X58 Based Motherboards for Your New Core i7- Gigabyte and MSI_4105

X58 Based Motherboards for Your New Core i7: Gigabyte and MSI

Some features common to the motherboards we are looking at acer laptop batteries, such as SLI licensing and the LGA 1336 socket used for Core i7 CPUs, were discussed in the previous article. We also explained why we are only reporting on boards for which we have seen street prices and looked at the ASUS P6T Deluxe. We continue our discussion of X58 based motherboards from Gigabyte and MSI, before the next article wraps up the motherboard section of the series with a look at Intel’s own offering and deciding which is best for what applications.

Gigabyte EX58-UD5

USD: 310 EUD: 254 CND: 416 AUD: 525

Like ASUS, Gigabyte will offer a high-end and an enthusiast-level board; but Gigabyte’s appear set to hit the shelves together (the value leader DS4 has yet to show up in store). The Gigabyte Extreme and UD5 both have similar connection potential to the ASUS board, offering: 16/16 or 16/8/8 PCIe 2.0 with Crossfire or SLI; dual gigabit LAN; coax and optical S/PDIF; and 8-channel audio. There are 12 USBs (to the ASUS’ 14) and 3 Firewire ports (ASUS includes 2). The biggest difference to the hook-ups would be that Gigabyte lacks the workstation-oriented SAS ports but ups the SATA 3G count to a generous 10. Power is 12+2 phase to ASUS’ 16+2, but the extra four phases’ impact may be largely confined to the buyer’s psyche.

The Gigabyte boards also feature a rear panel button to clear the CMOS ibm laptop adapters, perfect if your Nehalem overclocking efforts leave your system refusing to boot. They also include an array of LEDs and a small, two-digit, display, to help diagnose POST failures. Nice, but it pales in comparison to the OC palm thingy ASUS is offering.

Gigagbyte EX-58 Extreme

USD: 360 EUD: 300 CND: 417 AUD: 563

The big difference between the UD5 and Extreme boards from Gigabyte is in northbridge cooling. The Extreme northbridge cooler is ready to be hooked up to you rig’s liquid cooling system. Air cooling fans can swap out the liquid block for the included, massive Dell Inspiron 1720 battery, heat sink assembly shown in the second picture. Note that it requires using the bracket behind the PCIe x1 slot.