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X58 On A Budget: Seven Sub-$200 Core i7 Boards

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  • Intel i7
  • Motherboards
  • Round-Up
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a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 6:10:56 AM

With our $300+ and $200-300 Core i7 motherboard comparisons distant memories, it’s time for a sub-$200 roundup. Recent price fluctuations have pushed two contenders over the mark after we tested them, but readers get to see those as well.

X58 On A Budget: Seven Sub-$200 Core i7 Boards : Read more

More about : x58 budget 200 core boards

July 29, 2009 7:00:57 AM

If I am not mistaken, the reason the Asus P6T SE is so cheap is because it does not support SLI, only supports Crossfire. Is that not correct?
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a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 7:24:06 AM

midnightgun said:
If I am not mistaken, the reason the Asus P6T SE is so cheap is because it does not support SLI, only supports Crossfire. Is that not correct?


At the time the review was written, the P6T SE web page read that it supported SLI. Perhaps Asus changed the web page following a complaint?

The big difference between the P6T SE and the P6T is the missing Jmicron SATA multiplier. By removing it, Asus killed the pathway that went to it, leaving the JMB363 controller with a "dead port".
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July 29, 2009 7:51:49 AM

Perhaps. I have had my eye on this board since I started planning my eventual upgrade to i7/i5 architecture (MSI and Gigabyte as well). I know on ncix's forums (canada's equivalent to newegg in the states) the P6T SE had been listed as only crossfire since at least mid May.
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July 29, 2009 7:52:22 AM

Anywho, thanks for the review. Interesting read.
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a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 8:25:31 AM

midnightgunPerhaps. I have had my eye on this board since I started planning my eventual upgrade to i7/i5 architecture (MSI and Gigabyte as well). I know on ncix's forums (canada's equivalent to newegg in the states) the P6T SE had been listed as only crossfire since at least mid May.


I never trust a seller as a source: Asus listed the P6T SE as having SLI support as little as four weeks ago, and now has a completely different page for it. They weren't the only company that advertised SLI capability and leave out the bridge, but it now appears the former P6T SE web page must have been an error, probably from the company copying its P6T page and editing it for the P6T SE, but missing one detail.
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July 29, 2009 9:16:35 AM

Personally I will (atleast attempting to now) head straight for the Foxconn Bloodrage with a i7 920 and 3 ddr3 1333 sticks (and give them good timings, ignoring bandwidth and attempting a lower voltage) and a 4870 1gb (due to them being quite cheap now). =D
Though first on my priority list is a better monitor (and rent).

Neat article regardless.
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July 29, 2009 10:03:15 AM

What an inspiring name for the Foxconn mainboard... looks like it's a corporate culture thing.

I've skipped the Foxconn page, wouldn't buy from them anyway.
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a c 150 V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 1:10:56 PM

Interesting read. If I were going to build an i7 rig for myself, that ASRock would probably be my choice. I'm not thrilled about the VRM heating up so much, but I only do low-moderate overclocks so it ought to be ok. The feature set of that board looks suitable.
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July 29, 2009 1:46:45 PM

I am kinda surprised that the ECS board held its own against these "sronger" boards. From my past experieces ECS has been the walmart brand of mobos. :) 
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July 29, 2009 2:02:03 PM

Question: Is the Asrock board able to go into S3 state/Standby mode? The one board I got from Asrock would not and after emailing their tech support they responded by saying that their boards do not support S3 state.
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July 29, 2009 2:10:46 PM

This is just the perferct article for me. And the timing couldn't be any bette with i5 just sround the corner. As soon as it's reviews comes out, we will now be able to compare performance and price of i5's and i7's rigs.

Thank you Tom's. Reminds me why this is my home page since 2001.
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a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 2:28:31 PM

That's a whole lot of work. I agree the ASRock is maybe too hot to be my first choice, but I can't quibble on the award. Good work.
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July 29, 2009 2:34:25 PM

Tom's should take a stand and don't even feature any Foxconn products in any reviews.
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Anonymous
a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 2:40:28 PM

I would like to disagree with all this talk about useless IDE connectors, I still use it for optical drives as it is still fast enough. Most systems only come with 6-8 SATA ports, why would i waste one on a crappy optical drive when i need them for faster HDDs.
Give parallel ATA a break! it still has a valuable place on the mb!
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July 29, 2009 3:21:39 PM

scott314159Give parallel ATA a break! it still has a valuable place on the mb!

A very large valuable space mind you. Not to mention the air space ;) 

The X58 Pro-E doesn't seem to like S3 sleep. The power and HDD LEDs turn off but the fans are still going and I think the HDDs might be as well. I've made it turn off completely once, but then USB didn't work right once it woke, so I had to restart anyway.
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July 29, 2009 3:46:22 PM

AerobernardoThis is just the perferct article for me. And the timing couldn't be any bette with i5 just sround the corner. As soon as it's reviews comes out, we will now be able to compare performance and price of i5's and i7's rigs.Thank you Tom's. Reminds me why this is my home page since 2001.


I don't think there will be too much difference between the 2.
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a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 3:49:25 PM

ceterasWhat an inspiring name for the Foxconn mainboard... looks like it's a corporate culture thing.I've skipped the Foxconn page, wouldn't buy from them anyway.

Agreed, the Foxconn boards are fine (actually quite good) for one time things on LN2 etc, but reliability for 24/7 is lacking.
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a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 3:52:39 PM

scott314159I would like to disagree with all this talk about useless IDE connectors, I still use it for optical drives as it is still fast enough. Most systems only come with 6-8 SATA ports, why would i waste one on a crappy optical drive when i need them for faster HDDs.Give parallel ATA a break! it still has a valuable place on the mb!

Agreed. However, they should eliminate floppy, Parallel,MIDI/GAME ports.
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July 29, 2009 4:17:22 PM

Better purchase then board with LGA1156 socket.
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July 29, 2009 4:27:22 PM

I've been using the MSI pro-e sli since the initial launch of this mobo. Anyhow, I've used both of the x58 pro and pro sli, and the northbridge temnperature IS a problem for both of the boards. When the PC full loaded (tried using prime, everast stability test) the NB temperature rises up to 114 degrees C. With a thermal paste and a small fan work, the temperature is lowered to 70 dC. at max, but still, it really concerns me. OC ability is at top notch. With air cooling, it is OCed at 3.2Ghz. (150Mhz) no problem what so ever. With the 3R system's prima boss 2 heatsink and enermax 120mm fan, the temperature is at 30 dC. under normal load, and 35 at max load.
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a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 4:30:06 PM

Shadow703793Agreed. However, they should eliminate floppy, Parallel,MIDI/GAME ports.


You think they should keep the IDE but lose the floppy? What kind of backwards logic is that? Some people like XP and, without slipstreaming drivers onto a CD-R of the original installation CD, many will NEED a floppy to install AHCI or RAID drivers.

So, some people NEED a floppy, even in an "all new hardware" build. Nobody needs Ultra ATA when their using new drives.

And it gets worse for your argument: Floppy is FREE where Ultra ATA costs money. I haven't seen any companies remove the Multi-I/O interface controller, which already has floppy function.
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July 29, 2009 5:21:11 PM

EIDE and Floppy should be removed. If you're going to install Windows XP on x58 board then you're an idiot, generally speaking.
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July 29, 2009 5:22:27 PM

I believe also that parallel and serial port should be removed, heck even PCI slot. PCIE slots is only what we need.
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a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 5:29:18 PM

freak77powerEIDE and Floppy should be removed. If you're going to install Windows XP on x58 board then you're an idiot, generally speaking.


Legacy free boards are OK for some people. But for boards that do have legacy function, Floppy should be considered just as valuable as IDE. And Windows XP is still a viable OS.
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July 29, 2009 7:00:56 PM

i'm not too experienced with system building, but why the critique about raid card and driver installation if all the boards are ich10r with onboard raid 0,1,5,10?
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July 29, 2009 7:02:36 PM

also, can't the floppy raid drivers be installed from an usb floppy drive?
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Anonymous
a b V Motherboard
July 29, 2009 7:19:39 PM

Just fyi, I have an MSI X58 Pro-E and reading the manual tells me you are wrong about the layout of the full length PCI_E slots. According to the manual the two 16x slots are PCI_E2 and PCI_E4. The 4x slot is PCI_E5. And if you look at page 15 of the manual it shows the layout for the full PCI_E slots are actually 16x-16x-4x. They are not as is reported in this article 16x-4x-16x.
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July 29, 2009 9:04:29 PM

I felt like a dirty hooker when i read this because "i stillneed a floppy drive for my raid setup.

Good article though. I like when they do several comparisons instead of just 2-3. Good stuff.
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July 29, 2009 11:47:55 PM

Get rid of floppy already. I haven't used one for years. nlite is your friend people, slipstream it ffs!

don't agree with abandoning PCI slots though. I think that there are way to many useful cards out there. (I'm being selfish and thinking of my Auzentech Prelude :) )
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July 30, 2009 12:02:04 AM

some motherboards without official SLI support can be enabled with a BIOS tweaking. Since the P6T SE is so similar to the P6T, probably is easy to hack.

Altough I would not experiment with a P6T SE until I get enough info from Internet.
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July 30, 2009 12:30:43 AM

Anyone wanting to ditch PCI entirely must be out of their mind. PCI is still the standard for non-graphics expansion cards.
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July 30, 2009 12:43:21 AM

OT: I had just seen an 7 PCI-Express mother on ASUS. no space for PCI :) 
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a b V Motherboard
July 30, 2009 2:28:10 AM

marracoOT: I had just seen an 7 PCI-Express mother on ASUS. no space for PCI


As long as we're OT, I saw early PCIe development projects that had placed the slot closer to the edge, so that a PCIe x1 and PCI slot could occupy the same latitude on the motherboard. I don't know why the group decided to cancel that idea, but it would have been a great excuse to trash the "kill PCI" groupies.
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July 30, 2009 5:47:35 AM

I hope they don't remove floppy connections for awhile. I use it all the time for fixing peoples pc's or installing xp on older systems with raid or odd controllers (mine included, thought windows 7 may finally get rid of xp installation fun).

I'd just like to know why the floppy disk I previously used is dead every time I need to use it again and have to use a new one -_- I feel like such a noob going into a store to buy a pack of floppy disks.
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July 30, 2009 10:46:40 AM

After reading the Overclocking section, I wonder if DDR3-1066 CAS-5 will not be supported by Gigabyte EX58-UD3R or ASRock X58 Extreme?!
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a b V Motherboard
July 30, 2009 11:40:35 AM

brianinfoAfter reading the Overclocking section, I wonder if DDR3-1066 CAS-5 will not be supported by Gigabyte EX58-UD3R or ASRock X58 Extreme?!


Could always use 1333 CAS 6 instead, it has less latency (real time).
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July 30, 2009 12:40:17 PM

CrashmanCould always use 1333 CAS 6 instead, it has less latency (real time).


According to AnandTech "Memory Scaling on Core i7 - Is DDR3-1066 Really the Best Choice?" quote: a DDR3-1066 C7 kit like the one we used from Patriot that has the capability of performing at 1066 C5 with a small bump in voltage and that can reach DDR3-1600 C9 (an excellent comprise setting due to pricing changes this past week) at warranty and system friendly voltages.

(Though it did not specify the detail how to bump 1066 CAS-7 to CAS-5)

For my personal usage, the performance between 1066 CAS-5 to 1333 CAS-6 is not that much a difference, but the price is. According to newegg.com, the cheapest 1333 6-6-6-24 (not 18) $133 vs 1066 CAS-7 $90... So that's why I was trying to make sure which motherboard supports CAS 5.

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July 30, 2009 3:57:07 PM

Kill@dorI don't think there will be too much difference between the 2.


I think so, but there is still a major point: multi GPU. I do not know if in the near future (Meaning Dx11 VGAs) PCIE 2.0 8x will be enought. Since the P55 chipset only let you do 16x with one VGA, I do believe that i7 might be better from a gamer's view.

The problem is, and that's only my meaningless opinion, i7 will focus on 6 cores and more to come while i5 (Meaning lynfield with any name scheme intel have for us) will probably focus on 4 cores with higher frequency. Comparing the same price and heat (high frequency quads vs low frequency hexas), i5 (lynfield) might be better for gamers from a CPU standpoint.

That's what's intriguing me for a while.
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July 30, 2009 8:29:13 PM

Hm... great article, but I was sad to see no synopsis of the P6T SE on your conclusion page. It's the one I'm leaning toward, and your article didn't really change my mind. Anyone else have experience with it?
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a b V Motherboard
July 30, 2009 8:40:55 PM

brianinfoAccording to AnandTech "Memory Scaling on Core i7 - Is DDR3-1066 Really the Best Choice?" quote: a DDR3-1066 C7 kit like the one we used from Patriot that has the capability of performing at 1066 C5 with a small bump in voltage and that can reach DDR3-1600 C9 (an excellent comprise setting due to pricing changes this past week) at warranty and system friendly voltages.(Though it did not specify the detail how to bump 1066 CAS-7 to CAS-5)For my personal usage, the performance between 1066 CAS-5 to 1333 CAS-6 is not that much a difference, but the price is. According to newegg.com, the cheapest 1333 6-6-6-24 (not 18) $133 vs 1066 CAS-7 $90... So that's why I was trying to make sure which motherboard supports CAS 5.


You'll see a review on Tom's Hardware of budget DDR3 kits that can easily do 1333 CAS 6, cheaply. Since DDR3-1333 cycles faster, DDR3-1333 CAS 6 response times are actually shorter than DDR3-1066 CAS 5.
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July 31, 2009 12:52:00 AM

Thanks, I will go look for that review.
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July 31, 2009 4:50:46 AM

CrashmanYou'll see a review on Tom's Hardware of budget DDR3 kits that can easily do 1333 CAS 6, cheaply. Since DDR3-1333 cycles faster, DDR3-1333 CAS 6 response times are actually shorter than DDR3-1066 CAS 5.


I have read the most recent articles in Memory (Jan till now), they did not offer any reviews on DDR3-1333 CAS6. The closest they used was CAS7. So I dunno if you have seen it somewhere else? and when you said cheap, you mean by how much? Newegg.com is fair reference, which gives me $43 difference between the DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1066.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-scaling-i7,2...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgra...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/triple-channel-ddr3...
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a b V Motherboard
July 31, 2009 5:48:44 AM

brianinfoI have read the most recent articles in Memory (Jan till now), they did not offer any reviews on DDR3-1333 CAS6. The closest they used was CAS7. So I dunno if you have seen it somewhere else? and when you said cheap, you mean by how much? Newegg.com is fair reference, which gives me $43 difference between the DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1066.http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2325.htmlhttp://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2264.htmlhttp://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2128.html


The new budget triple-channel review hasn't been published yet, but it is in rotation with several other new articles that are being published over the next week or so. Keep an eye out for it!
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July 31, 2009 11:58:08 AM

Dear Ryan
This board do support the S3 state. The S3 state was disabled on default BIOS setting, so you need to enable it in BIOS.
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August 27, 2009 2:05:09 PM

sorry tom's but you can be more accurate .
i bought this board cause i trusted your review . let me correct :
like the most mobos manufactures the graphics pci-e layout is 16x/16x/4x and NOT 16x/4x/16x as you mentioned in this review thus the huge dual slot vga cards doesn't fit freely in the pci-e 16x slots and NO air-flow when running crossfirex or sli configuration , so i wish this review to be updated and correcting the wrong data .
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August 27, 2009 2:05:58 PM

sorry tom's but you can be more accurate .
i bought this board cause i trusted your review . let me correct :
like the most mobos manufactures the graphics pci-e layout is 16x/16x/4x and NOT 16x/4x/16x as you mentioned in this review thus the huge dual slot vga cards doesn't fit freely in the pci-e 16x slots and NO air-flow when running crossfirex or sli configuration , so i wish this review to be updated and correcting the wrong data .
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August 27, 2009 2:06:07 PM

sorry tom's but you can be more accurate .
i bought this board cause i trusted your review . let me correct :
like the most mobos manufactures the graphics pci-e layout is 16x/16x/4x and NOT 16x/4x/16x as you mentioned in this review thus the huge dual slot vga cards doesn't fit freely in the pci-e 16x slots and NO air-flow when running crossfirex or sli configuration , so i wish this review to be updated and correcting the wrong data .
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October 5, 2009 3:42:07 PM

I'm waiting for my third ASRock X58 Extreme to arrive from NewEgg. The first mobo had a bad memory socket, but otherwise worked. The second one was DOA. Reading the rave reviews on this mobo, I'm mystified why I'm having so much trouble getting a good board. This is my last try. If the third one doesn't work, I'm going back to ASUS.
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October 9, 2009 6:27:46 PM

I hope Gigabyte updates the Ud3r to 3 channels of RAM. If they do come out with a usb3.0 next year, even one slot, im buying it immediatly even at $300. By then everything some be Win7 standard and SP1 should be out along with 300GTX's and cheap SSDs. BD will be standard as well!!!! Cant wait
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