Looking for an X58 board

[stipalgl]

Long story short, I was handed a used i7 950 for free (don't ask how or why please) and after contemplating it for a while, decided to keep it and build a system around it.

So now I'm looking at motherboards and have taken note of the following:

ASRock X58 Extreme - $225

MSI X58 PRO-E - $205

ASUS P6T SE - $220

ASUS P6T - $250

Gigabyte EX58-UD5 - $270

All prices are in Canadian and are the best I could find generally.

I plan on using one video card but SLI and/or Crossfire are a possibility in the near future. Similarly, board quality is important to me as I want something that will keep my system running as cool as possible.

Please chime in with your thoughts.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Asrock

 

[UnhappySoul]

The Asrock has poor cooling. its north an south bridges will run much hotter than other mobos.
The Asus P6T for 250 is the best of those.
But its not good for TriSLI an its slot placement is not ideal for SLI either.

 

[SniperWulf]

Which ever one you pick, something else to consider is proper spacing between both video cards. A lot of boards tend to have 3x x16 slots to try and squeeze in Tri-SLI support, but it really makes for tight cooling

 

[stipalgl]

So then the P6T would be the logical choice. I assume it would be adequate for SLI/Crossfire for two cards at least? Tri-SLI is probably overkiill anyways.

Does the UD5 suffer from the same spacing issue?

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Gillbot]

I have the Asrock x58 Extreme, so far I like it. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=4102307

I swapped the SB cooler for a thermalright HRI-05 and I just put a fan on the NB sink, so far so good. Mine was open box for $118, I think they can be had new for under $170.

 

[Redshirt 24]

I hadn't heard anything about the Asrock running hot until now...which concerns me, since I bought an open-box one last month as a quasi-replacement for the mother of all hot runners--an MSI X58 Pro--and haven't installed it yet. Was I just not looking in the right places?

 

[Gillbot]

IMHO, most x58 boards run rather warm. If you have a decent fan on your CPU heatsink, the airflow will help. Otherwise, I would suggest pointing a fan at the NB and MOSFET sinks to keep air moving or they will get rather warm.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

MSI X58 PRO-E hands down

The reason people see their NB temps get hot is due to poor case ventilation. My NB is currently at 66C.