ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte & MSI: Four Flagship X58 Motherboards Reviewed
by Rajinder Gill on July 15, 2010 10:00 PM ESTRound one of the high-priced enthusiast end of X58 went to EVGA last year, who set the pace with their Classified line of motherboards. While not perfect in every regard, the E759 and E760 broke and set more overclocking records than any other product, elevating the Classified series to must have status in the eyes of overclocking and gaming enthusiasts.
In light of this success, it was clear that ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI would have to go back to the drawing board and come up with new designs to captivate the audience. The launch of Intel’s i7-980X Gulftown together with the availability of SATA 6G and USB 3 controllers from Marvell and NEC provided the excuse for a revamp and here we are a couple of months down the road with everyone vying to capitalize on sales thanks to the longevity of the X58 platform. That’s where we pick up today, we’ve got the very best ASUS, Gigabyte, EVGA and MSI have to offer and have lined up a compare taking a look at basic functionality, overclocking and overall stability.
Meet the contenders:
Now grab a fresh pair of pants before you take a look at the asking prices:
| Motherboard | Chipsets | SATA 6G | USB 3 | Price |
| ASUS Rampage III Extreme | X58 | Yes | Yes | $379 |
| EVGA X58 4 way Classified | X58, 2 x NF200 | No | No | $429 |
| Gigabyte X58A-UD9 | X58, 2 x NF200 | Yes | Yes | $699 |
| MSI Big Bang-XPower | X58 | Yes | Yes | $299 |
Eek! $700 for a single socket motherboard? That’s waaay over the top. While we acknowledge there is a market for high-end products, we can’t think of a good reason for why a motherboard designed around a heavily integrated architecture should be priced this high. There nothing radical on or about the UD9 that justifies such expenditure ; like most of the other boards on test here today, the base design is very much de-facto for the platform and identical to lower priced motherboards( apart from the addition of two nVidia NF200 chips to provide four way SLI capabilities).
In general, all these boards do over their $200~$250 counterparts is offer a more robust VRM for heavy overclocking, in some cases a better layout and lastly a more overclocking centric BIOS. As such, these motherboards are worth looking at by those of us that have very specific overclocking needs beyond conventional cooling, or by those that have a mind-set that pays scant regard to cost versus performance ratios. So yes, this is a minority audience article, but we’ll be getting back to our roots straight after – don’t despair!
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eva2000 - Monday, July 19, 2010 - link
Shame bclk hasn't improved much with those sample boards. Interesting to see if you got 4 samples of each model and averaged their max bclk, how would each brand/board do.Rajinder Gill - Monday, July 19, 2010 - link
Probably the same as four samples from first gen boards.mapesdhs - Monday, July 19, 2010 - link
These prices do seem a bit wierd given there are dual-socket boads starting at around $300 (eg.
Tyan S7002G2NR-LE) though of course such boards don't boast RAM speeds or other features
that enthusiast boards have. On the other hand, a Tyan with two i7s is going to stomp all over
an enthusiast board with just one i7 for any task that can exploit the higher thread limit, eg. rendering,
scientific apps, etc.
Flip side of course is such boards don't normally support SLI/CF. All depends on what one wants
to use it for. A fair chunk of the enthusiast market might be bragging rights and downright fun, but
if there's a demand for such things (and there is) then what the heck. :)
Ian.
Zombie1914 - Tuesday, July 20, 2010 - link
Nice review as always.Could you post some infos on the temperatures of the Northbridge/Southbridge in standard and overclocking modes?
Triple Omega - Tuesday, July 20, 2010 - link
Google Translate much?Well at least your stuff doesn't cost $700.
laosaaaa - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
((((((surprisefirms.com))))) This is a great online shopping site.ffer - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
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nyran125 - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
So far ive got a ASUS P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi and its outlasted everything and still running everything smooth 4 adn a hlaf years later with no issue and the ASUS video cards seem to be more vigilant and outlast the rest... This is from experience with various boards adn video cards and ive been happy with every ASUS product ive bought thus far.Rare.human - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
Hey guys, what's the best motherboard currently available that I could buy?Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
Very broad question that. Best X58 board you mean? Typically don't spend more than $250 and you'll get what you need - ASUS & Gigabyte is where I'd personally go from a BIOS standpoint in that price range. If you don't want to overclock, then ASRock, Biostar and EVGA and MSI will do the job too.-Raja