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EVGA X58 3X SLI Motherboard @ [H]
- Thread starter FrgMstr
- Start date
Right now I really don't think you will go wrong with any of the major player's x58 offerings. Like I said earlier, all the boards I have looked at have almost identical performance when running the same configurations, and none of them have been particularly unstable.
I was debating between the ASUS P6T Deluxe and the EVGA X58 SLI, and I went with the EVGA because it allows me to run CF/SLI video cards and use my PCI X-Fi card with with adequate spacing and cooling, and because I liked the active cooled Northbridge. If I had bought the ASUS would I have been unhappy? Nope. It probably would have been fine. I just think the EVGA has a better layout, and I read lots of happy forum posts from owners, so I decided to try it out.
For the record I have never owned an EVGA product before, and I have used lots of ASUS products (my last three motherboards have actually been ABIT > ASUS > now EVGA) so this will be a test of the company for me.
UPS is saying my parts will be here Thursday so I will let you all know my results hopefully over the weekend.
I was debating between the ASUS P6T Deluxe and the EVGA X58 SLI, and I went with the EVGA because it allows me to run CF/SLI video cards and use my PCI X-Fi card with with adequate spacing and cooling, and because I liked the active cooled Northbridge. If I had bought the ASUS would I have been unhappy? Nope. It probably would have been fine. I just think the EVGA has a better layout, and I read lots of happy forum posts from owners, so I decided to try it out.
For the record I have never owned an EVGA product before, and I have used lots of ASUS products (my last three motherboards have actually been ABIT > ASUS > now EVGA) so this will be a test of the company for me.
UPS is saying my parts will be here Thursday so I will let you all know my results hopefully over the weekend.
I've had good luck with the board running the SZ1A BIOS. I posted my OC settings here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1033513460#post1033513460
Short version: 18*200=3.6 GHz, RAM at 1600. Could go higher, but want to keep quiet fans on the TRUE Black.
Don't know if different RAM would affect the BClk, but here's what I'm running:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225
The review is typically solid [H] material. The issues are clearly spelled out. It's not [H]'s job to make the hardware look good - it's their job to report their experience with the hardware. eVGA could have done a couple things to show their board in a better light. I doubt it would have been out of the question (on the review side) for [H] to borrow a retail 965 for testing and return it at the end. It isn't up to Kyle to shell out $1000 for the purpose of making a motherboard perform better. The BIOS question is a stumper - why supply an older BIOS with known issues when there is a better one available?
Based on the review, a silver award may seem generous, but in my own experience I'd give it a gold. As always, YMMV.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1033513460#post1033513460
Short version: 18*200=3.6 GHz, RAM at 1600. Could go higher, but want to keep quiet fans on the TRUE Black.
Don't know if different RAM would affect the BClk, but here's what I'm running:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225
The review is typically solid [H] material. The issues are clearly spelled out. It's not [H]'s job to make the hardware look good - it's their job to report their experience with the hardware. eVGA could have done a couple things to show their board in a better light. I doubt it would have been out of the question (on the review side) for [H] to borrow a retail 965 for testing and return it at the end. It isn't up to Kyle to shell out $1000 for the purpose of making a motherboard perform better. The BIOS question is a stumper - why supply an older BIOS with known issues when there is a better one available?
Based on the review, a silver award may seem generous, but in my own experience I'd give it a gold. As always, YMMV.
[H]adouken
[H]ard|Gawd
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Alright so I'll read around a bit and pull the trigger soon. I'm leaning towards the EVGA X58 one simply because it looks a bit better, I hope I can reach 4GHz on it easily.
I have very little OCing experience. My first OC was with the EVGA 680i.
I read the EVGA forums after purchasing my X58 and was able to OC my 920 to 3.8 with almost no problems. The one problem I had was my fault. I had the Uncore set wrong. I am also using Corsair Dominator Ram at 1600mhz at the 3.8 overclock. SZ1c (latest) BIOS. CoolerMaster V8.
Hope this helps people decide the EVGA board is awesome IMHO.
Mark
I read the EVGA forums after purchasing my X58 and was able to OC my 920 to 3.8 with almost no problems. The one problem I had was my fault. I had the Uncore set wrong. I am also using Corsair Dominator Ram at 1600mhz at the 3.8 overclock. SZ1c (latest) BIOS. CoolerMaster V8.
Hope this helps people decide the EVGA board is awesome IMHO.
Mark
temporalwar
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""Note that all results above were obtained running the installed memory in Triple Channel mode except the Core 2 Quad QX9770 system running in dual chancel mode""
Dual Channel Mode maybe
Dual Channel Mode maybe
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We used the latest BIOS available to us direct from EVGA....about 14 days ago when the benchmarks were run. Don't let the guy above get into your head with his rhetoric. We always attempt to update the BIOS when we start benchmarking, then generally even a week after that when the board goes to Dan or Morry for more testing and OCing. So we may update twice during the review process. We did not use a newer BIOS because EVGA did not have one it would send us at the time.
ow ow ow! ive had my heart set on this board.
i need to see more positive overclocks and notations about this board.
im not much of an overclocker but if i ever feel the need to overclock i want the hardware to be able to handle it.
and this board just looks great.
i need to see more positive overclocks and notations about this board.
im not much of an overclocker but if i ever feel the need to overclock i want the hardware to be able to handle it.
and this board just looks great.
Where you around when Kyle stated that they are on a different time line for testing hardware than us? By the time a review gets published new drivers/software gets released sometimes. That's why us normal hardForum members start a thread in the proper category to let others know what's up. Kyle tested the board twice already, those are the results they got.
The low benchmark scores were due to issues with engineering sample CPUs. The overclocking just wasn't that great but they aren't totally out of line with what others have seen either. These results are just on the low side. The fact is when it comes to overclocking, we could have easily picked up half a dozen boards and experienced half a dozen results.
Overclocking is very much luck of the draw, people seem to forget that. Kyle even stated in the review that he's seen better results out there than what we saw. I know I have as well. Still these are the results we got.
I pulled the trigger on this one. It was a toss up between the Asus P6T Deluxe and the EVGA X58. My requirement was that I wanted to make sure that I had an available PCI slot for my HT Omega Claro Plus+ audio card (which is awesome by the way) AND run 2x- SLI or Crossfire.
So for the features and my PCI needs, these were the two boards I have contemplated for weeks now. I settled on EVGA for three reasons: Customer Support is BETTER than Asus... and newegg is offering the EVGA with free shipping and a $10 discount promo code. I figured it was the universe hinting to me.
The memory modules spoke to me too: OCZ Platinum 3x2GB 1600 cas 7-7-7-24 from newegg with free shipping and $199 after mail in rebate. So double the win from newegg... I'll post a note on the complete build when its together.
So for the features and my PCI needs, these were the two boards I have contemplated for weeks now. I settled on EVGA for three reasons: Customer Support is BETTER than Asus... and newegg is offering the EVGA with free shipping and a $10 discount promo code. I figured it was the universe hinting to me.
The memory modules spoke to me too: OCZ Platinum 3x2GB 1600 cas 7-7-7-24 from newegg with free shipping and $199 after mail in rebate. So double the win from newegg... I'll post a note on the complete build when its together.
vanilla_guerilla
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had mine since the day after it went on sale at newegg. great board, nice overclock. and another brand would have to be a lot better than the evga for me to buy it, when you factor in evga customer service. altho i have never used it, their tech support is supposed to be great, also. 4400 (intel turbo enabled) , 1.39v vcore, true black, vtt +.350. sz1a bios. had some issues with my boot drive with the sz1c, so flashed back.
The EVGA is no way a bad choice. It isn't the X58 board I'd use, but it certainly isn't bad.
Which motherboard would you go with? I've seen that you seem to favor the Gigabyte X58 UD-5, which seems like a great board but wouldn't allow me to run 2-way SLI/Xfire and still use my PCI X-Fi sound card.. that was a deal breaker.
Well for me I'd probably have to toss a coin between the Rampage II Extreme and the P6T6 WS Revolution. I don't care for the nForce 200 MCP, but I do like the legacy free nature of the board. The Rampage II Extreme has some great features, but the layout isn't as good. My overclocking experience with the Rampage II Extreme wasn't as good as I have had with the other boards, but I also used an earlier version of the board with 1.90v RAM which wasn't the best setup for it. Still managed 180BCLK out of it. I suspect newer version of the board along with better RAM would make for a better experience.
BlackDragon24
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I've got the same combo and love it....though I cannot seem to get my mem controller tom play ball at ddr3-1600 7-7-7-24. It runs 8-7-7-24 1.60v no problem though
Its not the fault of the memory either...it passes memtest fine just can't pass prime95. Haven't spent much time trying to figure it out why it won't work though.....probably a voltage increase that I have not discovered yet.
I've got the same combo and love it....though I cannot seem to get my mem controller tom play ball at ddr3-1600 7-7-7-24. It runs 8-7-7-24 1.60v no problem though
Its not the fault of the memory either...it passes memtest fine just can't pass prime95. Haven't spent much time trying to figure it out why it won't work though.....probably a voltage increase that I have not discovered yet.
Perhaps you can contact OCZ and ask them... If they can advertise i7 memory to run at 1600Mhz and timings of 7-7-7-24 (which is why I bought it)... then they should be able to provide information on how that is possible. If not, they need to change their advertising!!! I'll contact them on this issue if my build results are the same as yours.
BlackDragon24
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But its not the fault of the memory....I can run memtest all day and night at 7-7-7-24 but when it comes to windows it won't play ball with the memory controller, at least not at the voltages I have tested.
I haven't spent much time trying to tighten it up because frankly, it just isn't worth it right now. The bandwidth differences between 8-7-7-24 and 7-7-7-24 just aren't significant enough for me to do anything about it.
These modules scale quite nicely as well....they are memtest stable up to 1866 at 9-9-9-24. I haven't gone much farther than that with them and I haven't verified windows stability, but it would be a good set to have for folks who can use a 2:10 divider and are having problems pushing above 185 bclock....if the mem controller can handle it
I looked at those boards and they were more expensive and focused on features I didn't need (I need a PCI slot as I don't care for onboard audio), such as 3-way SLI. But they are nice boards and I can see where there is a market for them.
We'll see how my EVGA does.
A review of the OCZ Platinum 1333MHz 1GB 7-7-7-20 modules is available here:
http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/memory/ocz/triple_channel/pc3_10666_3gb_7-7-7-20/1.asp (and yes, we could probably move this conversation to the Memory section, hehe)
The reviewer used the Asus P6T motherboard in combination with an i7 spec and was able to get 1600MHz @ 1.65v by just increasing the DDR3 bus... though the details are not in the article, including which Operating System the test was conducted with.
BlackDragon24, you are right in that the problem could lie within Windows or the EVGA BIOS. I was just pointing out that if OCZ advertises this as an i7 tri-channel kit capable of reaching 1600MHz with timings of 7-7-7-20, then they should be able to provide documentation on how they got that (perhaps they validate only using memtest?). In any case... lets hope EVGA continues tweaking the BIOS
http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/memory/ocz/triple_channel/pc3_10666_3gb_7-7-7-20/1.asp (and yes, we could probably move this conversation to the Memory section, hehe)
The reviewer used the Asus P6T motherboard in combination with an i7 spec and was able to get 1600MHz @ 1.65v by just increasing the DDR3 bus... though the details are not in the article, including which Operating System the test was conducted with.
BlackDragon24, you are right in that the problem could lie within Windows or the EVGA BIOS. I was just pointing out that if OCZ advertises this as an i7 tri-channel kit capable of reaching 1600MHz with timings of 7-7-7-20, then they should be able to provide documentation on how they got that (perhaps they validate only using memtest?). In any case... lets hope EVGA continues tweaking the BIOS
vanilla_guerilla
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it will do great.
BlackDragon24
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A review of the OCZ Platinum 1333MHz 1GB 7-7-7-20 modules is available here:
http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/memory/ocz/triple_channel/pc3_10666_3gb_7-7-7-20/1.asp (and yes, we could probably move this conversation to the Memory section, hehe)
The reviewer used the Asus P6T motherboard in combination with an i7 spec and was able to get 1600MHz @ 1.65v by just increasing the DDR3 bus... though the details are not in the article, including which Operating System the test was conducted with.
BlackDragon24, you are right in that the problem could lie within Windows or the EVGA BIOS. I was just pointing out that if OCZ advertises this as an i7 tri-channel kit capable of reaching 1600MHz with timings of 7-7-7-20, then they should be able to provide documentation on how they got that (perhaps they validate only using memtest?). In any case... lets hope EVGA continues tweaking the BIOS
Its a great point....I guess I need to start a thread at OCZ to find out.....
I would like to say that last night I just put together an EVGA X58 system for myself and I noticed that the board version I got does have locking SATA ports on it. I will post a picture as soon as the drivers are installed but I just wanted to let everyone know that it does appear that this has changed from what I guess was initially being sent out.
BlackDragon24
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Which is why I posted what I did. Because the one I got does have locking points contrary to what the review said. Which implies they must have a different version shipping now that has locking points. Thus I pointed out that it may indeed have it just in case someone was initially put off by that. Its not a big deal feature but its something that should be pointed out
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I don't know I literally just got my board yesterday and it shipped last monday so it could be just a new version or they ran out of the bad SATA ports who knows...maybe they aren't locking ports at all I could be wrong they definitly look different from the Review pics though...
RussianHAXOR
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Those definitely look different.
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Yeah, you would think, but history has not proven that logic.
Boy I hope they do keep those locking ports it is entirely too stupid to switch back to the old non-locking ones and it should be pointed out in reviews where they do not use them because as you say it defies logics especially with the supplied cables. Maybe they got them at a discount and had to use up three years worth of non-locking sata ports :-p
A less ugly chipset cooler would be nice and move the 8 pin power plug while they are at it that is a pain in the butt to get too I have no idea why they are there when everything else seems so carefully placed on this board.
Also it would be nice if they put one of the Chassis Fan headers near the IO ports as usually you have a fan on the back of your case that way you don't need to strecth a cable across everything to reach the ports.
And I agree they need to stay away from the nForce 200 MCP but I doubt they will since they seem to be a close partner with nVidia I am sure their next board will be based on it.
matrix563
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from the benchmark picture it appears performance is slightly worse with the 200 chip and x58? or did i miss somethin?
You always lose slots when you install a video card. That is just the way it is. I get your point, but most of the time that top PCIe x1 slot is virtually useless anyway.