P6X58D-E vs Sabertooth x58

[metallicaband]

Hello everyone,

I'm going to build my first PC soon and I'm torn between these 2 motherboards and don't know which one to get, here's my situation:


- I already bought an i7 930 processor and these Corsair XMS3 1600 DDR3 RAM: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001K56XW8/
- I want to overclock the i7 930 as much as possible (hopefully 4ghz or more) with a Noctua D14 cooler
- I'll be using a PCI express soundcard, haven't decided which yet
- Would like to have the option of possibly going SLI in the future with something like 470x2, even though I'll most likely end up with a single highend GPU like the 480 because I read something about SLI setups suffering from input lag and that's a total deal breaker for me if it's true, gotta reasearch about that.
- Woud like to have the option of using 6 RAM sticks in the future, i.e there will be enough room to use 'em.

Please exclude the price factor when comparing because I live in Bahrain, I can get the Sabertooth locally for around $260 but if I wanted the P6X58D-E I'm gonna have to order it online, total cost to get it here would be around $270, advantage of buying locally is that I'll have warranty on the board in-case I faced a problem with it. If you have any other motherboard suggestion, please share your thoughts.

 

[SolidBladez]

I think the Sabertooth is the better board. Upon observation, it appears to have a similar phase design to that of the Rampage III Formula/Extreme boards. So it might overclock fairly well. 4GHz is easy to do with most boards. It's usually past 4.2GHz that things get tricky.

 

[DeathPrincess]

The P6X58D-E has more phases (16+2, rather than 8+2+2). But they are almost identical (apart from the beigeness) so go for the cheaper one. Both will easily get to 4gh/z
The sound on either board is fine.
Using all 6 Memory slots does limit overclocking, because of the extra strain on the memory controller. I don't know exact limits.
SLI can cause microstuttering (tiny framerate variations) though I've never had this to be honest (or noticed). Not all games use SLI however, but a single 470 is more than enough for most games at highest settings, If you want to go above 2 monitors youll need 2 cards.

 

[cyclone3d]

The PCI-E spacing is bad for SLI or CrossfireX on the both boards... The -E is slightly better as the bottom slot runs at 8x instead of the 4x of the bottom slot of the Sabertooth.

 

[kd5ywa]

The PCI-E spacing is bad for SLI or CrossfireX on the both boards... The -E is slightly better as the bottom slot runs at 8x instead of the 4x of the bottom slot of the Sabertooth.

The bottom slot on the Sabertooth is a PCIE 1.x x16 slot, meaning it runs at 2.x x8 speeds.

I can't tell if the P6X58D-E's top x1 PCIE slot would have issues with the boards heatsinks getting in the way of a sound card. If so, the Sabertooth is really your only option. I'd go with the Sabertooth irregardless if you don't mind the color scheme, 5yr warranty is hard to beat at that price. You can even find an open box one for $160ish which makes it a great deal.

 

[cyclone3d]

The bottom slot on the Sabertooth is a PCIE 1.x x16 slot, meaning it runs at 2.x x8 speeds.

I can't tell if the P6X58D-E's top x1 PCIE slot would have issues with the boards heatsinks getting in the way of a sound card. If so, the Sabertooth is really your only option. I'd go with the Sabertooth irregardless if you don't mind the color scheme, 5yr warranty is hard to beat at that price. You can even find an open box one for $160ish which makes it a great deal.

The bottom slot will fit a x16 card, but is only x4 electrically. That is according to the specs on the ASUS web site.

Straight from their specs page on the board:

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

From looking at that, it looks like it is a PCI-e 1.x x16 slot running at x4. So that would make it the speed of a x2 PCI-e 2.0 slot.
(edit) - just looked at the manual to confirm. It is as I posted. The bottom slot is a PCI-e 1.x slot running at x4.. unless the second PCI-e x1 slot is occupied. Then it drops to x1.

Also, the top PCI-e x1 slot on the -E has plenty of room for a sound card. I have my x-Fi installed there and it clears everything fine.

 

[metallicaband]

Thanks a lot for replying everyone, I've ended up with the Sabertooth after doing some research and reading enough reviews it seems like a solid choice, plus the local store warranty ain't so bad.

I'll most likely end up with a single high end GPU that can run most games @ 60 fps 1080p with max settings, will get that at the beginning of next year so maybe there will be a better single GPU than the 480 by then..