What's going on with X58?

[fearnight2000]

Hello.

I've noticed that some of the latest technologies such as USB3, SATA 3 or both appeared only on P55mobos, while X58 mobos seem to have been set aside.
Furthermore, most of your latest reviews are about P55 mobos or component for them.
I've been waiting for a X58 mobo with sata 3 and usb 3 to setup a new i7 system, but now I'm starting to think whether that is a good idea.
From the various reviews i noticed that the P55 has more advantages than the X58 as it requires less power while it has almost the same performance.
So what i wanted to know is X58 a dying technology?

 

[jsrudd]

X58 is an enthusiast platform. In the heirarchy its above P55. P55s are newer boards so that's why there getting all the current coverage. USB 3 and SATA 3 will be on both boards.

 

[atomicWAR]

While i don't have any real proof to back 100 percent of this up...i beleive the X58 is not dead for the high end. It's just stalled tell the release of 32nm CPU's and hecta cores. word has it intel is stifling USB 3.0 a bit. until they release a 32nm hecta core cpu's to encourage the enthusist's to upgrade there's not a lot of reason to focus on that mother board line up for the moment. as for SATA 3 i agree its over due with 2 SSD drives u can flood your sata 2 bus. question is when things do pick up again will be another x38 cherry picked chips for x48 situation with no real new features. hydra looks very promising so i am optamistic but again its only one "new" chip in the set. guess time will tell.

anyways if ur stalling on a purchase don't. i just got the x58 evga classified and with a 920 d0 easyily hit 4.2 ghz with water cooling though i run at 4. seeing plenty of posts about air colling at the same speeds. honestly if i had an EE with an unlocked mutliplier and i didn't have to crank my bus any higher i think i could be plenty stable up tell 4.4 ghz. starting to think the extra hundred bucks for the water block chipset might have been a better choice with a none EE chip in that particular situation. point is i have a few PC's around of various config's and am quite happy. in few month's time i'll stuff a new 32nm CPU with more cores in my board with a smile. Lynnfield is awsome but i highly doubt intel has forgot about the enthustist crowd who goes after only the most bleeding edge performance. So question is what kind of rig you builidng? if ur going for budget, care less about SLI/cross fire scaling issuses as it is nominal and only shows in a couple games...socket 1156 is it. if your going for out right performance/ looking to upgrade ur cpu to i9 when it comes...your wallet might get a bit lighter with socket 1366.

 

[fearnight2000]

Thank you both for your replies.

You've made things clearer.

I'm planning to use the system mostly for 3D animation so i need all the processing power i can get.
If the i9 proves faster (I'm hesitant until see some actual benchmarks, because it have more cores than the i7 but at a lower frequency) I will upgrade to it.

Thanks again

 

[anamaniac]

Remember, the i9s (6 and 8 core) will also be 32nm, so they'll be able to still hit a decent frequency with the same TDP (hopefully).
If you're looking at 3D animation, consider what program you're using.

Will you benefit from an insane amount of cores? If so, a multi socket motherboard (such as a quad socket Opteron board with a quad socket addon board, for 8 quad cores) may be a considerable (yet expensive) option. You could even go for AMD opteron sexacores.

I know Foxconn has also released the beta BIOS for the i9s for their X58 boards, however they're also dropping their enthusiast line.

They may decide to make a new generation of boards anyways (with a Lucid Hydra 200, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0, and as I am personally hoping for, 9 DIMMS). Call it X68 or whatever the hell they want.

Of course, only time will tell.
However, I think the most important question is, how many cores will your 3D animation software benefit from? AND are you willing to overclock heavily? (One single core at a very high frequency on water vs. two cores of a low frequency on light air.)