6x Core i7 boards in complete review

Hi, there are my complete reviews of Core i7 motherboards. All of them are in CZECH language, but pictures, graphs and results dont need a translation.

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/ilustrace3/...Desky_mini.jpg

Mobos: MSI Eclipse, Gigabyte EX58-UD5, Gigabyte EX58-EXTREME, Asus P6T Deluxe OC Palm, Asus Rampage II Extreme, Intel DX58SO ...

CPU: Core i7 920 - C0, 940 - B0, 965 XE - C0 (ES)

MSI Eclipse

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/ilustrace3/...si/board_0.jpg

Complete view on board, box and BIOS:
http://pctuning.tyden.cz/index.php?o...1935&Itemid=43

Gigabyte EX58-UD5

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/ilustrace3/...ga/board_1.jpg

Complete view on board, box and BIOS:
http://pctuning.tyden.cz/index.php?o...1947&Itemid=43

Asus P6T Deluxe OC palm

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/ilustrace3/...us/board_2.jpg

Complete view on board, box and BIOS:
http://pctuning.tyden.cz/index.php?o...1&limitstart=2

Asus Rampage II Extreme

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/ilustrace3/...sus/Ramp_2.jpg

Complete view on board, box and BIOS:
http://pctuning.tyden.cz/index.php?o...1&limitstart=6

Intel DX58SO

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/ilustrace3/...el/board_0.jpg

Complete view on board, box and BIOS:
http://pctuning.tyden.cz/index.php?o...1&limitstart=1

Performance

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/ilustrace3/...l/vysledky.png

"Spotřeba idle" = Power consumption idle, "Spotřeba Crysis" = Power consumption in game

Overclocking

Click here for screens: http://pctuning.tyden.cz/index.php?o...1&limitstart=7

Last review of Gigabyte EX85-EXTREME is in progress now ... will be released in few days. I hope my test help you in chosing your new Core i7 mobo ... enjoy

Thanks for the sum up OBR

Just fyi, RE2's 3dvantage cpu score is wrong in the graph. Either that or it's absurdly good :P

Thanks for the review

is the performance table above made @ stock

Which board do you like best OBR? I heard you had some problems with a dead Eclipse?
No problems with immature biosses from the other boards?

so all scores are within 1-3%, which is within the margine of error.

Meaning -> at stock it doesn't matter what board to get.

Time for some oc testing. :yepp:

Slay0r - you are right, its my mistake ... right score is 19842 (instead of 49842) ...

Performance is STOCK @ 965 XE - 3200MHz + 3x DDR3-1333MHz 24-8-8-8

I have no problem with all boards, BIOSes are great. Only MSI died after using M-Flash in BIOS. After diag-flash at MSI HQ boards is OK now again. Some OC Ln2 action will be this weekend ... :up:

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Originally Posted by OBR

I have no problem with all boards, BIOSes are great. Only MSI died after using M-Flash in BIOS. After diag-flash at MSI HQ boards is OK now again. Some OC Ln2 action will be this weekend ... :up:

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Bring it on :D

EVGA X58? :confused::shrug:

hmmmm the MSi wins the most tests... but I will still never buy an MSI board I think....

from what i can make out on the page you have managed the best overclock using the 920 with the P6T Deluxe is that correct ? i am waiting for the GB EXTREME review also :D , nice job
also , what cooler did you use ? (if it was air) and if u could give an aproximation of the idle and load average temps for the 920 OC that would be great (unless that is already written in the review and i can't read it :D )

wicked looking forward to seeing Biostar and EVGA in the mix

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Originally Posted by SNiiPE_DoGG

hmmmm the MSi wins the most tests... but I will still never buy an MSI board I think....

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Ditto

I just picked up my kit, Asus P6T Deluxe, I7 920, and Patriot 6GB 1600, and got a 4870x2 to go along with i as well, hope this system will last me more than 1 year.

for all that kit i wud think bit longer than that cost ??? £1500 or more....

ASUS looks to be winning in overclocking there.

Looks pretty good considering this stuff just launched but I'll probably hold out till the second wave of i7 boards.

Great work OBR,

There is a question that I want to ask you as this is an overclocking website community and by the looks nobody asked.

Which one of those motherboards has the maximum overclocking capability and minimum Vcore drop?

If I upgrade in the near future It'll be the EX58-UD5 or a variant thereof. I just like the Gigabyte BIOS too much.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OBR

I have 4 of them and best stable with great performance is Asus P6T Deluxe, but is not good for OCing QPI ... higher QPI then 140MHz = freez, best mobo for OCing QPI is Gigabyte X58 UDP, MSI has many problems with compatibility of RAM and Ocing is impossible at all.

i965 Extreme + Asus best choice of Ocing with multiplier and super great performance, for i940 and i920 is best choice Gigabyte ... i am here stable at QPI 170MHz + Turbo mode = i920 @ 3,6GHz Prime stable.

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You said this in another post.

So is this asus overclock not stable or have you changed your opinion.

I remember reading in another post of your that the max qpi bus speed you can get with the asus is 150 and with the gigabyte 180. Did you get a new bios or something that would vastly change the overclocking ability of the asus.

Got my setup put in, im having some trouble with the push pins making full contact, i wish intel would switch back to a clip system like the 478, it just doesnt make sense why they would use such a faulty system. Any advice from people who know how to mount a push pin system, since i never use them, always use aftermarket with backplate, any advice?? thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GAR

Got my setup put in, im having some trouble with the push pins making full contact, i wish intel would switch back to a clip system like the 478, it just doesnt make sense why they would use such a faulty system. Any advice from people who know how to mount a push pin system, since i never use them, always use aftermarket with backplate, any advice?? thanks

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remove the push pins and replace them with bolts and nuts.
EASY EASY thing to do.
just make sure you get a large enough washer because the hole where the push pin was isnt big but you need a washer to completely cover the hole.

get bolts about a couple inches long, 2-3 inches is more than long enough.
put a bolt and a plastic washer on the mobo and screw the bolt down so it stays in place.

mount hte heatsink and slide the washer over the bolt to cover the hole where the push pins were, then nut them down.

thats it pretty simple and you get much more pressure on the cpu with the heatsink.

whats even easier is if you have one of the mounting plates for the under belly of the mobo with threaded holes.
take that to your local hardware store and find 1-2 inch screws and some washers incase the bolt is too long and you need to fill up the space.

then you screw down the heatsink to the underbelly X shaped mounting plate.

thats what i have done on my mini tower

awesome stuff OBR, very news worthy indeed!

where ya find the time for all that :eek: :up:

many thanks for the hard work! :toast:

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Originally Posted by Hornet331

so all scores are within 1-3%, which is within the margine of error.

Meaning -> at stock it doesn't matter what board to get.

Time for some oc testing. :yepp:

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I agree, I never saw a point really to those kinds of tests, unless one board was seriously lacking in base performance. We want overclocking results!

Very cool! Thankyou. I will read in detail later. I'll be buying the Rampage II Extreme later this week. I already have a Core i7 965 Extreme Retail Box CPU on the way. It's my first Extreme CPU, and i'm a little nevrvous about it, but I know it's gonna be awesome. I just nervous about the cost of it. I'll have to be real careful with that one. :)

Thankyou for all the work to bring us this. It is appreciated! :yepp: :up:

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Originally Posted by Nanometer

I agree, I never saw a point really to those kinds of tests, unless one board was seriously lacking in base performance. We want overclocking results!

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Without a baseline stiock clock, you would not be able to see the gains of the OC. With testing you always have to have a baseline as a comparator to see what you have gained or you will have no idea of the performance increase your OC gave you. It will be slightly different as show for each board and that could translate to larger changes when OC'd. That data is not just useful. It's priceless. :)

I will test all boards under LN2, this weekned. We will see which is Extreme or not ...

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Originally Posted by OBR

I will test all boards under LN2, this weekned. We will see which is Extreme or not ...

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wow dude
what tests do you plan to run on them

this is a monster review

good work :up:

Under LN2 i want to test Core i7 920 Retail on max ROCK stable OCing, next will be best OC with unlocked 965 XE and some benchmarks ... 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage, SuperPi, wPrime ...

I have Two Radeons HD4870X2 a 3x GTX 280 Watercooled (using Hailea waterchiller)

Smokin'! It's gonna be awesome OBR. Can't wait to see yoyer results.

Fugger had one of these Extreme 965's up to 5GHz and was doing 3D benching stable. :D They rock! I'm really anxious to see the Rampage II Extreme. I'll be getting my RIIE soon. :)

I need good RAM. :(

Looks like the rampage is leading the way

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Originally Posted by Prince21

Looks like the rampage is leading the way

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Not for long - watch out, here comes EVGA! :rofl:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AuDioFreaK39

Not for long - watch out, here comes EVGA! :rofl:

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EVGA X58 is on the way to me, like solid boards looks DFI and Foxconn too ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AuDioFreaK39

Not for long - watch out, here comes EVGA! :rofl:

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I'll race 'ya! :ROTF: (inside joke)

OBR

Did you test all those boards with just 3 modules?

You need to get another 3 if yes and see how well the boards work with 6, many will use 6 going forward IMO.

i tested with only 3 modules, but it is not problem to retest it thru weekend with 6x DDR3

Hey guys, the black slots dont work with my patriot 1600 6gb kit, the orange ones boot, is this normal? is my board defective or it just doesnt like the black slots.

Crap OBR you are going to BURN LN2 this weekend.

Hope you have a big dewar; nice work friend. :toast:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

OBR

Did you test all those boards with just 3 modules?

You need to get another 3 if yes and see how well the boards work with 6, many will use 6 going forward IMO.

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Why is this? You think people will prefer 6x2gb over 3x4? or 3x2? Is 6 gigs already not enough?

I suppose with these things we now have low end servers in the high end PC range.... but is it common to OC servers? Maybe XS user servers lol. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Revv23

Crap OBR you are going to BURN LN2 this weekend.

Hope you have a big dewar; nice work friend. :toast:




Why is this? You think people will prefer 6x2gb over 3x4? or 3x2? Is 6 gigs already not enough?

I suppose with these things we now have low end servers in the high end PC range.... but is it common to OC servers? Maybe XS user servers lol. :)

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Funny how I haven't heard anyone talk about 6 x 1GB. :rolleyes:

I mean, one the bets is P6T deluxe (rampage II is to expensive)

msi for me :) rampage will require to sell your left kidney lol

i'll certainly go for P6T !

during your testing did you try different memory dividers with higher frequency memory ? if yes did you notice any improvement that would justify the price of better ram modules?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GAR

Hey guys, the black slots dont work with my patriot 1600 6gb kit, the orange ones boot, is this normal? is my board defective or it just doesnt like the black slots.

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Thats normal on every X58 board ...

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Originally Posted by OBR

Thats normal on every X58 board ...

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So DDR3 1600 @ 12GB is out of the question with most X58's???

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Originally Posted by GAR

So DDR3 1600 @ 12GB is out of the question with most X58's???

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No ... you just need to populate the lowest order channels first. Populate the first 6 gigs in the orange slots first, then 6 more in the black.

This is one detail, ironically, that Fuad got right:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...0069&Itemid=35

Though he calls it a bug, it is not a bug ... it is just how the memory controller enumerates it's memory.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JumpingJack

No ... you just need to populate the lowest order channels first. Populate the first 6 gigs in the orange slots first, then 6 more in the black.

This is one detail, ironically, that Fuad got right:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...0069&Itemid=35

Though he calls it a bug, it is not a bug ... it is just how the memory controller enumerates it's memory.

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Very interesting. Hope 12GB will work, as i will upgrade in the future, dont know why but yeah i want 12GB.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GAR

Very interesting. Hope 12GB will work, as i will upgrade in the future, dont know why but yeah i want 12GB.

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Who wouldn't, 12 > 6 :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JumpingJack

No ... you just need to populate the lowest order channels first. Populate the first 6 gigs in the orange slots first, then 6 more in the black.

This is one detail, ironically, that Fuad got right:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...0069&Itemid=35

Though he calls it a bug, it is not a bug ... it is just how the memory controller enumerates it's memory.

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So you're saying:

1) populate orange slots
2) reboot
3) populate black slots?

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Originally Posted by AuDioFreaK39

So you're saying:

1) populate orange slots
2) reboot
3) populate black slots?

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No :) I wasn't clear, if you run 6 gigs, use the orange slots ... if you want 12 gigs, use all 6 slots (assuming 2 gig sticks).

As you put memory into the system, populate the lowest order slots first ... at least that is what I need to do on some boards even today with DDR2 -- not all boards but a few I have had need memory placed in the slots a certain way for partially filled memory. It depends on how the memory controller and BIOS enumerate the memory and slots.

2 lines or triple channel DDR3, and you purchase a tripple channel it ... the system will recongize and boot with the the sticks in lane 0 but not lane 1, buy another 3 sticks and put memory in lane 0 and lane 1 and it will boot and recognize all 6 sticks.

Jack

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GAR

Very interesting. Hope 12GB will work, as i will upgrade in the future, dont know why but yeah i want 12GB.

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Yeah, jack is right. It has directions for this in the Asus Rampage II Extreme manual. Jack is also right about it NOT being a bug. It's the way it's designed. It sees things in numerical order is the easiest way to explain it. The slots are numbered and as the boot process progresses it looks at those slots to see if they are poplulated, if not, memory error, and no boot.

It is supposed to be like that. Don't worry. All slots will work. All these i7 boards are that way.

it would have been nice to see which boards actually did work with all 6 slots populated at time of review..;) nuff said

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

it would have been nice to see which boards actually did work with all 6 slots populated at time of review..;) nuff said

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I'm hoping all boards will :D

DDr3 prices are coming down now, benchmarkers will use 3, most of the outside world i think will move to 6 soon, or 3x4GB modules.

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Originally Posted by Tony

DDr3 prices are coming down now, benchmarkers will use 3, most of the outside world i think will move to 6 soon, or 3x4GB modules.

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3x4 would be nice, but i guess first modules will be very expensive. :yepp:

12gb is the way to go (say hello to a 4-6gb ramdisk :D).

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Originally Posted by Tony

or 3x4GB modules.

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Make them available at reasonable prices and people will buy ;)

Will Nehalem boards come in mATX flavour?

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Originally Posted by CedricFP

Will Nehalem boards come in mATX flavour?

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Probably not, but the mainstream cpu which will come out next year will.

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Originally Posted by GAR

Probably not, but the mainstream cpu which will come out next year will.

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So current gen of CPU's won't have mATX? Rats. I'll have to get a DFI P45 JR and throw in a Penryn then.

what is with the DFI LP JR X58-T3H?! I think it is a mATX Board ;)

http://images.tweaktown.com/imageban...e-01a_full.png

Actually, i saw a mATX X58 board that looked rather finalized on some chinese site whose link was posted somewhere in XS. It was a "shuttle" board.

http://www.abload.de/img/shuttle_x58531.jpg

but its not mATX form factor :)

How much ram that msi eclipse can stand?

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Originally Posted by pcaddict

How much ram that msi eclipse can stand?

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I looked into the Marketing slides and they have written 24GB.

http://www.abload.de/thumb/msi_layout_hi9fjl.jpg
ORB can you tell me what is written on those two chips? I'm trying to figure out how voltage regulation on i7 works compared to k10.

I just got email from EVGA, their x58 with nf200 looks great. I wanna see it tested :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

DDr3 prices are coming down now, benchmarkers will use 3, most of the outside world i think will move to 6 soon, or 3x4GB modules.

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Already have 6Gb on the way for mine. With the prices I didn't see why not. If I ever go to 12 I will Ebay Sell or Sell here at the FS section and then upgrade to 3x4. Everytime I've populated more slots I've always paid for it. I'm not gonna do it anymore. I'm gonna populate the least numvber of slots with the fastest RAM instead of piling more in there. I think 3x4 will work better than 6x2. It of course will take time for 4GB modules to mature and OC well though.

That gives me plenty of time not to worry about RAM again for awhile. My CC and savings will like that. :)

Hi I've read this forum for a few years now it defo one of the best for high tec PC info from the user side..I love the modding posts aswell, some of the best I've ever read, that and Bit Tech's forums modding logs.Right why am I typing this! I never upgraded from my AMD 4200 to Core Duo/Quad.So I missed all the fun there.I had saved up enough cash by last week to build a new system I was going with a B grade 790i Aus board and a Q6600..But I thought What the HELL Go for it so I paid for a Gigabyte X58 motherboard the GA-EX58-DS4 for a good price of £168 and one of the Core i7 920 cpu's for £223.Not had them delivered yet I just checked the couriors tracking webpage says loaded onto van! Not long I hope.I want to watercool this i920 with a "Swiftech Apogee Drive 350 CPU Waterblock with Pump" the all in one waterblocks.Has anyone tried to fit one of these or knows how to mod the fittings so they fit the new LGA1366 sockets? I don't want to spend another £50 for a good cpu waterblock.I already have a new in box Enzotech SCW-1 Sapphire Series CPU Water Block and a Zalman ZM WB5 that I bought when I thought I was going the Q6600 route.I'm hopless at making my own brackets etc so I'd have to buy a converter kit from 775 to 1366.Just can't find any at the usual UK online watercooling shops. If anyone knows where to get a converter kit for either of those two blocks plz tell. If I can work out howto do it I will upload a few pictures on to this forum of the GA-EX68 DS4 and 720 when they get to me.Thats about it.OH yea last bit of help I need is I have no more cash left for a new DDR3 Triple kit..I had again when I thought I was going 775 bought 2x1GB sticks of Kingston Hyper X 2GB PC3-14400 DDR3 Memory Kit CL8.As I only have 2 sticks do you think both will work ok in duel mode on this X58 Gigabyte? I read in Custom Pc mag that they tested and ran 2 DDR3 sticks in X58 boards and it was only a small bit slower than running the triple kits ie 2x 2GB sticks compared to 3x1GB sticks obviously the 6GB triple kits were quite abit faster.I'm not to interested in top speed more stabability.Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone who is also building there own LGA1366 and core 7 systems....out

Why can't people please use proper sentence structure so it won't be soooo hard to read...?

Why can't people quit moaning If you think I'm going to say sorry for bad typing please think again.How's that sentence structure good enough for u?