Customer Reviews

Intel DX58SO Extreme Series X58 ATX Triple-channel DDR3 16GB SLI or CrossFireX LGA1366 Overclocking Utility Desktop Board - Retail

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First off their is no IDE or PS/2 connections so be ready for that. After I got everything in my computer put together and ready to go I went to plug in my keyboard and it was usb only. So just find yourself an a adapter or get yourself a new keyboard. The price of DDR3 is cheap so its not so much a big deal to invest in. There is one PCI slot and now with the newer BIOS update its SLI compatible which is great since when I read the description it says that its only Crossfire ready. If you want to go with something beyond two way SLI than you may want to go with the EVGA model which has more DIMM slots as well. I was going to go with EVGA but my new case would not allow it and I don't have the budget for three cards. I like the way the board is situated with DIMM slots running vertical and looks like everything is closer to the processor than on other boards I have seen. I guess when everything is moving at light speed a smallest measurement closer makes a difference on a motherboard. Install is a cinch just make sure you take your time and don't rush and make a stupid mistake. I have found that in my experience I mess up on stupid things instead of something big. Overclocking has been a little more simplified on this board which is what you should probably do if you invest in these boards. Overall this board has everything that I need with lots of SATA and USB ports and its super fast with my i7 920 along with my 6 Gigs of Corsair Dominator DDR3. All I can say is I can't wait to get my hands into some overclocking when I get the free time. Keep in mind only 64 bit Vista will see anything above about 3 and a half gigs so if you don't want 64 than just be ready not to see what you put in. One minor issue is the setup of the PCI Express slots since I have an 8800 GTS (one of the fatties) and a Creative X-Fi sound card it doesn't leave room for another 8800 GTS without me having to remove my sound card. Its not that big of an issue though since I plan on getting a smaller newer card anyways. Though if you have a fat card like me and something in the PCI slot and want to run SLI you might run into trouble so that is worth noting in my mind. Is this board worth it though I would have to say absolutely yes.

According to Intel sticking in a fourth stick will cause a degrade in performance so since most ram that's DDR3 come in three packs its not so much a big deal. Also when it first came on and I entered BIOS everything was recognized but I could not get the thing to boot my ROM drive and it would just sit there with a black screen and then it would ask me to select cd drive type 1 or 2. After about three hours or so it all of a sudden worked after I selected 1 it booted finally and everything was installed (operating system). The next problem was it would not restart and as soon as my computer would go off and come on again it would be a black screen going nowhere. Then I remembered update your BIOS dummy and I read all the notes and a lot of issues I had was fixed in the BIOS update including my restart problem. There was an issue also with my type of ROM drive not booting when put first in priority and that is the issue I had with trying to get it to boot to install my operating system. Now everything runs perfect and I could not be happier. The reason I put all this in my review was it did not go as smooth as I thought it would and someone else might have problems. If you do have issues just drop me a comment and maybe I can help you out just from what I had to do.

When I built my new Core I-7 computer I looked very closely at the components I'd use and after much debating I went with the DX58SO. I did so because they ditched the long obsolete serial ports and replaced them with MANY USB ports. Also, what better way to complement my new processor than to use it on a board built by the same company? I couldn't have been more wrong! The Three Stooges could've built a better motherboard using cardboard, shoestrings and magic markers. Think I'm joking?

1. The box was missing items, most notably the "Far Cry 2" disc. Intel's support told me (I'm not kidding) that it's not their concern and this won't happen if I buy my hardware from reputable dealers. I'd already told them I'd purchased it from Amazon.com (the MOST reputable dealer, IMHO), so this is one of many absurdities to come from Intel. I noticed similar complaints, so either there's a consumer conspiracy against Intel or they have a quality control issue. They did manage to get all of their self loving propaganda in the box.

2. No one at Intel seems to know what memory will work with this board. They advertised that it will work with 1.6v memory, but the box contained a sheet of paper that stated that anything above 1.5v will damage the motherboard/processor, which meant that the $200+ worth of 1.6v memory I'd bought was worthless. Intel tech support said 1.6v was o.k., but their website said 1.5v. So which is it?

3. See the Intel video and diagrams on this page that show the SATA connecters facing outward? They don't. The SATA connecters run along the edge of the board and face the front of the computer. They are approx two inches from the disc drives, which made them a real pain to hook up.

4. Don't use SATA cables with the silver clips. When you remove them the motherboard won't let go unless you use a lot of force.

5. The Quick Start sheet doesn't match the user's manual and both don't match the motherboard (for instance, the SATA connecters). Do ANY of Intel's departments talk to each other?

6. Sitting next to the second PCI slot (where you'd install a secondary graphics card) there's a connecter that you have to connect a power cable to. If you squint at the picture, it's the yellow thing above the "5" and "6". Good luck using that second slot!

7. There are four memory slots. WRONG! The manual states that if you put memory in the fourth slot it might degrade the computer's performance. WHAT??? Then why even put it in there?

I've built a few computers since 2001 and all of them are still running (except the one with the Intel DX58SO). I've never come across a rotted piece of hardware like the DX58SO and the maddening frustration of dealing with Intel. It was designed by engineers with a mean spirited sense of humor and sold by a company that doesn't care.

Whether you're new to building computers or have been around for a while, avoid this motherboard at all costs. You'll be replacing it soon enough!

Just built my Core i7 system using this Intel DX58SO board and it's so fast!!!! I've never been a big overclocker because I'm not that experienced at overclocking and keeping everything stable. However, this board has an overclocking utility that makes it so easy. You'll want to update the bios first from the intel site. Also zoom in on the picture of this board...the DDR3 memory slots are horizontal and next to the processor. I'd never seen this before, all other boards have the dimm slots running vertical. I read a review that the new orientation of the memory allows it to stay cooler as the air flow is improved and the trace route to the processor is shorter making it faster. Well all I can say is my new system rocks.

Core i7 - 920, Intel DX58SO, Corsair 6gb 1333 DDR3, VisonTek HD4870

I purchased an i7 processor and wanted to match it to the board. The only glitch was that I had purchased a power supply without the 4x2 connector required by this board. I ended up needing more power for my video card anyway so it all worked out. You will need to watch the case that you put this in since heat is an issue. Everything is larger -- the powersupply, the heat sink, and the video board that you will want to match to this kind of horsepower. I have a total of nine fans in this computer and it warms up my home office. The blue LEDs off of the fans adds a bit of bling. I am impressed with the overall performance.

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.

I bought this motherboard to use it with an Intel i7 950 processor. I bundled it with 16GB of RAM from Corsair and I am very happy with it. So far, just 2 weeks, it runs very fast with Windows 7 and Pinnacle Studio for A/V editing.

Setting up the motherboard is easy. Make sure you connect all the power plugs required as specified in the setup instructions card. It also has one installation screw less than my previous Intel motherboard, so be careful to remove the post from the case before setting the motherboard down.

This motherboard only has 1 PCI slot. This PCI slot will be very close to your video card if you got a two slots wide model. I had problems installing a PCI IDE controller (it likely is too slow for this application). I decided to remove the older ATA/133 hard drives I had, but if you need to keep your ATA hard drives, consider getting a PCIe compatible card or IDE-to-SATA adapters for each one of them.

Be aware that the the DX58SO motherboard has the memory "above" the processor (above in my case refers to the top of the mid-tower I installed it in). So if you are thinking about buying an alternate cooling system for your processor (like the Cooler Master V8), you may not be able to install a memory fan kit properly (like the Corsair airflow fan system).

[edit]the latest BIOS fixes the LAN issue[edit]

First off. do not update the bios to the 5417 version, stick with 5200 because the LAN card disables after waking from sleep mode.
here's the link:
<edit> since links are disabled, try googling "SOX5810J.86A" <edit>

Secondly, for most ram, unless you've bought the fully tested stuff, you need to change the voltage to 1.62 and lower the "Multiplier" to 6 or 8, otherwise you'll have trouble posting. (I have the 16gb 1600DDR3 mem kit from KomputerBay and it works with the following settings: 7,7,7,19@1.62V 8 multiplier)
Processor i7 930

the six sata ports are angled sideways and can be difficult to connect to, especially if you've got a small ATX case.

the HD audio connector is all the way in the back of the board next to the PCI windows.

the PCIe ports are a little lower than normal, so expect your card to take up a PCI window 2 spaces lower than the top in your case.

I'm usually a BIG fan on Intel products. I've built numerous PCs with them and had very little issues from the Intel side, until now.

The tech support on this one was less than useless, being almost harmful. They're inconsistent from person to person and will flat out lie to get you off the phone when it gets close to 5pm.

They couldn't decide on whether 1.6V memory would even work on the board giving very inconsistent feedback. I had to ask repeatedly just to get a case number. Furthermore they gave all kinds of misinformation about which slots to even use on the board for memory. They were quick to blame issues on every other component (fortunately I had two graphics cards, and multiple machines to verify components worked, but how many people have that?). They even falsely blamed issues on a bad CPU at one point (incorrectly).

SO, finally I have the board working (I hope it continues to do so) but at a cost of far more time and money than I've had to use on an Intel board before. I never got the PCI slot to work right (even though it was recognized by BIOS)after trying multiple network cards.

I believe that if I had never called tech support and spent the time troubleshooting I probably would have been better off. Fortunately i have an option for direct plug in on the first PC, but unfortunately I have one more PC to build with a DX58 board. I always build in twos, but even though I know all the components are working I'm not looking foward to spending any more time with it.

As I have never built with other boards I don't know how much better (or worse) they are, but I will try something else next time.

If anyone has a recommendation for a wireless network card that would actually work with this thing i'd love to hear it (tried DL and Netgear).

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.

I had good luck with Intel boards in the past. I guess that it was luck. This board was nothing but trouble. After several frustrating days of dealing with it (I could never get it to boot) and the Intel "help" chat line, I returned it. It was apparently DOA and there was nothing that could be done to revive it. Had I realized how many people have had problems with this board and the many different types of problems, I would not have ordered it. There is great confusion over what memory is acceptable - even the Intel help line has a different story than the description on their web site and in their instruction manual. The instructions for the board come on a CD. This is not much help if you are doing a new build and can't read the CD...

UPDATE: I got a replacement board immediately from Amazon (kudos to Amazon). This board appears to be working, at least in bench testing (the memory is recognized and I get the Intel splash screen) - will find out for sure soon. I note that this board, like the last board, was missing the 4-pin connector to provide aux power to PCI-e cards. There is a spot on the board but the entire connector is missing. Since there is also a SATA aux power connector on the board, this doesn't appear to be a problem and many PCI-e cards don't need the aux power. The connector appears in all the literature and in all the pictures and there is no mention that is has been deleted anywhere.

UPDATE: This board is performing well. I have raised my review to 3 stars. It would be better if it were not for the issues I and many others have had with it...