Buying an i7 920, but need suggestions for the mb.

Z

Zan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
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160
This CPU won't be over clocked and will probably never have dual video cards. I just need a reliable MB that won't break the bank. The system is for gaming.

Thank you.
 
I have owned the MSI X58 Platinum since Jan 22. It was about $90 less than anything else at the time of purchase and has not crashed once since I bought it. It's 'rock' stable and has lots of features I need....and none I don't.
 
the evga x58 sli le is a fine board as i own 1 and very happy with it.running stock any of the x58 boards are fine you just have to look at the features and see which you like the best..general concenus from months of research on my part before buying my evga board is that asus or evga seem to be the most popular + evga has usa support and is terrific as you can talk to an american about problems if you have any..i also purchased an evga x58 3x sli board for my son who is 17 and its one heck of a board also..as an avid asus fan ill have to say these evga boards are as fine a board as ive ever used..having usa support was the deciding factor for me..the msi board mentioned above has also had good reviews..at stock speeds you really cant go wrong with any of these 180-250 dollar boards but if i were you id look hard at the evga board before making a decision....
 
wesleys_dad said:
the evga x58 sli le is a fine board as i own 1 and very happy with it.running stock any of the x58 boards are fine you just have to look at the features and see which you like the best..general concenus from months of research on my part before buying my evga board is that asus or evga seem to be the most popular + evga has usa support and is terrific as you can talk to an american about problems if you have any..i also purchased an evga x58 3x sli board for my son who is 17 and its one heck of a board also..as an avid asus fan ill have to say these evga boards are as fine a board as ive ever used..having usa support was the deciding factor for me..the msi board mentioned above has also had good reviews..at stock speeds you really cant go wrong with any of these 180-250 dollar boards but if i were you id look hard at the evga board before making a decision....
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http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302866

I'm prepared to spend the money, if that's what it takes to get a reliable board, but it just seems odd to be spending more on the board than on the CPU.

Thank you for the suggestion.
 
make sure you get the D0 stepping i7 920. microcenter should have them. they have them at my location [st. davids/philadelphia]
 
Not trying to hijack your thread, but I'm buying an i7 920 as well and I'm trying to narrow my search on not only the board...but ram as well.
 
There are those who don't think much of the ASRock X58 Extreme, but it's very inexpensive (relatively) and has fared me well. There are also those who have had trouble getting the 6 GB OCZ Gold triple-channel kit working with the X58 Extreme, but it worked fine for me out of the box. I don't know if I just got lucky, or if everyone else is crazy, or what. ;)

Edit: I will say to be careful with the EZ overclocking (or whatever it's called) feature in the X58 Extreme. It's mostly great, but it pushed some of the voltages on the i7 920 out of spec when I tried it, so I manually reduced said voltages to be on the safe side.

-Will
 
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I highly recommend that Evga boards. The lifetime warranties on their product represent a high value to me. Additionally, their boards have been rock-solid and their customer support leads the industry.
 
keshavcharya said:
make sure you get the D0 stepping i7 920. microcenter should have them. they have them at my location [st. davids/philadelphia]
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He doesn't need it since he won't be overclocking.

For the motherboard, I would go with something like the Gigabyte EX58-UD3R or ASUS P6T SE. Good budget boards.
 
Sorry to burst the eVGA bubble but no thanks... Great video cards but as far as their boards go, there's much to be desired.

I've built quite a few systems before and EVGA was by far the pickiest in terms of getting the right setup.

Gigabyte has always been rock solid for me. Asus is okay if you don't plan on OC'ing and want a bunch of stuff on the board you probably won't end up using.

DFI is the best tweaker board but it's not for the faint of heart. Lots of options and great board for OC'ing a chip, but again if you don't plan on doing that, get a Gigabyte. For the price and performance you can't beat it.
 
soulbro said:
There are those who don't think much of the ASRock X58 Extreme, but it's very inexpensive (relatively) and has fared me well. There are also those who have had trouble getting the 6 GB OCZ Gold triple-channel kit working with the X58 Extreme, but it worked fine for me out of the box. I don't know if I just got lucky, or if everyone else is crazy, or what. ;)

Edit: I will say to be careful with the EZ overclocking (or whatever it's called) feature in the X58 Extreme. It's mostly great, but it pushed some of the voltages on the i7 920 out of spec when I tried it, so I manually reduced said voltages to be on the safe side.

-Will
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That is the exact setup that I'm looking to get. I see that you are overclocking on your setup...do you have any tips? Did you just manually overclock via the BIOS instead of using EZ overclocking?
 
strid3r said:
That is the exact setup that I'm looking to get. I see that you are overclocking on your setup...do you have any tips? Did you just manually overclock via the BIOS instead of using EZ overclocking?
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Basically, I used the EZ-overclock feature in the BIOS as a starting point, and then manually pushed the voltages down to something more reasonable (and at least in-spec). I think I upped my Vcore a little, and I know I had to up the voltage to the RAM -- it was way under-volted by default. (Which worked fine when the CPU was at 2.66, but caused stability problems at 3.6.)

When I get home, I'll look up my settings and post them, if it would help. There's a guy over on overclock.net that is looking for that info anyway. ;)

-Will
 
People seem to like the eVGAs for support and ease of use, so they are always a safe choice.

I suppose it depends on the form factor you're looking for too... mATX or just ATX?
 
strid3r, here's what I did:

1. Choose EZ OC Setting 3.60 GHz. This automatically sets the BCLK to 180 MHz and PCIE frequency to 100 MHz. Also sets DRAM frequency to 540 MHz (DDR3 1080 MHz, up from the default 1066).

2. Set uncore frequency to 2160 MHz (twice the DRAM frequency [1080]).

3. Set CPU voltage (VCore) to 1.25 V. (up from the default 1.2V)

4. Set DRAM voltage to 1.639 V. (My RAM is rated at 1.65 V, and the default was much lower for some reason.)

5. Set VTT (uncore voltage) to 1.34 V.

6. Set PLL voltage to 1.88 V.

And that was about it. Ran Prime95 blend test for 7 hours or so with no problems. I could probably set some of the voltages a bit lower; I haven't had time to really tweak them. Seems to be doing well, though.

Hopefully I'll get around to water-cooling the thing at some point, and I can try to go higher, just for fun. :)

HTH,

-Will
 
i have the evga x58 sli since it dropped last year and it has been great. the evga le is also a fine board, as is the evga x58 matx board. i have had a couple evga 680i, a 780i, a 790i, a 650i sli, a couple of the "free" evga nf4 boards they gave away when you bought a 7800gt, and now the x58 sli and a 750i ftw. i also have had at least 15 or 20 evga video cards, and this has all been for personal use. i have never had an evga product that did not work perfectly out of the box, and the only rma i can remember is when they gave a free upgrade from the 680i ar to the 680i a1 boards a few years back. i really wish they were an ati partner.
 
vanilla_guerilla said:
i have the evga x58 sli since it dropped last year and it has been great. the evga le is also a fine board, as is the evga x58 matx board. i have had a couple evga 680i, a 780i, a 790i, a 650i sli, a couple of the "free" evga nf4 boards they gave away when you bought a 7800gt, and now the x58 sli and a 750i ftw. i also have had at least 15 or 20 evga video cards, and this has all been for personal use. i have never had an evga product that did not work perfectly out of the box, and the only rma i can remember is when they gave a free upgrade from the 680i ar to the 680i a1 boards a few years back. i really wish they were an ati partner.
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Yea, I'm so sick of Nvidia's stuff at this point, I can't wait to get to some real innovative technologies that apparently only AMD and ATI provide.
 
Np. One thing I forgot: I also disabled SpeedStep. I don't know of it's strictly necessary, but it might be. At least it helps you get a stable clock speed.

-Will
 
FYI, disabling SpeedStep will throw errors in the Windows 7 Event Viewer logs. Something about a CPU firmware feature being disabled.
 
Deads0uls said:
FYI, disabling SpeedStep will throw errors in the Windows 7 Event Viewer logs. Something about a CPU firmware feature being disabled.
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I never enable SpeedStep and I use Windows 7 and have no problems what-so-ever.

I throw another vote in for an evga board.....I have had nothing but good from them.

If you want evga advice, go over to their forums and ask around about boards and OC settings, there's lots of good help there.
There is also a very good tutorial in the X58 stickys about OC a core i7 in general terms that I found very helpful when I first got my 920.
 
Wshmaster0 said:
DFI is the best tweaker board but it's not for the faint of heart. Lots of options and great board for OC'ing a chip, but again if you don't plan on doing that, get a Gigabyte. For the price and performance you can't beat it.
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2nd that. I own the DFI and it's great at doing what it's designed to do. However, don't expect to get any support whatsoever, beyond forums and your retailer. On the other hand, I've had ZERO issues with DFI boards and don't mind living dangerously. hehehe.... :D

TBH... One thing I absolutely loathe about the DFI board is that it's only good at one thing: maintaining an everyday OC. As far as features, only 6 USB ports, no audio ports on board because of chipset cooling, and no ESATA ports. If you don't mind using one of your PCI slot covers for integrated audio or have a discrete audio card, then this is not a problem. No ESATA sucks though.

Gigabytes are typically very feature rich, so they're not a bad idea.
 
I have played with both an ASUS P6T and an EVGA X58 SLI. I would go with ASUS as they have the more user friendly BIOS set up. It took me a while to figure out what all the additional stuff was on the EVGA board when overclocking my Dad's PC. Maybe the lower end EVGA board have easier to navigate BIOSs, but my recommendation is ASUS.
 
I vote Asus for performance, stability, and ease of oc'ing... did I mention stability :)
 
Im in the same boat searching for a new mobo to go with the i7 920.
I'm leaning towards the the EVGA x58 SLI LE. You lose some features from the X58 SLI but it's also cheaper and it's stuff I probably wouldn't use anyway. This board scores major points in my book for just looking great (sorry can't help it Im a graphic designer) I mean just look at it:
141-BL-E757-TR_LG_5.jpg

gotta love that blackout board. It will look great in my 800D. Also love that they dropped the pointless ide and floppy connectors. In this case less is more imo. I don't need 12 external USB ports or two network connections.
 
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