It has been a while since I’ve taken a look at the motherboards available on the market. Sure, I could look at a budget board as a starting point, but let’s go all out and look for the best motherboard we can find. It isn’t the least expensive, but it is a great starting point on a computer that will give the best performance.
The right motherboard for any system is certainly dependent on what processor you choose. So I’ll also pick a high-end processor to go with my motherboard choice. Those looking to spend $599 on the entire PC will be sorely disappointed that this powerhouse won’t fit their budget.
My choice is the ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboard.Want a lot of RAM in your computer? This motherboard has 8 DIMM slots so you can install up to 64 GB of DDR3 RAM running as fast as 1866 MHz. It has built-in support for SSD caching along with SATA 6 GB/s support so your drives will really scream. It was also designed with thermal measurements at 12 critical areas so you can install and adjust the fans needed to keep temperatures under control.
For those who want a processor every bit as powerful as this motherboard, check out the Intel Core i7-3930K Hexa-Core Processor. With six cores (that you can hyperthread to 12), running at 3.2 GHz, you can really push a lot of software at the same time or simply throw all the power at a single multi-threaded task. Or you can go with the Intel Core i7-3820 Quad-Core Processor. It only has four cores instead of six, but they run at 3.6 GHz. So for some users it will actually be the fastest choice. Even better is that it costs half as much. No, it is still not cheap.
So if you want a really fast system, those are my choices. Down the road I’ll look at a motherboard and processor with a tighter budget in mind.
Good review. Thanks! May be a budget buster today… but if upgrading a year from now, this high price combo may be just the ticket. I always like looking at a dream machine today and then when the time comes down the road when newer and better stuff just comes out, I can afford that dream machine I drolled over 6-12 months ago.
It’s the first time I read that Corel and Intel now also offer a joint processor, namely
“the Intel Core i7-3930K Hexa-Corel Processor”.
I’m just so used to typing the word “Corel” that sometimes it shows up where it shouldn’t. Thanks for bringing the typo to my attention, it has been corrected.