LGA 2011 X79 board and memory LC solutions

[Church]

I'm starting to notice in few HW news sites motheboard pics of next enthusiast platform by intel (vr-zone|tweakers.net)
Gigabyte GA-X79A UD3 and Asrock X79 Extreme4:

ASUS C1X79 EVO and ECS X79R-A:

used motherboard thumbnails are from of ixbt.com site
Much earlier there were also very blurred out pics of MSI board

Seems that few main details that will be common to X79 board layouts can already be seen, like mosfets on top of socket and two dual mem slots on each side of socket.
As this is platform i plan to use in my build, i wonder what cooling options can be used for such board and memory layout.
Am i right in guessing, that such mosfet placement makes uni-FC-blocks for board impossible to design? And i wonder if existing MIPS/EK/BP memory waterblocks will fit to just dual modules, and if so, which one of them? (eg. IIRC MIPS had two ramblock models, one for 6 modules, another one for 4).
P.S.
Please don't write that memory liquid cooling is not needed, or that motherboard FC is of arguable usefulness, i know that well, but i wish to use it anyway for bling/looks purposes, so now i'm just thinking/asking for possible options.

[SovietKitsch]

So much SATA....it's a thing of beauty...

[paulbagz]

Yeah the lack of any real heat producing chipset makes FC Board blocks a bit redundant almost, unless manufacturers are going to strap more NF chips on for the 3/4 Way SLI boards.

-PB

[m_jones_]

So much SATA....it's a thing of beauty...

The foxconn board has 14. A extremely small percentage of people would use them apart from the server market.

Also companies will have to change their cpu cool design.

[Kenjiwing]

board design looks terrible

[zalbard]

board design looks terrible

Yeah, I'm hoping for something that looks more interesting. Maybe it's just me...

[Vetalar]

foxconn IIRC uses more 'standart' layout for their x79 quantum force board.
koolance have singleslot ram-blocks.
and there always exists custom-made block option anyway... smth VRM+rams C-shape...

[Vetalar]

board design looks terrible

IMHO board LOOKS defines by radiator-heatpipe assembly and all that boards pretty naked add some theme colored fins/plates, heatpipes, leds and board will be looking much more interesting

[Kenjiwing]

IMHO board LOOKS defines by radiator-heatpipe assembly and all that boards pretty naked add some theme colored fins/plates, heatpipes, leds and board will be looking much more interesting

I am definitely aware that these are samples etc.. just saying the current design is very meh.

I am hoping for a rampage black themes board or some classified boards soon.

Im also really hoping for an SR-2 Socket 2011 board!

[TonyLeung]

asus looks like terrible

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Why does everyone complain about "ugly" boards?

Does anyone really think Asus would release a 2011 board like this? Come on!

As for water blocks, it'll be interesting to see pricing since it's for 2 dimms only. WCing 2 packs?

[tiborrr]

The layout/design of the boards won't change much due to pinout therefore this is pretty much final.

[Elmy]

the Asus board is yellow and it means its an engineering sample before it goes to production ....

[Church]

I'm guessing that while such memory slot layout isn't too nice for us for LC (because of need for two separate waterblocks), it might benefit for more stability at higher clocked memory, if closer to socket.
But then again for air cooled builds, if some coolers might have more space from one side to allow higher memory heatspreaders, they might be unusuable with same memory modules but now from both sides .. :/
Still, what i hate most, is there is almost no space to "route" motherboard full cover from chipset till top mounted mosfets between socket and memory modules = probably no single piece FC unless one uses design like that of DangerDen's, one with heatpipe to mosfets. Or some "hard" tubing like a bit longer U-connector for Koolance's RP4#2-X2 dual bayrestops.

As for looks .. that gigabyte one with all black PCB & black slot plastics looks nice fit in my intended all-black scheme (eek, how i hate red slots in top offerings of Asus & EVGA :/)

[RCG_Bex]

I think they look smexy... now if the 8-pin for the CPU could just come over by the 24-pin we'd have a winner :P

[EDIT] Aqua-computers do dual slot RAM modules though





Available in clear or acetal...

Better pictures here...
http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product_...r-edition.html

[newls1]

I REALLY LIKE the look of these new boards!! Cant wait till there out, as this is my next UPGRADE!!! 8 cores, 16 threads, quad channel mem..HOLY COW!!! I could play DOOM @ 1,324FPS now!! Seriously though, I look foward to this release, new standards will be made.

[dejanh]

Why is everyone commenting on the boards? If you want to discuss board sex-appeal make your own thread. The OP was asking questions related to WCing the boards, not posting so that people can give their opinions on looks. I am curious about the same things as the OP, so it would be nice to get some feedback

[Church]

Hmm, new BP ramblocks for two modules (i wonder if they are not designed/made especially in preparation to LGA2011 ) look much better/neater fit size-wise, pity they don't have black acetal ones like eg. ones by MIPS or EK.

[zalbard]

Great looking block! And not necessarily just for LGA2011, a lot of SB and AMD owners only use two modules.

[Vetalar]

if I will ever forced to choose and install ram-block it will be koolance 33 or 35... there is IMHO absolutly no point to take heat off from only top of ramsink. i can understand bling factor but i'll never understand loosing performance for bling...

[Church]

Zalbard: still, imho it's worth to use (if at all) ram WBs on those platform fit to maximum count of modules board has slots for. At least you won't have to change block when adding ram modules, and also WB's cross section will be bigger/less flow resistance.
So imho on those platform it looks like blocks for upto 6(3) or 4(2) are way to go.

Vetalar: there is no pragmatic reason to go for ram water cooling at all, one cheap 5$ slow 120mm fan will be more then enough to cool them, +even very heavy o/c of ram improves overall performance only at laughable rate making it one of the worst ways to invest.
So - main reason for ram LC - bling.
But, ram waterblocks due their small size are rather resistive, and even way more so - individual ram module waterblocks (even smaller WB crossections and requirement to use small diameter tubing to interconnect, otherwise waterblocks won't fit close side by side) - why kill overall flow hurting cooling where in matters with blinger cooling ways where it doesn't?
+You have very high probability of damaging your multi centi bucks worth memory when removing stock heatsinks to put on those individual block modules.
So to summarize it all, for taking that meager heat amount ram dissipates these unified blocks are more then up to job, and at least are not THAT bad at killing flow as single module ones and also you don't risk to damage your expensive ram.

[crash5s]

Please don't write that memory liquid cooling is not needed, or that motherboard FC is of arguable usefulness, i know that well, but i wish to use it anyway for bling/looks purposes, so now i'm just thinking/asking for possible options.

As there is no NB I don't think you're going to see a uni mobo block, where would it go? For memory blocks you could wait till companies roll out the server/workstation boards that will have more ram slots.

[zalbard]

The PWM is in a bad spot, also... Makes it hard to connect it to the Southbridge. So I'm guessing most will just use PWM blocks.

[Church]

Another piece of news. On one turkish resource sourfaced some Gigabyte GA-6PXSV pics. Differences from earlier ones are 8 DIMM slots (so maybe there will be more boards of this chipset with >4 dimm slots and no be need to search for narrow 2 DIMM RAM WBs ad common ones for 4 modules will fit). Otherwise layout seems about the same, requiring 2 piece board cooling (mosfets & chipset), and so is mem module grouping in two groups, though each doubled now. Interesting bit is pci-e 3.0 print on board, not that it changes anything in relation to liquid cooling/layout. As this board surfaced when not that much left until X79 release, such layout might have to do more with final boards then first pics from X79 boards @CES.

[Vetalar]

with such MB layout we hardly see "20+ phase VRM" . and IMHO there is no way to route FC block with this design... maybe hardpiping like on enzotech FC blocks or heatpipe like on DD block...