Gah can't decide which board to get, help!!

AFK_Matrix · 28 Jul 2009 at 08:59

Ok im going to be upgrading soon and want to go for an i7 920. Its going to be watercooled with a Swiftech GTZ (finally found a mounting plate in stock at a competitor

).

Now I was thinking about the Gigabyte UD5 but I am now also thinking about the Asus Rampage Extreme. I want to get the best Overclock I can and have a nice rock solid board as well. I have an Asus board at the moment and have had no issues whatsoever and thats been running around 2.5 years.

So is the Asus Rampage worth the extra money? Also is the Rampage a lot better than the Gene, whats the difference between the two? Oh and do I need to bother with chipset blocks on these boards?

Thanks.

dr4g0nf1y · 28 Jul 2009 at 09:50

I'll have a quick look on these for you in a second.

if you were going to heavily overclock then I would say that you're going to need to take the fin pin heatpipes off and water cool the S/NB and so forth.

Not the i7 socket, but still a rampage board that needed to be overclocked

AFK_Matrix · 28 Jul 2009 at 10:28

Yeah that does look awesome,the only thing being is I am not sure my 1 loop can handle all that plus the CPU and GPU?

95thrifles · 28 Jul 2009 at 10:50

If you want to WC Id look at the UD5 extreme, the blocks for the chipset on that can be used for WC or air so is prob your best bet, the REII just uses passive air cooling so if you wanted to WC the blocks youd have to remove these and install custom blocks. However seen as how with the i7 the memory controller has been moved to the CPU, you shouldnt really need to WC it as it wont get so hot, so the passive AC on the REII will be fine

AFK_Matrix · 28 Jul 2009 at 11:53

I have had a look at the UD5 Extreme and it seems like a good board but just wondering does it have barbs for its watercooling or is it all intergrated onto the board? If it is intergrated I assume I don't add it to my watercooling loop?

marscay · 28 Jul 2009 at 18:29

The mosfets can still benefit from water cooling on x58 boards, NB/SB don't really need it on x58.

There's a sexy block from EK to cool VRM/NB/SB in one block for the EVGA Classified, trouble is you're down £400 for it + board.