Which Board for Rock Solid i7 build.... Thinking Intel Mobo

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USMC2Hard4U

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 4, 2003
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Its been a while since I built a gaming computer. I usually go for ASUS but i am really unsure about which mobo. I have read too many threads here and really want stability over all, but I do want to Overlock.

I plan on getting a i7 Extreme and 6GB of unknown ram... will do my research for which ram after I make a Mobo selection.

Is the Intel x58 board good?

Thanks all.
 
Had one Intel board, the BadAxe1. It was really a stable board, but without hardware modding it was impossible to overclock it. And I guess any board of any maker is stable at factory settings.

Don't know however how it is with current generation of Intel boards, but there must be a reason why most of the sites do not review them.
 
I was also thinking of the Asus Rampage II GENE uATX board....

uATX is a moot point either way for me. I am interested because ASUS is a trustworthy brand, and it has Good Integrated Audio in the X-Fi.
 
The Intel X58 board seems to be fairly mediocre. I would recommend something from ASUS or Gigabyte instead, like the P6T or P6T Deluxe, or the GA-X58-UD5.
 
Zero82z said:
The Intel X58 board seems to be fairly mediocre. I would recommend something from ASUS or Gigabyte instead, like the P6T or P6T Deluxe, or the GA-X58-UD5.
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I agree. There are plenty of good X58 options besides Intel.
 
If the added sound card is the deal breaker, get the ASUS.

If you want a good solid board I recommend the EVGA X58 SLI plain, not the Classified.
If a two year warranty is plenty the TR model is pretty cheap and has the same kit as the A1 which has a "lifetime" warranty.
 
EVGA X58 is an amazing board from what I've researched. In fact, as of last night, it was sold out on newegg.
 
The Asus i7 boards are better built than the eVGA X58 SLI. I would get the Asus P6T Deluxe and I have the eVGA X58 at the moment.
 
I fully support the Asus Revolution not a single stability problem. Using 12GB Ram running @ DDR1600. 920 rock stable @ 3.8Ghz. My only complain is that they havent fully fixed the S3 Resume bug yet.
 
speediRacer said:
Intel DX58SO is my vote if you can live with the 4 (really only 3) memory slots...

Bobby
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Why? It's one of the weaker overclockers compared to the third party X58 boards. As far as the memory slots thing goes, that part didn't matter to me at all, hence why I went with the Gigabyte UD3R. I just have too hard of a time seeing me needing more then 6Gb of ram in the next couple of years.
 
I'm in love with my Asus P6T right now. I am currently running my i7 920 at 3.6 Ghz and doing some stability testing. Might take it up some more if this turns out to be stable :)
 
it is running pretty good with the mobo p6t Deluxe it is good board and I am happy it is working fine :)
 
USMC2Hard4U said:
I plan on getting a i7 Extreme...
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ok can we back up a bit here. i7 extreme? really? either this is quite foolhardy of you or money is not an object. if it is the former, then step down to the 920 or at least the 940 and spend the money you save on an evga x58 classified, or a p6t, and still have a few hundred left over. with a good board you can OC way past the 3.2GHz of the extreme. if its the latter and money is no problem, then still go with the classified or p6t. or if the whole extreme thing was a typo or brain fart, see replies above. :p
 
P1010187.jpg

P1010188.jpg
 
Get a I7 920 and the EVGA x58 Vanilla (basic). I know you do not want to overclock, but it has a feature called "Dummy Overclock" that will take the 920 to 3.2Ghz-3.6Ghz if I remember correctly without you having to set anything on your own. It's rock stable, solid support and the money you save you could invest in a better video card such as a HD4870x2 or GTX295 if gaming will be what you are aiming for. Grab up 2 x 150Gb Velociraptors for your OS and a 1TB Samsung F1 drive for storage and finally some OCZ 1600 6Gb kit and you are all set with a nice setup.
 
ekuest said:
ok can we back up a bit here. i7 extreme? really? either this is quite foolhardy of you or money is not an object. if it is the former, then step down to the 920 or at least the 940 and spend the money you save on an evga x58 classified, or a p6t, and still have a few hundred left over. with a good board you can OC way past the 3.2GHz of the extreme. if its the latter and money is no problem, then still go with the classified or p6t. or if the whole extreme thing was a typo or brain fart, see replies above. :p
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I really agree with ur opinion, I think i7 extreme is too much and 920 is more enough and some of my friends say that it is too much waste of money because I really dont need to use all the feature of the this powerful CPU
 
magicknight said:
I really agree with ur opinion, I think i7 extreme is too much and 920 is more enough and some of my friends say that it is too much waste of money because I really dont need to use all the feature of the this powerful CPU
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Indeed. I don't see any reason to get the extreme i7 for just a gaming setup. The 920 is great and OCs past the extreme version quite easily anyways. Only reason to get an extreme, unless you're doing... really heavy stuff other than gaming, is just to say you have one, I think. But I don't really understand the minute subtleties of these chips, so maybe it's worth it. I know my 920 is plenty fast and I haven't OCd at all, yet.
 
For a gaming machine the 960 Extreme is a waste but noone should reccomend the 940 in any situation.

The i7 lineup is a poor overclocker CPU brand in general but if you wanted to make an overclocking rig the 960 is your only choice until the 975 comes out.

The 940 is the miserable middle child everyone should neglect because it's too expensive for the value conscious consumer and lacks the capability to overclock as effectively for overclocking enthusiasts.

if this dude seriously wants to spend money on gaming bling he should forget about the 965 and instead invest in the Nvidia Tesla and a GTX card because the Tesla itself doesn't provide any visual output.
 
If you are going with an unlocked multiplier then one of the uber high end boards would be nice, R2E or the Classified. For an air cooled 920 you can get away with the EVGA vanilla, UD5 or a P6T v2 just FINE...
 
mutantmagnet said:
The i7 lineup is a poor overclocker CPU brand in general but if you wanted to make an overclocking rig the 960 is your only choice until the 975 comes out.
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Based on what results? People are OC'ing from 2.6ghz to ~4ghz with C0 920's and around 4.2ghz+ VERY comfortably with D0 920's. Some people are seeing up to 2ghz overclocks with the D0 chips.

To the OP. I own an EVGA x58 3x SLi "vanilla" and it is solid. I like the bios flash software from asus as well as their built in OC software better, but EVGA has MUCH better service.
 
Alchemy1 said:
Based on what results?
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Based on the Core 2 Lineup. Extreme 965s have issues being stable over 5Ghz while you could go to 6GHz with moderately more ease with Core 2.

The architecture of the Core i7 is phenomenal for many reasons such as usage in servers but in terms of overclocking it is subpar compared to Intel's prior cpu design.

We'll see if things change with the 975.
 
The Rampage II Extreme is a damn fine board. Ours was an early sample and they've changed a little since then. Mainly things in regard to memory compatability and stability improved since we tested it. Beyond that the BIOS has improved and when we tested it, 1.60v DIMMs weren't yet on the market. So things are a bit different these days.

Now while I endorse that board whole heartedly, I just pulled the trigger on the EVGA X58 Classified. Why? Well mainly the layout. What I'm hearing about the board is solid but beyond that I know EVGA will stand behind it. Expensive? Hell yes. Worth it? Well not for most people probably, but I think it will be worth it for me.

Basically I mulled over this very topic today for my own personal system. I basically chose between the following:

Gigabyte GA-EX58 Extreme
ASUS Rampage II Extreme
ASUS P6T6 WS Professional
EVGA EX58 Classified

The layout and the cooling really won me over. As did the locking SATA ports. The expansion slot configuration really sealed the deal. I think I can get my 3 Geforce GTX 280's on there with an audio card in the very top slot. The digital PWM's and other design feauters also swayed me a bit. The price was hard to swallow. I'm pairing this up with a Core i7 920 for the moment. We'll see how it goes.
 
Did you pick up the one with the NF200 chip or the one without? I want to step up to a classified, but there have been so many little issue for a $400-$450 board (PSU compatibility issues, NB heat issues, bent NB heatsinks, etc.).
 
Alchemy1 said:
Did you pick up the one with the NF200 chip or the one without? I want to step up to a classified, but there have been so many little issue for a $400-$450 board (PSU compatibility issues, NB heat issues, bent NB heatsinks, etc.).
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The one with the nForce 200 MCP. Model EVGA 141-BL-E759-A1 specifically.
 
Dan_D said:
The Rampage II Extreme is a damn fine board. Ours was an early sample and they've changed a little since then. Mainly things in regard to memory compatability and stability improved since we tested it. Beyond that the BIOS has improved and when we tested it, 1.60v DIMMs weren't yet on the market. So things are a bit different these days.

Now while I endorse that board whole heartedly, I just pulled the trigger on the EVGA X58 Classified. Why? Well mainly the layout. What I'm hearing about the board is solid but beyond that I know EVGA will stand behind it. Expensive? Hell yes. Worth it? Well not for most people probably, but I think it will be worth it for me.

Basically I mulled over this very topic today for my own personal system. I basically chose between the following:

Gigabyte GA-EX58 Extreme
ASUS Rampage II Extreme
ASUS P6T6 WS Professional
EVGA EX58 Classified

The layout and the cooling really won me over. As did the locking SATA ports. The expansion slot configuration really sealed the deal. I think I can get my 3 Geforce GTX 280's on there with an audio card in the very top slot. The digital PWM's and other design feauters also swayed me a bit. The price was hard to swallow. I'm pairing this up with a Core i7 920 for the moment. We'll see how it goes.
Click to expand...
Would that board using SLI or Corssfire fit in this case as the PSU is on the bottom:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160
 
Dan_D said:
Gigabyte GA-EX58 Extreme
ASUS Rampage II Extreme
ASUS P6T6 WS Professional
EVGA EX58 Classified

The layout and the cooling really won me over. As did the locking SATA ports. The expansion slot configuration really sealed the deal. I think I can get my 3 Geforce GTX 280's on there with an audio card in the very top slot. The digital PWM's and other design feauters also swayed me a bit. The price was hard to swallow. I'm pairing this up with a Core i7 920 for the moment. We'll see how it goes.
Click to expand...

The prices are bad but for the OP who is going to take up a lot of PCI slots with his Quad Crossfire they are less annoying because I would hope their integrated Raid and Sound card solutions would hold their own against dedicated PCI cards to a better extent than what cheaper mobos offer.
 
mutantmagnet said:
The prices are bad but for the OP who is going to take up a lot of PCI slots with his Quad Crossfire they are less annoying because I would hope their integrated Raid and Sound card solutions would hold their own against dedicated PCI cards to a better extent than what cheaper mobos offer.
Click to expand...

The hardware integrated into just about every board I've ever seen is fairly bad compared to high end add in boards. The EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified is no different. The audio is better than most, but the ICH10R can't hold a candle to a high end RAID controller. You should never expect it to either. The JMicron SATA controller is ok but it isn't even quite a s good as the ICH10R. So by default it won't match a real RAID controller either. The network hardware built into motherboards is generally fairly pathetic. The EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified uses Realtek 8111C for its networking hardware. These aren't exactly known for being all that great. Everytime I test the Realtek 8111C I find them to be just about the bottom of the barrel.
 
BTW on the subject of RAM, the Corsair Dominator GT 2000MHz modules are the best DDR3 modules I've used thus far. At stock speeds they run tight timings and they'll run close to their maximum speed with fairly reasonable timings. Stability is excellent also. I've got to warn you, compared to other memory kits, they are expensive.
 
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