I've had a garbage old PC for too long and I knew it was time for me to make a move up. Fry's just had this mobo, list price of $260, on sale for $150 - $20 rebate, so I knew that I had to jump. It seems like a great motherboard for a high-end system that's only missing a few features I wouldn't care about anyway, like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

However, I'm an old man and the last machine that I built probably had a Pentium 4 in it, or something equally embarrassing. I've got an old case that my brother used for an SLI setup waaay back in the day that already has a nice 850w power supply, so that's a bit of a major issue out of the way at least.

Looking at what's in front of me, I'm planning on taking the next few months to keep hawking sales and trying to find something worth a shit. So I've got some questions:

Should I bother trying to hold out for an unlocked chip that I can overclock? It fits 2011-3 chips, but apparently only an i7 or Xeon. From what I'm reading, I may be a bit better off with a Xeon, but the i7 may end up being what I'm likely to buy just because there are so many more of them, so I'm more likely to find one being sold for a reasonable price. What exactly would let me know that the chip was unlocked in the first place? Is there some special letter in the name that I should be looking for, or something?

Also, the board supports DDR4 natively. Is it worth going with over DDR3? Also, is DDR4 synonymous with 2666MHz?

Lastly, there's the SLI component. I want to get there eventually, but I'm also buying pieces over time on a budget. I'm thinking of going with a 960 just to get up and running, and then maybe adding a 980 down the road when they get significantly cheaper. Is that reasonable at all, or am I fundamentally misunderstanding something, as I'm wont to do?

Apologize for the tl;dr, and hope that I didn't already make a huge mistake buying the mobo in the first place.

A 5820k is all you will need honestly if you decide to buy it. All the i7's are unlocked on that platform. And they only support DDR4 Ram.

Don't waste money on a 960 especially on that build.

How would it be a waste? Sorry, literally not following whether you mean the machine would be too good or too bad for a 960.

I mean the 960 is a huge waste of money for x99.

What do you do on your computer?

It's going to be primarily for gaming and running dumb CPU/GPU intensive packets for World Community Grid or others. Other than that, just watching TV and other shit that I could do with a busted old P4.

Wait for the new series of gpus to come out and plan to spend 300+ to make that x99 worth buying

Else wise just go with a i5

Well, from what I was reading, I can't slot an i5 in this particular board - it's i7 or bust.

I can see what you're saying. I was reading that there may be a new release in June, in which case I might look at 980s as they drop in price. I hear that the new Intel processors might be dropping over Memorial Day weekend too, so I was thinking of holding out until after that to see if I can find a 5820k near $200 - right now, Fry's has them somewhat regularly for around $280 or so if I scrape the specials every day. I've already got an SSD, storage, case, and psu, and this board was just too cheap to pass up. Unfortunately, the biggest centerpiece of the build has to be cobbling together what I can find on similarly great sales more than anything else.

I'm fully aware it doesn't fit in the socket. I run x99 myself

980 is really worth about 375-400

You should really fill this out. There is a good chance that your best option is simply to sell that mainboard and get a regular computer. There is no need for a high end mainboard, that only supports high end CPU's when your not willing to spend 1500$+
Also please use http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/ to show us exactly what parts you already have. There are many gigabyte x99 mainboards ranging from 150$ to 350$ and they all support sli.

Budget:
More specific use (what games, what programs):
Planned time until purchase:
Do you need an Operating System?:
Do you have any specific preferred components?:
Do you need a sound or wireless card?:
Do you want stock cooling or do you plan on overclocking?:
Do you need a monitor? mouse? keyboard?:
Zip code/location? (Shipping costs):

This post was edited by maulepan on Apr 29 2016 02:48am

Sure, why not?

Budget:
More specific use (what games, what programs): Fallout 4, Alien: Isolation, Battleborn, probably other new games as they come. Plus, World Community Grid packets and the like.
Planned time until purchase: Slowly over the course of the next 2-3 months.
Do you need an Operating System?:Nope.
Do you have any specific preferred components?: I'm almost certain I'll be shooting for a 5820k.
Do you need a sound or wireless card?: Nah. Whatever pumps out through HDMI ought to be good enough, not really driving any kind of 5.1 system or anything fancy. Plus, it'll be behind the TV, so it's right next to the router and I can use a wire.
Do you want stock cooling or do you plan on overclocking?: Really unsure on this one. Thinking that I might do some light overclocking just cos I can? Probably just a bit tho, like 3.5ish?
Do you need a monitor? mouse? keyboard?: Nope. Using the living room TV, and the mouse/keyboard is handled - I mostly play with controller on that TV, and have a shitty wireless mouse/kb combo.
Zip code/location? (Shipping costs): Sacramento CA

Here's the specific board, which has the same name here as in the topic title: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gax99sli

That said, I just got the board on a great deal at Fry's, but don't know that it's good for any kind of turnaround anyway. Plus, even if I'm a bit underwhelming graphics-wise until I can upgrade a few years down the road, I'd still like to have that much proc juice just for the dumb World Community Grid thing anyway.