DX58SO or DP55KG?

[generallee989]

Hey all,

Im in the middle of setting up a watercooling system and I have both of these boards.

Which one should I use? its a gaming system and will be messing with overclocking a little. Not much though as they are already fast.

Im asking:

1. Which will run smoother?
2. Which will benefit more from watercooling?
3. Which will get better overclocks?

Also opinions on which would look better? Ram slots are on the top of the board vs along the side... The DP55KG has the skull on the bottom that lights up... But watercooling wise..

Heres the Setup:

Case - DD Waterbox Plus
PSU - 1000W antec
RAM - Patriot Sector 5 1600MHz x 16GB
Graphics - AMD/MSI R6950 Reference w/ unlocked shaders

I just need to decide on the board. Here is what I have for that:

Intel Dx58SO w/ i7 920

or

Intel DP55KG w/ i7 870

 

[redduc900]

I'm curious as to why you selected Intel P55 and X58 boards, when there are substantially better overclocking boards available from other manufacturers.

 

[generallee989]

I'm curious as to why you selected Intel P55 and X58 boards, when there are substantially better overclocking boards available from other manufacturers.

Good question. Part of the reason is that they were free.

Another reason is Intel makes an extremely stable platform then ships that platform out to manufactures prior to the product being released. Then gives those manufactures a x amount of time to modify it to their specs. Many times when they do this, they mess something up because of the rush to release a product. Sometimes though, other manufactures get things right and make an excelent board.

You would be surprised how stable these actually are with overclocking. Or maybe I just got lucky and got descent boards

Also, I dont feel the need to upgrade just yet.

 

[EarthDog]

WHile that is true, X58 has been out long enough now that it is surely stable (and has been for years). There are MANY better choices than intel boards out, thats for sure.

As far as what LOOKS better... sir, thats your PC!!! What I think may look good you may not, so aesthetics are really for you to decide.

Last, you are upgrading to a system that is 2 generations old. While it still performs fine, You can get more for your money in moving to Z68 based and i5 2500k or even a modern AMD rig.

You also do not need close to a 1KW PSU for a single card, hell even dual! 750W will be fine for SLI/Crossfire and overclocking, while a single 550W (Quality brand) PSU will handle any single card and an overclock.

You will also want 3 sticks of ram (not 4) for the X58 based system...

To answer your questions...:

1. They will both run exactly the same.
2. Netiher will benefit more from watercooling. Watercooling a motherboard isnt something normally done as there are little tangible benefits in doing so.
3. Its likely both with be in the same 4ghz ballpark.

EDIT: Crap, sorry, you already purchased these boards...

 

[generallee989]

WHile that is true, X58 has been out long enough now that it is surely stable (and has been for years). There are MANY better choices than intel boards out, thats for sure.

As far as what LOOKS better... sir, thats your PC!!! What I think may look good you may not, so aesthetics are really for you to decide.

Last, you are upgrading to a system that is 2 generations old. While it still performs fine, You can get more for your money in moving to Z68 based and i5 2500k or even a modern AMD rig.

You also do not need close to a 1KW PSU for a single card, hell even dual! 750W will be fine for SLI/Crossfire and overclocking, while a single 550W (Quality brand) PSU will handle any single card and an overclock.

You will also want 3 sticks of ram (not 4) for the X58 based system...

To answer your questions...:

1. They will both run exactly the same.
2. Netiher will benefit more from watercooling. Watercooling a motherboard isnt something normally done as there are little tangible benefits in doing so.
3. Its likely both with be in the same 4ghz ballpark.

EDIT: Crap, sorry, you already purchased these boards...

Yeah, I have had both of these for about a year. Not going to buy anything new till the new platform comes out. About 2 years ago, I purchased the PSU when I had my old config. That is why I have it. It was:

EVGA 780i w/ e8400
2 x DVD-R
1 x BD Player
2 x 8800 GTX SLI
5 x 120mm fan
1 x 200mm fan
Zalman CPU Cooler w/ 120mm fan
3 x 7200 RPM HDD
Antec 900 case

It was loaded and I got the use out of it.

So If I use the x58, isnt there a bug where the RAM would see the 4th stick as a single channel and that they never fully got the triple channel dialed in?
It wont do a dual channel if I remember right.

 

[theflyingrat]

X58 will do dual-channel, actually - you've just got to have 2 modules in that motherboard, since that's a wacky X58 board with 4 slots. They have no problems with running this way. You don't get the third channel, of course, but that's of pretty little gain anyway. But they're there, so you might as well use them and leave the 4th slot open - if there's no need to run 16GB of RAM, you could just use 3 of the 4 modules, get your triple-channel operation while using 12GB of RAM, and keep the fourth module as a spare if filling the fourth slot concerns you.

I like the X58 platform; between the two, I'd pick the 920 on the X58; folks seemed to hit an overclocking wall a bit sooner with the 860 and 870s for some reason, and I can't remember what that explanation was. The X58 would also give you a bit of added versatility that the P55 wouldn't from a video perspective as well, with more PCI-Express lanes. It's not that P55 is bad in any way; it's just that, given you have both boards already and the 920 and 870 being roughly the same price if you have to buy one or the other, there's no reason not to go with X58.

Regardless of which you use, you can ship me the 'spare' board you have leftover, and I will dispose of it for you.