Asus X58 vs Gigabyte X58 Motherboards

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Proximity72

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Hello,

Currently I'm building an i7 build. I got most of my parts already and was wondering which motherboard would be best for overclock the i7-930 to 4Ghz atleast (Heatsink: Noctua nh-UD14). So i narrowed it down to 2 motherboards Asus P6X58D-E vs Gigabyte X58A-UD3R. I've read plenty of reviews saying these 2 boards are quite close in comparison in terms of pricing and features they bring. Any of you guys have first experience with these boards in terms of overclocking, reliability, stability etc. Also, I heard the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R makes this buzzing noise around the CPU and wasn't sure if that happens to all their boards.

If you guys are wondering I'll be using G.Skill 6GB DDR3-1600 CL 9-9-9-24 Ram if that matters.

Thanks!
 
did you read all the reviews on Newegg and amazon about them? all those reviews are from people who have first hand experience with the mother board.
 
newegg and amazon would probably be one of the last places to look for reviews on a product, because there's just no way for you to know if the reviewer knows wtf they're talking about, or if they've really used that product. for all we know, they could be like someone from a rival company writing up a bad review.

if you can, try to find full reviews from sites that know what they're talking about, they will give you a better idea of what you can expect from a certain product.
 
I agree with Muffin, NewEgg reviews are in no way valid. Anyone can write a review even if they didn't buy the product. And most of the legit reviews are written by newbs with no real expertise to make an informed opinion.

I will always recommend Asus over Gigabyte because Gigabyte has the worst RMA Policy if something goes wrong.

gigabyte.jpg
 
I just put together an i7 build and I had those exact two motherboards picked out. I went with the Gigabyte because of the price. I have not been able to fire the machine up yet to test it out.

This is my fault but I kind of wish I went with the ASUS because the Gigabyte only has 1 pci slot.

I also bought the same cooler as well.
 
I was looking at the same boards, ended up going with the Gigabyte due to the lower price and higher feature set. $209 for the amazing set of features is a great deal. The Gigabyte has more USB ports and SATA ports than the ASUS, an IDE and floppy connector, the Ultra Durable 3 design (high quality capacitors, inductors, and transistors, double thick copper traces), and practically identical components as the ASUS. I would definitely recommend the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, it also has a good set of voltage and clock settings in the BIOS and the included utilities are easy to use for overclocking, energy saving, etc.

I also really like the onboard LED temperature, voltage, and load indicators (LED's light up when CPU/northbridge are getting hot, LED's for over voltage levels on various components, LED's for CPU, RAM, and Northbridge load).

I noticed the "buzzing" (more of a squealing noise) but it only occurs when Windows is booting. I think it has to do with RAM settings as it changed after I set my RAM speed higher. It also changed a little each time I changed the CPU voltage (i7 930 on stock heatsink has zero overclocking ability, it was getting 70+ C under full load at stock speeds so I undervolted it to keep it cool).
 
I noticed the "buzzing" (more of a squealing noise) but it only occurs when Windows is booting. I think it has to do with RAM settings as it changed after I set my RAM speed higher. It also changed a little each time I changed the CPU voltage (i7 930 on stock heatsink has zero overclocking ability, it was getting 70+ C under full load at stock speeds so I undervolted it to keep it cool).

Do you think the squealing noise is a big issue for you? Also will overclocking on the Gigabyte board produce the squealing sound is there anyway to fix it? and could this lead to future damage to the motherboard or other parts of the computer?

Thank you for your input :)
 
I don't think it's a big issue at all, it is only noticeable during boot up (when the Windows logo is on the screen) for a few seconds. I noticed a high pitch whine but it was very faint and it only happens occasionally, the noise from my case fans (Antec 900 on Medium) is much louder and covers it up. It also got a lot better after I changed the RAM speed (my 1600 RAM was running at 1066 due to detection problems). I suspect the problem comes from an inductor (coil of wire wrapped around a metal core) running in an audible frequency range. Any time a magnetic field is produced at audible frequency it can cause the metal wire to vibrate, making noise. I don't think it is a problem for the machine, just an annoying side-effect.

Overall I love the X58A-UD3R motherboard and would recommend it. I haven't got to play with overclocking much due to the stock heatsink (will get a better one once I get more money) but it has multiplier settings, base clock frequency, RAM frequency, RAM voltage, core voltage, and several other voltage (and possibly clock) adjustments. The voltage adjustments are very precise and I used it to run my i7 930 at a lower than stock voltage so it would run cooler (it was running around 75 C at full load, after I found a stable voltage it runs about 64-67 C under full load, though it has no overclocking potential at that voltage as pushing it to 3GHz caused a blue screen in just a few minutes).

I also like the LED indicators, if you have a windowed case it is a very nice feature to make sure you aren't stressing your system too much.
 
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