Recommend me a replacement motherboard

[Red Squirrel]

I've had nothing but issues with my current computer from day 1. After trying tons of different ram, different video card etc... it solved some issues, but I still get random lockups and now they're getting worse. Even during games it locks up now. It used to only be when idle, before.

I'm thinking of trying a different motherboard to see if that solves the issue. I HATE playing this game, gets expensive. Next build will be a clone, sick of this. Anyway, this is what I have right now:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6Ghz
Ram: 12GB (3x sticks of Coresair Vengence 4GB)
Current Motherboard: X79-UD3
Video card: ATI Radeon 7800 serries (I'm in Windows right now so it's not telling me the exact model, I can update when I boot back in Linux as lspci gives me exact model)
SSD: Intel M4 128GB

I just want something stable, I'm sick of unstable bull crap. I don't really care about high performance or OCing, I have enough stability issues without thinking of overclocking, I have THE worst luck with computers, so I just want something that works, period. Ability to put two video cards would be nice, but is not a requirement.

Also has to be available at one of these retailers:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca
http://www.ncix.com
http://www.newegg.ca

I'm in Canada so selection is rather limited compared to the US.

I usually just look and pick something in a half decent price range but figured I'd get some recommendations this time. Thanks in advance.

 

[readymix]

P9X79 WS/ E5-1650v2/ and some 1600-1866 ecc ram. yea, over the top for most but that's what I got and I depend on my pc and it's backup for my livelihood. Even with that it hasn't saved me from a bsd because third party software vendor #1 had incompatibility with a new intel rst update. or the same vendor #1 with another update that caused system to be unresponsive. and finally vendor #2 with an update that froze windows explorer. actually 2 of those instances came before the move to xeon/ecc. all happened in the last year and half and was enough to set off a raging tirade. effum in the future, paid for but not essential.

Having said that. I don't know what your troubles are, hardware or software related. I have my suspicions though. so today a fresh install will take me 2 months with about 10 backup images along the way. certified compatibility if I can find it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've considered ECC ram actually, is there any benefit for a desktop as far as stability goes? I'm hoping to just have to buy a new motherboard and not ram and CPU too though (would have to be a xeon right?) but it is an option I suppose.

 

[readymix]

I've considered ECC ram actually, is there any benefit for a desktop as far as stability goes? I'm hoping to just have to buy a new motherboard and not ram and CPU too though (would have to be a xeon right?) but it is an option I suppose.

Frankly, I don't know the truth about ecc. the best source I can recall was the google research paper from a while back. delved into hard and soft errors and, I think, ecc, non-ecc. my take away was bad ram comes in both forms, it's a toss up. I bought it for 2 reasons; intel white paper xeon E5 certified(Hynix) and 1x8GB priced in the same ballpark as non-ecc. yes, motherboard support for both xeon and ecc.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It looks like other people have freezing issues with my board too. Any other recommendations? (perhaps something that will work with the stuff I have already)

I guess I could google any board before buying it and see if people have issues.

 

[crashtech]

Maybe check to see if the memory you are using is on the QVL:

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_x79-series.pdf

Also, should there not be either 2 or 4 sticks in that board? It's quad channel, not triple channel.

 

[BadThad]

Did you try just one RAM module at a time? How about actually testing the RAM? Did you try a different power supply? Is the system free of malware?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Maybe check to see if the memory you are using is on the QVL:

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_x79-series.pdf

Also, should there not be either 2 or 4 sticks in that board? It's quad channel, not triple channel.

It's a quad channel kit, but one of the sticks died and they would not honor the warranty, so I just sticked with 3. I've tried many other ram kits too, this is probably the 3rd one. Memtest checks out ok, I tried it for like 60 something hours when I was on night shifts a while back.

 

[denis280]

It's a quad channel kit

What if you remove that stick and run dual.

 

[lakedude]

I've got a brand new 16GB box of that same Corsair memory as a warranty replacement. I'd keep calling till they replace your RAM.

It seem to me like my MB would change the speed of the RAM somewhat randomly and it worked fine at slow clocks but it was terrible at the full rated speed. I finally went in and manually set up the speed and ran tests. Sure enough I had one really bad stick and another that was flaky. Corsair would not just swap out 2 sticks, they wanted all 4 back.

My system has been solid since switching to low voltage G.Skill ECO RAM. I don't even really want to try the brand new Corsair RAM since all it did last time is cause me headaches.

 

[Red Squirrel]

What if you remove that stick and run dual.

I think I had tried running with just 1 stick at one point, and I did try lot of different ram. I'm pretty sure at this point it's the motherboard itself. I just want to replace it and see. The issue is the problems arn't reproducible, so these kind of "try this try that" things don't really work as I can go weeks or even months without any issues, then bam. I've been fighting this for over a year now, I just want to replace the board and hope the problems all go away.

I suppose as a last effort I could try to completely downclock everything.

 

[Meghan54]

Your SSD is a Crucial, not Intel, right? Don't know of any Intel M4....Crucial, sure, just not Intel.

Are your lockup issues under both Linux and Windows or just Windows or Linux?

 

[denis280]

there you go.http://products.ncix.com/detail/asus-p9x79-le-atx-lga2011-a7-73615-1360.htm

 

[crashtech]

Nevermind, I screwed up.

 

[Cerb]

I'd get a ASRock H87 Pro4, and suitable 1150 CPU. None of the mobos I would want for LGA2011 seem to support i7 CPUs.

 

[crashtech]

The Asus Z9PA-U8 will take i7s. Bit on the spendy side compared to what's in use now.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Your SSD is a Crucial, not Intel, right? Don't know of any Intel M4....Crucial, sure, just not Intel.

Are your lockup issues under both Linux and Windows or just Windows or Linux?

Know what, you may be right, for some reason i was thinking Intel. I know there's M4 in the name when I did a smartctl, I'm not at home now to open the case and check.

And yeah the issue is in Linux and Windows. Windows is on an OCZ. I recently swapped the OSes thinking the OCZ was the issue, but the lockups started in windows too, but also happen in Linux, so it's not the drive given it's happening in both OSes which are on their own drives.

That Z9PA-U8 looks pretty good, and I imagine being a server mobo should be more reliable. I'm willing to pay that kind of money if it means I wont get all these lockups. Asus has always been pretty good as well.

Also did not realize lot of boards did not support i7. Figured as long as the sockets match I'm good to go, maybe that's part of my issue too, maybe my board does not properly support i7.

 

[adairusmc]

I have been having good luck with this board since I got it recently, and it was inexpensive as far as X79 boards go. I just used the BIOS flashback feature to get the latest bios so it would run my 4930k, and it has worked great.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813131855

 

[Meghan54]

Know what, you may be right, for some reason i was thinking Intel. I know there's M4 in the name when I did a smartctl, I'm not at home now to open the case and check.

And yeah the issue is in Linux and Windows. Windows is on an OCZ. I recently swapped the OSes thinking the OCZ was the issue, but the lockups started in windows too, but also happen in Linux, so it's not the drive given it's happening in both OSes which are on their own drives.

That Z9PA-U8 looks pretty good, and I imagine being a server mobo should be more reliable. I'm willing to pay that kind of money if it means I wont get all these lockups. Asus has always been pretty good as well.

Also did not realize lot of boards did not support i7. Figured as long as the sockets match I'm good to go, maybe that's part of my issue too, maybe my board does not properly support i7.

First, almost all X79 boards DO support the i7 2011 cpus....don't know where the "most boards don't support i7's" came from.

And your Gigabyte X79-UD3 certainly supports your 3820 cpu with its original BIOS revision....it's on Gigabyte's supported cpu list. Sheesh.

I'd be willing to wager your mb is the problem given you've changed most of your parts out. I'm guessing your power supply is decent, right?

But why you chose Gigabyte is beyond me. I moved away from that company years ago when I began having problems with their product....horrible BIOS setup compared to both AsRock and Asus, much more picky about RAM, flaky operation, and on and on.

I ran an X79 setup for a while before I "downgraded" to my current 4770k setup. It consisted of a 3930k cpu and an Asus Rampage IV Gene motherboard. Was one rock solid and stable system. New owner has had the cpu and mb and has never had an issue with either since I sold it to him.

I'd really, really look into one of the Asus ROG branded X79 boards. They are stable, solid, tolerant of almost anything you can throw onto them. Unfortunately, they're not the cheapest on the market. But since I made the switch to that line of boards for my home desktop computers, life has been much less complicated. Those boards just work. (As an aside, I've owned ROG-branded boards since the X38 Max. Formula, including darned near every Gene board...the Max. III, IV and IV Gene-Z, V, and VI Genes, and the R II, III and IV Genes.)

For instance, my Maximus VI Gene has all four of its RAM slots populated with the 30nm Samsung RAM that was on the market for a while, the "miracle RAM" as its been called, running it at 2133 (actually the memory is running at 2144 due to the bus speed setting itself at 100.53MHz when set to 100MHz in BIOS, a noted oddity with Asus boards) with 10-10-10-28 timings at 1.4V.

The 4770k cpu is running at a modest 4.2GHz and have yet to have any hardware glitches at all.


In the meantime, my wife had a Gigabyte UD3 board once, back in the P67 chipset days. Got rid of it a few months later and gave her my Max. IV Gene when I "upgraded" to the Gene-Z. Occ. lockups, hiccups, stutters, she hated that Gigabyte board and I despised it, took too much work.

That Gigabyte board was her first new specific-to-her board and her last. Before that and since then, she's gotten my old boards when I upgraded to new myself---well, except for my playing around with the X79 chipset/3930k. She didn't get that one, it got sold. But she's rocking the Max. V Gene I had, running a 3570k cpu. Never had a problem out of it when I had it, nor since she's had it. And she'll get my Max. VI Gene and 4770k when the next "newest gotta have cpu" comes out.

The essence of all this diatribe is lose the Gigabyte and consider something Asus. I know Asus has less than stellar RMA's, but I haven't had to RMA one ROG branded board in the years I've played with them.

 

[schmuckley]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813138346 TPowah!
Biostar uses good components on their boards.
BIOSes are usually almost as good as Asus..but a little simpler.

 

[Kougar]

Have you tried updating the BIOS on that board?

Only Crucial made m4 SSDs. If you're using a Crucial m4 then you need to update the firmware on that as well as there were a couple bugs with those. One of the bugs will cause it to BSOD repeatedly after 5000 hours of power on time.

 

[coffeejunkee]

1. Update your bios.
2. Update all your drivers, including chipset, irst and ime.
3. Set ram to XMP profile or run at default 1333MHz.
4. Ditch the OCZ ssd.

If that doesn't work it might be time to start looking for a new motherboard. Can't really agree with Meghan though, I've had nothing but good experiences with Gigabyte. And it's not like ROG boards never have issues. Anyway, the ROG X79 is board is $460, the standard Asus X79 board is $250, I know which one I would pick.

 

[CHEMEMAN]

One issue is that the IMC is on the CPU with 2011, that means that memory incompatibility is likely to continue (if it currently exists). It appears that most of the companies that usually lead the way with motherboard design failed hard on X79. EVGA and ASUS both had lots of issues, with even their flagship boards, and have only recently resolved the majority of them.

I would try the BOIS update and update all of the divers before I spent any money on new hardware, since whatever you buy is likely to be more of the same.

 

[crashtech]

Users looking for stability on LGA2011 should look at the C602 chipset and its variants.

 

[escrow4]

I've used Gigabyte in my builds 80% of the time and have now switched back to them full time. Zero issues. Plus, isn't LGA 2011 a rather twitchy platform in terms of compatibility, being a rejected server platform and all? I'm leaning towards RAM. Still, what PSU?

I also would not spend anymore money on an outdated platform. If you were to spend on new hardware I'd get a 4770 (K optional) and a nice Z87 board. I'm running this box on a Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H and a 4770 and have only one BSOD on 8.1 that never reoccurred and I'd put down to 8.1 being rather immature.