Lets take a look at Gigabyte's latest X58A-OC

This board arrived earlier today so lets take a look at it put it through it's paces and compare it to another Gigabyte offering in the suggested price range.

I'm not going to bore you with writing a book on every single component used, instead I will focus on real world in the form of OC's and results.

For testing purposes I will be ditching the gulftown cpu as imho chip is always the limiting factor. I will be opting for the still very popular 920 DO ( I might add my own personal chip ;) ) as that is a chip that quite honestly a board can make or break the overlockability.

This board in my opinion is all about bang for buck, all the stuff you want and for the most part none of the stuff an overclocker doesn't need.

The box art is very simple and to be honest it appears that Gigabyte managed to save endusers money by going sparse on the advertising and packaging.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3588.JPG

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3589.JPG

I zoomed in on this one, I think this may the first time marketing has nailed something on the head accurately. No charts showing how the caps are better just simple and straight to the point, we used them to make insulating easier.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3590.JPG

As I said they kept the packaging very minimal.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3591.JPG

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3592.JPG

Very simple yet complete bundling, I might add there are 6 plugs included for measuring voltage where other competitors offer 6 pinouts but only 2 plugs?

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3593.JPG

Another shot of the board. I was really hoping they would move the clear cmos and pwm frequency switch to a more remote location in the final rev.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3594.JPG

Southbridge has a thermal pad and very good contact.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3595.JPG

PWM exposed.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3596.JPG

Northbridge also had good contact.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3597.JPG

What happened here and here though? Looks like poor contact for mosfets, hopefully this will be a non issue when I replace the pushpins which i have never been fond of.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3598.JPG

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3600.JPG

Last but not least the board I have decided to compare it to through benchmarks, general useage, operation and features.

This was sort of a tough choice and in the end boiled down to suggested pricing.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3601.JPG

First impressions as I am playing with this board a little checking out the bios, confirming the 4G button operation etc etc, getting a feel for her.

So my first impression is.........Where the hell is my IDE :confused:, for me IDE high pci and ocing go hand in hand especially in 3d.

This is definitely a con in my book especially considering the X58A-UD5 which I have chosen for comparison does have my beloved IDE.

Dual ps2 is a plus. Bios is simple and familiar, no surprises so far.

4G button worked fine at least to bios no OS so I didn't try booting it.

Here's a quick shot of what I threw together to start with, Fluke is monitoring vtt for now, side note with 4g button it went up to 1.44vtt.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3614.jpg

Ok so after warming up to this board for a little while I think I have the hang of it for bloomfield clocking.

The good

I have never had this chip over 234 bclk before on a gigabyte board and that was with DI, its booting 240 on air now.

The bad

QPI slow mode and dual channel for the moment.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/240bclk.jpg

You tube of the board booting 240 bclk normal ambient air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI2DJy3OGFM

I ran this before I started getting nitty gritty just in case anyone was interested, Seems that the board is good for 220 bclk for crunching or daily use. Higher refused to pass no matter if ram cpu or uncore speeds were dropped.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/prime%2095.jpg

After that I pounded on the board for a while till I found the effeciency I was looking for.

Made a goal, top 20 32m for 920 class or bust. Goal achieved albeit barely, it's also the lowest clocked in the top 20 32m 920 class ;)

I think It's safe to say that the board is not a slouch in 32m effeciency at least with bloomfield.

Hopefully this chip scales at temps beyond phase change and i can run a slightly more tuned run

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/32m.jpg

Ok conformalled just the general socket area from dimms to NB to PWM ( enough for DI ) and gonna see if this chip decides to scale any more with some DI seeing as thats all thats in my budget for the time being :up:

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3621.jpg

Alrighty so my main focus was 32m, I ran a quick pifast to just to get a ballpark how the board stacks up to others.

Both results are where I would hope they would be after browsing the hwbot rankings for similar speeds.

Unfortunately my chip isn't the greatest but the board made up for it in 32m effeciency enough to grab a top 5 spot in the core i7 920 32m class.

Just look at that uncore :shocked:

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/top%205%2032m.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pifast.jpg

One thing to note which is peculiar is when I tend to get to frisky with voltages at least with bloomfield I keep seeing this error message :shrug:

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3622.JPG

Other side notes as I think of them.

Vtt overvolts by .050-.060 ( measured ) not really a big deal as long as you are aware that say 1.54 = real 1.6.

Exceeding PCI over 120 drops my old raptor drive which is probably the best high PCI sata drive I own, symptom over 120 PCI E no boot device detected after post screen, ergo my complaint about no IDE on this board.

Ok found more time lets go over some other things on this board.

As always on Gigabyte boards be sure to CTRL+F1 to unlock hidden options, one option of importance for most overclockers that is hidden here is spread spectrum which by default is enabled.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3632.JPG

Voltage increment options

Vcore Range 0.80-2.12
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3626.JPG

Vtt range 1.12-2.0
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3627.JPG

Pll range 1.30-2.52
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3625.JPG

I would really like to see finer increments for the lower range, you can see here the upper range has finer increments which doesn't do most overclockers any good when sub zero.
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3631.JPG

Dram
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3628.JPG

ICH
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3629.JPG

IOH
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/IMG_3630.JPG

I grabbed another chip brand new out of the box that I can gurantee by stepping without testing is less than stellar ( CO 940 ).

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3623.JPG

I gave that a quick shot with bclk on phase as well, for those curious it can bench 4600 cpu/4600 uncore max on phase.

3d testing bclk without slow mode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBUKoi4gGu8

32m testing bclk with slow mode
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/248%20bclk.jpg

248 seems to be a patternable limit at least for 32m, I can probably run 1m at 250, been booting 250 without to much work.

Things to note, board seems to favor 112 PCI, higher is only needed to surpass 248 bclk. With this CO chip higher PLL seems to aid bclk dropping it will hang at splash screen ( I think i only went up to 1.88 )

Broke through the 248 wall by 1 bclk, Ive already broken it before but effeciency was bad. This time it's working right.

Here's that C0/C1 940 chip........scaling on DI was horrid, as was a wicked bad IMC CB that I had to work around.

#4 in it's hwclass at repectively less clocks.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/top%204%2032m.jpg

Short you tube I made near the end of the run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=g12hXEptVOY

Yet another 32m run on another chip that I just opened brand new out of the box.
I will give this a shot on DI tommorow and after that my 32m pi fetish is over and we can move on to some other stuff. :up:

#3 core i7 930 class for now ;)
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/top%203%2032m.jpg

Ok fetish over, first place 32m for core I7 930 class, certainly not my best work and its rather ugly but the chip was a nightmare to work with on DI so it is what it is.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/93...lace%2032m.jpg

Had some DI left over so I figured i'd test the board out under load, my other 920 will max out bclk in 3d, this chip not so good it has a frequency limit.

Nothing tuned really only had enough for one run.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...rg_vantage.jpg

Bios used for the testing hosted by hwbot, courtesy of a bios dump directly from my board.

http://91.121.148.119/downloads/x58a-oc/X58AOC.014

Time for a direct features compare from my point of view as an overclocker ( least I think I am in my mind )

First up socket area.

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 0

Scoring based on if your an eraser type guy it sucks to be you insulating the UD5 as the socket area is very very busy.

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3634.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3635.JPG

Next up cool buttons and switches.

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 0

Scoring based on the fact that you have to use ET6 software if you want on the fly overclocking with UD5

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3636.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3637.JPG

Measure points

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 0

Scoring based on me being lazy and not having to solder in measure points on OC board versus the UD5.

OC picture only since UD5 is N/A
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3638.JPG

Port 80 debug

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 1

Both boards have port 80's which is a big + in my book.

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3639.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3640.JPG

Clear CMos acessibility and ease of use

X58A-OC 0
X58A-UD5 1

I do not like location of the Cmos clear at all on OC board, it's a condensation issue waiting to happen and if it doesn't cause an issue while benching the switches internals will most certainly corrode over time if moisture gets in it.

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3642.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3641.JPG

Hard drive ports.

X58A-OC 0
X58A-UD5 1

The UD5 wins this one for me not becasue it has MOAR sata ports but due to the fact that it also includes IDE.

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3643.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3644.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3645.JPG

Dual bios

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 0

OC board at the flick of a switch where as to boot off backup bios you need to short pins on UD5

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3647.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3648.JPG

Input power, not going in to specifics about input power specs whatever but 8 power/ground feeds makes me feel safer that i'm not melting wires on my PSU.

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 0

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3650.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3649.JPG

PCI layout

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 0

This is a no brainer, One board has full 4 way crossfire support ( dual slot ) and one doesn't.
Neither board supports 4way sli.

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3651.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3668.JPG

Clears ram fine
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3670.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3652.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3667.JPG


Back panel I/O

Me I am impartial here I call it a tie since both have Dual PS2.

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 1

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3654.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3653.JPG


Power input for PCI lanes.

X58A-OC 1
X58A-UD5 0

This is easy, UD5 doesn't have them

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3675.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3676.JPG

Now i'm not gonna score based on fan headers......

OC has 7 UD5 has 6, both have plenty.

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3655.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3656.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3657.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3659.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3660.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3661.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3662.JPG
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3663.JPG

Both boards use an ISL chip and the SiC mosfet drivers.

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3666.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3664.JPG

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3677.JPG

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3674.JPG

Last but not least we have this switch that changes switching frequency, haven't read up on it yet so haven't used it.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3671.JPG

Final tally from an overclocker's point of view.

OC 9
UD5 4

Performance comparison OC versus UD5 head to head.

Testing methods consist of the following.

All benches run 3 times back to back then averaged.

Fresh boot before running the next different benchmark

OS made prior on a master drive then duplicated to bench drive to ensure a fresh OS for both platforms.

Ht shut off in benches not benefitting HT, cores set to priority in benches not utiliyzing all 4 cores.

Here's a shot of the drive duplicator. This is a hardware copy not an image and is very good at keeping things consistant.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3678.jpg

Settings for OC board.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3679.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3680.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3681.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3682.jpg

I would like to take this time to thank a fellow member on XS (Ron aka Runmc) for making me a kick ass phase change that makes my life alot easier.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3684.jpg

The OC board in operation, the fluke is monitoring vtt.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3685.jpg

OS and settings I have chosen for the compare.

Vga will be at stock for consistency.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...20settings.jpg

Settings for UD5, *note* I had to run 1.40 vtt to match the OC board but also note the OC board overshoots vtt.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...5/IMG_3686.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...5/IMG_3687.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...5/IMG_3689.jpg

The UD5 board in operation

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...d_IMG_3690.jpg

OS and settings I have chosen for the compare.

Vga will be at stock for consistency.


http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...20settings.jpg

Included along with final results will be middle results from all the runs.

OC 3D 11 = 4940 1
UD5 3D 11 = 4939 0

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...C/3d11%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...D%2011%202.jpg


OC 3D vantage = 22035 1
UD5 3D vantage = 21988 0

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...antage%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...antage%202.jpg

OC 3D 06 = 28257 0
UD5 3D 06 = 28359 1

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...C/3D06%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...D%2006%202.jpg

OC 3D 05 = 37092 0
UD5 3D 05 = 37162 1

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...C/3D05%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...D%2005%202.jpg

OC 3D 03 = 90914 0
UD5 3D 03 = 90969 1

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...C/3D03%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...D%2003%202.jpg

OC AM3 = 239,784 0
UD5 AM3 = 241,337 1

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...OC/AM3%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...D5/AM3%202.jpg

OC Heaven = 795.8148 1
UD5 Heaven = 795.7638 0

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...heaven%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/qdig-file...heaven%202.jpg

OC Maxxmem = 1609 0
UD5 Maxxmem = 1611 1

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...maxmem%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...axxmem%202.jpg

OC pifast = 17.92 0
UD5 pifast = 17.88 1

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...pifast%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...pifast%202.jpg

OC spi 1m = 8.601 1
UD5 spi 1m = 8.611 0

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...i%201m%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...i%201m%202.jpg

OC spi 32m = 7m 44.517 1
UD5 spi 32m = 7m 44.580 0

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...%2032m%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...%2032m%202.jpg

OC wprime 32m = 5.39 0
UD5 wprime 32m = 5.33 1

OC
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...wprime%202.jpg

UD5
http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/pe...%2032m%202.jpg

Score

OC = 5
UD5 = 7

Now what does this mean? It could mean alot of things.

UD5 is more tuned for bloomfield?

OC board is tuned slightly slacker to hit higher overall speeds?

It simply could mean the bios on UD5 is more mature.

Regardless none of the results are far off from each other.

For anyone interested in the complete 3 runs I did per board should they wish to analyze them they can be found in the following links.

X58A-OC http://chew.ln2cooling.com/?Qwd=./OC&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=M

X58A-UD5 http://chew.ln2cooling.com/?Qwd=./UD5&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=M

best pics of the board :D

those tantalum caps are yummy...

bclk to 265? :D

is that retail packaging? cardboard box? lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hondacity

best pics of the board :D

those tantalum caps are yummy...

bclk to 265? :D

is that retail packaging? cardboard box? lol

---

Yes this is supposed to be full retail packaging. I like it if they saved on bling but made the board sing I'm all for it.

Will try for some better quality pics in morning i'm shooting at night time right now and the orange/black contrast makes shooting this board kinda hard.

Great pics. I love the look of the build with that orange flare. Finding things to match that colour scheme would be difficult at-least not without custom paint jobs.

EDIT:// Match made in heaven? http://i.imgur.com/DOsvn.jpg :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vicey

Great pics. I love the look of the build with that orange flare. Finding things to match that colour scheme would be difficult at-least not without custom paint jobs.

EDIT:// Match made in heaven? http://i.imgur.com/DOsvn.jpg :P

---

I think some people will either hate or love the color scheme.

It might be challenging for a modder who like's to color code component wise say VGA and memory but i'm sure it can be done.

It would certainly be a bright build.

nice board looking forword for some benchies :D

Nice work so far Chew, at least you are able to keep an objective frame of mind in light of receiving a sample. This at least has the makings of a review instead of an advert.

whats with air cooling bro :D

yea they really did save some blink with the box. Nice job!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinos22

whats with air cooling bro :D

---

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=3213

Not sure if i can afford ln2 till I get my car situation straightened out, probably won't need it for this chip though, phase in a bit just feeling the board out.

I may have air cooling but I found CAS 7 faster than you. :p::ROTF:

oh dear :(

Were you hitting a hard wall at 240 on dice too? My UD9 did 257 (never tried higher) and my RIIIE did 266. Since I'm using a 970, if I want to bench at 6GHz plus, I'm going to need 240+.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bassplayer

Were you hitting a hard wall at 240 on dice too? My UD9 did 257 (never tried higher) and my RIIIE did 266. Since I'm using a 970, if I want to bench at 6GHz plus, I'm going to need 240+.

---

Had it up to 248 on phase today but my temps were 11C :rolleyes:

Haven't gone colder yet.

If that's 248 with QPI fast mode intact it's good.

Check you out, Chew, with all the best toys :D


Looking forward to the ragged edge and some Uncore abuse :)

Good honest reporting .... now where is the "like" button :D

I do not like the lack of an IDE port either or the very poor heatsink contact around the cpu but at least this is now flagged up and will be checked / modded when I get a few in for builds....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by raju

If that's 248 with QPI fast mode intact it's good.

---

No sir, everything is with slow mode.

I'm not sure if it's this chip but so far every board I have had it in 235 is the limit for normal QPI.

Wasn't benchable mind you that was just the max boot limit.

Still not too bad overall Chew. Most of the non NF200 boards seem to top out south of 240MHz BCLK with fast mode for 3D benchmarking, so this is competitive.

Nice Brian and great Bclk :up:

That's suxxx time for your car though :(

Alot of stuff updated in second post.

uncore woooooo ...dice temps for 5.2g uncore?

vdimm adjustments...i was hoping 10mv or 5mv :D

Very nice Brian, thanks for the review of what this board can do.
920 bclking is still a lot of fun :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hondacity

uncore woooooo ...dice temps for 5.2g uncore?

vdimm adjustments...i was hoping 10mv or 5mv :D

---

Cpu was reporting -45 ish, pot was reading -70.

Chip is known good for -130, might be more in it but I fear i'm at a bclk limit at least for 32m.

congrats chew, that's an hell of 32m with the 920 :yepp:

that is a cracker run dude

Anyone here knows where this board can be bought ? or it is still a mystery when this board would hit retail stores ? A little too late isnt ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chispy

Anyone here knows where this board can be bought ? or it is still a mystery when this board would hit retail stores ? A little too late isnt ?

---

it will be retail soon...

too bad...gigabyte adjusted their profit margin...

Insane 32M run chew! I was stoked to run a 7m 00.067s 32M run at 5200+ on my 920. :rolleyes:

:rofl:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hondacity

vdimm adjustments...i was hoping 10mv or 5mv

---

I have to agree the resolution is somewhat less than optimal but i'm so used to that resolution when using Gigabyte boards now that it doesn't bother me, the pll stuck out like a sore thumb though.

I like what I see :D I don't think this is too late, it's the PERFECT match for a 990X (or how about seeing how high you can take a 661?).

Great review, I like how you threw the C0 in there to show what the board will do with other mediocre chips.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

I have to agree the resolution is somewhat less than optimal but i'm so used to that resolution when using Gigabyte boards now that it doesn't bother me, the pll stuck out like a sore thumb though.

---

sorry off topic, but we need finer vdimm adjustment/resolution on the gb-p6a side. no intention derailing subject matter.

1.60
1.62
1.64
1.66


1.65 is even missing :(

just putting it out there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by [XC] Oj101

I like what I see :D I don't think this is too late, it's the PERFECT match for a 990X (or how about seeing how high you can take a 661?).

---

Working on aquiring a chip other than bloomfield providing it's of the retail variant ;)

Lots of stuff updated :up:

Great stuff Chew!

This is so awesome-sauce mate. Doing that with a bunch of random CPUs is very nice! Good job dude loving the comparisons too, very interesting perspective.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by [XC] Oj101

I like what I see :D I don't think this is too late, it's the PERFECT match for a 990X (or how about seeing how high you can take a 661?).

---

How about a 970 retail boxed unopened?

Another update complete. :up:

Very nice work Brian.

Prolly the best actual review I have seen that truely shows what this board can do and what it can't.

I know that was a ton of work for you, but you love it :)

Nice Brian :up:

Great Work !

damn nice review chew*

yes, very nice review, its look, u never sleep :D, still u are in testing mobos, CPUs, RAMs etc :). Thumbs up !

monster review dude, nice work, a great insight into this board

Way to go Brian !! Seems you are having fun :)

I took a retail 970 for a spin the other day, chip is rather unimpressive and i guess needs ln2, whether or not i can find the time or money to bench it on ln2 is questionable but i figured i'd throw this in here to.

Bclk limits were same, lost nor gained anything however runs are done lower bclk to match max optimal frequencies of chip.

I really didn't bother with anything single threaded, wanted to see how the board handled load.

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/970%20vantage.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/970%203d%2011.jpg

http://chew.ln2cooling.com/X58-OC/970%20wprime.jpg

Question: would I be able to fit (2) GTX 580s (w/ standard coolers), (1) PCIE Intel NIC and (1) PCIE RAID card on this board?

Thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by D749

Question: would I be able to fit (2) GTX 580s (w/ standard coolers), (1) PCIE Intel NIC and (1) PCIE RAID card on this board?

Thanks.

---

Physically I don't see why they would not fit. I don't have an intel nic or PCIE raid card to show an example however.

Good write-up, OC review rocks!

Yes this is a great review :up: Gigabyte got their moneys worth on this one.