![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , March 28, 2011
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:
Intel DX58SO2 LGA 1366 X58 Motherboard Review
We don’t generally cover Intel branded motherboards because those products do not pop up that often on the enthusiast radar. Intel does have an "extreme" flagship X58 motherboard that may be worth your attention. We fire up Intel's DX58SO2!
Introduction
Intel is definitely one of the most important companies in the PC industry. It is certainly the largest manufacturer of desktop processors and while not all of Intel’s PR is necessarily positive, I think most people will agree that its products are always high quality and generally problem free with rare exceptions. While Intel is most commonly known for its processor manufacturing business, it also has its own motherboards, network cards, networking equipment, and more. Surely Intel NICs are known as some of the best in the enthusiast community and as such we are starting to see a reappearance of these Intel embedded NICs on motherboards. Though obviously the motherboard is what concerns us here with regard to this particular article.
We have always experienced Intel motherboards as generally being solidly built, super reliable, and stable, but somewhat lacking in the feature department. No, you won’t see Intel marketing 64,000 power phases and clever names for PWM controls, PCB layers, or power saving features. And frankly with rare exception Intel doesn't even cater or market its products to the enthusiast crowd. We usually only see one or two "enthusiast" or "extreme" motherboard designs per high end chipset when it comes to Intel motherboards. In the past its motherboards have left something to be desired in enthusiast circles, mainly due to a significant lack of BIOS tweaking options; specifically those relating to overclocking.
Intel’s stance or rather its perceived stance on overclocking is a subject that would take an entirely separate article to explore in detail. I think it’s enough to say that the subject is complicated and that Intel isn’t necessarily against it, at least not to the point where it simply offers no options to do so. Intel’s motherboards have gained a reputation for decent overclockability in recent years with its Extreme motherboard series but it's still always fallen woefully short of its competition in our opinion. The hardware is there, but the BIOS just never has been up to snuff.
The Intel DX58SO2 is based on the currently flagship but aging X58 chipset and ICH10R south bridge. X58 has become almost the "BX" chipset of our modern age as far as longevity in the eyes of the enthusiast. While it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to build an X58 chipset based system over a P67 Express based machine for most "normal"desktop enthusiast usages, there is one area where the X58 remains king and that’s with regard to six core CPUs. There are none in LGA1155 form and as a result the highest end Intel offerings are still based on the 32nm Gulftown parts. And those are only offered in LGA1366. This of course means that with regard to enthusiast motherboards, you are really "stuck" with X58 for the time being. X58 also gives you the advantage of increased memory bandwidth, but the actual real world benefit to that is of course debatable, as we have now seen 4GB DIMMs come to a decent pricing level. Of course memory footprint and bandwidth are different animals, but again you reach a point of oversaturation with the X58 bandwidth in "normal" desktop situations.
The DX58SO2 is feature packed with 8 SATA ports, SATA 6G, 2 eSATA ports, USB 3.0, 3 PCI-Express x16 slots, SLI, CrossFireX support, Triple Channel DDR3 memory support and more. As usual, the high level of integrated components means that very few additional components are necessary to create a fully functional machine. All that is required is a graphics card, LGA1366 processor, RAM, power supply and drives.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
The packaging is the usual fare you’d expect from any motherboard vendor. Though Intel chose to go with the always stylish black box with white text and a skull on the front of it. There is always some kind of skull theme with any of Intel's "Extreme" boards. The board arrived undamaged and thus, the package did its job. There isn’t that much in the way of accessories packed inside though. The board comes with a mouse pad, driver disc, single and 3-Way SLI bridges, 6 SATA cables, WiFi antenna, a cable for that, and an I/O shield. There are some loose papers in the bottom of the box as well but nothing of importance.
Board Layout
The DX58SO2 has an excellent layout. For those of you familiar with the board’s predecessor, the DX58SO, you’ll see a completely different approach to the layout. The DX58SO has an almost BTX type of topography to it. The DX58SO2 on the other hand looks just like any other mid-range enthusiast board. There are no crazy cooling systems on it or any marketing stickers, silk screens, or anything like that. It’s pretty much all business at this point. While the board has a good color scheme (a color scheme shared by almost all other Intel boards) it’s unremarkable past the giant embossed skull found on the "north bridge cooler."
The CPU socket area is clean and clear of obstructions. You can put just about any cooling system you can think of on it without too much trouble. The CPU socket orientation is a bit odd as its 90 degrees "off" compared to most board makers. This doesn’t impact anything other than making slightly more sense looking at the board as it would normally sit inside a case.
The DX58SO2 uses a typical blue / black color coding scheme for the DIMM Slots. They use standard retention tabs and are located far enough away from the expansion area to minimize any potential installation headaches. This includes both memory installs and video card upgrades. There is some conflicting data as the website shows a maximum of 48GB of RAM for this board, but Intel’s own specifications document shows a maximum of 24GB which is more in line with established X58 chipset specifications.
The chipset is cooled with a blue anodized aluminum heatsink which has a heat pipe running through it. It is adorned with a stainless steel looking plate with an embossed skull on it. While aesthetically pleasing, the cooling system wasn’t the most effective one I’ve ever worked with. I saw temperatures frequently operating between the 60c and 84c range depending on the bus clock of the system.
The south bridge has a small blue anodized and quite passive heatsink with silver label on it. The south bridge doesn’t get all that hot and this seemed adequate in my experience. Directly in front of this cooling device was the boards 8 SATA plugs. The south bridge also rests parallel to the first and second PCI-Express x16 slots, yet remains flat enough to avoid contact with large graphics cards.
The expansion slot area is nice. There is only one legacy PCI slot and though its placement can be debated as good or bad, it’s certainly usable for most people should they need it. The rest of the expansion slots are evenly spaced with PCI-Express x1 slots being easily blocked. Again this is normal and it isn’t as if many board makers do a lot better with this. I can’t really complain here.
The I/O panel is legacy free as is the norm for Intel branded motherboards. This is of course something I’ve found refreshing. I have no desire to pay for legacy components I have no need for. The back panel I/O area contains two eSATA ports, one Back 2 BIOS button, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 RJ-45 / LAN ports, 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports, 1 IEEE1394 port, 5 mini-stereo jacks and one optical out.