine any 'domestic/personal' scenario where that's appropriate.

I've done some simple FEA on my quad i7 and it just munches through them in seconds, if I had something mental to do i'd just leave it overnight. CFD on the other hand is some serious stuff, I can see why you might want to go to a higher platform for that but again it all depends on your usage/circumstances.

The Maximus VII Gene is great btw ;)

JR
 
What's the nature of your FEA work? If it's just educational or simple stuff for fun then I wouldn't worry too much about which platform/cpu you go with Z97 and a 4690k or 4790k will work out great. If your looking at doing huge complicated models and it's time critical work that pays well then maybe look to X99 and Xeons however i'm struggling to imagine any 'domestic/personal' scenario where that's appropriate.

I've done some simple FEA on my quad i7 and it just munches through them in seconds, if I had something mental to do i'd just leave it overnight. CFD on the other hand is some serious stuff, I can see why you might want to go to a higher platform for that but again it all depends on your usage/circumstances.

The Maximus VII Gene is great btw ;)

JR


Apologies for lack of detail everyone, or for a misleading title. The thing is I do not have the detail just yet more just trying to make sure that an matx wouldn't necessarily hinder high end components and that a smaller form factor is a path I could go along, otherwise rule it out now. Lots of programs. Some structures software, MIKE Suite.. possible cfd, I'm an engineer of the water variety.. and heavily nodded games, obviously.
 
If you need no more than 8 CPU threads, then you want a Z97 mATX board from the likes of Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. They all have an individual look, but all perform roughly identically. If the software you will be using can leverage multiple GPUs, then you need to identify whether being limited to two 8x PCIE sockets will have an effect.

If you need more than 8 threads, then no you won't be going mATX. You'll be going for a full fat X99 motherboard with a 5960X full of 16 threads and 40 PCIE lanes full of GPU loveliness.

Need even more? Check out Toms dual Xeon 48 thread porn video...
 
If you need no more than 8 CPU threads, then you want a Z97 mATX board from the likes of Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. They all have an individual look, but all perform roughly identically. If the software you will be using can leverage multiple GPUs, then you need to identify whether being limited to two 8x PCIE sockets will have an effect.

If you need more than 8 threads, then no you won't be going mATX. You'll be going for a full fat X99 motherboard with a 5960X full of 16 threads and 40 PCIE lanes full of GPU loveliness.

Need even more? Check out Toms dual Xeon 48 thread porn video...


You know what work is like, they give you rubbish equipment. I just want something I can use if it becomes feasible to do so that wouldn't suck at running models. I think Mike is optimised for cuda (sure I read that somewhere). Haven't thought about the chipset really, more just seeing whether matx build would be a feasible path. Have to admit, in the back of my mind I have been wondering how ddr4 may may affect a build in the near future In terms of future proofing but from what Tom (love the vids by the way) said about Matx and x99 that may be a tiny issue.

As an aside, I think my phone thinks I'm a communist as it keeps autocorrecting matx to Marx
 
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