I need help for new a MAinboard

[notforme]

Hi,

i was sure buying the MSI Eclipse Plus Board together with i7 965 XE CPU,

Now i found at PCMag.com an review about the little sister of Eclipse Plus, the Eclipse SLI

The pricey ($350 street) MSI Eclipse SLI is a high-end motherboard based on the new Intel Core i7 CPU and the company's X58 chipset. As you'd expect from the product name, it supports Nvidia's dual-graphics SLI technology. It also works with AMD's CrossFire graphics, though. The target audience, tech enthusiasts and gamers will find a clean layout and a wealth of features, but the implementation of some capabilities leaves a bit to be desired. For example, there's an LED temperature readout—and that's good—but depending on your hardware and case, it's difficult or impossible to see. The designers also made a strange choice with the power-management hardware, putting it in a dongle rather than building it in. And because the overclocking software is too unstable to be usable, overclocking requires a long, manual trial-and-error process. The board itself is quite stable when pushed, though, and performs well. Although pricey, the MSI Eclipse SLI a solid contender and will certainly give you a superb Core i7 system.

and there the board has not got a really good rating, they criticize the unstable BIOS and the layout. I want to know if the MSI Eclipse Plus has made it better, but can't find-out something about that.

I choosed the MSI Eclipse Pluse before the ASUS Rampage Extreme II and ASUS P6T6 Revolution, cause @ the MSI Eclipse Plus have can change QPI and Uncore settings and the Asus Boards cannot. How important is it for you to control the QPI and Uncore. I think It's really neccessary for overclocking RAM.

Now I am at doubt if that feature balances out the contras named at PC Mag.

Now i am standing where i was before. I need help to select a Mainboard between these 3:

MSI Eclipse Plus, ASUS Rampage II Extreme or ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution

 

[monkey7]

In my knowledge all current x58 motherboard models support the same overclocking functions. Some are better overclockers because of their power stability, cooling etc., but they have about the same overclocking features.

Is there any specifc reason you would go for the p6t6? It's a good clocker, but only having pci-e x16 can be a bad point and she's quite expensive compared to the smaller brother P6T deluxe.

The REX2 is certainly a good board, SwaleSmith has his running at 4.2ghz if I recall correctly.

 

[lamboman]

The Asus boards do have the options, as you would expect; they high end enthusiast boards. It's under QPI/DRAM Voltage. The Rampage would be my choice, it's expensive, but it really is a great board from what I've read.

 

[notforme]

What do you mean with PCI-E x16 slow. "x16 2.0" is fastest, or?

Here a quote from Asus Page

Expansion Slots:

Expansion Slots:

x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (at x16 or x8 mode)

2 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (at x16 mode)

2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (at x8 mode)

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (at x4 mode)

* True @ x16 3-Way SLI™ in slots 1, 3 and 5 when slots 2 and 4 are not occupied

Multi-GPU Support:

Supports NVIDIA 2-Way and 3-Way SLITM techonology

Supports ATI CrossFireXTM technology, up to Quad CrossFireXTM

And for the QPI/ Uncore settings question i have attached two screeshots from a review i have on my PC. I can't set a link in my posts cause i don't have written 15 posts or more.

@lamboman

can you say me please why you would prefer the rampage instead the P6T6 Revolution? The price doesnt matters for me

What do you think about the MSI Eclipse Plus?

 

[monkey7]

I'm sorry, I must have been sleeping while writing that post :/ The 'slow' wasn't even supposed to be in there.

PCI-e x16 is indeed the fastest lane available, but older cards (PCI) do not fit in it. So if you have a PCI card you will not be able to use it.

Iirc the P6T6 was used to set a record with the i7 920 so the QPI multiplier had to be adjusted or it would have gone way over 8gHz, which is the limit for most cpu's. To be clear: 8gHz QPI ~= 4gHz CPU

 

[notforme]

I want to buy the i7965 XE CPU, so i would be sorry for being limitated at the QPI settings. So i can only Overclock it to 4GHZ CPU?

And what do you think about the MSI Eclipse Plus?

 

[lamboman]

Sorry I haven't replied, I'm not sure if you are looking at this. Nonetheless, the Rampage is an enthusiast board, and it might be a slightly (yes, slightly, nothing amazing though) better overclocker than the P6T6 Revo, which is a workstation board, as you know. Also, the Rampage is £40 cheaper.