ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte & MSI: Four Flagship X58 Motherboards Reviewed
by Rajinder Gill on July 15, 2010 10:00 PM ESTBased upon everything we’ve seen in our testing to date, our advice to users that already have enthusiast level first generation X58 motherboards is to think very carefully before laying down dollar on anything new – there are very few reasons to upgrade. In fact, even if buying a completely new system based around Bloomfield or Gulftown, there’s no need to fork out extra for any of these updated motherboard models unless there is something specific about board layout or multi-GPU abilities that appeals to you.
As we have to give a verdict, out of the four motherboards tested, we’d probably stretch ourselves to opt for the Rampage III Extreme in almost every scenario. While ASUS did not clean the floor in all departments, the R3E is easy to use, has a good BIOS, decent feature set and overclocks reasonably well. This doesn't mean to say that we feel the board is priced fairly though for what it offers. We'd like to see ASUS sell the R3E around the $300 mark considering there are no NF200 bridge chips cutting into base part costs.
We’d love to give the MSI XPower a global recommendation, but unfortunately can’t until the overclocking disparity we experienced against other boards both in voltage and frequency improves. While the XPower is cheaper than the other three boards on test and fares a lot better in power consumption tests, there are a plethora of boards under the $300 mark that can overclock better on air and water cooling (models from ASUS, Gigabyte & EVGA). Okay, you give up some of MSI’s bundle, but the extra peripherals don’t add up to much when high frequency low voltage operation is preferred by most users who purchase high-end memory kits.
If by some bizarre twist of fate we happened to be running four-way SLI and chasing big 3D Mark Vantage numbers (which is never going to happen), then our choice goes to EVGA. Yes, there is work to be done, but, we can’t find good enough reason to opt for Gigabyte’s UD9 instead. Simply because we feel Gigabyte have priced themselves out of the market and aren’t offering anything that we deem worth the price hike.
Looking past SATA 6G and USB3, all this second wave of flagship motherboard releases boils down to for ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI is the re-designed PWM; earlier models lacked sufficiently engineered VRMs to handle Gulftown and keep up with the EVGA Classified boards when pushed hard by the benchmarking crowd when using LN2 cooling. And that’s why there’s no need to upgrade or jump on the bandwagon unless you fall into the category of a niche group of users.
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rustycurse - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - link
1. I wish ask an important question for me - Why I should purchase a new PC (a component), when development engineers of programs (or of games) do not wish to "see" (completely to use) those resources the PC which one are already presented? An instance - during a play "Dragon Age Origin" (and not only it) and if is more exact - during conversations when the static picture with several alternatives of answers is presented - I see, that only nearby 1GB (this game, and almost same for Windows resources ) memory uses and CPU fan turns as the craziest! What is it - limitation INTEL for the chipsets with embed video (like mine 945G), or it's inexperience of software(games) developers?In other words - that I wish see it - low CPU and HDD (page file.sys) loadings at a high memory loading!
I doubt, that Intel, Microsoft or software makers will give me any reasonable answer in this matter, so i've a request to Anandtech team «to give me a light» on this problem. And, of course, to show the public the solution(s) in your further tests!
I'm planning to purchase a new PC (preferentially a notebook) in the near future, as alternative my present - (MB: P5LD2VM-dh/c; CPU - Pentium D945; Memory: 3x1GB 'all planks are - patriot'; Video: ASUS 7600GS; Win 7 ultimate), but I am "restrained" by above indicated problem, and here appears one more question (as I'm not wish create a superfluous topic):
2. Why almost on all notebooks use D-Sub connectors, instead of DVI? (I use CAD programs in double-screen mode - one person watching a movie through HDMI and second person doing a CAD job through DVI with high screen resolution )
O yeah, nearly has not forgotten! I had a similar situation during a play "Gothic 3" earlier - the memory loading on the screen monitor "Windows Task Manager" attained a breaking point nearby 2 GB and after a while the game hung (or was BSOD).
I'm waiting for reasonable thoughts and Thanks to Anandtech team for your guides and please forgive my English!
rustycurse - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - link
Woops! I looked through these MBs and remembered another "a little issue" to mention.THE one of the reasons of the buying P5LD2-VM-DH/C was - Try to guess? - the location of the floppy connector!!!!!!!!
I don't know why all (almost) MB makers locate this connector at the bottom of a MB!!!, but i'm getting MAD when i see that, especially if it (GARBAGE) is MOST expensive and has ATX form factor!!!
So, MB makers - PLEASE F*** OFF with your expensive S*** and try to remember that some software require to be activated by using floppy drive, especially if it is located at THE TOP of the case ( like mine IN-Win Q500) !!!! sorry for"language" but i won't have other words for such matters!