2011-v3 boards - any opinions

[crossy]

Planning to do a Haswell-E build this Christmas and I'm just shopping around for a decent motherboard. I'm planning to do a mild overclock of the H-E, and would really like USB3/3.1 and NVMe storage. No current plans for any SLi/Crossfire setups, but the ability to do dual in the future might be a nice precaution.

So I've come down to either the Asus X99-Deluxe/U3.1 or the Asus Sabertooth X99 - both seem to have pro's and con's, but from what reviews I've been able to Google for they both seem like pretty decent boards. I had a AM3 Deluxe and switched to a Sabertooth, so they're a "known quantity" to me.

Any opinions? (Oh, and any other sage advice for the Haswell-E build would, of course, be very welcome).

[AGTDenton]

Out of the 2 you found I would go for the X99-DELUXE/U3.1, more because there are 5 PCIe 16x sized slots allowing for greater customisation in future, second to that the Sabretooth has a mobo fan, something I hate.

Personally I could have a board from either ASRock, Gigabyte or ASUS. They are the main 3 I look at when deciding on what I want. If I really couldn't find something from them, I'd then go onto MSI and EVGA, they did a stonker of a x79 but currently only offer 3 X99's without 3.1 so they can be ruled out.

Boards at x99 level are well made across the spectrum and most will overclock if not all, so it really comes down to features such as are the slots in the right places, is the board the right size, does it have USB3.1 etc...

Personally I couldn't care less how it looked but others can find some styles and colours disheartening.

There isn't much advice for a Haswell-E build, other than remember to buy a graphics card as one certainly wont be within the CPU

[crossy]

There isn't much advice for a Haswell-E build, other than remember to buy a graphics card as one certainly wont be within the CPU

Thanks for the feedback - yes I remembered that Has-E doesn't have an IGP - that said I've got a couple of cards in the loft, and a new GTX970 to be delivered with the CPU.