Another i7 motherboard thread

[YBS1]

I'm wanting to pull the trigger on a new i7 (xeon w3520 actually) system in the next week or so and would appreciate some helpful opinions from those with knowledge of or experience with some of these motherboards.

I've narrowed it down for the most between six boards. The reason for these six being that I'll be running SLI/Crossfire using two dual slot cards with very little chance I'll wish to ever go to a three card setup. I would also like to have at minimum one PCI slot and one PCI-e (non graphics) slot available for use. Overclocking abilities are a primary concern.

MSI X58 Eclipse SLI - I like this board pretty well but I'd prefer onboard sound as I already have a more feature complete Creative X-FI card if I wish to use it instead of an onboard option.

DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8 - All seems well with this board except for the ugly ass color scheme.

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 - I was all set on this board but had read the BIOS options for overclocking weren't quite as rich on this board as some of the others. Also, support for the onboard ADI audio solution worries me as ADI has exited this market.

ASRock X58 Supercomputer - I absolutely love the layout on this board, by far the best X58 board in that respect. I have no experience with ASRock though and haven't really payed much attention to them in the past.

BIOSTAR TpowerX58 - This board seems pretty nice but have heard very little chatter about it.

Foxconn BloodRage - Layout seems fine, best looking board by far and from what I've read seems to have extensive BIOS overclocking options.

Thanks

 

[Shmee]

Consider the EVGA or gigabyte boards? I believe they are generally the best overclockers, though the Deluxe should be a good OCer also, hopefully. I would stay away from the others mentioned, have heard mixed reviews, especially about the foxconn boards and MSI boards as far as OCing. I dont know much about the AS rock board, might be good, and the DFI board might be a pretty good OCer.

But I would really recomend these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188039
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128374
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128362

also, if you want to save some money, and lose a little warranty time, consider these EVGA ones:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188049
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188046

BTW, the EVGA classified boards are supposed to OC the very best, but are the priciest. I am assuming they are not really in the budget; they start at over $400.

I currently have a UD5, and am very pleased with it. I got my C0 to 4 GHz on air with it, it has decent layout, 10 Sata ports, and I bet I will get further when I get a D0.

If I could get it again, I would, at least until the next UD5 revision comes out.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

I'd go with the MSI or ASUS.

 

[SanDiegoPC]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
I'd go with the MSI or ASUS.

Yep. Read the reviews of those ones listed in the previous post. Problem after problem.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Wow, the first newegg review on the page nails the problem GIGABYTE boards have.

Squeal Buzz High Pitched Noise

white Reviewed By: ugh on 8/6/2009
Rating + 3
Tech Level Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Looks nice
Cons: Many people are complaining of a noise comming from the motherboard while using this mobo.
I too have had this and it's too late for me to return it to newegg. So if your stuck with the board the way I got rid of the sound was by modifying the CPU voltage, changing it from "AUTO" which set it at 1.2555 to manual and changed it to 1.2000
Other Thoughts: I haven't contacted Gigabyte but I thought I would post my solution and perhaps put it out there that there is a problem with board.
With the price on this thing I didn't expect for it to be noisy at default settings.

 

[KutterMax]

A few weeks ago I decided to upgrade on of my machines to Core i7 and bought a ASUS P6T Deluxe V2. I've had ASUS and Evga boards in the past but I was blown away by how nice this board is. It was super easy to build the system with it and everything "just worked". I haven't maxed out the overclock yet, but have started to dial things up. Currently i7 920 is running at 3.2Ghz on this rig but more room to move up.

The following weekend I decided to upgrade my main rig and bought a second ASUS P6T Deluxe V2. I'm running dual GTX 280's and a Soundblaster X-Fi with no difficulty. I'm also occupying on slot in the back of my case with the USB/Firewire module that connects to headers on the MB. I'm air cooling the i7 920 with a Zalman CNPS9900LED and everything is running great.

While I don't have any experience with the other MB's you mention, I can definitely highly recommend the ASUS P6T Deluxe V2.

 

[YBS1]

Originally posted by: Shmee
Consider the EVGA or gigabyte boards? I believe they are generally the best overclockers, though the Deluxe should be a good OCer also, hopefully. I would stay away from the others mentioned, have heard mixed reviews, especially about the foxconn boards and MSI boards as far as OCing. I dont know much about the AS rock board, might be good, and the DFI board might be a pretty good OCer.

BTW, the EVGA classified boards are supposed to OC the very best, but are the priciest. I am assuming they are not really in the budget; they start at over $400.

I currently have a UD5, and am very pleased with it. I got my C0 to 4 GHz on air with it, it has decent layout, 10 Sata ports, and I bet I will get further when I get a D0.

If I could get it again, I would, at least until the next UD5 revision comes out.

Actually the Gigabyte UD5 probably would have been my first choice had it not been for the layout blocking both pci slots when running Crossfire/SLI. I ended up going with the Foxconn over the Asus (was a toss up pretty much), we'll see how that goes. I would have loved to gone with the ASRock, but there was so little end user info floating around about it.