Intel X58 Roundup: Six $300+ Platforms Compared
Blood Rage BIOS, Software, And Accessories
The Blood Rage BIOS includes many advanced features, and its standard settings are also broad enough to allow for the extreme voltage and frequency levels favored by liquid-nitrogen overclockers.
BIOS Frequency and Voltage Settings | |
---|---|
CPU Reference Clock | 66 to 500 MHz (1 MHz) |
Clock Multiplier Adjustment | Yes |
DRAM Ratios | DDR3-800 to DDR3-2133 (266 MHz) |
PCIe Clock | Not Adjustable |
CPU Vcore | Stock to +1.260 volts (0.010 volts), |
CPU VTT (Uncore) Voltage | Stock to +1.260 volts (0.010 volts), |
IOH (Northbridge) Voltage | 1.10 to 2.36 volts (0.020 volts) |
ICH (Southbridge) Voltage | 1.40 to 1.80 volts (0.012 volts) |
DRAM Voltage | 1.455 to 2.400 volts (0.015 volts) |
CAS Latency Range | tCAS: 5-15; tRCD: 5-15; tRP: 5-15; tRAS: 10-31 |
One strangely missing setting was the PCIe clock, but a realistic memory clock limit of 8x base clock (16x data rate) merely appears to be out of place on an extreme overclocking board.
Foxconn’s Aegis control panel provides similar functionality to the previously-viewed EVGA application, but with a far more ornate interface. Though Aegis works well, we’d have preferred a far more visually compact version.
Foxconn OC Gear allows saving and restoring overclock settings from within Windows.
Other applications include several Foxconn utilities, freeware, and Norton Internet Security.
Accessories
Accessories | |
---|---|
Documentation and Software | Motherboard Manual |
Creative X-Fi Guide | |
Quick Installation Guide | |
Warranty Registration Card | |
Motherboard Driver DVD | |
Hardware | 1 x I/O Panel Shield |
1 x Thermal Paste Syringe | |
8 x Self-Adhesive Component Sinks | |
3 x SATA Data Cable, Short | |
1 x SATA Data/Power Adapter Cable | |
1 x Liquid Nitrogen Pot (Northbridge) | |
1 x Liquid Cooling Block (Northbridge) | |
1 x 40x10 mm Northbridge Fan w/clips | |
1 x Sonar X-Fi Riser Card | |
1 x Port Breakout (2x USB, 1x IEEE-1394) | |
2 x SATA Data Cable, Long | |
2 x 4-pin to 2-drive SATA Power Adapter | |
1 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA cable | |
1 x SLI Bridge |
With extreme overclockers as a target market, Foxconn designed the sink of its northbridge cooler to be swappable with an included liquid nitrogen cooling pot and an included water block. A 40 mm clip-on fan assists the small air-cooling sink.
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We were pleased by Foxconn’s inclusion of both short and long SATA cables, although the lack of any CrossFire bridges left us uninspired by a motherboard that appears to be designed to accept four single-slot AMD graphics cards.
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arkadi Some times it really hard to stay objective, but you did it, grate article.Reply
I would consider few other aspects as well, like service and RMA statistics.
In some countries you wont have official representation of a vendor, and in case of RMA you can end up with different MB model, usually not for the best.
From my experience i recommend for most of you to get more common boards. -
wdmso "Intel X58 Roundup: Six $300+ Platforms Compared " this title will leadReply
some less informed readers that they can get the cpu memory and MB for 300.00.
It should read "Intel X58 Roundup: Six $300+ Motherboards Compared"
the title is misleading -
neiroatopelcc I can't afford an i7 system, but when I see beautiful motherboards like that dfi and the foxconn board, I wish I could! That foxconn board almost makes me feel like looking at a beautifully built soltek board with uniform colors and good looks. Looks ain't everything, but looks do matter. I love my gigabyte board because it works great, but I would love it even more if it came 'styled' like the dfi green or the foxconn red board ....Reply -
When you review the less-expensive X58 boards, I'd appreciate it if you would evaluate them in terms of which is the likely to be the most stable, most reliable, and most problem-free non-overclocked board. Thanks.Reply
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phantom93 Lol nice article, lol i love the soldering job on the port-80 diagnostics digits for the DFI lan party board.Reply -
inversed It seems odd to have skipped mentioning the Gigabyte EX58's driver-less RAID capability. I was able to get Windows XP to boot off of a mirrored RAID without needing the floppy and the initial setup went very quickly. One unfortunate aspect of this mobo, however is that it cannot output digital audio and analog audio at the same time. So no switching between surround sound and headphones without changing settings in the audio control software.Reply -
jeffunit Though the core i7 is a crazy fast processor, it doesn't offer ECC support. That is why I just bought an amd phenom II 940. Perhaps 'gamers' don't care about ECC but only how many graphics cards they can stuff in the mb. On the other hand, IBM estimated 1 error per gig per week. So at 4gb, that is less than 2 days between errors. Perhaps that isn't noticeable with microsoft operation systems, but I keep my machines up for weeks or months at a time...Reply
My cheap asus mb not only supports ECC, but ECC scrubbing, chipkill, and more. Who cares how fast a computer is, when it crashes often?
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jeffunit Though the core i7 is a crazy fast processor, it doesn't offer ECC support. That is why I just bought an amd phenom II 940. Perhaps 'gamers' don't care about ECC but only how many graphics cards they can stuff in the mb. On the other hand, IBM estimated 1 error per gig per week. So at 4gb, that is less than 2 days between errors. Perhaps that isn't noticeable with microsoft operation systems, but I keep my machines up for weeks or months at a time...Reply
My cheap asus mb not only supports ECC, but ECC scrubbing, chipkill, and more. Who cares how fast a computer is, when it crashes often?
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Crashman wdmso"Intel X58 Roundup: Six $300+ Platforms Compared " this title will lead some less informed readers that they can get the cpu memory and MB for 300.00.It should read "Intel X58 Roundup: Six $300+ Motherboards Compared"the title is misleadingReply
You're right: I belive the word "Platform" was substituted by another editor to make the title shorter, so it would fit better in the headline bar. I might have chosen "Mobos" myself when encountered with such an issue, but they don't like using slang in titles.
temporary87654When you review the less-expensive X58 boards, I'd appreciate it if you would evaluate them in terms of which is the likely to be the most stable, most reliable, and most problem-free non-overclocked board. Thanks.
Good suggestions, but the problem is that all these boards were stable and built for reliability when overclocked. Using lower speeds increases stability and reliability, and you just cannot exceed "100% Stability". All the boards also used high-quality electrical components, which means a reliability test would require years to reveal any differences.
inversedIt seems odd to have skipped mentioning the Gigabyte EX58's driver-less RAID capability. I was able to get Windows XP to boot off of a mirrored RAID without needing the floppy and the initial setup went very quickly. One unfortunate aspect of this mobo, however is that it cannot output digital audio and analog audio at the same time. So no switching between surround sound and headphones without changing settings in the audio control software.
We'll have to see what we can do about getting the author some digital speakers or a digital receiver headset to test for such issues in the future. That particular issue hadn't come up prior to testing. -
ryanaxiom What about the Gigabyte UD5? I guess it doesn't fall in the 300+ category at $288 from Newegg, but stil...Reply
It has all the benefits of the EX-58-Extreme minus the gigantic NB cooler, but also allows use of an x8 RAID card in the open ended slot (I have one installed) and if you get straight risers/wearout protectors you can install a x1 sound card in the top slot! The best of all worlds!!!
The only small complaint I have is that sometimes I have to try to boot twice since the AHCI bios doesn't always want to load after post.