X48 DDR2 - Asus vs Gigabyte?

My personal choice would be the Gigabyte just because it doesn't use that stupid add-in card for the sound :p
 
The Gigabyte has 2 more SATA ports. 1 more PCI Express x1 slot (because of the lack of the add-in sound card) and I believe 2 additional external USB ports. The only possible negative I can think of is the heatsink on the back of the motherboard. If your CPU heatsink is a bolt through, you'll need to remove that.

When I was deciding between X38 boards (which these are pretty much identical to) I didn't feel like modifying my motherboard (yes, minor, but still...) just to fit my heatsink on, so I went with the Asus. However, now I would like those two additional SATA ports for eSATA...

If I was buying today I'd probably get the Gigabyte. Though ultimately either one should be great.
 
Blackforge said:
The Gigabyte has 2 more SATA ports. 1 more PCI Express x1 slot (because of the lack of the add-in sound card) and I believe 2 additional external USB ports. The only possible negative I can think of is the heatsink on the back of the motherboard. If your CPU heatsink is a bolt through, you'll need to remove that.

When I was deciding between X38 boards (which these are pretty much identical to) I didn't feel like modifying my motherboard (yes, minor, but still...) just to fit my heatsink on, so I went with the Asus. However, now I would like those two additional SATA ports for eSATA...

If I was buying today I'd probably get the Gigabyte. Though ultimately either one should be great.
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I thought the gigabyte motherboards come with two screws to allow you to remove the cpu part of the crazycool, but using the two screws, allow you to keep the other part for the north/south bridge crazycool. I heard how to do it was detailed in the manual. Or is that wrong?
 
Seraphic said:
I thought the gigabyte motherboards come with two screws to allow you to remove the cpu part of the crazycool, but using the two screws, allow you to keep the other part for the north/south bridge crazycool. I heard how to do it was detailed in the manual. Or is that wrong?
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In the picture it does appear the CPU portion is removable at first glance. If you've heard its removable by itself, its probably true.
 
Seraphic said:
I thought the gigabyte motherboards come with two screws to allow you to remove the cpu part of the crazycool, but using the two screws, allow you to keep the other part for the north/south bridge crazycool. I heard how to do it was detailed in the manual. Or is that wrong?
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Since it looks identical to the X38, here is a closer pic:
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/311-gigabyte-ga-x38-dq6-blog.html#post1890

Looks like it may be at least 4 screws that you replace with bolts to make sure the heatpipe on the front is secured on.

Ahh here we go:
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/311-gigabyte-ga-x38-dq6-blog-2.html#post1914

How to take it apart. This is why I didn't want to mess with it before heh. It just seemed like more hassle than it was worth at the time.
 
Damn, yeah, that does look like a lot of work. However, from what I can tell, it looks like it does come with the two screws to keep the north-bridge attached but move the cpu part off to the side. Correct?

Also, I guess you could use some kind of saw to cut the crazycool into two parts. =D
 
Seraphic said:
Damn, yeah, that does look like a lot of work. However, from what I can tell, it looks like it does come with the two screws to keep the north-bridge attached but move the cpu part off to the side. Correct?

Also, I guess you could use some kind of saw to cut the crazycool into two parts. =D
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It just looks like the whole crazy cool piece gets removed and replaced by those two screws. Even if the heatpipe moves around on the other side it appears (according to other pictures in that thread that it is just using thermal tape. Not too bad I guess, but I try to limit my chances of doing damage with a screwdriver ;) But like I said before, maybe the extra ports would have been worth the trouble.
 
Gigabyte every time! :)
I pondered with both for a very long time, (admittedly it was the Special Edition of the Formula with the NB water cooling) but having read numerous stories of varying degrees of quality of manufacture by Asus and by my own personal experience with my own Asus I decided to return back to Gigabyte.
I opted for the EX38-DS5 (apparently not available in the USA :() having decided originally to get the X48. One of the X48's features like the crazy cooling feature was of no use to me as I have liquid cooling for the CPU and therefore would have had to remove it anyway. So besides this taking everything else into consideration I simply couldn't justify it as the EX38-DS5 is for considerably less money near as damn it the same board . :eek:
 
I'd definitely get the Asus. I'm running the maxiums right now with zero problems. Turns out the cold boot issue was due to 4-pin AUX power supplies and the use of the sys_fan header.

I've used both Gigabyte and Asus boards and while both are good, the Asus boards are a little more stable and less quirky while OCing. That's been my experience.
 
Why does the ASUS have a sound card? It doesn't have sound built into the motherboard?
 
kirbyrj said:
I'd definitely get the Asus. I'm running the maxiums right now with zero problems. Turns out the cold boot issue was due to 4-pin AUX power supplies and the use of the sys_fan header.

I've used both Gigabyte and Asus boards and while both are good, the Asus boards are a little more stable and less quirky while OCing. That's been my experience.
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where is that fan area located on the board??
 
I dont understand why people keep recommending gigaboards when they crappy overclockers, 500mhz fsb on a dual core for an x48, is NOT good. Gigaboards are generally bad overclockers compared to the competition. The asus boards are much better, the dfi boards are also very good. They are full of gimmicks, yeah sure its nice to have low rds mosfets and solid caps/ ferrite chokes, asus uses those same type of components and doesnt brag about them, its a gimmick. The asus p5e3 premium is not cheap, but its a great board with a stable 8 phase cpu power design, 3 phase ram power (the first to have this), and a 2 phase chipset regulator. It also hits an fsb of around 540mhz which is much better than the gigabyte boards. Afaik, the dfi board is cheaper and is most likely just as good of an overclocker, dfi usually makes great stuff and they also use a pwm for the cpu vreg. And to the OP, of the two boards yu have mentioned the asus board is a much much better option, dont fall for the gigagimmicks. I would also read some reviews of the dfi board as well, it might be an even better choice.
 
L0max said:
Can you please elaborate on this? What issue did you have with the 4-pin AUX power?
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I didn't have any issue, but some people had problems when they only used a 4-pin AUX power connector and had a fan plugged into the PWR_FAN header. Basically, they would have some cold boot issues. I'm not sure the extent of the problem, but I've heard various complaints of cold boot issues which seem to relate back to this combination of factors. Read from the other thread if you want more specifics as I'm just summarizing from memory.
 
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