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After spending the last two days trying to select a motherboard I have finally decided on the Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4.

Was initially going to use the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7 but read that Intel CPUs use less power when idle. I also have a personal preference to Intel.

Here are my reasons for selecting the Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4

• The Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4 allows me to use up to 4 GPUs without risers in a HAF XM.
• If I decide to later use a custom cage it will let me go up to 6 GPUs with risers.
• I bought into Gigabytes "Ultra Durable 5" marketing.
• Only a little more than the GA-X79-UD3 with "Ultra Durable 3".
• 5 year warrantee.
• Availability

I think I'll be ok in regard to cooling as this will be placed in a data center with an ambient temperature of 61 degrees.

Having searched the forum it doesn't appear that this motherboard has been used much. I read that the MSI 890FXA-GD70 is the one to get but it is hard to come by. The MSI Big Bang-Marshal would be nice but twice the price for two more slots.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

those cards will be close to each other, no way you can keep good temps. If you aim to use 7950/7970 I'm pretty sure the cards will be overheating.

And your cheapest CPU that will fit in there will be a $300 Core i7-3820.


........


yup, thats cheap. /facepalm.

Ouch! Hadn't factored in the cost of the CPU  :-[

Argh!

Guess I'm back to the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7.

Yeah the x79 is not a cheap platform to begin with as it is geared toward workstation use.  If you still want intel go with the Z/H77 chipset with an ivy bridge cpu and you should do better monitarily even though the AMD systems are the cheapest around.

Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 EATX  LGA1155 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-g1sniper3)

This board has an LGA1155 socket and can hold 4x GPUs without risers.

Even with datacenter hosting, you might want a case with more airflow than a HAF XM, though.