And so it begins. The first motherboard to land in our lab (besides Intel’s own X58 platform, which remains under embargo, but is hardly a secret given its presence at IDF) is ASUS’ P6T Deluxe. This ASUS plaform seems to be targeted at both overclockers and workstation customers. After all, it includes a USB-powered OC Palm device, used for handheld overclocking and an onboard SAS controller, which enables high-availability storage at a considerable premium for those who need more enterprise-like functionality.
As you can see from the box, SLI and CrossFire support are both part of this package, as is a considerable amount of voltage regulation—the P6T Deluxe levels 16-phase vCore circuitry and an additional two phases for the QPI/integrated memory controller inside the Core i7 CPU. Express Gate, ASUS’ insta-boot operating environment, and EPU, the company’s energy-saving technology, are also included.
The P6T is colorful and busy, but no massive deviation from what we know as an Intel-based motherboard, despite all of the changes rolled up into the Core i7 processor. We see six memory slots, a trio of PCI Express x16 slots, a PCI Express x4 slot (all compatible with the 2.0 specification), and a pair of standard PCI slots. Passive cooling on the core logic components helps keep thermals in check while maintaining a quiet computing environment, which we like.
Besides the additional memory slots, the only clear indication of this board’s X58 pedigree is the new socket interface, which looks a lot like LGA775 with the protective cover on top but is a much different animal underneath, as we’ll show you.
The board’s back panel is a mix of familiar extras. You get one PS/2 keyboard/mouse port (gone are the days of two, it seems), no less than eight USB 2.0 ports, optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, a pair of Gigabit Ethernet jacks, FireWire output, eSATA, and six 1/8" mini-jacks for analog audio output. ASUS naturally includes a back-panel cutout matching its busy layout.
As is becoming standard, the P6T Deluxe is cooled passively using a copper heat pipe that extends from the voltage regulation circuitry down to the X58 northbridge and through to Intel’s ICH10-R. The fins covering X58 are curved in such a way as to take advantage of the processor’s active cooler. Air will ideally be blown down through them, helping mitigate heat build-up.
This is the OC Palm tool, which ASUS includes with the P6T Deluxe. It attaches via USB 2.0 and facilitates real-time multiplier adjustments without needing to mess with the BIOS or even a Windows-based utility. According to ASUS, it interfaces with its TurboV controller to enable access to several voltages: northbridge, PCI Express, CPU PLL, and memory voltages in .02V increments. You can use the OC Palm to monitor voltage, fan speed, and temperature, too. A couple of hot key buttons will let you fire up saved profiles if you need an extra boost of speed and have a configuration stored that you know runs stably.
If you draw parallels to the automotive world, OC Palm is your equivalent of generic OBD-II or Volkswagen/Audi’s VAG-COM.
Without giving away too much about Intel’s own X58-based platform, let’s just say that ASUS’ P6T Deluxe has more in the way of the memory expansion we’d want to see on an enthusiast motherboard. Its six slots are able to take DDR3 modules running as fast as 1,800 MHz with capacities up to 12GB. Naturally, this also means you’re going to start seeing memory vendors selling three-modules kits instead of just two.
ASUS arms the P6T Deluxe with lots of expansion, but it isn’t the configuration we’d like to see. The board has three PCI Express x16 slots, one x4 slot, and two vanilla PCI slots. You can use two of the x16 slots in x16 mode or use all three in a x16/x8/x8 configuration. However, because of the way they’re laid out, you can only install three single-slot cards, which eliminates the possibility of 3-way SLI using GTX 280s or 260s. Fortunately, you could still achieve four-way CrossFireX using a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2s.
The P6T Deluxe gets its workstation appeal from Marvell’s 88SE6320 SAS controller, which complements the six SATA 3 Gb/s ports enabled by Intel’s own ICH10-R I/O controller. Of course, SAS is backward-compatible with SATA, so you can certainly attach SATA drives to the extra connectors. However, the option to go with SAS storage is a good one if you’re matching the X58 board up to an enclosure packed with enterprise drives—or even two standalone drives, though each port delivers significantly more throughput than a single disk can saturate.
The back of the P6T is reinforced by a metal bracket right underneath the socket. This is actually something you’ll see on all of the X58-based motherboards with which we’re working.
If you’re planning to install a standard Core i7 processor, you’ll attach Intel’s reference heatsink as if it were a Core 2 Duo or Quad—by pushing each of four pins into holes punched through the PCB itself. The higher-wattage Extreme chip requires a beefier solution, which actually involves a secondary bracket on the back of the board and spring-loaded screws fastening the heatsink down. You’ll see companies like Thermalright and Vigor offering higher-end solutions as soon as Core i7 launches.
Voltage regulation includes 16 phases for the vCore and an additional two for the chip’s QPI/memory controller. ASUS is especially proud of its 5,000 hour Fujitsu capacitors, rated to last more than five years at 86 degrees C.
Next up, ASUS’ Rampage II Extreme—the first X58 board in the company’s Republic of Gamers lineup. This one is decidedly more overclocker-oriented, as you’ll see from some of its flashy extras. It’s also much more of a gamer product—again, we’ll point out the reasons why here in a couple of pages.
ASUS keeps the front of this one nice and clean, indicating only that the Rampage is an RoG board, it supports CrossFireX, and it works with SLI, too.
Looking at ASUS’ Rampage from the top down, you can tell that there’s a lot going on. As with the P6T Deluxe, cooling on the power circuitry, northbridge, and southbridge is all connected through a sequence of heat pipes and passive coolers—though this board employs aluminum instead of copper. Also like the P6T, six memory slots open the door to lots of scalability, especially as we abandon 32-bit operating systems and begin a more wholesale adoption of 64-bit.
Here’s a tighter shot of the cooling. We have no idea why ASUS chose to cover its power circuitry heatsinks with the little red pieces of plastic, but it likely has something to do with bling—just like the Republic of Gamers logo raised up over the X58 ’sink. Naturally, it lights up when you power the board up. Then there’s the plate sitting over Intel’s ICH10-R, which is low-profile enough to not get in the way, but does a suitable job drawing heat away from core logic components (I know because I touched it and burnt my finger).
LEDs all over the board indicate the status of particular circuits and change color depending on the voltage you’ve sent to that area. A hard drive activity LED is also an interesting addition we’ve seen before and really like. It’s a great way to tell when your SSD is working (or if your system is really just frozen), since it doesn’t make any noise.
ASUS keeps it very simple on the back of its Rampage II Extreme. You’ll find one PS/2 keyboard port, six USB 2.0 ports, dual Gigabit Ethernet jacks, an eSATA connector, FireWire, and a reset button. If you’re wondering about audio connectivity—that’s coming.
How do we know the Rampage II Extreme is better-oriented to gamers? Its PCI Express slots are spaced properly. Each of the x16 connectors is two slots apart, creating enough room to install a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2s or a trio of GeForce GTX 280s. One of the slots will run at x16 signaling speeds while the other two cruise at x8, but because X58 support PCIe 2.0, you’re still getting plenty of throughput.
As our editor Thomas Soderstrom points out, though, that last PCI Express slot hangs low on the board. So, if you actually want to run three GTX 280s (inside a chassis, not on an open test bench as we’ve been doing), it’s going to take a special case like Lian-Li’s PC-P80 with 10 available expansion slots in order to fit the cards.
Two PCIe x1 slots and a single PCI slot round out the rest of ASUS’ connectivity, though you’ll only have access to a single x1 slot if you drop dual-slot graphics cards into the top two x16 slots.
ASUS was one of the first board vendors to include onboard power and reset buttons. Now it’s taking that concept a step further by tying in a big red start button, Honda S2000-style, and a clearly labeled reset button right next to it.
The three items you see next to the buttons are related to ASUS’ TweakIt feature. From left to right are the toggle, confirm, and select switches. There’s a bundled LCD Poster, which plugs in to the motherboard and enables control over system voltages and frequencies when you use it with the TweakIt functions.
Right underneath the TweakIt buttons is ASUS’ Probelt feature, which volt modders should absolutely love. Each of the labeled contact points is where you can attach a voltmeter to take readings.
Whereas the ASUS P6T Deluxe employed 16+2-phase voltage regulation, the RoG Rampage II Extreme incorporates the company’s Extreme Engine. It consists of 16-phase CPU, three-phase QPI, three-phase northbridge, and three-phase memory circuitry. As with the P6T, much of the processor’s power delivery is covered with heatsinks oriented to best take advantage of active cooling on your processor.
It’s a bit cheesy, but even still, you can make the Rampage II your own by signing the plate covering Intel’s ICH10-R. Of course, we’d only recommend this if you hit an overclock that’s claimable. Going from 3.2 GHz to 3.46 GHz doesn’t count, either. That’s Intel’s Turbo mode, giving you free performance in applications that don’t tax all four of the chip’s cores.
We’ve seen a couple of reports that suggest Nvidia’s SLI support would be limited to dual-card. But ASUS’ bundled two-way and three-way SLI connectors show otherwise. ASUS also throws in its SupremeFX card, which might be labeled with Creative X-Fi branding, but is actually based on Analog Device’s AD2000B eight-channel HD Audio codec and the ability to run Creative’s EAX Advanced HD 4.0 extensions through the ALchemy wrapper. Here’s where you get your digital and analog audio connectivity, though. Finally, the LCD Poster is the device able to interface with the TweakIt controls on the motherboard itself.
In addition to the six channels of SATA 3 Gb/s enabled by Intel’s ICH10-R, ASUS contributes a JMicron 363 controller. Remember that the ICH sheds support for parallel ATA entirely. So, enthusiasts with PATA optical drives will be glad to know the 363 boasts support for two devices. It also features two extra channels of SATA, one of which ASUS uses for a rear-enabled eSATA port not seen in this picture.
The back of the Rampage II Extreme looks a lot like ASUS’ P6T Deluxe. And like the more workstation-oriented P6T, the Rampage employs Stack Cool 2 technology, claimed to more effectively dissipate heat generated by certain motherboard components.
Having checked out ASUS’ P6T Deluxe and then its Rampage II Extreme, we were thoroughly convinced of at least one Taiwanese vendors’ approach to X58—go after the enthusiast. Despite the fact that one model of Intel’s Core i7 family will be fairly affordable at launch, these motherboards are unquestionably loaded with features.
Gigabyte’s EX58-Extreme takes that to another level, though. We didn’t get the board in its retail packaging, so we’re not exactly sure yet what the final bundle will include. However, the hardware itself is impressive looking. Gigabyte covers the X58 northbridge with a passive cooler, just like ASUS, which snakes up to the power circuitry and down to Intel’s ICH10-R onboard. You’ll notice that the cooler is ready to be tied into a water cooling setup as well, though. See those small divots right below the water block? Flip to the next page for a peek at what goes there.
When you get the board all set up in your case and find that the pack panel slot above the Extreme’s PCIe x1 connector isn’t being used, you can drop this little contraption in and screw the part that says Hybrid Silent Pipe onto the northbridge cooler. This should technically be one piece glued together, but our sample must have come apart in shipping. Nevertheless, you get an idea of just how much extra aluminum can be tacked on in the naming of cooling the EX58.
Loaded with back panel connectivity, Gigabyte’s EX58-Extreme gives you two PS/2 ports, analog and digital audio ouputs, FireWire, eight USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet connectors, six 1/8" mini-jacks for eight-channel audio, and a Clear CMOS button (careful when you’re plugging in your DV camera).
The EX58 incorporates Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable 3 power-saving functionality—expect a closer look on how UD3 compares to ASUS’ competing technology in the days to come. Armed with 12-phase CPU power and two-phase memory voltage regulation, the Extreme does duck in a little lower than each of ASUS’ offerings. However, it remains to be seen if the minor discrepancy translates to a real-world disadvantage.
A pair of JMicron 322 controllers take Gigabyte’s EX58-Extreme from six SATA 3 Gb/s ports (complements of Intel’s ICH10-R) up to 10.
Next to the SATA ports is a two-digit POST readout. After having taken looks at ASUS’ OC Palm and LCD Poster on both of its own X58 boards, Gigabyte’s solution is hardly as elegant.
This is the second motherboard we’ve seen that has PCI Express x16 slots situated to provide for four-way CrossFireX or three-way SLI. Same story here, though. That last slot only gives you one expansion space to work with, unless you have a chassis able to accommodate the overhanging double-slot graphics board.
You’ll also find a single x1 slot (which gets negated if you install the Extreme’s large aluminum fin array), a x4 slot, and two PCI slots that, again, are unavailable if you purchase a pair of dual-slot graphics cards.
Also in the picture are the six memory slots Gigabyte plans to offer, though it already commented that the colors will change between now and retail availability. Right behind those slots, just out of view, is the new location for Gigabyte’s power and reset buttons—purportedly a better area than the bottom of the board, where we’re used to seeing them.
Need more proof that X58 is going to support 3-way SLI? We received another 3-way connector in our EX58-Extreme packaging.
It has been a while since we’ve seen an MSI board with serious enthusiast appeal. Yet, here’s the company’s newest X58-based Eclipse gaming board, advertising the company’s GreenPower energy-saving functionality, its XpressCool passive cooling, and RapidBoost RAID technology. Interestingly, MSI advertises SLI compatibility on the front of its box and CrossFireX on the inside flap of the front cover.
This is the third board we’ve seen with a trio of PCI Express x16 slots situated in such as way as to allow double-wide graphics cards to fit, snug though they might be. It’s also the third board with the final PCI Express x16 slot designed for a single-slot card. If you plan on installing three GTX 280s, bear in mind the need for a larger chassis.
Of course, only one slot will run at x16 signaling rates while the others crank along at x8. Nevertheless, with PCIe 2.0 a standard feature of X58, we aren’t expecting bandwidth limitations.
In addition to the x16 slots, you also get two PCI Express x1 slots and a pair of standard PCI slots as well. As you can see, there’s plenty of copper passively cooling the ICH10-R and X58 chipset components, too.
Here’s the actual LGA1366 socket in its full glory. If you’re already using Intel’s LGA775, there’s really not much different. You drop your pinless Core i7 into the socket—and it only fits one way as a result of plastic tabs jutting out. Close the retention mechanism, snap down the lever, and voila—you’re locked and loaded.
Notice the two holes above the socket. Those are two of four, punched into the PCB and used to mount your heatsink. The reference Intel model we have snaps into place like existing coolers for Core 2 Duo and Quad chips. However, higher-end models need more cooling and may very well involve back-plates mounted under the PCB for support.
As ASUS and Gigabyte push 16-phase power delivery, MSI is relying on its second-generation six-phase DrMOS design with an additional two phases dedicated to the memory controller. Also worth noting is MSI’ claimed support for 24 GB of DDR3 compared to ASUS P6T Deluxe, which is only rated up to 12 GB.
MSI’s competitors employ a continuous heatpipe system that connects southbridge, northbridge, and power circuitry to passive cooling. MSI’s Eclipse breaks this circuit in half, sporting one set of copper fins on top of the power components and a second set joining the X58 and ICH10-R core logic.
The Eclipse’s storage subsystem centers on Intel’s ICH10-R, just like all of the other X58 motherboards we’re looking at here. That component alone gives you six SATA 3 Gb/s ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 10, and 5 arrays. To those six ports, MSI adds two back-panel eSATA connectors driven by a JMicron JMB362 controller and an extra four internal SATA connectors driven by a pair of JMB322 controllers.
Who’s going to use 12 SATA devices? We have no idea. But if you have a massive collection of disk drives—internal and external—MSI’s Eclipse is the most well-endowed board we’ve seen for supporting large quantities of SATA connectivity.
There are four separate features here. The two on the left are power and reset buttons—now fairly standard fare on enthusiast boards that are often configured on a test bench before being dropped into a chassis. Easy access to power and reset functions beats the heck out of shorting two pins with a screwdriver. The D-LED button to the right of the reset switch changes the menu on the D-LED 2 panel from frequency to temperature to voltage outputs. There’s also a bank of three switches, which lets you change the base clock in hardware for overclocking. By default, Core i7 operates on a 133 MHz clock, from which the other system frequencies are derived. Altering MSI’s onboard switch opens up 166 MHz and 200 MHz base clocks as well.
MSI bundles a couple of notable accessories with its Eclipse MS-7520 board. The first is called the GreenPower Genie, a brick-like device that sits between the motherboard and your power supply. The Genie isn’t new—it debuted alongside MSI’s P45 boards, monitoring power usage and savings as the board adjusts the processor, QPI, and PLL voltages, as well as adjusting power phase usage.
The other pictured component is MSI’s D-LED 2, described by MSI as a provider of information. That’s cool. We like information. The small OLED display attaches to the Eclipse via 9-pin and 2-pin connector (the former being its communications interface and the latter hooking up to a temperature probe).
Also included in our package, but not pictured, is MSI’s X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCIe sound card. When we first saw the add-on, we thought "Ah ha! A bundle based on the same technology as Creative Labs’ own discrete sound cards." After all, it is advertised as centering on Creative’s CA0110. The fact of the matter is a bit different from the marketing illusion, and Creative Labs is largely to blame. The EMU20K1 audio processor is what drives the hardware-accelerated positional gaming audio that gave the X-Fi name any value at all. The CA0110 is merely a codec with software support for the CMSS 3D and Crystalizer effects engines. Kudos to MSI for trying to give its customers better audio solution, but enthusiasts, consider yourselves warned: in the face of a rapidly-evaporating market for its sound cards, Creative Labs is slapping the X-Fi label on products like this one that are actually in an entirely different class of hardware.
ASUS’ P6T Deluxe and Rampage II Extreme both top out with support for up to 12 GB of DDR3 memory. The Gigabyte EX58-Extreme didn’t include any documentation, so we can’t say for sure what that one supported. But we do know that the six slots on MSI’s Eclipse board do support up to 24 GB of DDR3 memory when you drop 4GB DIMMs into them.
The board’s back panel is non-standard, to say the least. You get two PS/2 ports—one each for the mouse and keyboard. There’s a FireWire connector with two eSATA ports right next to it. Above, you’ll find a large aluminum block with four USB 2.0 ports. An additional four resting underneath twin Gigabit Ethernet jacks bring the total up to eight. In between sits a push-button reset switch.
If you’ve made it this far, then you’ve seen four of the five motherboards currently in our lab. The fifth is Intel’s own DX58SO "Smackover" board, which we photographed back at Intel’s Developer Forum and is not quite as well laid-out as these four examples. Limited to four memory slots, two PCI Express x16 slots, and uncertainty as to whether the board will do SLI or not, it won’t be our first choice for testing gaming performance.