I7 Motherboard choice. Pls Help

[deepinder27]

I am building an i7 930 rig. i have all the things figured out except for the motherboard.

I'll be installing 2GBx3 RAM, will overclock to upto 3.4Ghz. Which one will be better?

I have only two options

1. Intel DX58SO

2. MSI X58 Pro-E

I am a little bit inclined towards MSI motherboard but its high IOH temperatures are a concern to me. Please Help.

 

[rolli59]

If you want to overclock then your better option is the MSI board.

 

[tecmo34]

Out of your two options, I would go with the MSI motherboard.

1) I wasn't a fan of the review I read at guru3d... http://www.guru3d.com/article/intel-x58-extreme-dx58so-motherboard-review/1

2) MSI is the overall better motherboard manufacturer compared to Intel. Of course, I would rather see you go with either ASUS, Gigabyte or EVGA (Nvida GPU's) over MSI but you don't have that option.

 

[jaquith]

Q - Why just those two (2) MOBO's??? MSI - if you want 3-WAY SLI/CF ; Intel if you're running 2-WAY SLI/CF + RAID.

Same Budget, I'd go for the EVGA X58 SLI3 {best for OC + 3-WAY SLI/CF} - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188068&Tpk=EVGA%20X58%20SLI3

 

[deepinder27]

these are the only 2 option in my budget at my local shop. They also have gigabyte x58a ud7 which is too expensive for me. And i'm also not sure if spending that much on that motherboard is justified. So i think i'll be going with msi board. But what about high northbridge temperatures on that board?

 

[jaquith]

^ @3.4 GHz the Northbridge will not be an issue on pretty much any MOBO.

 

[Hard Line]

I agree the MSI is better of the 2 but honestly, the gigabyte boards are excellent. I have X58a-UD3R rev2 and I'm running at 4.3 ghz with 3800 uncore and 7.8ghz QPI and NB temps are around 46 C highest i have seen it is 52C I hope this helps you get an idea on what to do..

 

[deepinder27]

i would love to go with Gigabyte X58A UD3R, but it's not available at my local shop. UD7 is available.. but its too expensive..(arnd 400$)

 

[jaquith]

NO, the Gigabyte X58A UD3R (rev 2) SSD + HDD = Disaster {BSOD/Shutdowns! Great on paper but poor real world.

Post a link(s) to the stores available in your area; I just helped some guy on an island in the Med.

 

[Hard Line]

NO, the Gigabyte X58A UD3R (rev 2) SSD + HDD = Disaster {BSOD/Shutdowns! Great on paper but poor real world.

Post a link(s) to the stores available in your area; I just helped some guy on an island in the Med.

I have UD3R with an overclocked i7 903 running an vertex 2 ssd AND raid 0+1 with no issues at all. based on my experience, I do not agree with you on that.

However it is a moot point as he can't get it anyhow. I do agree knowing some websites where we can look for you would def help

 

[jaquith]

^Which revision 1 or 2? I had 6 of 10 do this and BOTH GA and Lsdmeasap @ TT CONFIRMED this issue. I had identical rigs SSD - 128 GB Kingston SATA2 + RAID 1 w/1TB Hitachi all running off the ICH10R.

 

[Hard Line]

I have rev 2 with Bios FB i'm running an i7 930 @ 4.3 ghz 21x205 with 3800 ( ish) uncore and 7.4-7.8 (ish)ghz QPI 6GB mushkin redline enhanced 6-8-6-20 XFX 5870 OCZ stealth Xtreme 700W PSU ( by the way is not as quiet as they claim easily the loudest fan in my chassis ) and a Haf 922

 

[jaquith]

^ At the time mine were running FA during the RMA. FB - is a new release 2010/08/24 - maybe they also fixed the SATA2 issue. Worst, mine were all pseudo Workstations with lamer parts @ stock the problems still occurred. OC did not pose an issue. It ran sweet if I pulled the RAID 1 HDDs.

Enhance CPU, DDR, PCIex16/x8 compatibility
USB3.0 chip legacy support
Enhanced SATA3 RAID mode

Pseudo Workstations {identical except the CF}:
CPU: i7 930 (2.8 MHz)
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R --> replacement ASUS P6X58D-E Fixed the problem
RAM: Corsair Dominator 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz
FAN: Corsair H50)
HDD1: 128 GB Kingston 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC SSD
HDD2-3: (1TBx2) RAID 1 SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
VIDEO: (x2 Crossfire) ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
PSU: Corsair 750 Watts CMPSU-750TX
CASE: CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced
DVD: LG 22X DVD±/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer
OS: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

Frequently {all the same} after BSOD or Shutdown the SSD won't be recognized.

 

[Hard Line]

^ At the time it mine were FA during the RMA. FB - is a new release 2010/08/24 - maybe they also fixed the SATA2 issue. Worst, mine were all pseudo Workstations with lamer parts @ stock the problems still occurred. OC did not pose an issue. It ran sweet if I pulled the RAID 1 HDDs.

Enhance CPU, DDR, PCIex16/x8 compatibility
USB3.0 chip legacy support
Enhanced SATA3 RAID mode

Pseudo Workstations {identical except the CF}:
CPU: i7 930 (2.8 MHz)
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R --> replacement ASUS P6X58D-E Fixed the problem
RAM: Corsair Dominator 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz
FAN: Corsair H50)
HDD1: 128 GB Kingston 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC SSD
HDD2-3: (1TBx2) RAID 1 SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
VIDEO: (x2 Crossfire) ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
PSU: Corsair 750 Watts CMPSU-750TX
CASE: CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced
DVD: LG 22X DVD±/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer
OS: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

Frequently {all the same} after BSOD or Shutdown the SSD won't be recognized.
http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af254/Jaquith/BIOS002.jpg

I understand what your issue was.. you didn't need a ss i believed you, I am just suggesting that they may have fixed it with the newer bios and rev. I did forget to mention to keep temps in order, i have a noctua D-14 ( nothing short of monstrous )

 

[jaquith]

It had nothing to do with temps, problem @ stock, heavy access of the data stored on RAID caused instability. Running ATTO would bomb the rig in 5-30 seconds testing RAID.

Hopefully, it is fixed - I won't buy or recommend that MOBO. Just imagine the pain of RMA'ing 10 units!

 

[Hard Line]

It had nothing to do with temps, problem @ stock, heavy access of the data stored on RAID caused instability. Running ATTO would bomb the rig in 5-30 seconds testing RAID.

Hopefully, it is fixed - I won't buy or recommend that MOBO. Just imagine the pain of RMA'ing 10 units!

I would recommend it, however it is unfortunate you had that issue. I do believe it is fixed. I have heard other manufacturers having NB temp issues not sure if that is taken care of.

 

[jaquith]

I "want to" recommend the GA-X58A-UD3R or UD5, DUAL BIOS chip, beautiful looking board, lots of SATA ports, eSATA @ I/O, easy to install, etc.

If you're going to place 1 SSD/HHD/HDD {RAID via dedicated controller card} then fine.

All those pluses BUT if its going to FAIL it's a BAD choice. Very disappointing situation! Lsdmeasap @ TT own comments "I'll pass this info along and see if in the future better testing can be done with the cheaper boards."

It was not a NB, voltage, setup, OS, BIOS {FA}, cooling, OC, planetary alignment - only a new confirmed H/W issue. I could have placed the rig in a icebox or pointed 10 Delta fans and it wouldn't fixed the issue. There's all sorts of confirmed SSD/HDD + RAID for the GA UD3R and UD5 MOBOs. Sad.

@Hard Line - Q - what drives are in your 0+1 array?
BTW - I know RAIDs don't 0+1 ~ PRO +1/CON +9; RAID 10.

 

[Hard Line]

I am using vertex 2, 2 samsung F3 Raid 0, 1 wd 500GB (RMA on 2nd one 1st died) samsung F3 1TB mirroring the raid 0 set and a new samsung F4 2TB

I should just get another 500GB F3 and raid 5 them lol

 

[jaquith]

RAID 0+1 - first requires 4 identical HDD/SSD, and it's Achilles is two sets of stripes and its poorer fault tolerance.

 

[Hard Line]

0+1 only requires 3 drives 2 identical drive in AID 0 and the 3rd has o be the size of the Aid 0 set so 2 500GB drives in AID 0 = 1TB you need a 1TB drive to mirror to. so you would need 500GB+500GB+1TB however as i said I will prob pick up a 3rd sammy F3 after xmas and do a raid 5 I don't trust mixing brands and models in a raid set. and I have heard WD no longer allows consumer drives to work in raid

 

[jaquith]

Don't want to argue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
"RAID 0+1: striped sets in a mirrored set ( minimum four disks; even number of disks) provides fault tolerance and improved performance but increases complexity.
The key difference from RAID 1+0 is that RAID 0+1 creates a second striped set to mirror a primary striped set. The array continues to operate with one or more drives failed in the same mirror set, but if drives fail on both sides of the mirror the data on the RAID system is lost."

I use RAID 1 on workstations, RAID 10 on web servers, RAID 5 on primary servers, and ALL with NAS. Even at my house I have network backup.

NAS - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage

Whatever you think you have it's clearly no RAID 0+1. Sounds more JBOD with some perhaps paired/RAID sets.

 

[jaquith]

Footnote: I would never run a RAID 5 array off ANY MOBO without a ~$700 dedicated controller: 1. Too slow, 2. Too unstable, 3. Too expensive on a home PC. RAID 5 is 99.9% meant for servers with mission critical data and even then w/o NAS to take "snapshots" a major corruption will render all data on all drives toast.

Gaming or PC in general is a hobby, I make my living owning an enterprise data company. I am not the guru at my office but I know enough.