I like the color scheme. More importantly, I gave it a C7 i930 cpu, dropped it into my Lian Li PC70B case, attached a Hyper 212 cpu cooling tower (pictures and details at cosmic-pearl.com), added 6GB Mushkin DDR3 RAM, and have one flawlessly operating computer on hand, be it games, photo editing, or computer graphics, it gives me what I need and then some. I am using the onboard audio with the Logitech Z2300 speakers and realtek driver, and that is perfectly fine for my ears. ASUS provided the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility on the enclosed disk, but I have yet to enable the OC feature in BIOS. For now I am happy as a clam. I am even running the RAM at default speed. I ran 3D Benchmark and got 7.5, 7.5, 7.2 results, and until I need more capability, I am quite fine for now. UPDATE! I am still happy with the mobo over all, but meanwhile my audio output curcuitry went dead. Spent literally hours on the phone with ASUS to get an RMA set up. In the end I decided to take a chance and get an ASUS Xonar DG card, rather than to deal with their time-consuming cumbersome RMS process. It fixed the problem perfectly and the sound is even better now. My expense, I know, but I just was not willing to tear my computer apart, send them the mobo, and then wait for however long to get a replacement X58 from ASUS. While the ASUS people were friendly enough, I suggest that there has got to be a better way. Asus LGA 1366 Intel X58 Extreme Reliability and Durability ATX Motherboard Sabertooth X58
This is a very fine motherboard as others have said, very easy to over clock with well thought out safe guards built in. The utilities on the CD are very easy to use and just what is needed to customize your installation. Do note that most newer video cards will cover the only PCI slot. That limits your choice of add-on cards and will prohibit you from using a card from a prior PC. Also, there is an issue with the bios clearing to default every time power is lost, such as when you disconnect the power cord or shut off the power supply/strip. Update to the latest bios (v0802)dated 1/17/2011 to fix this issue. That bios also fixes some stability issues as well.
System specs:
-Intel Core i7-950 oc'd to 3.7 Ghz
-6GB DDR3 RAM oc'd to 1932 Mhz
-WD Caviar Black 64Mb cache 1TB
-Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 1.2GB Video Card
I have been skeptical on a X58 solution in the $200-$210 range. But the ASUS Sabertooth X58 board has really made me a believer. This will offer you the most bang for the buck. I have not seen an ASUS X58 board at the $200, until now. All I can say is that ASUS has outdone themselves with the feature set they put on this board. I'm not big on Overclocking, but the performance was quite amazing.
Here is the breakdown at first glance: 5 year warranty, Militarized standard certified components (Chokes, MOSEFETs, and Capacitors), Intel Core i7 support, 2 - PCI Express 2.0 @x16 (SLI and Crossfire ready), 6 - DIMM running triple channel DDR3 @ 1866MHz, USB3.0, Sata 6Gb/s, powered eSATA port and 1394a port.
ASUS has also put some of their own unique features to help with the performance and stability of the board: E.S.P. - Efficient Switching Power , MemOK!, and CeraM!X (Appears to have some kind of ceramic-coating on the heatsink - I have noticed chipset temperatures).
In my opinion, If you are in the market for a X58 chipset solution, take a look into the ASUS Sabertooth X58. At a great price and futures, you can't go wrong with this choice. ASUS made me a happy camper.
On a side note, the colors on this board looked awesome!
I was an ASUS fan back in the early to mid nineties, but then as a result of quality/reliability issues, I switched to using Intel exclusively for the recent 15+ years. I read great reviews about this board and having build several systems using Intel's DX58S02 for clients, I thought I'd jump once again to the potential bleeding edge in an effort to save a few pennies and gain some horsepower advantage.
Initial results were good. Running side-by-side Intel DX58S02 and ASUS x58 Sabretooth machines, the quality/speed/reliability were very close. The problem immediately arose when the ASUS machine was rebooted and continually powered up with a drive failure on the RAID 5. I launched the Intel Matrix software, marked the drive as 'Good,' and over a period of ~72 hours, the array rebuilt and subsequently worked fine until another reboot attempt.
Work-a-round solution: Shut down the system instead of rebooting does appear to eliminate the problem.
I am now on my 3rd x58 board from ASUS and continue to experience the same issue. The PCU controller appears to be the culprit and my next call to ASUS, which will be tomorrow, July 18th, will be to request an upgrade to another board in their x58 chipset arsenal. If they do not agree to an upgrade, I will remove the ASUS board in favor of the Intel DX58S02.
Pros:
Great color scheme.
Packaged nicely.
Future proof (USB 3.0, SATA 6gb/s)
BIOS is fully customizable.
Cons: Would be nice if it had more cables (SATA and such), also, it doesn't come with the standard (from what I've seen in every other board I've bought) optional USB ports to attach to your tower. Where it takes a PCI/PCI Express spot on the back of your tower. Not a big deal, since it has plenty of USB ports, just saying.
Also, when you're in BIOS there's every option you would ever want for tweaking/overclocking, however, there's an option to overclock the megahertz on your RAM to 9000mhz. What the crap? Whoever does that is foolish and will melt everything, and Asus is foolish to have that as a preset option. Another overclocking options is for your Intel i7 processor, it is titled "i7 Fast-Crazy" or something of that nature, that was just comical. Guy 1: Hey, I want my computer fast, like crazy! Guy 2: Alright, well, good thing there's a preset "Fast-Crazy" option...
All-in-all, get this board if you want something to do some serious gaming/multitasking on. You wont regret it.
***Please feel free to reply and comment, I'll get back to you with the best of my knowledge.*** - Sabertooth - Cpu - Cpu Processors - Core I7'
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