ECS X58B-A Black Edition Motherboard Review

[Apoptosis]

The Black Series X58B-A "Nehalem" Motherboard with LGA1366 socket support for Intel's all-new "Core-i7" processors is currently the flagship motherboard for ECS Elitegroup. With the Intel X58 Express chipset handling the North Bridge duties and the Intel Intel ICH10R South Bridge handling the rest of the board you know this will be a sound and stable platform. Read on to see how the ECS X58B-A motherboard does on the benchmarks and to see it overclocks.

The ECS X58B-A Black Edition motherboard was incredibly stable through all the testing, something to be expected from a major OEM manufacturer where stability is critical. Overclocking stability was also impressive with a 185MHz base clock achieved when I was expecting no overclock. Add in the inclusion of ICH10R, SLI and CrossFire support, and 6 DIMM slots and you've got a well equipped motherboard...

Article Title: ECS X58B-A Black Edition Motherboard Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/846/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $269.99 plus shipping

[skier]

good read, i am new to a board having Xfire AND SLI, seems strange, is this common now?

[Apoptosis]

good read, i am new to a board having Xfire AND SLI, seems strange, is this common now?

yes all of the new Intel X58 Express chipsets support both NVIDIA SLI and AMD's CrossFire multi-GPU technology.

[skier]

ok, that's what i assumed, but i like being sure

also, what are the dimensions of this, it seems small for an ATX board nvm, 305x244mm which is exactly the same size as my board

[Mumm]

Maybe its just me but I've been unable to download any drivers from thier support site. I've been working on one of their older boards but haven't had any luck getting drivers from them. Tried both IE7 and Firefox 3.

[Gomeler]

good read, i am new to a board having Xfire AND SLI, seems strange, is this common now?

yes all of the new Intel X58 Express chipsets support both NVIDIA SLI and AMD's CrossFire multi-GPU technology.

Not true ;) The company has to license SLI technology from NVIDIA and pay a little on top. Some boards won't feature SLI but all will feature CrossFire. A good example of this is Intel's reference board, no SLI support there.

[martini161]

good read, i am new to a board having Xfire AND SLI, seems strange, is this common now?

yes all of the new Intel X58 Express chipsets support both NVIDIA SLI and AMD's CrossFire multi-GPU technology.

Not true ;) The company has to license SLI technology from NVIDIA and pay a little on top. Some boards won't feature SLI but all will feature CrossFire. A good example of this is Intel's reference board, no SLI support there.

[Gomeler]

Hrm, perhaps not, depending on how you interpret it. He did just say the chipset, which could be referring to the platform which does support SLI and CFX. I interpreted it as boards so who knows Whatever, point being there is finally a good SLI and CF platform on a single board

[Apoptosis]

like I said all boards support the technology... It's just a flag in the sBIOS that has to be enabled for SLI to be officially supported... Trust me I know all about it as I was personally there they day the NVIDIA execs made the call - http://www.legitreviews.com/article/782/1/

Currently Newegg Sells 20 LGA 1366 motherboards and all but 1 support SLI... The one that doesn't support SLI is of course the Intel reference board as Intel would rather die than pay NVIDIA a licensing fee.

ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
ASUS P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
ASUS P6T Deluxe/OC Palm LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-EXTREME LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
Foxconn Renaissance LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
Foxconn BloodRage LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
BIOSTAR TpowerX58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES (the biostar site doesn't list it, but it does)
ECS X58B-A LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-DS4 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
MSI X58 Platinum LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES
MSI X58 Eclipse SLI LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support YES


Intel BOXDX58SO LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - SLI Support NO

[martini161]

wow that p6tWS is out, how much does that one MSRP for?

[Apoptosis]

wow that p6tWS is out, how much does that one MSRP for?

In stock for $369.99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131358

[Gomeler]

Lol well I stand corrected :D Makes no sense for a manufacturer to sell a board without the SLI certification though. Now we just need Core i7 boards to start costing around $200 but I guess you'll have to wait till Core i5 launches for a budget Nehalem platform.

[pwcmed]

I know I've flamed this board on the world record post but I have to say that I have never been more impressed with a support then ECS. The guy I spoke with was very polite and SOUNDED concerned about my problem. The guy I was helping out already had a case number with them so I asked them if they had a beta bios we could try for now and to send it to the email on the case number. The guy didn't lie and just say yes, he said he didn't know but he would make some phone calls and I will get back with my buddy. Three hours later he gets a phone call from his supervisor stating that a new bios is in the works but he does have a beta bios that should resolve this issue. Flashed the board with the new bios and it worked like a charm.