Internal Desktop Components Reviews

Band : Intel
Model : BOXDX58SO
Product Features :
- Supports Intel Core i7 Processors
- ATI Crossfire Support
- 8GB of DDR3 1600 Memory
- 7 1 Dolby Digital Audio
- 12 USB ports

Intel DX58SO Extreme Series X58 ATX Tri Channel DDR3 16GB SLI or CrossFireX LGA1366 Overclocking Utility Desktop Board Retail
>> Good Mother board
This motherboard will allow only two SLI graphics cards This is fine if that is all you need Others can take 3 cards Be careful if you select a card that takes two slots you lose a PCIe x slot the short one Also note that it is better to add the CPU cooler while the board is not mounted if you use a Cooler Master case You can t reach one of the four attachment bolts Taking it all apart again is a pain The utility from Intel will allow overclocking and it has a automatic increment capability Nice board No other issues The included fan works well on the IO Hub
>> They finally got it right
Well I purchased this board and had to send it back twice because of faulty boards They wouldn t power up also I noticed some heat sinks were loose After I got the third I got it up and running and it has been strong for over a year Overclocking is pretty easy with it too

So three stars I m happy with the board now but it took 3 boards to get one that actually worked
>> Extreme is an Understatement Wow is more like it
I recently purchased the Intel R DX58SO board to replace an older desktop PC First I removed the old PC parts from an Antec SOHO chassis and replaced the power supply with a new 600 watt supply ATX12 v2 2 spec or greater

Then I carefully installed with an ESD protection strap the big ATX sized DX58SO into the chassis I found it easier to work with it when the box and board are horizontal on a sturdy table Careful attention to power supply cable connections and processor installation is a combination of following detailed paper and online instructions

The Intel R Core TM i7 940 boxed processor came with a nice big fan with heat sink and since I planned to leave settings more or less stock I installed this fan

For RAM memory I installed Corsair TR3X6G1600C9XMS3 6GB 3 X 2 because it was low cost and quality tested

I used a XFX HD4850 1GB DDR3 RAM video card because it had lower power low fan noise low cost and respectable performance for most applications and games I really wanted the new HD5850 but thought it would push the power supply too far and require a higher cost

I used a low cost DVD W SATA3 interface drive to boot and load software Samsung SH S223L and a SATA cable from spare parts

Also I used the Seagate Barracuda 1 5TB 32MB cache SATA3 drive for main system storage

Everything else plugged in easily LCD monitor into HD4850 port 0 and powered up well
As a first power up check I set the DX58SO jumper to boot to bios selection then went to the bios monitor and verified the chassis fans CPU fan supply voltages and temperatures were correct and everything is recognized and running stable

I tried an older Microsoft R XP Pro 32 bit operating system install and found it hung up and realized the needed drivers 64 bit were not supporting critical hardware

After some thought and online review I decided it was much easier to just get an upgrade version of Microsoft Ultimate Vista SP1 since it has 32 and 64 bit operating system disks I changed the boot jumper and booted the 64 bit Vista Ultimate This worked great using the clean install with no downloads or patches procedure

After getting through the Vista install I connected to the broadband network and used Microsoft update After many Vista updates I then installed the DX58SO disk to upgrade Intel drivers and bios then Intel Desktop Control Center and applications that came with the DX58SO board especially a virus scanner I used Norton 360 because it has worked well in other systems

I double checked using the Intel Desktop Control Center app all of the memory settings power supply voltages temperatures CPU and memory performance No settings were altered since everything was running without any problem

After all the work to get this system running smoothly and optimizations I am very pleased with the results Browsing to sites on the internet and most everything else is much faster large sites just pop on the screen The Microsoft ratings for system performance in all categories pegged at 5 9 after optimizations and updates

For a reasonable cost I found the performance boost will easily pay for itself with the time saved in getting more done It s nice to not be limited by the speed of your computer applications when you are trying to get work done as fast as possible
Thanks to all for producing components that make this an excellent new computing platform