Is it too early for a stable x58 mobo?

[AlaskaFSX]

Newbie here, been reading up on this stuff for past few weeks. Most bench reviews of major new x58 mobos offer glowing reviews, but looking at forums and end user reviews after purchase is a completely different story. This board helps to sort some of it out, but clearly there are still major issues with the bios of these boards not handling the hardware as advertised. I realize there are some awkward workarounds for talented folks, and that less talented folks make it worse by combining the wrong hardware or wrong settings or both.

I am planning to build an FSX (MSFS-X) machine primarily, and I have read much of the advice on what is needed to make FSX perform well, including all of "Nick's" excellent advice on another board. I need a fast intel processor with 2-4 cores, I7 is recommended for future releases of FSX (I picked I7 950 after Sandy Bridge issue), fast 6gb/s vraptor hard drives (SSD not there yet in my opinion in terms of value, performance and support even though quite fast), one good nvidia gpu with ample DDR5 VRAM and good bandwidth (MSI 1536MB gtx480 TwinFrozrII) (SLi or dual gpus don't really help with FSX), win 7 premium 64bit OS, and fast DDR3 ram. I already have a large well ventilated Antec tower and good quality thermalake purepower 680w psu (more than enough watts with only one video card). That part of choosing parts for this build wasn't too difficult, but when it comes to the motherboard, holy smokes! All bets are off!

I was going to get the Asus P6X58D-E after reading the nice reviews, and then began to wake up to the reality of problems with all these boards as I read more and more boards and posts. Even the Asus rampage III has major issues outstanding. Now I am not sure any x58 mobo is ready to work as designed, they all seem to be waiting for major bios fixes (Asus, AsRock, EVGA, Gigabyte, etc). I can look at and read about motherboards and figure out what I need in terms of the board layout and specs, but it looks like a rapidly moving target in terms of whether any of these boards can perform as advertised with such problems as SATA III boot/recognition issues, memory card recognition (even when the card is listed as approved), and multiple other issues. Any help would be appreciated.

My question is:
Is there one manufacturer who has resolved all the significant issues with a high end x58 mobo bios yet (without requiring disabling of hardware that was intended by design to work properly), and who also provides good technical support? Or, do I just need to wait 3-6 months?

thanks in advance, sorry for the long post....

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0

^ Can't go wrong with that board

---------------- Now playing: Ruff Driverz & Arrola - Dreaming via FoxyTunes

 

[coffeejunkee]

Sorry? X58 has been around for 2 years now, it's about as mature as a platform will ever be. Maybe you can be a bit more specific about the problems you're reading about?

About your build, first get an ssd or two, the Intel Postvilles are excellent. No hdd is gonna come close. Don't get the GTX480, it's outdated already, and gets hot and noisy. Get GTX570 or GTX580 instead. Cpu, wait a bit for SBR to become available again and pick up a 2600K, it's better in games compared to Bloomfield and overclocks much better, which is important in a cpu heavy game like FSX. /2 cents.

 

[AdamK47]

I'd wait 5 more years before going with x58.

 

[Zap]

It is my understanding that FSX really benefits from higher CPU clocks. You would be best off with a Sandy Bridge Core i5 2500k overclocked as high as you can go. The 2500k doesn't have HyperThreading, but FSX started single threaded anyways, so I don't think it will take advantage of more than 4 cores anytime soon.

Also, FSX appears to stream data off the drive, so really it would benefit from an SSD. One blogger recommended a 128GB SSD just for FSX for those that like a lot of scenery installed. An SSD is also great for Windows 7.

Graphics card is probably the least of your worries with FSX as long as it is decent. You'd probably get better performance with an overclocked 2500k and an SSD while using a graphics card cheaper than a GTX 480.

 

[hclarkjr]

i just built system yesterday with a gigabyte x58 UD5 and had 0 problems getting it up and running. only hiccup was the memory was set wrong and was easily corrected by changing the multiplier to 10x in bios and leaving everything else alone. what problems are you referring too?

 

[PreferLinux]

I think you are thinking of P67/H67, not X58. Although I've had no problems with my Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3R.

 

[AlaskaFSX]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I will wait for the 1155 sandy bridge to get back on the market and maybe get the 2600k. I'll focus on learning about 1155 boards while I'm waiting. It sure isn't easy choosing one package of hardware when there are so many choices and so many expert opinions. The concensus for FSX is definitely high speed cpu. I agree on SSD, will need to save some more for 128gb.

 

[Zap]

The concensus for FSX is definitely high speed cpu.

Most definitely. The 2500k and 2600k are really similar, with the 2600k having HyperThreading which AFAIK does nothing for FSX performance.

 

[n7]

What issues are you referring to?

I've had my X58A-UD3R for a while now & have no complaints.
It overclocks well, & i've made use of all 10 SATA ports w/o issues.

Only thing i had concerns with was the onboard sound: it wasn't great, so i added a sound card.


Also, you really need to work an SSD or two into your budget...a nice high end X58 system w/ no SSD looks just wrong, & they are well worth it IMHO.

 

[CVSiN]

ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0

^ Can't go wrong with that board

---------------- Now playing: Ruff Driverz & Arrola - Dreaming via FoxyTunes

Mine just wasted itself after plugging in a brand new drive cradle into the rear unpowered E-sata slot..

came up.. said USB overvolt.. and shut down never to power up again.
now the standby power light just flashes.

RMA is pending.. was a good board to this point. except for the SLI sockets being WAY too close together.

 

[AlaskaFSX]

Well I decided to get a gigabyte ga p55-UD3 and I5-760 and msi gtx580 frozr II after researching benchmarking data with overclocking for the CPU with fsx, and for the gpu with fsx. Looking forward to getting it all setup!
I haven't opened the box and may still return it.

 

[imported_mystro]

Well I decided to get a gigabyte ga p55-UD3 and I5-760 and msi gtx580 frozr II after researching benchmarking data with overclocking for the CPU with fsx, and for the gpu with fsx. Looking forward to getting it all setup!

As opposed to an X58!!! which as mentioned above, is about a fully matured major high-end Mobo money can buy?

 

[mb103051]

What the heck are you talking about..x58 is pretty much bug free and what your reading is beyond me..x58 is proven as stable a platform as any available...get a r3e formula and you have your intel nic,good sound ,plenty of power phases,frequent bios updates and one of the best x58 boards on the market...you'd be thrilled with any of the asus,gigabyte,evga,msi,x58 boards now available...
good lord guy what are you reading?
with x58 mature and SB coming out to go with an 1156 setup now is a mistake...you'd have been alot better off with x58 or wait on s/bridge....

 

[Rifter]

What the heck are you talking about..x58 is pretty much bug free and what your reading is beyond me..x58 is proven as stable a platform as any available...get a r3e formula and you have your intel nic,good sound ,plenty of power phases,frequent bios updates and one of the best x58 boards on the market...you'd be thrilled with any of the asus,gigabyte,evga,msi,x58 boards now available...
good lord guy what are you reading?
with x58 mature and SB coming out to go with an 1156 setup now is a mistake...you'd have been alot better off with x58 or wait on s/bridge....

this x2. X58 is fully mature/Stable

 

[AlaskaFSX]

I did mixup some sandy bridge issues with x58 issues initially. But in looking again it isn't that hard to find recent issues with x58, although board specific it seems. For example, how about the sabertooth: unstable for overclocking (faulty LLC and problems with memory frequency) according to a barely 10 week old review by xbitlabs:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-sabertooth-x58_4.html#sect1

And another issue, which I remain confused about. Go easy on me, because I said I'm still confused and just trying to piece together what I read. The marvell 9128 Sata3 chip is the issue. Many forums declare it has no support for trim function due to the chip itself. that's one problem. Most forums say to use the intel Sata2 ports instead, because the marvell sata3 is actually not any faster and won't support trim. that's another problem, not delivering the throughput specified for Sata3. We now have high speed SSD coming out any day like the OCZ Vertex 3 that need full Sata 3 support to get anywhere near their read speeds throughput. So, why would I want to be stuck on a Sata2 port with SSD speeds increasing? that doesn't sound future proof, and it doesn't sound like x58 is designed right without proper Sata3 support. I'm having trouble finding a solution where you get full SATA3 throughput support with trim function on a motherboard. I admit I'm still figuring this out..... I am probably missing something here.