I need an ITX board that is able to run a GTX590!!!

harmony · 15 Oct 2011 at 16:05

I just found that my Intel DH57JG doesn't like the newly arrived GTX590. :mad:

Then I tried to install my GTX580 onto the Intel DH57JG but still doesn't work. There is no POST signal to the screen at all.

The Intel DH57JG works fine with HD 5850. It also works fine with a Geforce G210. I guess it just doesn't like cards with high power consumption.

Now I need a new ITX board for the GTX590! Three questions:

a) For LGA1156 which board is the best? (I don't want the Gigabyte H55N-USB3 because one died, and the other partially faulty. It's known to be unfriendly to graphics cards with high power consumption.)

b) For i5 2500K is there any good ITX board able to overclock with some minor voltage bump on the CPU? Expect to use for at least 1 year so longevity is important.

c) For Xeon E3-1230 is there any good ITX board? Which is the best? If SATA III can be supported that would be great.

Thanks.

gropingmantis · 15 Oct 2011 at 16:15

a) Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 is the best 1156 ITX board. Fact. End of.

b) Not really, both the Zotac and the ASRock Z68 boards are buggy but if you MUST have one then go for the ASRock but make sure you have a decent top down cooler.

c) As above, its the same 1155 socket. All 6 series chipsets natively support 2x SATA-III ports and no ITX boards come with more than that.

harmony · 15 Oct 2011 at 16:35

gropingmantis said:
a) Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 is the best 1156 ITX board. Fact. End of.

b) Not really, both the Zotac and the ASRock Z68 boards are buggy but if you MUST have one then go for the ASRock but make sure you have a decent top down cooler.

c) As above, its the same 1155 socket. All 6 series chipsets natively support 2x SATA-III ports and no ITX boards come with more than that.

Thanks!

b) What do you mean by buggy? Why do I need a decent top down cooler? Unfortunately I'm running with Corsair H50 so there is no airflow to help with the VRM/chipset/northbridge/southbridge etc.

c) If overclocking is impossible/really a bad idea, then I'd prefer the Xeon E3-1230, as it's better value than an i7 2600K. I heard somewhere that the H61 chipset does not support SATA III. Could you give any suggestion on the BEST LGA1155 ITX board that can support the E3-1230 and the GTX590 and have at least one SATA III port?

gropingmantis · 15 Oct 2011 at 16:46

Well the BIOS on both boards is not very helpful for overclocking well and the Zotac has had a lot of problems with DOA boards or dead RAM slots and noisy buzzing on the boards. You NEED a good top down cooler or at the very least some sort of fan blowing directly onto the board as the overclocks are very unstable without good chipset and MOSFET and VRM cooling not just CPU cooling so it is advisable to cool the entire board.

I have opted to not even bother trying to overclock SB with current ITX boards and have settled with the Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3 which is certainly a lot better than my old Foxconn H67S that was rubbish and is currently on its way back to OcUK. I am pretty sure the H67N-USB3 will happily support a 590. I don't see why it wouldnt. Also the board will be compatible with the new 1155 IB CPUs next year and thus will support PCI-e 3.0 which will be nice. You are right that H61 doesn't support SATA-III I had not noticed that but if you go for an H67 board from a reputable company (Gigabyte or ASUS or Intel) then you should get a nice stable system with 2x SATA-III ports and atleast 2x SATA-II ports.

Do you know why the 590 was not running well with the DH57JG? The card should not draw more than a certain amount of power through the PCI-e port and all motherboards should be able to cope with this otherwise they arent really fulfilling the requirements of the PCI-e standard. Are you sure it is not your PSU?

Its basically that or hope for a good Z68 or Z75 ITX board to come out but I think you may be waiting a while for that.

harmony · 15 Oct 2011 at 18:00

gropingmantis said:
I have opted to not even bother trying to overclock SB with current ITX boards and have settled with the Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3 which is certainly a lot better than my old Foxconn H67S that was rubbish and is currently on its way back to OcUK. I am pretty sure the H67N-USB3 will happily support a 590. I don't see why it wouldnt. Also the board will be compatible with the new 1155 IB CPUs next year and thus will support PCI-e 3.0 which will be nice. You are right that H61 doesn't support SATA-III I had not noticed that but if you go for an H67 board from a reputable company (Gigabyte or ASUS or Intel) then you should get a nice stable system with 2x SATA-III ports and atleast 2x SATA-II ports.

Do you know why the 590 was not running well with the DH57JG? The card should not draw more than a certain amount of power through the PCI-e port and all motherboards should be able to cope with this otherwise they arent really fulfilling the requirements of the PCI-e standard. Are you sure it is not your PSU?

Its basically that or hope for a good Z68 or Z75 ITX board to come out but I think you may be waiting a while for that.

OK, so the H67N-USB3 will support the Xeon E3-1230 and SATA III? I've never used an Xeon CPU on a consumer mobo so I'm not sure what else I need to know about..

I think each graphics card is capable of drawing more than 75W from the PCI-E slot if the card wants to, because there were so many people suffering from the 24-pin melting problem while doing 3-way/4-way SLI/CrossfireX with high-end graphics cards. There might be OCP on the Intel DH57JG that doesn't work friendly with Fermi.

gropingmantis · 15 Oct 2011 at 18:35

Yes it will. Pretty sure there is no problem with running Xeons on consumer boards provided the CPU fits the socket. TBH there is little point in getting a Xeon over a regular core unless you get a great deal on it. I think, but not 100%, they are just binned chips that run marginally cooler and lower power and designed for 24/7 use which is why they tend to be more expensive but if you can get an E3-1235 (or 1230 if you dont want on die graphics which I am guessing you dont) for less than an i7-2600K then go for it!

The standard power draw on PCI-e is 25W but PEG (Graphics cards) can draw up to 75W so perhaps Intel didn't have this in mind but really if it will support a modern GPU then there is no reason why it wont take the 590 and I have had no issues with my 6950 on the H67N-USB3.