advise new x58 motherboard

[Cobra26]

Hi folks,

Well i'm about to buy a whole new x58 pc (components). For now these are my components:

Lian li tyr pcx500
Be quiet 650W dark power pro
Intel core i7 920 cpu
Motherboard.....?
EVGA GTX260 SC 55nm
Intel Postville SSD 80gb (for boot, OS, couple of games, and aplications)
WD black 500gb (for storage)
Mushkin HP3-10666 6 GB, PC3-10666, 1333 MHz, cas 7
Pioneer dvd-rewriter
Cherry Keyboard G80-3000 black
Razer Salmosa mouse
And watercool the cpu and gpu for silence.

I did research on the these components and read good reviews, especialy on the RAM and PSU the ram runs at 1.5v to 1.6v. Now for the mb i'm not sure wich to get i manage to narrow it down to 3 mb's.

Intel DX58SO (but the improved version release date 15 aug 2009)
EVGA X58 SLI LE
EVGA X58 SLI Micro

I'l be using the pc for: browsing, gaming, 2d/3d drawing applications, photo edtiting, watching movies. I'm leaning towards the Intel DX58SO because of intel reputation of relaible and stable mb's, wich i find very important. I wont do any SLI thats 100% sure. As for the EVGA brand i hear a lot of good things solid performance and the "dummy-oc" is a nice feature. Will do a mild overclock to 3.0ghz - 3.2ghz. All of these mb's do have good costumer reviews on www.newegg.com. What do you advise me to get? These are my priority's stable, relaible, solid performance. Pleace note i wont do any SLI.

I'm not looking for an answer like: all 3 mb's are a good to go lol.
What would you recommend me?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rob Williams]

Hi Cobra:

Your setup looks quite good! Just make sure that the Intel SSD you purchase is from the latest generation, since there are some important changes made (such as the ability to update the firmware to support TRIM for when it becomes available). Depending on how much you overclock, the most important thing about a motherboard is stability. I can't speak of the latest revisions of Intel's DX58SO, but I can say that the launch version didn't overclock at all. If OC'ing is important to you, definitely look at the EVGA boards.

The EVGA X58 SLI board is another that didn't overclock that well in our tests, but I honestly believe that things have improved since our sample (we received an earlier sample, and happened to take a while to actually get down to testing it). The Micro is likely another good board, but I'm not sure if you'd want to invest in an mATX board to throw in that expensive chassis (since it fits ATX).

I'd recommend the EVGA X58 SLI out of those choices, though. It's a solid board, and while it doesn't overclock a ton, that's not what you're looking for, so you seem to be golden.

 

[2Tired2Tango]

I'm not looking for an answer like: all 3 mb's are a good to go lol.
What would you recommend me?

Thanks in advance.

Just a thought ... you might want to include ASUS and Gigabyte motherboards in your research list. I've used both extensively since the mid-90s and so far they've been rock solid for me.

Overclocking might be fun... but ask yourself if a modest increase in performance is worth a larger reduction in reliability. Sometimes stable is worth more than speedy.... sometimes not.

About newegg reviews... they're in business to sell lots and lots of stuff... I seriously doubt they're going to allow a reivew that begins with "This thing is a piece of crap"... so you may want to look at reviews from sources that don't have a financial interest in the stuff they're reviewing.

 

[Cobra26]

Hi Cobra:

Your setup looks quite good! Just make sure that the Intel SSD you purchase is from the latest generation, since there are some important changes made (such as the ability to update the firmware to support TRIM for when it becomes available). Depending on how much you overclock, the most important thing about a motherboard is stability. I can't speak of the latest revisions of Intel's DX58SO, but I can say that the launch version didn't overclock at all. If OC'ing is important to you, definitely look at the EVGA boards.

The EVGA X58 SLI board is another that didn't overclock that well in our tests, but I honestly believe that things have improved since our sample (we received an earlier sample, and happened to take a while to actually get down to testing it). The Micro is likely another good board, but I'm not sure if you'd want to invest in an mATX board to throw in that expensive chassis (since it fits ATX).

I'd recommend the EVGA X58 SLI out of those choices, though. It's a solid board, and while it doesn't overclock a ton, that's not what you're looking for, so you seem to be golden.

Thank you very much for the reply,

Yes the intel ssd is a next generation (G2) model
No Rob high overclocking is not my priority, 3.0 - 3.2GHZ is more then enough. Good point about the mATX and the case i want didnt tought about that pointer, so micro is canceled out, thanks for the headsup.

I can see you wrote that the launch version of the DX58SO didnt overclock so well. After some new bios upgrades its a good oc board not top of the line but good , up to 3.5ghz very stable . do you by any means have experience with the EVGA x58 sli LE? Or know people who have one, this also aplies to the Intel DX58SO, (see links )Now i have to make a choice between the EVGA x58 sli LE and DX58so. If the EVGA is rock solid and stable then the EVGA it is, it has good reviews. The only tiny little drawback for me is well i have an intel board and found them very stable no issues, So i'm just a bit warry for the EVGA board (i hope you understand the dillema...faithfull to a brand) For now i favour the EVGA, and wil buy it, but il wait for the answers on my questions in this post.

Intel DX58SO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813121361

EVGA X58 SLI LE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813188049

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rob Williams]

I don't have experience with the X58 SLI LE, but I do know it's supposed to overclock a lot better than the non-LE board I had, so 3.0GHz - 3.2GHz will not be a problem whatsoever. Core i7 runs hot though, so just make sure you build your PC for optimum cooling (good airflow scheme and CPU cooler). If you are settled on EVGA as a brand, then that board isn't going to let you down, trust me on that.

Like 2Tired said though, ASUS and Gigabyte are also great brands and offer solid products. On the ASUS side, I'd recommend the P6T Deluxe (unless anyone else has a better suggestion), and for Gigabyte, their EX58-UD4P is great.

 

[Cobra26]

Just a thought ... you might want to include ASUS and Gigabyte motherboards in your research list. I've used both extensively since the mid-90s and so far they've been rock solid for me.

Overclocking might be fun... but ask yourself if a modest increase in performance is worth a larger reduction in reliability. Sometimes stable is worth more than speedy.... sometimes not.

About newegg reviews... they're in business to sell lots and lots of stuff... I seriously doubt they're going to allow a reivew that begins with "This thing is a piece of crap"... so you may want to look at reviews from sources that don't have a financial interest in the stuff they're reviewing.[/QUOT

Thanks for your reply,

Hmmm good point about newegg.
I research those brands of motherboards, youre right regarding overclocking if it was a high overclock. But surely a modest oc would not give problems...? But yes stability is more important then high speed very true.

 

[Cobra26]

I don't have experience with the X58 SLI LE, but I do know it's supposed to overclock a lot better than the non-LE board I had, so 3.0GHz - 3.2GHz will not be a problem whatsoever. Core i7 runs hot though, so just make sure you build your PC for optimum cooling (good airflow scheme and CPU cooler). If you are settled on EVGA as a brand, then that board isn't going to let you down, trust me on that.

Like 2Tired said though, ASUS and Gigabyte are also great brands and offer solid products. On the ASUS side, I'd recommend the P6T Deluxe (unless anyone else has a better suggestion), and for Gigabyte, their EX58-UD4P is great.

Thanks for the reply

Il trust you on the EVGA board il research some of the asus and gigabyte boards and then il make my choice, but odds are it il be the EVGA board.

Thanks for all the help and advise, realy appreciate it.

 

[2Tired2Tango]

Hmmm good point about newegg.

I've probably given NewEgg about $20,000 in business over the past few years (pretty much since they announced Canadian pricing) and have never had any real problems with them... My one grumble is their occasional tendency to ship in the manufacturer's display cartons...

But as with any "vested interest" situation their reviews and research are not to be entirely trusted. You need objective sources like, TechGage, Tom's Hardware, etc. My faith in Tom's Hardware went way up the day they published "Yes the WRT54g really is a lousy router"...

I research those brands of motherboards, youre right regarding overclocking if it was a high overclock. But surely a modest oc would not give problems...?

Don't take me wrong. There's nothing wrong with a modest overclock for continuous use. But at some point they become so modest as to be meaningless. I have a general guideline that I will run standard clocks until I'm sure the heat sinks are all settled in, the system is stable and the OS is correctly setup... Then I will increase in steps until I see a 5 degree (celsius) increase in temperature... that's my limit for continuous use.

It is rare indeed that an operator will notice speed differences of less than (are you sitting down?) 50%. Yep... most people won't even notice a jump from 2ghz to 3ghz ... and they are even less prone to notice changes in memory speed or drive speeds... In playing with this I got about 20/80 hit/miss on telling me "what's different" after an upgrade. Most commented on the nice smell of the cleaned up cases* ... very few ever comment "hey it's definately faster..."

* Favorite trick of mine: clean everything up all nice and tidy, inside and out, then fold up a dryer sheet and put it in the bottom of the case. The fans send the smell throughout the room bringing many comments about how nice it is not to have "that smelly old computer" messing up the room.

 

[Rob Williams]

It is rare indeed that an operator will notice speed differences of less than (are you sitting down?) 50%. Yep... most people won't even notice a jump from 2ghz to 3ghz ... and they are even less prone to notice changes in memory speed or drive speeds... In playing with this I got about 20/80 hit/miss on telling me "what's different" after an upgrade. Most commented on the nice smell of the cleaned up cases* ... very few ever comment "hey it's definately faster..."

That's true. It's because Windows doesn't respond much different on a given overclock, because deep-down, it's more of a storage performance limitation (example here). Where overclocks do become appreciated is with heavy multi-tasking, or when running an encode scenario that takes tens of minutes, or hours to run. Essentially, if you do something that really ups the overall CPU usage %, then an overclock would probably help (unless it's an application where performance doesn't matter at a certain point, like HD video).

* Favorite trick of mine: clean everything up all nice and tidy, inside and out, then fold up a dryer sheet and put it in the bottom of the case. The fans send the smell throughout the room bringing many comments about how nice it is not to have "that smelly old computer" messing up the room.

Haha, that's great. Plus, it would double as an anti-static mechanism ;-)

 

[Cobra26]

Ok i ordered my pc components including the EVGA X58 Sli LE :techgage:motherboard.
Some components do take time to order so i have time to "perhaps" change the psu here is why:

Altough i do think the psu is sufficient enough to power all my components (see first post for all the hardware) but i forgot to include 6 to 7 case fans 3 of wich is for the radiator watercooling and 3 to 4 are ment for the case it self.

The pump it self the Aquastream XT uses 5 watt.

But i heard that its best to have some "headroom" with the psu this headroom is not ment to be used for future upgrades like SLI wich i never do, perhaps in the future an upgrade to a new generation GT300 gpu 40nm wich hopefully is more energy efficient and uses less WATTS then the gtx260.

The headroom is more for stable operation of the psu and thus for the system. So is the Be quiet 650W dark power pro psu (wich has very good reviews and is very sillent one of the reasons i want this psu) a good choice? Remember i use a little overclocked (3.0 - 3.2Ghz i7920 (do) gtx260, intel 80gb ssd, 500gb harddrive, dvd-burner, 6gb ram, 6-7 fans, pump (5 watt). Or should i take the Be quiet 750W dark power pro for the extra "headroom" for the extra stability?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rob Williams]

Even if all of your PC's components were being stressed at the same time, it's highly unlikely you'd break through 400W with that setup, so I don't really think a 650W PSU is going to be an issue. But, you are going to be adding a whack of fans, so it might not be a horrible idea to opt for a slightly larger model. I wouldn't go above 750W, and if the price difference is stark between the 650W and 750W (more than $20), then I likely wouldn't bother upgrading.

 

[Cobra26]

Even if all of your PC's components were being stressed at the same time, it's highly unlikely you'd break through 400W with that setup, so I don't really think a 650W PSU is going to be an issue. But, you are going to be adding a whack of fans, so it might not be a horrible idea to opt for a slightly larger model. I wouldn't go above 750W, and if the price difference is stark between the 650W and 750W (more than $20), then I likely wouldn't bother upgrading.

Thanks for the reply,

Good point regarding the fans il just go for the 750watt version to be on te safe side.

Thanks again for the help appreciate it

 

[madmat]

Where are you located? I'd look for something else, the Dark Power Pro is an ancient design from nearly a decade ago. Get a new design PSU.