Ideal i7 Motherboard for these componants...

TheMightyDude

TheMightyDude

TheMightyDude

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Joined
29 Apr 2010
Posts
55
Hello All

First post here, so here goes...

I have the following componants:
Intel i7 920 D0 Processor @ default + Turbo Feature (2.8GHz)
Antec 1000W PSU
Antec 1200 case
CoolerMaster V8 CPU Cooler
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
Gainward GTX295 (2 PCB version)
Silicon Image SiI 3114 SATALink Controller (for 5th HDD)
Crucial 6GB kit (2GBx3), Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 memory module (running at 1600MHz using XMP)
I am using 5 Hitachi 500GB HDP725050GLA360 drives 4 as ACHI which I plan to upgrade to a couple of drives but with a SATA 6Gb/s Interface.
1 DVD Burner and 1 Bluray Drive.
Oh and I am running Windows 7 Pro 64bit

I am currently using an Intel DX58SO Motherboard which is causing issues with the CoolerMaster V8 due to where Intel have placed the CPU socket resulting in the CoolerMaster hitting the side fan mounting plate.

I have no plans to Overclock anything apart from using the Intel Turbo feature.

This system is mostly for Programming / Game Development and also for playing games on.

TBH I have only used Intel braded boards for the last 10 to 15 years, but due to issue I had with Intel with my DX58SO board I have now lost faith in Intel branded boards, and where most of the people that I know are using ASUS I thought id give them a go.

I have seen the reviews for the "Asus Rampage III Extreme Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard" looks rather cool and seems to be compatable with all my current hardware.

Is it worth me buying one of these when they finarly in stock here on OC or is their a much better one that is stable (for development) and has high performance (for gaming)?

Thanks in advance.
Paul
 
Take your pick, read some review's about them, l'm using the EX58 - UD5 i7 920 at 4.0GHZ no problem, cracking mobo. :)

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366)

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366)

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 Intel X58 (Socket 1366)
 
OLDPHART said:
Take your pick, read some review's about them, l'm using the EX58 - UD5 i7 920 at 4.0GHZ no problem, cracking mobo. :)

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366)

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366)

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 Intel X58 (Socket 1366)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply, I knew a few people that have had issues with Gigabyte in the past so I am not too sure about them, however they do look nice :)

I liked the look of the "Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7" the specs seem nice but they don't have 1600MHz memory on their list, also I don't really like hardware (i.e the main GFX card) going over the SATA connectors (makes it hard to get access to those ports) :(

And where I liked the look and specs of the "Asus Rampage III Extreme" the main PCI-E 16x is not over the SATA ports. :D

ATM there isn't really a rush to buy the mobo as yet, but I am not too happy on the slight lump on the side of my case due to the CoolerMaster V8 pushing on the side fan mounting brackets also causing pressure on my Intel DX58SO Mobo. :mad:

This however doesn't mean that I will end up buying the "Asus Rampage III Extreme" however it seems my favorite atm.

Thanks in advance.
Paul
 
Just read up some more about the "Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7" board which looks good but I have just noticed the following on the product description:

Upgraded Chipset Cooling with Waterblock & add-in PCI Heatsink for great overclocking
Click to expand...

Does that mean I have to have a water cooling system fitted or not ?
And if it just the chipset that is water cooled what happens whe the water evaperates?
Never used a water cooled system so I don't know anything about them.

That one was the only one that looked nice to me along with the "Asus Rampage III Extreme"
 
TheMightyDude said:
Just read up some more about the "Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7" board which looks good but I have just noticed the following on the product description:



Does that mean I have to have a water cooling system fitted or not ?
And if it just the chipset that is water cooled what happens whe the water evaperates?
Never used a water cooled system so I don't know anything about them.
Click to expand...

1) No, the chipset has adequate cooling already. The waterblock is really there for extreme overclocking.

2) It doesn't work like that :)
 
footyfan93 said:
UD5 or a UD7 I say.
Click to expand...

Well I seem to like the "Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7" out of the two Gigabyte boards, the only thing that I have issues with id the water cooling on the chipset.

So I have narrowed it down to two boards:
1: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
2: Asus Rampage III Extreme

I may wait a lttle while longer for the "Asus Rampage III Extreme" boards to go out and see what the reviews are, I have heared that people have had loads of issues with the ASUS one, but then again its the same with the Gigabyte one as well.

Only time will tell :)
 
TheMightyDude said:
Ok, so if I wasn't to overclock anything apart from the Intel CPU Turbo and the memory (XMP 1600) I should be fine?

So the water wont evaporate?
Click to expand...

Absolutely fine and dandy. Even if you were overclocking to 4ghz or so, the board would be a-ok.

I can tell you're a n00b at the whole watercooling thing so I shall elaborate :)

Watercooling is essentially very simple. It involves running coolant past the hot parts of your system and then through a radiator where the heat is dispersed. The key components in a watercooling system are the waterblock (this removes the heat from the component being cooled), the pump (self explanatory :D) and the radiator (usually have fans attached). You might also see reservoirs being used; these help bleed air from the system (and also look cool).

To use the waterblock on the motherboard, you'd need to attach a pump and a radiator using some tubing and fill the system with coolant. The coolant would cycle around the loop, removing the heat from the motherboard and taking it to the radiator, where it is removed from the loop.

There is no water in the motherboard itself when you buy it - all the waterblock consists of is an inlet and an outlet, and a chamber inside which the fluid runs through. Without a loop connected, it is empty and thus simply a heatsink.
 
reflux said:
Absolutely fine and dandy. Even if you were overclocking to 4ghz or so, the board would be a-ok.

I can tell you're a n00b at the whole watercooling thing so I shall elaborate :)

Watercooling is essentially very simple. It involves running coolant past the hot parts of your system and then through a radiator where the heat is dispersed. The key components in a watercooling system are the waterblock (this removes the heat from the component being cooled), the pump (self explanatory :D) and the radiator (usually have fans attached). You might also see reservoirs being used; these help bleed air from the system (and also look cool).

To use the waterblock on the motherboard, you'd need to attach a pump and a radiator using some tubing and fill the system with coolant. The coolant would cycle around the loop, removing the heat from the motherboard and taking it to the radiator, where it is removed from the loop.

There is no water in the motherboard itself when you buy it - all the waterblock consists of is an inlet and an outlet, and a chamber inside which the fluid runs through. Without a loop connected, it is empty and thus simply a heatsink.
Click to expand...

I have a rough idea on how Water Cooling works, but just haven't really seen or used one.

So if I left it how it comes I should be fine, thanks :)
 
Yeah you can leave it as it is. The watercooling bit is really just a value-added feature, the board is designed to fly with or without it.
 
Ok I have just ordered the following items from OC:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (BL3KIT25664TB1608)
and 2 Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD6402AAEX)

All the other needed stuf I already have, hopefully this will enable me to correctly fit my Collermaster V8 CPU HSF without putting pressure on my Intel DX58SO board and will allow me to fit my Antec 1200 side fane once again :)
And I will have 12GB of ram for my Virtual Linux Boxes for development :)

I am also hoping for a small speed increase in using these 2 SATA 6Gb/s drives raided :)

Only time will tell when it all arives on monday.
Not too bad for £418.11 in total

I would just like to thank everyone that helped me decideon this motherboard.
You helped a lot.

Thanks
Paul
 
Let us know how you get on with the MB TheMightyDude, i see theres a lot having problems with the memory on that board and plzz inform us which bios you get on the board before if u decide to flash to the lastest bios.
 
redknight333 said:
Let us know how you get on with the MB TheMightyDude, i see theres a lot having problems with the memory on that board and plzz inform us which bios you get on the board before if u decide to flash to the lastest bios.
Click to expand...

Oh, I never saw any posts on people having issues with memory with that board, well I hope there aint.

As far as I can see from what I have read it will detect my 1600MHz memory as 1066MHz with SPD, I need to then select XMP and select one of the two profiles that match my timings.

As long as one of the XMP profiles uses 8-8-8-24 my memory will be fine.

Also Crucial says it work fine on this board, so I will find out monday :)

ATM I am getting the following on Windows Experience: Rating: (5.9)
  • Processor: 7.6
  • Memory (RAM): 7.8
  • Graphics: 7.8
  • Gaming graphics: 7.8
  • Primary hard disk: 5.9

Basically anything will be better than my Intel DX58DO board (seems to be very stable but not that fast)

I will post the results and the requested information when it comes and when I have it all set up, btw what memory issues have people been having?

I cannot see there being an issue with that speed of memory on this board because OC are selling this board Overclocked with an i7 930 with 1600MHz memory along with 3 choices of CPU HSF.

Normally when there are memory issues at certain speeds they will release a BIOS update to resolve the issue along with other possible issues that people are having.
 
I do hope it works fine in windows 7 and sees all the memory, just google and theres a lot of posts about the GA-X58A-UD3R and memory problems not seeing all 6gb only shows as having 4gb installed in windows. So make sure the full amount is showing in win 7.
 
redknight333 said:
I do hope it works fine in windows 7 and sees all the memory, just google and theres a lot of posts about the GA-X58A-UD3R and memory problems not seeing all 6gb only shows as having 4gb installed in windows. So make sure the full amount is showing in win 7.
Click to expand...

I think that due to Windows 32bit can only address 4,294,967,295 bytes and part of that address is the video cards memory so if your video card has 1.5GB (1,610,612,735 bytes) of ram which will leave you with 2.5GB (2,684,354,559 bytes) of usable ram.

Now Windows 64bit can access upto a massive number :P (18,446,744,073,709,551,615 bytes) of ram and where this chipset can only use upto 24GB (25,769,803,775 bytes) of ram having a video with even 2GB shouldn't affect it.
However I am not too sure what would happen if the full 24GB (6x4GB sticks) was used with a GFX card with 1.5GB of ram.
Also some cards also have onboard memory like raid cards can have upto approx 512MB and it all mounts up.

Or are you refering to using 6GB sticks?
That 4GB limit is refering to the size of eack memory stick.
This chipset only supports upto 4GB sticks, so using 6x2GB sticks is fine.

But if you are using (2x6GB sticks) in dual channel mode, it will either not detect them or will only show the first 4GB on each stick giving you only 8GB insted of the 12GB.
 
Ah, just read some other topics on the issue, its either down to a bent pin on the cpu socket or faulty mem stics, as the 3x2GB (6GB) @ 8-8-8-24 1600MHz works fine on this board so it should be fine on that one.

None of the several topics that I read was it the motherboard at fault, it was either a pin or 2 on the CPU socket killing off mem slots, or faulty mem sticks.

So if its a bent pin or a faulty mem stick I should have no issues sorting it out.

I will be testing my memory on this board first to check the sticks are fine, and I will be checking the cpu pins under a x20 microscope: Longreach height adj stereo microscope x20 which I use to use to repair PCBs a while ago, comes in handy if you have a hair line fracture on the board.

Thanks for this info, I was unaware of these issues until now, its a shame all the bench tests reviews don't state this.

Anyway I will post my finding when it arives here on monday.

/me crosses fingers.
 
i've just come across some info, if you run crossfire on the GA-X58A-UD3R board the usb3 speed drops, thats if your using a usb3 device at the same time, can anyone verify this?
 
redknight333 said:
i've just come across some info, if you run crossfire on the GA-X58A-UD3R board the usb3 speed drops, thats if your using a usb3 device at the same time, can anyone verify this?
Click to expand...

Now i am even more glad that I don't use ATI Cards, the last ATI card that I had was an ATI All in wonder (PCI) graphics/capture card and due to bad support, rudeness and compatibility issues I dropped them and went NVIDIA and never had any issues since.
Mind you that was over several years ago, things have probably changed now, but in my eyes its too late.

I will be using my Gainward NVIDIA 295 GTX (Orig 2 PCP Version) on this new system so I should be fine.

This is like being a child a day before Christmas, I sooo cannot wait until it comes :P

The last time I checked it was "Confirmed at Hub" so if all goes well I will have it tomorrow late morning :)
 
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