|
Opening the box, was a pleasure and
although the
C7X58 is pretty basic in the
standard green PCB its functional, does
the job 110% and some; and at the end of
the day this is what we are all looking
for. We always pay that slight premium
for Supermicro mainboards, though in the
long term it certainly is worth those
few dollars more. Some may say, its
pretty cut down in comparison to what
other supply. Maybe so, but in the
years to come when this mainboard sits
churning away the facts and figures.
The R & D that goes into these premium
mainboards means that they last for many
years, outliving many which hit the
recycling bins after their short
lifespan with some end-users.
Price point entry is what you would
expect swinging in at just over £225 Ex
Vat and Delivery. No frills and added
extra games which do bump up the pricing
therefore the price point is right.
Availability of the board, on going to
print you can obtain these new
C7X58 mainboards from selected
resellers and e-tailers.
S.I.'s
are also taking their
deliveries so those of you looking at a
system housing this mainboard can obtain
them readily.
It has been a very good first outing of
the
C7X58 mainboard and the R & D team
from
Supermicro are very pleased with it
completely living up to all that they
had claimed and hoped for. The
mainboard has taken all that we could
throw at it and kept saying give me
more, well sadly we couldn't. The
secrets of the exceptional build quality
and excellent bios builds (as you don't
see many bios releases coming out
either) are just part of those marvels
you expect to see. The manual
maintains its sound instructions guiding
even the most novice of end users
through the complete start to finish
guide on putting the board together.
Over the years these quality instruction
manuals from Supermicro have been
extremely explicit, therefore it goes
without say why the new end users can
manage so readily.
This has been a very good first outing
of this mainboard and the R & D team
from
Supermicro should be very happy with
its resilient success here today. The
Foxconn 9800GTX+ Cards
in SLI Mode and the
Sapphire 4870 TOXIC (which has to be
said has been our favourite within this
review) in Crossfire mode we have to
thank both companies for providing the
cards at such very short notice. We
have thrown just about everything at the
C7X58 and it keeps coming back for more
without batting an eyelid. The
overclocking within the board will be
easy enough for most who are experienced
within this remit. Fun they will have.
To side track ever so slightly indeed
but an extremely point of note, we must
look carefully at the actual performance
of the memory used today. There are
plenty of choices out there of DDR3 kits
for the i7 mainboards and ultimately the
choice and decision sits with the end
user, though it is always worth noting
that many mainboard companies stipulate
validated memory for a reason - to gain
optimal performance from a mainboard
which has been vigorously tried and
tested to the highest levels within
their own labs. Baseline validated test
modules therefore is what we should look
at when purchasing a new mainboard.
There is nothing worse than a mainboard
that blue screens due to incompatible
memory. Why cut the corner for a few
dollars when spending so much.
Akasa's new 1000 Watt Freedom Power.
Now this PSU sets the standard as an
extremely versatile PSU. No worrying
about which socket to plug in your
required modular cable, they are all the
same with the load balancing being done
internally. Therefore you can put away
the torch when you have to struggle next
insert the upgrade plug. Pop it in and
away you go. More to follow on this PSU
at a later date.
Since launch of the Intel's i7 and its
own Smackover mainboard it remained
mainboard of choice for the professional
cards as they never once faltered on the
DX58SO. An extremely important factor
when first outing a new professional
graphics card. Then along came
Supermicro's X8SAX which piped it
from the post as King of the Hill.
This has been one an easy outing today
as the experience of running previously
the
X8SAX (in our opinion one of the
best all round i7 mainboards we have
encountered since launch of Intel's own
Smackover) in a very long time and there
has been a few X58 boards here. Though
as our readers know, if a product it
does not met the high demands of what is
thrown at it here it never makes the
news.
The final thoughts.
Supermicro's C7X58 has the no frills
performance and flexibility in the
marketplace that is going to be very
hard to match. Much thought has gone
into the actual design and upgrade paths
for peripherals that are not only a year
old. In some areas maintaining legacy
support for those elder peripherals,
which some have forgot or trying to move
us away from them. A standard this
high deserves our Editors
Recommendation. |
