pastrychef's build - Asus Maximus VIII Gene - i7-7700K - GTX 1080

[pastrychef]

This one looks good: ABWB 802,11 AC WI-FI + Bluetooth 4.0 PCI-Express: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

 

[Stork]

I have several Fenvi FV-T919 cards, and all work as one would expect. I'm using Sierra 10.12.4.

 

[pastrychef]

Newegg had a deal on a Gigabyte GTX 1080 @ $440 and I couldn't resist. I installed it this morning and here are some direct comparisons between it and my old GTX 980. All benchmarks were done in 2560x1440 resolution.










The Gigabyte GTX 1080 that I got has a blower style cooler which I prefer over the open style because I want any heat to be pushed out of the case, not recirculated within it. This particular video card does not come with a backplate but I didn't see any VRAM on the back of the card so there probably isn't much for a backplate to cool anyway. Power is provided by a single 8-pin connector.

So far, it seems to be as quiet as the GTX 980 that it replaced was. Also, I have not noticed any changes to CPU temps so it seems that the cooler is doing it's job. Sleep/wake continue to work fine.

Why not a Ti model? I grappled with this for a bit... But at the end of the day, I couldn't justify spending $700+ for the little bit of gaming that I do. Plus, I really want to keep temps down and the 70W TDP difference between a GTX 1080 and a Ti model is significant. This card is a nice upgrade from what I had and I'm pleased with my decision.

For those who intend to install a Pascal video card, remember to remove FakeSMC_GPUSensors.kext. It is currently not compatible with the Nvidia 1000-series cards.

 

[Overkill303]

Hi pastrychef! I thought you might like to know that I just finished my build writeup, which would not have been possible without your and stork's builds. Thank you for doing your writeup.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ene-i6700k-evga-1070-ftw.221637/#post-1500092

 

[Hitokiri]

Hello @pastrychef ! Would you please tell me why you chose a mATX over an ATX ? I'm preparing to build a workstation for working on After Effects and I'm planning on buying an ATX format like the build you're using now. Is maybe an ATX not necessarily needed for this kind of work ?

You can see my thread here. It will be my first build done by myself, so I'm asking questions for what is the most efficient and easiest build for a hackintosh-noob motion designer like me

Thank you in advance !

 

[pastrychef]

The primary reason why I decided on an mATX motherboard was because I wanted a tower that was physically smaller than the Mac Pro from which I came from.

I realized that I didn't need all the extra PCI-e slots that a full sized ATX motherboard would provide. If I have no use for the extra PCI-e slots, there's really no reason to go with ATX. All the other features are still available, so I didn't sacrifice anything.

If you look at some of the pictures I've posted, you can see how much space I've saved when compared to my old Mac Pro. Since I live in a little Manhattan studio in NYC, every little bit of space saved is very valuable.

 

[Hitokiri]

The primary reason why I decided on an mATX motherboard was because I wanted a tower that was physically smaller than the Mac Pro from which I came from.

I realized that I didn't need all the extra PCI-e slots that a full sized ATX motherboard would provide. If I have no use for the extra PCI-e slots, there's really no reason to go with ATX. All the other features are still available, so I didn't sacrifice anything.

If you look at some of the pictures I've posted, you can see how much space I've saved when compared to my old Mac Pro. Since I live in a little Manhattan studio in NYC, every little bit of space saved is very valuable.

Well, a logical answer You wrote it in your post but I wondered if there was also a performance reason. For the build I'm aiming to do, do you think ATX is better for a heavily graphic-oriented workstation or mATX is enough ? What kind of build do you recommend for a CustoMac using GTX 1080 Ti, i7 6700K, 64Gb RAM and 3 hard drives ? You can check my post or if you have a link to similar golden builds I'll be glad.

Thanks !

 

[pastrychef]

There are no performance penalties with either mATX or ATX. They will perform pretty much exactly the same. The only major difference would be the different number of PCI-e slots.

Just look for a motherboard that has the features you like/need. For example, Thunderbolt is not available on the Maximus VIII Gene, so if that's something you need, you should look for another motherboard.

If you are looking for a motherboard that overclocks well, you would have read reviews of the individual motherboards. All Z170 motherboards allow for overclocking. How much difference there is between the motherboards when it comes to overclocking, I don't know. But I suspect that whatever difference there is, it would be very minimal.

The motherboard should not affect the performance of your GTX 1080 Ti. All Z170 motherboards support up to 64GB of RAM as long as they have four DIMM slots. The number of hard drives a motherboard supports just comes down to how many SATA ports are included. The Z170 chipset supports up to six SATA ports.

 

[Hitokiri]

There are no performance penalties with either mATX or ATX. They will perform pretty much exactly the same. The only major difference would be the different number of PCI-e slots.

Just look for a motherboard that has the features you like/need. For example, Thunderbolt is not available on the Maximus VIII Gene, so if that's something you need, you should look for another motherboard.

If you are looking for a motherboard that overclocks well, you would have read reviews of the individual motherboards. All Z170 motherboards allow for overclocking. How much difference there is between the motherboards when it comes to overclocking, I don't know. But I suspect that whatever difference there is, it would be very minimal.

The motherboard should not affect the performance of your GTX 1080 Ti. All Z170 motherboards support up to 64GB of RAM as long as they have four DIMM slots. The number of hard drives a motherboard supports just comes down to how many SATA ports are included. The Z170 chipset supports up to six SATA ports.

Well, I'm not looking for Thunderbolt and not planning to overclock, or more precisely, I don't know how to do that. Is there a huge performance difference ? Is it interesting for motion design for example ?

I kinda like the Maximus VIII, and if you say that the size doesn't change much performance, I'd better go with the GENE one. No heating issues for example ? I can take a 'regular' CPU cooler and PSU ?

If the tower is lighter, it would be nice. Also, I don't intend to add stuff, I'll have 3 hard drives and a graphic card. Ethernet and sound is included in the said mobo right ? For wifi, I need to buy another PCI card ? Which means : 1x graphic card, 1 M.2 SSD, 1x SSD SATA, 1x SATA hard drive and 1x Wifi card makes 5 PCI-e slots, am I right or do I make a mistake ? Does everything fit in the mATX ?

Thank you for your time.

 

[pastrychef]

Overclocking can improve performance considerably. But there is a whole host of things you must be aware of before overclocking. Also, overclocking can cause systems to be unstable. Be sure to do a lot of research before trying to overclock.

Generally, CPU and GPU are the components that generate the most heat. On modern motherboards, heat is usually not an issue at all.

The onboard sound and ethernet on the Gene works fine. The motherboard has an M.2 slot and six SATA connectors. You do not need any PCI-e slot to use your M.2 SSD or your hard drives. A Wifi/Bluetooth card will use a PCI-e slot.