X58 Boards For The Masses

[Quiksilver]

Gigabyte & Xtremesystems

Asus Rampage 2 Extreme & Some sites name I can't remember

Neither board seems to be finished(Asus's board is missing a Heatsink and one shown is just way to bland). It also seems that Gigabyte is apparently removing one of the Crayon color's it uses on their boards and replacing with white (Goodbye Pink Memory slots).

 

[Quiksilver]

Changed thread title...

Now we got the MSI Eclipse.
http://forum.coolaler.com/showthread.php?t=190809

and..

Foxconn Renaissance
http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=203350

 

[Absolution75]

from the CPU forum, post about nehalem first page:

ASUS P6T Delux
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,8057.html

This board looks solid.

Key factors for me (no order)
Only 1 PS/2 input, makes room for 2 more USB inputs
Dual Gigabit (not that its uncommon for this chipset)
ESATA, if you don't have this on your backplate, I'm not looking at your board.
More than 6SATA connections, Now I can fill up my case.
Good looking not over the top efficient chipset cooling. This thing looks perfect.
Legacy connections are out of the way
Solid caps
Enough room for large CPU coolers oriented in the correct way.

 

[Quiksilver]

Asus P6T Deluxe (Better Pics + More of Them)
http://www.xfastest.com/redire...=14549&goto=newpost###

 

[Foxery]

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
Now we got the MSI Eclipse.
http://forum.coolaler.com/showthread.php?t=190809

Interesting note on this one... the closeup shots reveal Power and Reset buttons right on the motherboard, underneath the PCI slots! Also some sort of DIP switches for CPU Clock. I wonder what those will change...

The Asus boards are sexy, although I see they've put the IDE and SATA connectors at a 90o angle. Boooo. Don't they know how annoying that is?

 

[Blazer7]

Hey guys, what do you say about this?

The Inq : Performance RAM will damage your Nehalem.

The info first tipped up on the XFastest forums where the admin posted several photos of an Asus P6T Deluxe (retail-packed) mobo including one of a big sticker over the DIMM slots motherboard warning that anything over 1.65V will fry the CPU.

The article has a link to the Xfastest thread. This link is the same with the one Quicksilver posted earlier. The Inq also claims that ASUS has confirmed this.

Update: Asus called us back and confirmed the limitation on the RAM voltages. They are currently running a 1.7V kit in their UK office, but beyond that, you're on your own.

 

[Skott]

Some serious looking stock cooling system on that mobo. It'll be interesting to see how well it performs in final product overclocking tests.

 

[Chriz]

I hope some of the manufacturers make some x58 boards that are not so ultra high end. I really don't need Dual gigabit ethernet and 3 graphics card slots (2 is fine), but I could use more PCI or PCI-E x1 slots. and would still like to build a Nehalem system this year.

 

[Skott]

Should see some middle of the road models come out. Possibly some low end budget models. There will be fewer features of course though I'm guessing. When you pay less generally you get less.

 

[Blazer7]

Less money, less features, less problems also but I don't think that we'll see affordable X58 boards. At least not any time soon. All the big bad boys will most likely compete in the high-end arena first. Nehalem is a brand-new ballgame and they need to boost their prestige. The best way to do that is to create as much hype as possible and show everyone else that yours is bigger, badder and meaner and you can't do that without a screaming, ash-kicking high-end mobo.

This is clearly not in the consumer's favour and that 1.65V memory thing does not help either. This limitation, if true, renders most of the current high performance mems unsuitable. The redesign, time, and extra cost needed to get high-performance low-voltage DDR3 mems along with the introduction of tri-channel mem kits (1 DIMM more ** did I mentioned DDR3? **) will drive mem prices up. So right now things look like this : Nehalem+X58+tri-channel mem kit=ultra expensive.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Biostar's offering:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/F...howthread.php?t=203769

 

[Quiksilver]

Asus Rampage II Extreme with completed heatsinks

Look's much better now...

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Foxery
Interesting note on this one... the closeup shots reveal Power and Reset buttons right on the motherboard, underneath the PCI slots!

The Intel board has this, er, at least the power button. It is right by the Firewire headers (blue color, on lower left side).

 

[DigitalCancer]

These things are SOOO expensive. Are they going to be worth the money right off the bat or should we wait awhile before upgrading?? I just...can't imagine paying $415+ for a single motherboard like that..


LINKY

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: DigitalCancer
These things are SOOO expensive. Are they going to be worth the money right off the bat or should we wait awhile before upgrading?? I just...can't imagine paying $415+ for a single motherboard like that..


LINKY

That is truly FUD as the euro prices usually already have tax and what not already included into the price so it hardly ever is correct when converted into usd. I personally will expect these boards to be from $250-350 USD.

 

[paesan]

I would not be surprised to see the Rampage II to be priced at $400. That kind of price is for the select few hard core crowd. These prices are in no way mainstream. A motherboard, cpu and memory will cost around $1000. Like I said not for the mainstream.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Naked DFI:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=203876

 

[Blazer7]

More about GB's offering -> http://www.bit-tech.net/hardwa...byte-ga-ex58-extreme/1

and more on that High VDimm problem AT : Core i7 - Is High VDimm really a Problem?

 

[cyburzaki]

This particular Czech comparison (linked to via a crude Google translation) found the two Asus boards to be the superior oc'ers. The Eclipse seems to have peaked at one of the slower bus speeds.

 

[Oupavoc]

The Asus ROG board looks sweet

 

[cyburzaki]

NCIX now lists the ECS X58B-A, Biostar Tpower X58, and Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 on their LGA1366 board page (although none is available for immediate order):

http://www.ncixus.com/products.../Motherboards/LGA1366/

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: cyburzaki
NCIX now lists the ECS X58B-A, Biostar Tpower X58, and Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 on their LGA1366 board page (although none is available for immediate order):

ECS X58B-A Black Edition review (~US$250):

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...-motherboard--review/1