Best x58 motherboard?

[megamindstorm101]

I have a pc with an i7 940 (though if the 980x goes on sale for 150$ again i will get it) and when i got the 940 it came from intel retail edge and i was unsmart enough to buy it with the dx50so motherboard which i must say is a peice of garbage. I have been looking for a new motherboard to get and I want to know what you guys think. what is the best x58 motherboard to get?

My specs are

thermaltake 1200w toughpower psu

sapphire 6870 (I am going to get a second one later)

i7 940 (plan on getting a cpu cooler for it)

6gb gskill pi ddr3 1600mhz

2X 1tb barracuda hardrives

80gb intel ssd (im going to install linux when i get a new motherboard)

dvd burner (i plan on a bluray burner soon)

thermaltake armor a90 case

so what is the best motherboard i should get. I hate going to newegg and seeing reviews that say the motherboard is crap and stuff. I dont know what to get

 

[I Hunta x]

The Asus Sabertooth is a nice solid not all that expensive choice, theres also the Gigabyte ud5/ud7 but i think there a bit more.

One side note would be to look into if you can get trim working with linux on the ssd, if not its going to slow down quite a bit eventualy.

Windows 7 on the ssd and linux on the mechanical drives/add another drive for linux is what id personaly do.

 

[ShortAlieN]

ahh yes, Sabertooth x58 is quite nice. really the only downfall of the board is the Marvell RAID controller. it sucks and does not perform worth a damn. but pretty much the board is great. and a good price

 

[megamindstorm101]

The Asus Sabertooth is a nice solid not all that expensive choice, theres also the Gigabyte ud5/ud7 but i think there a bit more.

One side note would be to look into if you can get trim working with linux on the ssd, if not its going to slow down quite a bit eventualy.

Windows 7 on the ssd and linux on the mechanical drives/add another drive for linux is what id personaly do.

sabertooth had a lot of scary reviews thats what i was worried about.

as for the ssd i already did that once and it was horrible 80gb to install programs is just not enough i tried getting it to install just certain things to it and certain things to my hardrive it didnt work. i belive an ssd is only good for a laptop or if you have a 500gb ssd or more for a decent computer but for me its not good. so i didnt want to get rid of it so i will just use it in ubuntu because right now i dual boot and i have been dual booting for over 2 years and i never use more than 80gb so im good.

so you really think the sabertooth is the best option? also a friend thinks i should stick with this hunk of junk and just get a sandybridge mobo and cpu later but i think i should get a new mobo and keep this cpu (or get a 6 core for 150$) and have it for at least 5 more years. i mean even a dual core is enough for me so why not get a nice new mobo.

 

[cbiltsouris]

Rampage 3 extreme

 

[ciksas]

Where are you going to get a 980X for 150$? It would be easier if we would know you budget, sabertooth is a good start

 

[cbiltsouris]

I know aye not even the cheapest sandy bridge is that much

 

[megamindstorm101]

Where are you going to get a 980X for 150$? It would be easier if we would know you budget, sabertooth is a good start

intel retail edge...the big deal. last june they had the i7 940 for 200$ and i belive a cheaper other one for 150$ and then december they had an i7 980x for 200$ so i am just assuming it will go down to 150$ soon.

Also sorry my budget for the motherboard is something around 200$ sabertooth is the perfect price but is it worth it? i mean it seems every motherboard on newegg has a bunch of bad reviews other than the ones that just dont have reviews.

 

[megamindstorm101]

I know aye not even the cheapest sandy bridge is that much

how much?

 

[cbiltsouris]

cheapest sandy bridge cpu is $199 and Ive never heard of the 940, you sure its not a 950? and yeah sabertooth is a very good board Im still curios to know why intel would sell a $1400 chip for $150? which country are you from? Im doing my findings on in aud

 

[ciksas]

intel retail edge...the big deal. last june they had the i7 940 for 200$ and i belive a cheaper other one for 150$ and then december they had an i7 980x for 200$ so i am just assuming it will go down to 150$ soon.

Also sorry my budget for the motherboard is something around 200$ sabertooth is the perfect price but is it worth it? i mean it seems every motherboard on newegg has a bunch of bad reviews other than the ones that just dont have reviews.

If you get them for 150, get me one tooo!!

 

[megamindstorm101]

Yes it was a 940 it's one of the earlier i7s and it is still better than a 6 core amd CPU. I can get it cheap from intel retail edge because if you work at an electronics store or office supply store in the US than you get insane deals for watching vids and doing quizzes.

Well sabertooth it is then. And I was wondering. If I have raid 1 an the raid controller dies do I still loose everything or I wouldn't because it's a mirrored drive right ?

Oh and yeah I don't think it was the 980x but it was a 6 core i7

 

[Jamsand]

The man tells the truth did some light research on intel retail edge an they did indeed do a dead on both intel 940 and intel 970 a while back they do loads of events for people that work for a whole number of companies, work for a big chain give it a google.

 

[megamindstorm101]

The man tells the truth did some light research on intel retail edge an they did indeed do a dead on both intel 940 and intel 970 a while back they do loads of events for people that work for a whole number of companies, work for a big chain give it a google.

yup and i hope a 6 core lga1366 will be in the next big deal for 150$ though even if its 200$ considering i paid 200$ for this i7 thats getting a 400$ cpu and an 800$ cpu for 400$

idk what to do with this i7 though. if nobody wants it and i cant find a use for it maybe ill turn it into a keyring, seems to be all the rage

but i think thats kinda a waste.

 

[ShortAlieN]

nah you will not lose anything in a RAID 1 as long as both drives dont fail at the same time. The one thing that i will caution you on the Sabertooth is that the PCI slot is in a bad location, if you use a card in that slot like i do you will have to put a dual slot graphics card in the lower PCIe slot.

Here is a pic of mine.

 

[megamindstorm101]

nah you will not lose anything in a RAID 1 as long as both drives dont fail at the same time. The one thing that i will caution you on the Sabertooth is that the PCI slot is in a bad location, if you use a card in that slot like i do you will have to put a dual slot graphics card in the lower PCIe slot.

Here is a pic of mine.

yup. i have 1 dual slot graphics card but I will be getting a second later. fortunately though i dont need that pci slot because most sound cards and wireless network cards use the pci X1 slot and theo nly thing i have now is an old network card that uses old pci

hows the h50 i was considering one but i am afraid because anything liquid in my system creeps the crap out of me. i have heard 3 stories of h50 leaking and that is one too many. how long did you have yours? most happened over the year mark.

 

[ShortAlieN]

havent had it that long, about two months, but i would not recommend it. at idle and low loads it works well, but at heavy loads it gets hot. if you are overclocking you processor there are air cooling systems that work as well or better than the H50/70. there are a grip of people on the forums that recommend the notctua, but its HUGE, and I like to see all the goodies. might get a real liquid cooling setup, but for now I'm going to stick to the H50.

 

[megamindstorm101]

havent had it that long, about two months, but i would not recommend it. at idle and low loads it works well, but at heavy loads it gets hot. if you are overclocking you processor there are air cooling systems that work as well or better than the H50/70. there are a grip of people on the forums that recommend the notctua, but its HUGE, and I like to see all the goodies. might get a real liquid cooling setup, but for now I'm going to stick to the H50.

i noticed how many people love that. i cant use it anyways because the heatsinks on my gskill pi are HUGE! and i dont want something that heavy on the motherboard. im thinking of a hyper 212 i installed it on a friends. I am not planning on overclocking but when i render something big it gets to 88 degrees and i want it to stay under 75 preferably. if it is cool enough i might overclock to 3.2ghz instead of 2.93 but i dont want to overclock mutch.

I like the hyper 212 but the installation was HORRIBLE i hated how that clip works i would have much prefered something like how the installation for the v8 it. which is another option i think i may go for a v8. I would get a thermaltake frio possibly and maybe a v6 but the v6 seems like it wouldnt fit i dont know.

 

[killablade]

i noticed how many people love that. i cant use it anyways because the heatsinks on my gskill pi are HUGE! and i dont want something that heavy on the motherboard. im thinking of a hyper 212 i installed it on a friends. I am not planning on overclocking but when i render something big it gets to 88 degrees and i want it to stay under 75 preferably. if it is cool enough i might overclock to 3.2ghz instead of 2.93 but i dont want to overclock mutch.

I like the hyper 212 but the installation was HORRIBLE i hated how that clip works i would have much prefered something like how the installation for the v8 it. which is another option i think i may go for a v8. I would get a thermaltake frio possibly and maybe a v6 but the v6 seems like it wouldnt fit i dont know.

If you do not plan on overclocking and just want it to stay cool enough for you to use your pc for rendering purposes, but you don't have room for the D14.. look at the Prolimatech coolers or (I can't beleive I'm saying this) the Corsair coolers. You might also consider the Mugen 2. It's cheap and cools really well.

 

[tinytomlogan]

If you can afford a decent mobo you can afford a proper CPU cooler tbh. As you dont overclock its pointless getting an expensive mobo when something for £160 will be fine.