GIGABYTE X58A-OC Review

👤by Richard Weatherstone Comments 📅20-08-11
Motherboard Overview

GIGABYTE X58A-OC

Stunning. The matt black power circuit board with contrasting tangerine ports and heatsink detailing is simply gorgeous and a wonder to behold. This has to be one of the best looking motherboards currently on the market. It's great to see GIGABYTE have stepped away from the current black/blue theme most manufacturers seem obsessed with at present. While generally speaking most overclockers couldn't care less what a motherboard looks like, I'm sure that when the crowds are gathered around this piece of hardware at overclocking events, onlookers will surely be impressed with the colour scheme GIGABYTE have chosen which sets it apart from any other mainboard currently available. It's worth noting that this motherboard features double the amount of dual layered copper(2x 0.07mm thick, 2oz total) which aids in granting higher overclocks, improved efficiency, enhanced durability and cooling.


Motherboard Rear

Flipping the board over we see that GIGABYTE have used both spring-loaded screws and plastic pins to attach the heatsinks. Closer to the CPU socket area there are additional VRM's but thankfully these are clear of the CPU heatsink holes so shouldn't prove to be an issue on most CPU air or watercooling backplates.


CPU Socket Area

While the CPU socket is framed by tall heatsinks the immediate area around the socket is free from Solid State capacitors. Instead GIGABYTE have made insulating the area so much easier by using POScap tantalum capacitors which will no doubt reduce the amount of time needed to ensure the board is fully insulated with putty or neoprene etc. That said, the CMOS clear and PWM dip switches are perhaps not best positioned considering this area will be covered and thus would be better placed elsewhere on the mainboard. GIGABYTE have also used the LOTES retention kit instead of FOXCONN on this board, taking no chances with the rumour that FOXCONN have had problems with their retention kits causing uneven mounts or loose fitment depending on what rumour you might choose to believe.


Memory Sockets

You may notice that the DIMMs sit closer to the CPU socket than usual. This shortens the path to the CPU socket area and thus lowers the possible circuit noise which should enhance overclocking. Situated slightly higher than usual, the DIMM slots are easily accessible, even with the first GPU slot filled. The area also benefits from a 3-phase Uncore VRM coupled with 2 Phase memory circuitry. The colour co-ordinated memory sockets support 6 modules totalling a maximum 24GB of system memory. DDR3 2200MHz is the theoretical maximum speed afforded by the DIMM sockets and should you require, this board also supports XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles).


PCI Area

From top to bottom we have a PCIe 16x slot, PCIe 8x, PCIe 16x, a standard PCI slot and a further 8x PCIe slot. SLI/Crossfire uses that will use two cards would be best to utilise slots 1 and 3 to have the full 32 lanes available, the 2nd and slots support 8x only. The two uppermost PCIe slots share 16 lanes and the bottom two PCIe slots share the remainder with the 16x slots dropping down to 8x should the 8x PCIe slots be populated. Tri SLI and 4x Crossfire X multi GPU configurations are supported. It may seem baffling why GIGABYTE have used a PCI slot on such an extreme board. The reasoning is simple. A diagnostic PCI card can get you out of some major headaches should you have difficulties in getting the setup working again after some over ambitious overclocking.


SATA PCIe Power Connectors

Rather than use chunky MOLEX connectors, the X58A-OC is the first of its kind to make use of SATA power to feed hungry multiple GPU setups rather than drawing from the ATX power. Located on the edge of the motherboard, the connectors are a vast improvement over previous designs and thankfully will not get in the way of longer GPU cards.


SATA Ports

The GIGABYTE X58A-OC makes use of 8 SATA ports which may seem excessive for an overclockers motherboard. There are six SATA 3GB/s ports connected to the ICH10R Southbridge supporting RAID 0/1/5/10 configurations. There are also a further two SATA ports with a 6GB/s capability courtesy of the MARVEL SE9182 controller. Overclockers are unlikely to make use of anything more than a single SATA drive so to have a total of eight seems to be an odd proposition considering the boards target audience. GIGABYTE it seems are hedging their bets in this department be attempting to appeal to the average user as well as the extreme overclocker by affording such connectivity.


SATA Ports

The I/O area is in direct contrast to the numerous SATA ports, being sparse in comparison. I was happy to see that GIGABYTE have retained PS/2 connectivity for mouse and keyboards. A single Gigabit LAN port sits above two USB 2.0 ports while adjacent to this are 3 audio jacks. The three audio jacks are multi-purpose through software control to allow either MIC input/Subwoofer output, Line out/Front speaker out and Line in (Rear Speakers out). Finally, furthest to the right we see two USB 3.0 ports. On the one hand GIGABYTE have omitted some needless features such as 7.1 surround sound (although the CODEC does support 8 channels) yet have added USB 3.0 connectivity which in my conflicts with what an overclocker needs. I see little use in adding USB 3.0 connectivity unless GIGABYTE are again attempting to up the motherboards features thereby enhancing mass market appeal which surely goes against the ethos of this particular board.

Let's delve a little deeper and take a look at the on-board components and power delivery circuit...


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