[H]ard|OCP

Navigation

• [H] Forums
• Archives
• Search
• [H] Folding

Gigabyte EX58-Extreme

GIGABYTE’s flagship X58 motherboard looks to be a champion. Its more than adequate chipset cooler, capable of both air and water operation, as well as the other bundled goodies, make it seem that this is one of the new X58 boards to beat.

Introduction

GIGABYTE is a world renowned computer component manufacturer, known for their stable and performance driven motherboard designs over the last few years. While GIGABYTE’s catered approach to the enthusiast crowd may be untraditional at times, the company continues to deliver high quality components worthy of the worst enthusiast divined torture. In line with this reputation, theEX58-Extreme motherboard looks to be prepared to firmly compete in the Core i7 arena.

The GIGABYTE EX58-Extreme motherboard is the flagship for GIGABYTE’s newly released motherboard line supporting the Intel Core i7 processor. The board is designed around the Intel X58 Northbridge, innately supporting the following: Intel LGA1366 Core i7 processors, DDR3 memory operating in Triple Channel memory mode up to 1333MHz officially, and either NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossFireX graphics mode using matched graphics cards.

The board itself is feature complete, with the following components needed for an operational system: an Intel LGA1366 Core i7 processor, at least one stick of DDR3 memory, a video card, a hard drive, and a PSU. GIGABYTE integrated the following components directly in to the EX58-Extreme: 6 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capable) on the Intel ICH10R controller; 1 ATA-133 IDE port and 2 SATA II ports (RAID 0 and 1 equivalent capable) on the GIGABYTE controller; 12 USB 2.0 capable ports (8 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 3 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers); 2 x Realtek GigE Ethernet ports in the rear panel; Realtek 8-channel HD audio codec with S/PDIF optical and component output ports; onboard power, system reset and CMOS reset buttons; onboard 2-digit diagnostic LED display; and PS/2 keyboard/mouse ports in the rear panel.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Packaging

With their normal flair, GIGABYTE designed the box with an eye catching holograhic reflective overlay and an artistic rendering of the board with supported technologies listed clearly on the box front. The following accessories are bundled in with the board: ATA-133 and floppy ribbon cables; SATA drive cables; the rear panel shield; rear brackets and power connectors for using the internal SATA 2 ports as eSATA ports; 2-way and 3-way SLI connectors; the Hybrid Silent Pipe 2 chipset cooling solution; and the normal complement of manuals and drivers discs. The Hybrid Silent Pipe 2 cooling solution screws down on top of the chipset cooler, next to the integrated water block, allowing for very effective air based passive cooling of the onboard heat pipe chipset cooler.

Board Layout

GIGABYTE designed the EX58-Extreme very nicely, with a clean and spacious layout. Notice that that the all normal board hotspots are accounted for and covered by the integrated heat pipe cooler, with the optional Hybrid Silent Pipe 2 air based cooler shown hooked in to the system as well. With the air cooler attached, you lose the ability to use cards in the PCI-Express x1 and x4 slots. However, the cooler had no impact when using the primary PCI-Express x16 slot. While there is no serial number clearly marked on the board’s surface, the board revision is silk-screened to the surface in the upper left corner, with the revision used in testing shown as a 1.0 model. As is common place with the higher end boards, GIGABYTE chose to use aluminum based solid-state capacitors for the board’s power routing needs.

While the CPU socket area may look tight due to it being surrounded by the chipset heat-pipe cooler, there is plenty of room for use of even larger cooling apparatuses. The CPU cooler is held fast by the standard 4-hole based LGA 1366 based mechanism, which is a bit larger than the LGA775 based design. The Intel X58 Northbridge chipset is directly to the left of the CPU socket, covered by a massive cooler, with an integrated water block and space for the Hybrid Silent Pipe 2 air based solution just below it. Directly above the Northbridge and to the lower left of the rear panel block is the front panel audio connector. The SYS_FAN3 header and 8-pin ATX12V power connector are located to the upper right of the CPU socket. To its lower right is the 4-pin CPU_FAN header.

The EX58-Extreme motherboard is designed for triple channel memory access; requiring a total of 3 DIMMS of DDR3 RAM in order to achieve triple channel bandwidth. Triple Memory mode is active with matched DIMMS in like colored slots across the slot sets, although the motherboard will function with a single DIMM inserted giving your single channel DDR3 access. Directly below the memory slots are the SYS_FAN1 header, the 24-pin ATX power connector, the NB_FAN header, and the onboard system power and system reset buttons. The CPU phase LED, Northbridge phase LED and memory phase LED banks, also situated beneath the DIMM slots, show how much voltage is supplied to each of the named subsystems via the individual bank of associated LEDs. The higher the voltage is set, the more LEDs from the bank that are active.

The Intel ICH10R Southbridge chipset is located below the board’s PCI-Express x16 slots, covered by a massive low profile cooler. This cooler also acts as a terminating end of the onboard heat pipe cooling solution. The CMOS reset jumper and CMOS battery are located to the lower right of the chipset cooler, as well as all ten onboard SATA 2 slots and the SYS_FAN1 header. The blue colored SATA 2 slots are controlled by the ICH10R controller, while the white colored slots are tied to the GIGABYTE controller. Note that for the GIGABYTE controlled SATA 2 ports, each vertical is a separate bank meaning that you can at most have a 2 device by RAID 0 or 1 array when using the GIGABYTLE controller. Directly to the left of the SATA 2 ports are the onboard 2-digit diagnostic display, the ATA-133 IDE port, and the front panel header with both 2 and 3-pin power LED headers available. The diagnostic display can be used to trouble shoot system initialization related issues using the manual to decipher the 2 digit code displayed when the initialization problem occurs. Just above the front panel header are the USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, and SYS_FAN2 device headers.

The board itself was designed with a total of 2 blue colored PCI-Express x16 video card slots, an orange colored PCI-Express x8 electrical/x16 physical video card slot, a white colored PCI-Express x1 slot, an orange colored PCI-Express x4 slot, and 2 white colored PCI slots. Along the outer edge of the PCI-Express x8 slot is the SYS_FAN2 and floppy headers. The CD_IN header is located just above the secondary PCI slot, with the S/PDIF input header just above the primary PCI-Express x16 slot.

GIGABYTE integrated the following devices/ports in to the EX58-Extreme’s rear panel: 2 PS/2 keyboard/mouse ports; 1 IEEE 1394 port; 8 USB 2.0 ports; 2 Realtek GigE Ethernet ports; an passive heat pipe exhaust port; a CMOS reset button; and 6 analogue and S/PDIF optical and RCA component audio output ports.

GIGABYTE EasyTune 6

For Windows based monitoring and overclocking, GIGABYTE chose to package version 6 of their EasyTune software on the install DVD with the version shown being revision B08.1022.1. The application itself has been streamlined when compared to previous versions of the app, with all functionality accessible through a series of tabs across the app pages. By default, the application starts in the Tuner tab, which allows for user controlled manipulation of the various board bus speeds and voltages.

The CPU tab shows real time system statistics on the various bus speeds, and well as detailed CPU and BIOS related information. The memory tab shows memory statistics for all onboard slots on a slot by slot basis.

The Graphics tab shows current core and memory speed for the video card in use, as well as allowing for direct video card based core and memory speed manipulation.

The Smart tab contains settings for the CIA2 dynamic overclocking chipset, as well as controls for manually setting the CPU Smart Fan temperature thresholds for optimal CPU cooler performance.

The HW Monitor tab displays statics on all BIOS monitored voltages, fan speeds, and temperatures. This screen also allows for the configuration of alert settings for the monitored fan speed and temperature devices.