GIGABYTE X58A-UD7 is it worth buying?

[fusionblu]

I love my ud7. The water cooling block on the chipset is excellent. Something you would have to pay an extra $40 to do on the asrock.

While I would agree on your point I would also agree that if you buy the Asrock motherboard (£181) plus the $40 water block (roughly £25) it would still be cheaper than the UD7 which would be the difference in the UK of £206 (Extreme6 + water block) and £272 (Standard UD7).

 

[Wile E]

@Wile E

Look at this (Overclocking):
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1041/pg17/asrock-x58-extreme6-and-intel-core-i7-970-review-overclocking-thermal.html

And this (Overall Conclusion):
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1041/pg18/asrock-x58-extreme6-and-intel-core-i7-970-review-conclusion.html

Here is the beginning if you want to see the whole thing, but be warned there is 18 pages to get through:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1041/pg1/asrock-x58-extreme6-and-intel-core-i7-970-review-introduction.html

My only reply to your comment is LOL!!!

To others wondering about what my links are they would be a review of the Gigabyte UD9 vs the Asrock Extreme6 motherboards with test results included and in the review the Asrock motherboard is the one that rules which is a good reason to why not rely on brand names. ^^

As we know Gigabyte's UD9 is the superior motherboard so if it lost to the Asrock Extreme6 it's clear that the UD7 would too, but the truth is though that both the UD9 and Extreme6 runned roughly the same with the exception that the Extreme6 slightly out performed the UD9 in many of the tests.

Just one more point to add. The Asrock X58 Extreme6 1366 motherboard is a lot cheaper at around £181/$240 (as mentioned in the conclusion) where other high end motherboards are around £272 (like I paid for my UD7) or a lot more so not only does this motherboard out perform the UD9, but it is value for money too making this a much ideal motherboard to buy for those who are upgrading to 1366 from a lower socket. ^^

You can lol all you want, the Gigabytes are better built boards, and can support extreme voltages a lot better than ASRock boards can. UD7 and UD9 are both intended for people who push high voltages and max OCs, and hold up under those conditions. Start trying to run 1.7+Vcore on a Gulftown for long periods of time on the ASRock board, and see how well it holds up.

Do this with your ASRock board: http://i4memory.com/f90/gigabyte-ud7-i7-980x-gigabyte-gtx480-benching-24184/

And that review is shit, considering I can get 190 BClock on my X58-UD5 with my 980X, which is using the older, less clockable version of the X58 chipset, not the better silicon of the X58A gigabyte boards. UD7 and UD9 both outclock my board.

That review site is crap. They just don't know how to clock for shit at that site. I browsed their other reviews, and all of their OCing results on everything they test is absolutely horrible. They only managed 151 BClock on a Rampage 3, ffs. They just suck at OCing. Don't know what else to tell you, tbh.

So, in closing, the ASRock is a spectacular, bang-for-buck deal, that can do some moderate overclocking. If you want a ton of features, good performance and plan to only air/mild water cool, by all means, grab the ASRock.

But it is in no way a better OCer's board than a UD7 or UD9, and isn't even really targeted at that market anyway, so the point is moot. I honestly don't know why they chose to compare it to the top tier overclock-oriented boards.

 

[fusionblu]

@Wile E

Okay I didn't realise they weren't the best reviewers from my links, but one thing I will have to say is the overclocking from the link you provided is way over the top with the liquid nitrogen cooling for world record overclocking; for example the CPU reading temperatures of 193.1 degrees is so over the top that it isn't physically standing over the top, it's flying several hundred metres above the top.

While it is one thing to break world records one would also want a regular PC which doesn't need to be maintained a lot (unless there are problems) and can run most applications they need to use.

As for the part where you said "ton of features, good performance and plan to only air/mild water cool" that would probably fit me the best as I prefer stable PC with enough power to run any game or program I want to use.

P.S: I only lol at you because it seemed to me to be better than what you said and when you mentioned overclocking I didn't realise the level of overclocking you had in mind. v_v

 

[Wile E]

No hard feelings man.

But yeah, that ASRock is a really nice board. Just look at all those SATA and USB 3.0 ports. That kicks ass. It's just targeted at a different market than your UD7 or UD9's.

 

[fusionblu]

No hard feelings man.

But yeah, that ASRock is a really nice board. Just look at all those SATA and USB 3.0 ports. That kicks ass. It's just targeted at a different market than your UD7 or UD9's.

Even though it is a good motherboard the ones worth waiting for, if you already have a decent x58 motherboard, is the next generation X68 chipset when they come out and hopefully there might be 1366 models of the motherboard made along side with the new 2011 socket models (which are intended for the X68 chipset).

Since I don't want to go on further with this I guess I will conclude things from my side here.

 

[CDdude55]

Even though it is a good motherboard the ones worth waiting for, if you already have a decent x58 motherboard, is the next generation X68 chipset when they come out and hopefully there might be 1366 models of the motherboard made along side with the new 2011 socket models (which are intended for the X68 chipset).

Since I don't want to go on further with this I guess I will conclude things from my side here.

Socket 2011 will be phasing out 1366 afaik, doubt they would continue manufacturing 1366 boards for very long after 2011 is out.

 

[fusionblu]

I would like to doubt that as Socket 1366 isn't really that old, but my idea on that issue would be that they would at the beginning they may make some X68 Socket 1366 Motherboards along with X68 Socket 2011 Motherboards and then stop production of the X68 Socket 1366 later on when more people buy into the Socket 2011 systems.

To be honest though I think these change in sockets is a bit silly since the current sockets don't really need to be changed, especially 1156 since it is only 1 pin more than the new socket 1155 replacement. My only curiousity in these socket changes would be the socket 2011 as usually increased pins on a socket would mean greater power for the CPUs, Motherboards and systems in that socket series.

 

[CDdude55]

I would like to doubt that as Socket 1366 isn't really that old, but my idea on that issue would be that they would at the beginning they may make some X68 Socket 1366 Motherboards along with X68 Socket 2011 Motherboards and then stop production of the X68 Socket 1366 later on when more people buy into the Socket 2011 systems.

To be honest though I think these change in sockets is a bit silly since the current sockets don't really need to be changed, especially 1156 since it is only 1 pin more than the new socket 1155 replacement. My only curiousity in these socket changes would be the socket 2011 as usually increased pins on a socket would mean greater power for the CPUs, Motherboards and systems in that socket series.

Technology changes fast, there's no doubt in my mind 1366 will be EOL fairly soon. I agree that the constant socket changes can be very annoying, and Intel is the main culprit in those changes. I agree that new CPU sockets aren't really needed at this point for regular general purpose computing. We are at a point where new and more powerful CPU's aren't needed for the majority, even some of the most taxing software can easily be dealt with using any of the higher end CPU out on the market at the moment.

I personally don't have much of an interest in Sandy Bridge on the desktop side of things, as of course as a gamer i like having discrete GPU's in my system. So unless Sandy Bridge is offering faster processing on the CPU side of things, i have no interest in ever going to it. For the Laptop market it's great just like AMD's Fusion.