ASUS Sabretooth x58 hits newegg

Skull_Angel

[H]ard|Gawd
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May 31, 2010
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I haven't really been able to find any pre-release testing done on this board, but something smells kinda fishy with it's $200 usd price point on newegg. seems to use decent components and have decent heatsinks, and it's p55 lil' sis' seems to be doing well, but the price point still makes me wonder about it.

anyone daring enough to pick one up for testing? hahaha
 
my guess is they are able to price it lower since it doesnt have a nvidia chipset so no nvidia royalty fee's are places on the board.. but hard to tell what else is difference since neweggs new layout friggin sucks.. theres a lot of info missing like the pci-e x16 slots being 16/8 or 8/8 or 16/4, etc...
 
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual at x16/x16 mode)
1 x PCIe x16 (at x4 mode)
2 x PCIe x1
1 x PCI

link seems to be ok now.


I like this board if the $200 is right. (but I am a sucker for a good looking heatpipe).
 
Other than the MemOK button, I don't see any clear CMOS or onboard power buttons. Kind of a shame for tech bench setups.
 
conundrum .... Do I buy this for 200 or stick with the p6x58d- premium I'm picking up for $240?
 
Says it support SLI, interesting board, not bad for 200 bucks.

all x58 boards will support sli+cf if they have enough pci-e lanes for it (I don't know of any x58 boards that would only have 1 lane though. mITX would, but I haven't seen any, lol). you only need the nvidia SB chips in x58 for quad-sli (may be tri-sli too).
 
You might, but that's not very [H]ard. Overclocking expensive parts isn't keeping with the true spirit of overclocking, overclocking with cheaper parts is. I'd rather see one of these cranked up to 11 than a dozen fancier boards.

Then I'd get a UD3R or wait for Gigabyte's new X58-USB3 instead. Like others have said, the board's meh looking.
 
I agree, the colors, are off but for the price and for what you get, I think I can learn to like it.
 
Looks like an sli/xfire 2.0 16x setup would starve air to the top card. The expansion card layout is:
2.0 16x
pci slot
2.0 16x
2.0 x1
1.(1?0?) 16x slot. (guess that would make it a 2.0 8x bandwidth-wise)

Not that smart of a layout imo.
 
Looks like an sli/xfire 2.0 16x setup would starve air to the top card. The expansion card layout is:
2.0 16x
pci slot
2.0 16x
2.0 x1
1.(1?0?) 16x slot. (guess that would make it a 2.0 8x bandwidth-wise)

Not that smart of a layout imo.

[H]'s testing showed that even running in 8x/8x there was almost no performance drop in a single monitor setup, running 8x/8x triple screen definitely showed a drop, but I wouldn't call it a debilitating drop. even 4x/4x didn't show that much of a drop in a single monitor setup, so when it comes down to pci-e bandwidth I wouldn't be too worried about a board's setup in most cases.
 
[H]'s testing showed that even running in 8x/8x there was almost no performance drop in a single monitor setup, running 8x/8x triple screen definitely showed a drop, but I wouldn't call it a debilitating drop. even 4x/4x didn't show that much of a drop in a single monitor setup, so when it comes down to pci-e bandwidth I wouldn't be too worried about a board's setup in most cases.

True but motherboard makers still need to put more than 1 slot between their 16x slots. It's just a lazy/stupid move on their part.
 
do you mean squeeze more ports on the board than there currently is or just swap some ports around?

you can't really squeeze more ports on the board unless you make it bigger, the expansion slots on cases wouldn't line up correctly otherwise.

it would be nice if they standardized pci-e ports so you didn't run into these types of problems (dual-slot videocard blocking the only xxxx port), but I don't see this happening any time soon since it hasn't happened yet...
 
it'll go good with the fans that come stock with the new thermalright silver arrow too, lol.
 
do you mean squeeze more ports on the board than there currently is or just swap some ports around?

you can't really squeeze more ports on the board unless you make it bigger, the expansion slots on cases wouldn't line up correctly otherwise.

it would be nice if they standardized pci-e ports so you didn't run into these types of problems (dual-slot videocard blocking the only xxxx port), but I don't see this happening any time soon since it hasn't happened yet...

Well, they could use expansion slot breakouts, but that would sacrafice some expansion slots...
 
do you mean squeeze more ports on the board than there currently is or just swap some ports around?

you can't really squeeze more ports on the board unless you make it bigger, the expansion slots on cases wouldn't line up correctly otherwise.

it would be nice if they standardized pci-e ports so you didn't run into these types of problems (dual-slot videocard blocking the only xxxx port), but I don't see this happening any time soon since it hasn't happened yet...

Nah just swap them around for better thermos / make it more accessible. For instance:
2.0 x1
2.0 16x
1.(1?0?) 16x slot or pci slot
pci slot or 1.? 16x slot
2.0 16x

I guess they think that people are going to use it for 3 gpu setups or 2 gpu+physx...but people that go that route don't mind and in most cases would rather spend more money on boards with more features. Instead you see these motherboard makers half-ass designs on the off chance 1 out of 100 people would use a 3rd gpu. Instead of trying to make it do everything they should make budget boards do what they can do as best as they can.

Edit: I guess I missed that they have a X1 slot above the first 2.0 16x slot on the motherboard already. But it's blocked by the heatsink so... If it wasn't blocked it'd be a pretty dang good layout. You could use both X1 slots as well as the first 2.0 16x slot and the 1.? 16x slot and still have great thermals.
 
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That layout can't get too much better IMHO. Dual cards might not have air, but a majority of users are only going to be using a single card (and only loose that stupid PCI slot as a result) leaving the rest open for expansion.

Pair that with 8 SATA ports (6 is barely enough for the average user let alone enthusiasts), USB 3, and a decent layout for fan headers, finally dropping the IDE port, etc. Not a bad board at all.

$200 seems reasonable. Prices should be falling on x58 boards and some of the legacy features are missing on this board that probably drove other board prices up (P6T Deluxe V2 anyone?). Looks like there are less phases on the power circuitry though...not as good for overclocking?

Almost tempted to buy this board, if only for those damn SATA ports.
 
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Why is everyone surprised this is $200? LGA1336 is dead, so it's to be expected. There will be cheaper options coming soon, if the manufacturers are paying any attention. $200 is actually pretty high for a dead socket from where I stand.
 
For the cost, this looks like a very well laid out board.

No power or clear CMOS on board though, but does include USB/Sata upgrades.

Maybe two more Sata ports would have been nice?

PCI-e is well spaced for XF or SLi double cards, except the legact slot will be lost.

EVGA X-58 plain board is a little better, but no USB/Sata III.
 
Why is everyone surprised this is $200? LGA1336 is dead, so it's to be expected. There will be cheaper options coming soon, if the manufacturers are paying any attention. $200 is actually pretty high for a dead socket from where I stand.

LGA2011 isn't supposed to come out until Q1 2011 so LGA1366 still has a good six months or so of life left. ASUS has a pretty solid board here with all the right upgrades and a good price, probably the best features LGA1366 will ever see.
 
LGA2011 isn't supposed to come out until Q1 2011 so LGA1366 still has a good six months or so of life left. ASUS has a pretty solid board here with all the right upgrades and a good price, probably the best features LGA1366 will ever see.

Couple that with the Intel CPU discounts just announced, you've got a pretty nice deal.

Board $200 + Ci7 950 $295, pretty sweet. Especially when I think what I paid for what I'm using....:eek:
 
LGA2011 isn't supposed to come out until Q1 2011 so LGA1366 still has a good six months or so of life left. ASUS has a pretty solid board here with all the right upgrades and a good price, probably the best features LGA1366 will ever see.

LGA2011 is scheduled to come out in 2011 H2, not Q1. So s1366 still has at least a year ahead of it.

s1155, on the other hand, is being released 2011 Q1.
 
LGA2011 isn't supposed to come out until Q1 2011 so LGA1366 still has a good six months or so of life left. ASUS has a pretty solid board here with all the right upgrades and a good price, probably the best features LGA1366 will ever see.

Actually, LGA1155 is coming out Q1 2011. LGA2011 (LGA1366's actual replacement) won't be until Q3/4 2011. Still another year to go, but it's kinda sad to see no real developments for an entire socket for 2.5 years. The Evga X58 3x SLI boards we started using at work 1.5 years ago are just missing SATA3/USB3 from today's standpoint.
 
I still think there's no real reason to wait on the new sockets if you consider any overclocking.
 
I haven't really been able to find any pre-release testing done on this board, but something smells kinda fishy with it's $200 usd price point on newegg. seems to use decent components and have decent heatsinks, and it's p55 lil' sis' seems to be doing well, but the price point still makes me wonder about it.

anyone daring enough to pick one up for testing? hahaha

Wow that's fugly. I'd never trade my Classified in for that!
asus-sabertooth-55i-p_544556vb.png
 
Compared to a lot of MSI and DFI boards I've seen over the years, it's really not that bad at all. Biostar makes some really ugly boards from time to time too. I wish the green were a little more pronounced, but other than that I think it's okay. Looks like a good heatsink layout, as others have already said, and that's all that really matters to me. I'm going to put the side on and only look at it when I'm cleaning the cat hair out from that point on. Got over windows a while back.
 
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