VR-Zone

Things tend to get a little messy in roundups, so we've created a comparison chart for your convenience. We've also thrown in the Asus P6T Deluxe and Asus Rampage II Extreme into the mix. Of course there are other X58 boards out there, but we'll leave those for another time.

Specifications Table

		Asus P6T Deluxe	Asus Rampage II Extreme	Biostar TPower X58	DFI LanParty UT X58-T3He8	Foxconn Blood Rage	Intel DX58S0	XFX  X58i
Memory Controller Hub		Intel X58
I/O Hub		Intel ICH10R
DDR3 DIMM Slots		6	6	6	6	3	4	6
PCI Express Slots		1 x4* (1.0a) 3 x16 (2.0)	2 x1* (2.0) 3 x16 (2.0)	1 x1 (1.0a) 3 x16 (2.0)	1 x4 3 x16 (2.0)	1 x1 4 x16 (2.0)	2 x1 (1.1) 1 x4* (2.0) 2 x16 (2.0)	1 x1 3 x16 (2.0)
PCI Express Lane Configurations		x4	x1/x1	x1	x4	x1	x1/x1/x4	x1
		x16/x16/x1 or x16/x8/x8	x16/x16/x1 or x16/x8/x8	x16/x16/x4	x16/x16 or x16/x8/x8	x16/x16 or x16/x8/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8	x16/x16	x16/x16 or x16/x8/x8
PCI Slots		2	1	2	2	1	1	2
CrossfireX		Yes
SLi		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Network		Dual Gigabit Ethernet by 2 Marvell 88E8056 (PCIe)	Dual Gigabit Ethernet by 2 Marvell 88E8056 (PCIe)	Dual Gigabit Ethernet by 2 Realtek RTL8111C (PCIe)	Dual Gigabit Ethernet by Marvell 88E8052 (PCIe) and Marvell 88E8053 (PCIe)	Dual Gigabit Ethernet by 2 Realtek RTL8111C (PCIe)	Single Gigabit Ethernet by Intel 82567LF (PCIe)	Dual Gigabit Ethernet by 2 Marvell 88E8056 (PCIe)
Audio		Analog Devices ADI AD2000B 7.1 HDA	Analog Devices ADI AD2000B 7.1 HDA (on separate card**, supports Creative X-Fi MB)	Realtek ALC888S 7.1 HDA	Realtek ALC889 7.1 HDA (on separate card)	Realtek ALC889 7.1 HDA (on separate card**, supports Creative X-Fi MB)	Realtek ALC889 7.1 HDA	Realtek ALC888 7.1 HDA
Storage	Chipset	6 Internal SATA 3Gbps by ICH10R (RAID 0,1,5,10)
	Extras	1 External SATA 3Gbps by Marvell 88SE6111	1 Internal + 1 External SATA 3Gbps by JMicron JMB363 (RAID 0,1)	2 External SATA 3Gbps by JMicron JMB363 (RAID 0,1)	2 Internal SATA 3Gbps by JMicron JMB363 (RAID 0,1)	2 External SATA 3Gbps by JMicron JMB363 (RAID 0,1)	2 External SATA 3Gbps by Marvell 88SE6121 (RAID 0,1)	2 External SATA 3Gbps by JMicron JMB363 (RAID 0,1)
		1 IDE by Marvell 88SE6111	1 IDE by JMicron JMB363	1 IDE by JMicron JMB363	1 IDE by JMicron JMB363	1 IDE by JMicron JMB363	-	1 IDE by JMicron JMB363
		2 SAS*** by Marvell 88SE6320 (RAID 0,1)	-	-	-	2 SAS*** by Marvell 88SE6320 (RAID 0,1)	-	-
	Total (SATA/ eSATA/ SAS/IDE)	6/1/2/1	7/1/0/1	6/2/0/1	8/0/0/1	6/2/2/1	6/2/0/0	6/2/0/1
USB (rear panel/ headers)		12 (6/6)	14 (8/6)	12 (8/4)	12 (6/6)	12 (8/4)	12 (8/4)	12 (6/6)
Firewire (rear panel/headers)		2 (1/1), by VIA VT6308P	2 (1/1), by VIA VT6308P	2 (1/1), by TI TSB43AB22A	2 (1/1), by VIA VT6307	2 (1/1), by VIA VT6308P	2 (1/1), by TI TSB43AB22A	2 (1/1), by JMicron JMB381
PS/2 port		1, keyboard or mouse	1, keyboard	1, keyboard	2, keyboard & mouse	1, keyboard	-	1, keyboard
Floppy		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Fan headers (including CPU fan)		5	8	3	6	5	5	5
CPU power phases		16	16	12	8 (digital)	14	6	6
Clock Generator		ICS 9LPRS918JKLF	ICS 9LPRS918JKLF	Realtek RTM885N-914	ICS 9LPRS918JKLF	ICS 9LPRS139AKLF	Silego SLG505YC264BT	IDT CV183-2APAG
BIOS		Single	Dual	Single	Single	Dual	Single	Dual
BIOS Profile Banks		2	8	10	4	8	1	None
Onboard buttons		Power, Reset, Clear CMOS	Power, Reset, Clear CMOS, 4 ExtremeOC butons	Power, Reset	Power, Reset, Clear CMOS (by pressing Power + Reset)	Power, Reset, Clear CMOS, Force Reset	Power	Power, Reset, Clear CMOS
Est. Retail Price (SGD)		560 (without OC Palm)	690	410	530	540	410	540
Remarks		*Open-ended, but cards longer than x4 cannot be inserted due to obstruction by chipset heatsink ***SAS also compatible with SATA drives	*Full length cards cannot be inserted in the top x1 slot due to obstruction by chipset heatsink **Uses up top x1 PCIe slot.			***SAS also compatible with SATA drives	*Open-ended, up to x16 cards can be inserted

Trends & Observations...

Core i7, as you probably know by now, supports triple-channel operation. Hence the majority of the boards here have six DDR3 slots for a maximum of 24GB (6x4GB). Bucking the trend are Foxconn and Intel, which have three and four slots respectively. Foxconn claims that having fewer slots helps memory overclocking, while Intel claims that fewer slots allows a layout that minimizes memory latency. We'll find out soon whether these claims hold true.

Having three PCIe x16 slots has also become the norm, since the X58 northbridge supports up to 36 PCIe lanes. The exceptions are the Intel DX58S0 with two x16 slots (which is not SLi-certified anyway) and the Foxconn Blood Rage with a grand total of four x16 slots.

Note however that lane configurations and layouts vary from board to board. In certain boards (such as the Asus P6T Deluxe) the layout is such that, even though there are three x16 slots, only two of these are usable when dual-slot graphics cards are used.

Another trend, one which has been going on for some time now, is the ever increasing number of power phases. Asus appears to take the cake with 16 power phases on the Rampage II Extreme; Also notable is DFI with its 8-phase digital PWM design, a departure from the usual analog setup. However, we should caution that more power phases does not necessarily translate into cleaner power. Board design, layout and component quality play equally important roles.

For storage freaks the Asus P6T Deluxe and Foxconn Blood Rage offer the most options - they come with two SAS ports, which are also backward compatible with SATA. The JMicron JMB363, notorious for performance and compatibility issues, is unfortunately still the controller of choice for cramming in additional (e)SATA ports at minimum cost.

And the Intel DX58S0, as expected, is still the only legacy-free motherboard. So you can hang on to your IDE drives, floppies, and PS/2 keyboards unless you want the Intel board. (Not likely the case, as you'll soon see.)