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Introduction
Well it was time I bought some new computer hardware. It's been months since I've bought anything significant (a true record for me) so I decided to build another box. I sort of have a need but really its for fun. I've had my hands on quite a few X58 boards and it was time to make a choice. Why did I arrive here? What do I hope to accomplish, etc?
Goals
Well first off I wanted to leverage my 3-Way SLI setup and provide more processor power for the next generation video card setup. I'm also doing more with virtualization and I want to move my Skulltrail system into a more server oriented role and given the raw power of it. (Despite the age of the platform.) I think it will serve me quite well in that capacity for the foreseeable future. Beyond that it will allow me to eliminate a couple of machines while serving in that capacity and while providing additional functionality that only a dedicated server can. It will retain a single Geforce GTX 280 as I now have four of the things. It will retain it for two reasons. The purpose of folding and for the occasional "guest gamer" that makes their way to my house. The other three will be placed into my gaming box. I don't overclock much on this current machine as I have come to relay on it so heavily. So tinkering and swapping hardware is a no-go for this box. Its become more or less critical for me. The LSI MegaRAID that I have sitting on the shelf will go back into this box and provide me with the increasing storage capabilities it will need going forward. The Skulltrail system will eliminate my Core 2 E8400 machine which is also used for my network testing and storing some data for my work here at the [H]. This box is a monster encoder as well. So it will no doubt see more time in that role as well.
Motherboard Selection Criteria
Stability, overclockability, features and expansion are all key when I select a board for my personal use. The looks of the board take a back seat to everything else, but they are a factor when other factors are equal. I wanted a good electrical setup on the board. Without that overclocking just isn't going to happen. Some boards really falter here but nothing I seriously considered had faults here. It isn't about phases either. I've seen well done 8 phase power and badly done 16 phase power. The 8 phase done right beats out 16 phase power thrown together everytime. I wanted six DIMM slots for future expansion. Don't know that I'll use them, probably won't but you never know. I like options. I wanted eSATA support. So that was a must. I didn't want to mess with headers or anything like that for eSATA so it had to be on the back plane. Obviously since 3-Way SLI support today was an issue for me, I had to have at least 3 PCI-Express x16 slots. I also wanted a way to install a PCI-Express audio card and still run air cooling on my video cards. This limits my options considerably.
There was also a question. nForce 200 MCP or not to nForce 200 MCP? The usefulness of this chip is debatable. It does generate some extra heat and use slightly more power. In the end I decided that I could take or leave this feature.
Boards I Considered
Gigabyte EX58-UD5/EX58-Extreme
I briefly considered the Gigabyte EX58-UD5 and EX58-Extreme. While both good boards, I have to confess, I've not had the best luck with Gigabyte boards in my personal machines. I've had very good experiences reviewing them but ultimately I decided to go with my gut on this one and skip these offerings this time around. I still recommend these boards quite often in the forums and will continue to do so, but I decided these weren't for me.
ASUS P6T Deluxe/V2/P6T
As I've stated numerous times. This board's layout basically takes 3-Way SLI off the table. So it was elimanted for consideration. Though it is a fantastic board. The P6T was elimanted due to an 8-phase power implementation, it only had 6 SATA ports, and I'm not fond of the onboard audio controller. I'd have to rely on this if chosen as with this board I can't squeeze an audio card onto this board with 3 Geforce GTX 280's. Thus, it was eliminated. The P6T Deluxe v2 was eliminated due to being almost identical to the standard P6T Deluxe.
ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution
This board was really something to consider for me. It met all my requirements and did so very nicely. In the end I eliminated this board only because I don't feel like the cooling system handles the heat out put of the nForce 200 MCP as well as I'd like. Kyle reported the board got fairly hot as a result, though it handled it fine. I wanted less ambient case heat. This was really the only consideration that dropped this board from the running.
ASUS Rampage II Extreme
What can I say? I loved this board. In the end it was eliminated because I don't like the slot placement. The third PCI-Express x16 card would be farther down than I care for. If I had the opportunity to test fit the board in my case with my video cards, I might have gone with it.
MSI Eclipse
I'll just say that while the board isn't bad, it isn't the best X58 board I've seen thus far. I eliminated this board for a variety of reasons. The largest one being that my personal luck with MSI boards in my own machines has been hit or miss. The overclocking isn't what I was hoping for either.
Foxconn Blood Rage
No, I didn't actually consider this board. Hit the link and find out why if you haven't read the article yet.
Short and simple answer: It was eliminated due to the layout and issues I encountered with it.
EVGA X58 3X SLI
This was a decent board for me when I tested it but it was slightly more problematic than I cared for. It just wasn't as pleasant to deal with as my ASUS or Gigabyte experiences were. That and I felt that the power setup could have been better on it. Specifically I was looking for a digital PWM configuration if I selected anything from EVGA.
EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified
In the end this is the board I went with. Why? Well the layout is the best Iv'e seen so far. It also is the only board I've found that will allow me to have an audio card and all three of my Geforce GTX 280's installed at the same time. The cooling system is reported to be excellent and of course I'm a huge fan of the Digital PWM setup EVGA has used in the past. By all accounts it is a fantastic overclocker and little details like the locking SATA ports improve the overall experience in my opinion. Though I have never seen this board before, I like what I've heard from all that I've read thus far. It has the features I was looking for, the overclockability I am looking for, the stability should be at least as good as that of the X58 3X SLI which was a good board in its own right. This just seemed like the board for me. Even if my luck isn't so good with it, I know EVGA stands behind their product. So I'm going to give them a shot. This is a bit of a departure for me as most of my personal systems have been Intel or ASUS board based. Intel for non-overclocked/gaming systems and ASUS for my main rigs, and gaming boxes. I had bad luck with the EVGA 680i SLI's but I blame NVIDIA and the actual manufacturer of the boards which wasn't EVGA themselves. So while those boards were aweful, I'm not blaming EVGA for this. The biggest con for me was the price, but oh well. If it will push my Core i7 920 to where I want it to be, I'll avoid buying a more expensive Core i7. Thus, the cost will be justified.
New System Specifications
Case: Silverstone TJ09B (No window.)
PSU: Corsair HX1000
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Boxed
CPU HSF: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366 RT
RAM: Corsiar Dominator GT DDR3 2000MHz Triple Channel Kit (Very impressed with these.)
HDD: Western Digital Velociraptor (RAID 1)
Optical: LG 8x Blue Ray Burner (SATA)
Video Card(s): BFG Technologies Geforce GTX 280 OC (x3) (Already have these.)
Audio: Creative X-Fi Titanium PCI-Express
Essentially only the hard drives and the video cards are getting re-used. The rest of the system will be a brand new build. I could have reused more as currently the system I'm using has a Thermaltake 1200watt and a TJ09 as well. I would have just had to swap the motherboard, RAM and CPU. But I decided to keep that system intact for the reasons mentioned above.
More to follow as parts come in.
Well it was time I bought some new computer hardware. It's been months since I've bought anything significant (a true record for me) so I decided to build another box. I sort of have a need but really its for fun. I've had my hands on quite a few X58 boards and it was time to make a choice. Why did I arrive here? What do I hope to accomplish, etc?
Goals
Well first off I wanted to leverage my 3-Way SLI setup and provide more processor power for the next generation video card setup. I'm also doing more with virtualization and I want to move my Skulltrail system into a more server oriented role and given the raw power of it. (Despite the age of the platform.) I think it will serve me quite well in that capacity for the foreseeable future. Beyond that it will allow me to eliminate a couple of machines while serving in that capacity and while providing additional functionality that only a dedicated server can. It will retain a single Geforce GTX 280 as I now have four of the things. It will retain it for two reasons. The purpose of folding and for the occasional "guest gamer" that makes their way to my house. The other three will be placed into my gaming box. I don't overclock much on this current machine as I have come to relay on it so heavily. So tinkering and swapping hardware is a no-go for this box. Its become more or less critical for me. The LSI MegaRAID that I have sitting on the shelf will go back into this box and provide me with the increasing storage capabilities it will need going forward. The Skulltrail system will eliminate my Core 2 E8400 machine which is also used for my network testing and storing some data for my work here at the [H]. This box is a monster encoder as well. So it will no doubt see more time in that role as well.
Motherboard Selection Criteria
Stability, overclockability, features and expansion are all key when I select a board for my personal use. The looks of the board take a back seat to everything else, but they are a factor when other factors are equal. I wanted a good electrical setup on the board. Without that overclocking just isn't going to happen. Some boards really falter here but nothing I seriously considered had faults here. It isn't about phases either. I've seen well done 8 phase power and badly done 16 phase power. The 8 phase done right beats out 16 phase power thrown together everytime. I wanted six DIMM slots for future expansion. Don't know that I'll use them, probably won't but you never know. I like options. I wanted eSATA support. So that was a must. I didn't want to mess with headers or anything like that for eSATA so it had to be on the back plane. Obviously since 3-Way SLI support today was an issue for me, I had to have at least 3 PCI-Express x16 slots. I also wanted a way to install a PCI-Express audio card and still run air cooling on my video cards. This limits my options considerably.
There was also a question. nForce 200 MCP or not to nForce 200 MCP? The usefulness of this chip is debatable. It does generate some extra heat and use slightly more power. In the end I decided that I could take or leave this feature.
Boards I Considered
Gigabyte EX58-UD5/EX58-Extreme
I briefly considered the Gigabyte EX58-UD5 and EX58-Extreme. While both good boards, I have to confess, I've not had the best luck with Gigabyte boards in my personal machines. I've had very good experiences reviewing them but ultimately I decided to go with my gut on this one and skip these offerings this time around. I still recommend these boards quite often in the forums and will continue to do so, but I decided these weren't for me.
ASUS P6T Deluxe/V2/P6T
As I've stated numerous times. This board's layout basically takes 3-Way SLI off the table. So it was elimanted for consideration. Though it is a fantastic board. The P6T was elimanted due to an 8-phase power implementation, it only had 6 SATA ports, and I'm not fond of the onboard audio controller. I'd have to rely on this if chosen as with this board I can't squeeze an audio card onto this board with 3 Geforce GTX 280's. Thus, it was eliminated. The P6T Deluxe v2 was eliminated due to being almost identical to the standard P6T Deluxe.
ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution
This board was really something to consider for me. It met all my requirements and did so very nicely. In the end I eliminated this board only because I don't feel like the cooling system handles the heat out put of the nForce 200 MCP as well as I'd like. Kyle reported the board got fairly hot as a result, though it handled it fine. I wanted less ambient case heat. This was really the only consideration that dropped this board from the running.
ASUS Rampage II Extreme
What can I say? I loved this board. In the end it was eliminated because I don't like the slot placement. The third PCI-Express x16 card would be farther down than I care for. If I had the opportunity to test fit the board in my case with my video cards, I might have gone with it.
MSI Eclipse
I'll just say that while the board isn't bad, it isn't the best X58 board I've seen thus far. I eliminated this board for a variety of reasons. The largest one being that my personal luck with MSI boards in my own machines has been hit or miss. The overclocking isn't what I was hoping for either.
Foxconn Blood Rage
No, I didn't actually consider this board. Hit the link and find out why if you haven't read the article yet.
Short and simple answer: It was eliminated due to the layout and issues I encountered with it. EVGA X58 3X SLI
This was a decent board for me when I tested it but it was slightly more problematic than I cared for. It just wasn't as pleasant to deal with as my ASUS or Gigabyte experiences were. That and I felt that the power setup could have been better on it. Specifically I was looking for a digital PWM configuration if I selected anything from EVGA.
EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified
In the end this is the board I went with. Why? Well the layout is the best Iv'e seen so far. It also is the only board I've found that will allow me to have an audio card and all three of my Geforce GTX 280's installed at the same time. The cooling system is reported to be excellent and of course I'm a huge fan of the Digital PWM setup EVGA has used in the past. By all accounts it is a fantastic overclocker and little details like the locking SATA ports improve the overall experience in my opinion. Though I have never seen this board before, I like what I've heard from all that I've read thus far. It has the features I was looking for, the overclockability I am looking for, the stability should be at least as good as that of the X58 3X SLI which was a good board in its own right. This just seemed like the board for me. Even if my luck isn't so good with it, I know EVGA stands behind their product. So I'm going to give them a shot. This is a bit of a departure for me as most of my personal systems have been Intel or ASUS board based. Intel for non-overclocked/gaming systems and ASUS for my main rigs, and gaming boxes. I had bad luck with the EVGA 680i SLI's but I blame NVIDIA and the actual manufacturer of the boards which wasn't EVGA themselves. So while those boards were aweful, I'm not blaming EVGA for this. The biggest con for me was the price, but oh well. If it will push my Core i7 920 to where I want it to be, I'll avoid buying a more expensive Core i7. Thus, the cost will be justified.
New System Specifications
Case: Silverstone TJ09B (No window.)
PSU: Corsair HX1000
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Boxed
CPU HSF: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366 RT
RAM: Corsiar Dominator GT DDR3 2000MHz Triple Channel Kit (Very impressed with these.)
HDD: Western Digital Velociraptor (RAID 1)
Optical: LG 8x Blue Ray Burner (SATA)
Video Card(s): BFG Technologies Geforce GTX 280 OC (x3) (Already have these.)
Audio: Creative X-Fi Titanium PCI-Express
Essentially only the hard drives and the video cards are getting re-used. The rest of the system will be a brand new build. I could have reused more as currently the system I'm using has a Thermaltake 1200watt and a TJ09 as well. I would have just had to swap the motherboard, RAM and CPU. But I decided to keep that system intact for the reasons mentioned above.
More to follow as parts come in.
