ASUS P6X58D-Premium Motherboard Review

ASUS has been a longtime partner to Intel, and both companies have been made better because of their relationship. But when it comes to new technology, sometimes Intel takes a little too long to implement change while ASUS prefers to offer their faithful consumers the options right away. Intel's tick-tock plan doesn't coincide with the technical improvements made to areas outside of processor development, such as SuperSpeed USB-3.0 or Revision 3.x SATA 6.0-Gbps (aka SATA-III) controllers. Most hardware enthusiasts agree that it's awkward to see Intel's "Enthusiast" branded X58-Express chipset paired to older standards while "Mainstream" P55 motherboards enjoy the better and faster new ones. ASUS feels the same way, and now offers their P6X58D-Premium motherboard to forward-thinking enthusiasts who might not want to wait for the launch of Intel's X68-Express platform. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests several X58-based motherboard against the ASUS P6X58D-Premium in head-to-head graphics, processor, memory, and SSD storage performance.

SuperSpeed USB-3.0 is an appropriately named technology, and several file transfer tests during the 2010 CES demonstrated the impressive 5Gbps signaling rate. Although USB3 devices won't compete with third-generation SATA6G interface in terms of operational file transfers, SuperSpeed USB easily beats bandwidth performance from the older second-generation SATA-3Gbps controllers. This is precisely why ASUS has incorporated the NEC D720200F1 SuperSpeed USB-3.0 chip on their P6X58D-Premium X58-Express motherboard.

Revision 3.x SATA 6Gb/s (SATA-III) has also been added onto the X58-Express platform, allowing enthusiasts to enjoy faster top-end bandwidth speeds from capable Solid State Drive storage devices. Instead of waiting for Intel to add SATA-6G support into their upcoming X68-Express platform planned for 2011, ASUS includes support on the P6X58D-Premium X58 motherboard right now by utilizing the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 SATA 6Gb/s controller.

Generally speaking, system performance should not change between X58-Express platform motherboards. Individual graphics, memory, processor, and storage performance should each deliver results approximately equal to tests on each brand and model of X58 motherboard... unless the manufacturer has introduced technology or changes that might penalize the pipeline performance. This project compares three X58-Express motherboards: the original Gigabyte X58-series against their new X58A-series, and the ASUS P6X58D Premium. This article will concentrate on the differences that exist between video card, processor, system memory, and SSD performance.

About ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

ASUS comes from the last four letters of Pegasus, the winged horse in Greek mythology that represents the inspiration of art and learning. ASUS embodies the strength, creative spirit and purity symbolized by this regal and agile mythical creature, soaring to new heights of quality and innovation with each product it introduces to the market.

ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era, with an extensive product portfolio that includes notebooks, netbooks, motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, desktop PCs, servers, wireless solutions, mobile phones and networking devices. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today's digital home, office and person. ASUS won 3,056 awards in 2008, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC. With a global staff of more than ten thousand and a world-class R&D design team, the company's revenue for 2008 was 8.1 billion U.S. dollars. ASUS ranks among BusinessWeek's InfoTech 100, and has been on the listing for 12 consecutive years.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc., also known as ASUS, a technology-oriented company blessed with one of the world's top R&D teams, is well known for high-quality and innovative technology. As a leading provider of 3C (computers, communications and consumer electronics) total solutions, ASUS offers a complete product portfolio to compete in the new millennium.

To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, great products need to be complimented by speed-to-market, cost and service. That's why all 100,000 over employees of ASUS strive for the "ASUS Way of Total Quality Management" to offer the best quality without compromising cost and time-to-market while providing maximum value to all customers through world-class services.

Intel Core i7: Platform

The ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard is built specifically for LGA1366 Intel Core-i7 desktop processors. The feature highlights for all current Core-i7 processors is:

• 45nm Process
• Intel Virtualization Technology
• Execute Disable Bit
• Eight processing threads with Intel HT technology
• Triple-Channel DDR3 memory support

What is Nehalem Technology?

The Intel Core i7 microprocessor is built using the codename "Nehalem" micro architecture, that allows chips to handle more data, quicker and more energy efficiently. Go inside Intel's labs and meet some of the thousands of Intel engineers who helped design and test the new processor. "Building this microprocessor brings a lot of people together, like architects, micro architects and the design teams," says Rani Borkar, vice president of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "As you get into the development phases, working with the process technology, it's a mind-boggling effort that requires a lot of teamwork across the board."

Before going into the specifications and features of the entire Intel Core i7 processor series we thought some background information about the new Nehalem technology might be in order. While doing research for this review I came a cross a very useful document on Intel's website entitled: "First the Tick, Now the Tock: Next Generation Intel Micro-architecture (Nehalem)". This white paper article helped me to gain a much better understanding of not only the features we'll see today in the Core i7 series of processors, but in future product releases we're likely to see that will implement other aspects of the Nehalem architecture. The article itself is 8 pages long so I'll leave it to you to read it in its entirety, but I will share a few excerpts that may help you to gain a better understanding of the products we'll visit today.

The first chapter is all about scalability. Next generation Intel micro architecture (Nehalem) is a dynamically scalable and design-scalable micro architecture. At runtime, it dynamically manages cores, threads, cache, interfaces, and power to deliver outstanding energy efficiency and performance on demand. At design time, it scales, enabling Intel to easily provide versions that are optimized for each server, desktop, and notebook market. Intel will deliver versions differing in the number of cores, caches, interconnect capability, and memory controller capability, as well as in the segmented use of an integrated graphics controller. This allows Intel to deliver a wide range of price, performance, and energy efficiency targets for servers, workstations, desktops, and laptops.

To extract greater performance from this new micro architecture, in targeted market segments, Intel is also introducing a new platform architecture: Intel QuickPath Architecture. Through integrated memory controllers and a high-speed interconnect for connecting processors and other components, Intel QuickPath Architecture delivers best-in-class performance, bandwidth, and reliability. In turn, it truly enables systems to fully unleash the new levels of performance that new and more powerful next generation micro architecture-based processor cores will deliver.

Next generation Intel micro architecture (Nehalem) marks the next step (a "tock") in Intel's rapid "tick-tock" cadence for delivering a new process technology (tick) or an entirely new micro architecture (tock) every year. The first Nehalem-based processors are expected to release in the latter part of 2008. The family will grow to include server, workstation, desktop, and mobile processors.

The next generation micro architecture's performance and power management innovations include:

• Dynamically managed cores, threads, cache, interfaces, and power.
• Simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) for enabling a more energy efficient means of increasing performance for multi-threaded workloads. The next generation micro architecture's SMT capability enables running two simultaneous threads per core-an amazing eight simultaneous threads per quad-core processor and 16 simultaneous threads for dual-processor quad-core designs.
• Innovative extensions to the Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4) that center on enhancing XML, string, and text processing performance.
• Superior multi-level cache, including an inclusive shared L3 cache.
• New high-end system architecture that delivers from two to three times more peak bandwidth and up to four times more realized bandwidth (depending on configuration) as compared to today's Intel Xeon processors.
• Performance-enhanced dynamic power management.

For more information on Intel's Core i7 series, please visit our Featured Reviews: Processors section which includes comprehensive articles on the Core i7-920 (BX80601920) and Core i7-965 Extreme Edition processors.

Intel X58-Express Platform

The ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard platform consists of the Intel Core i7 processor (CPU), Intel X58-Express Chipset (IOH) and the ICH. The CPU now incorporates the system memory controller and accesses DDR3 memory through three independent memory channels. The IOH provides support for the two PCIe graphics slots and connects to the CPU via the Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) bus. The ICH provides the support for the SATA, USB and other system interfaces and is connected to the IOH via the DMI bus.

All motherboard busses and components are driven from a single 133.33 MHz base clock. The resulting component speed values are generated by applying a multiplier value to this base clock. There are four multipliers on the motherboard which are used to set the system speed:

1. CPU Speed: When multiplied by the system base clock speed (default 133.33 MHz) gives the CPU frequency. Four multipliers are used to define different speeds based on the number of active CPU cores.
2. Memory Speed: When multiplied by the system base clock speed gives the memory frequency. For example a memory multiplier of 10 times the base clock of 133.33 MHz results in a memory frequency of 1333 MHz.
3. Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) Speed: Selectable transfer rate of data transferred between the CPU and the IOH.
4. Uncore Speed: This multiplier applies to the non-CPU related items in the processor. The limit on this multiplier is set by the memory multiplier.

The Intel X58 Express Chipset

The Intel X58 Express Chipset continues to push innovation with capabilities designed to deliver quality, performance and headroom The Intel X58 Express Chipset achieves this performance by supporting the latest Intel Core i7 family of processors at 6.4 GT/s and 4.8 GT/s speeds via the Quick Path Interconnect (QPI), and enabling increased system bandwidth by supporting industry leading technologies, such as PCI Express 2.0 graphics, Intel Turbo Memory and support for Intel High-Performance Solid State drives.

PCI Express 2.0

Intel's high-end desktop chipset continues support for PCI Express 2.0 and adds flexibility with support of dual x16 and up to quad x8 graphics card configurations and combinations in between. The greatly improved 32GB/s of graphics bandwidth capability enables much higher levels of performance on graphics intensive applications such as high end gaming and video rendering for digital content creation.

Faster System Performance

With the growing imbalance between processor and memory performance, it is critical to optimize the memory controller design to obtain the maximum possible performance from the memory subsystem. The transition of the integrated memory controller (iMC) into the processor significantly increases overall system performance through the optimization of available bandwidth along with reduction of memory access latency. The Intel Core i7 family of processors brings triple channel DDR3 memory technology support. The DDR3 SDRAM devices operating at 1066 MHz, offer peak data transfer rates of up to 25.6 GB/s (when operated in triplel-channel interleaved mode), enabling the platform to take advantage of the higher bandwidth, faster system performance, and higher performance per watt at 1066MHz2.

Intel I/O Controller Hub 10 (Intel ICH10 and Intel ICH10R)

The Intel ICH10 I/O controller hub of the Intel X58 Express Chipset integrates several capabilities to provide flexibility for connecting I/O devices.

• Intel Matrix Storage Technology1: Native support of external SATA ports (eSATA), combined with Intel Matrix Storage Technology (Intel MST), provides the flexibility to add an external drive for increased data storage with up to 6 times faster performance than USB* 2.0 or IEEE 1394 4002. Support for eSATA enables the full SATA interface speed of up to 3 Gb/s outside the chassis. The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) provides easier expandability with support for eSATA devices and native hot plug, while boosting boot and multi-tasking performance with Native Command Queuing (NCQ). In addition, support for Command Based Port Multipliers, and RAID levels 0, 1, 5 and 10 enable greater reliability for personal data, or maximum storage performance for intensive applications.
• Intel Rapid Recover Technology (when configured with ICH10R I/O controller): With the ability to instantly boot off of a clone hard drive, Intel Rapid Recover Technology provides a fast, easy to use method for the end user to recover their data and return their system to an operational status.
• Intel Turbo Memory: The Intel X58 Express Chipset with the Intel ICH10R also supports Intel Turbo Memory, an innovative flash memory-based overall system performance and boot time accelerator. This feature is easily implemented using a PCI
  Express x1 module and can be used with any SATA Hard Drive to improve system responsiveness. Intel Turbo memory enables faster application loading and concurrent performance enhancements when used in conjunction with Intel Matrix Storage
  Technology. Intel Turbo Memory, paired with the Intel X58 Express Chipset, also allows the user to easily control the applications or data in the cache using the new Intel Turbo Memory Dashboard interface, boosting performance further.
• Intel Solid State Drives support: The Intel X58 Express Chipset, when paired with Intel X25-E Extreme and X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid State Drives (SSDs), provides a high performance solution that can enable faster overall system response, boot and resume times. With no moving parts, SSDs run cooler and quieter and are a more reliable option than hard drives. In addition, SSDs remove input/output (I/O) performance bottlenecks associated with hard disk drives that help maximize the efficiency of Intel processors, such as the new Intel Core i7 processor family.

ASUS P6X58D-Premium Features

LGA1366 Intel Bloomfield Processor Ready
The ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard supports the latest Intel Core i7 processors in LGA1366 package with integrated memory controller to support 3-channel (6 DIMMs) DDR3 memory. Supports Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) with a system bus of up to 6.4 GT/s and a max bandwidth of up to 25.6 GB/s. Intel Core i7 processor is one of the most powerful and energy efficient CPUs in the world.

3-Way SLI and Quad-GPU CrossFireX Support!
The P6X58D Premium breaks the boundaries to bring you the multi-GPU choice of either SLI or CrossFireX. The motherboard features a dedicated graphics engine on the most powerful Intel X58 platform to optimize PCIe allocation in multiple GPU configurations. Expect a brand-new gaming style you've never experienced before!

Intel X58-Express
The Intel X58 Express Chipset is one of the most powerful chipset designed to support the Intel Core i7 Processors with LGA1366 package and Intel next generation system interconnect interface, Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI), providing improved performance by utilizing serial point-to-point links, allowing increased bandwidth and stability. It also supports up to 36 PCI Express 2.0 lanes providing better graphics performance.

PCI-Express 2.0
The ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard supports the latest PCIe 2.0 devices for double speed and bandwidth which enhances system performance.

True SATA 6Gb/s Support
Supporting next-generation Serial ATA (SATA) storage interface, this motherboard delivers up to 6.0Gb/s data transfer rates. Additionally, get enhanced scalability, faster data retrieval, double the bandwidth of current bus systems.

True USB 3.0 Support
Experience ultra-fast data transfers at 4.8Gbps with USB 3.0-the latest connectivity standard. Built to connect easily with next generation components and peripherals, USB 3.0 transfers data 10X faster and is also backward compatible with USB 2.0 components.

Triple-Channel DDR3 2000 (O.C.) / 1333 / 1066 support
The ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard supports DDR3 memory that features data transfer rates of 2000(O.C.) / 1333 / 1066 MHz to meet the higher bandwidth requirements of the latest 3D graphics, multimedia, and Internet applications. The triple-channel DDR3 architecture enlarges the bandwidth of your system memory to boost system performance.

ASUS 16+2 Xtreme Phase Power Design
The groundbreaking 16+2 phase VRM design is brrought to the ASUS motherboards. 16+2 phase power design, 16-phase for vCore and extra 2-phase for QPI/Memory controller inside CPU, can provide the highest power efficiency, and hence generates less heat to effectively enhance the overclocking capability. With the high quality power components such as low RDS (on) MOSFETs, Ferrite core chokes with lower hysteresis loss and 100% Japan-made high quality conductive polymer capacitors, ASUS 16+2 phase VRM design also ensure longer component life and minimum power loss.

ASUS TurboV
Feel the adrenaline rush of real-time OC - now a reality with the ASUS TurboV. This extreme OC tool lets you set new ambitions on the OC stage with an advanced and easy-to-use interface - allowing you to overclock without exiting or rebooting the OS. With micro adjustments of the CPU PLL, NB, NB-PCIe, and DRAM voltages in 0.02v intervals, there are no limits - only extreme results to break new OC records!

ASUS EPU
The new ASUS EPU - the world´s first power saving engine, has been upgraded to a new six engine version, which provides total system power savings by detecting current PC loadings and intelligently moderating power in real-time. With auto phase switching for components (which includes the CPU, VGA card, memory, chipset, drives and system fan), the EPU automatically provides the most appropriate power usage via intelligent acceleration and overclocking - helping save power and money.

ASUS Express Gate SSD
Express Gate is an ASUS exclusive OS that provides you with quick access to the Internet and key applications before entering Windows.

MemOK!
MemOK! quickly ensures memory boot compatibility. This remarkable memory rescue tool requires a mere push of a button to patch memory issues. MemOK! determines failsafe settings and dramatically improves your system boot success. Get your system up and running in no time!

ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution
The Heat Pipe design effectively directs the heat generated by the chipsets to the heatsink near the back IO ports, where it can be carried away by existing airflow from CPU fan or bundled optional fan. The purpose of the innovative heat pipe design on this motherboard is that the groundbreaking fanless design does not have lifetime problems as a chipset fan does. Furthermore, it provides options for users to install side-flow fan or passive cooler. The Heat Pipe design is the most reliable fanless thermal solution to date.

Fan Xpert
ASUS Fan Xpert intelligently allows users to adjust both the CPU and chassis fan speed according to different ambient temperature , which is caused by different climate conditions in different geographic regions and system loading.Built-in variety of useful profiles offer flexible controls of fan speed to achieve a quiet and cool environment.

Up to 20°C (36°F) Cooler - Stack Cool 3+
Stack Cool 3+ is a fanless cooling solution offered exclusively by ASUS. It effectively and noiselessly transfers heat generated by the critical components to the other side of the specially designed PCB (printed circuit board) for effective heat dissipation - making temperatures cooler by up to 20°C.

ASUS Crystal Sound
DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC delivers exceptional 5.1 surround experience through the most common PC audio setups - your existing stereo speakers or headphones. In addition to virtual surround, "Bass enhancement" provides stronger low frequency bass sound, and "Voice clarification" provides clear human dialogue even with loud background sound. With these technologies, you may experience a better home-theater audio with ease.

Noise Filter
This feature detects repetitive and stationary noises like computer fans, air conditioners, and other background noises then eliminates it in the incoming audio stream while recording.

ASUS EZ DIY
With an easy press during overclock, this exclusive onboard switch allows gamer to effortless fine-tune the performance without having to short the pins!

Q- Shield
The specially designed ASUS Q-Shield does without the usual "fingers" - making it convenient and easy to install. With better electric conductivity, it ideally protects your motherboard against static electricity and shields it against Electronic Magnetic Interference (EMI).

EZ-Flash 2
EZ Flash 2 is a user-friendly BIOS update utility. Simply launch this tool and update BIOS from a USB flash disk before entering the OS. You can update your BIOS only in a few clicks without preparing an additional floppy diskette or using an OS-based flash utility.

ASUS Q-Design
ASUS Q-Design enhances your DIY experience. All of Q-LED, Q-Slot and Q-DIMM design speed up and simplify the DIY process!

Q-Connector
The ASUS Q-Connector allows you to connect or disconnect chassis front panel cables in one easy step with one complete module. This unique adapter eliminates the trouble of plugging in one cable at a time, making connection quick and accurate.

O.C. Profile
Freely share and distribute favorite overclocking settings The motherboard features the ASUS O.C. Profile that allows users to conveniently store or load multiple BIOS settings. The BIOS settings can be stored in the CMOS or a separate file, giving users freedom to share and distribute their favorite overclocking settings.

GreenASUS
The ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard and its packaging comply with the European Union's Restriction on the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). This is in line with the ASUS vision of creating environment-friendly and recyclable products and packaging to safeguard consumers´ health while minimizing the impact on the environment.

ASUS P6X58D-Premium Specifications

First Look: P6X58D-Premium

Intel originally launched the X58-Express platform on 3 November 2008 and despite some incremental improvements here and there, very little has changed with the otherwise ideal core design. While not their most expensive mainboard solution, the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard is designed for the enthusiast through-and-through. A black (dark brown, really) printed circuit board (PCB) is paired with other black and blue hardware components to create an attitude that says "I'm built to work hard, and play even harder". Benchmark Reviews has tested more than a few motherboards in our time, and ASUS has repeatedly proven itself as the premier name in new technology and hardware stability. While our benchmark tests will prove this point later in this article, this section will cover basic motherboard features and component details.

Based on Intel's X58-Express chipset, the ASUS P6X58D-Premium comes with the requisite two 16x PCI-Express 2.0 lanes, and single 8x PCI-Express 2.0 lane. NVIDIA Triple-SLI or ATI CrossFireX video card sets perform their best with X58-Express platforms, which allow extreme-bandwidth graphics processing hardware to take advantage of the 32 reserved link lanes. A single-lane PCI-Express slot and two standard PCI slots also offer additional expansion capabilities, if you should need them.

ASUS offers a single heat-pipe rod on the P6X58D-Premium motherboard, which spans from the covered Intel ICH10R Southbridge chip, over and past the X58-Express Northbridge chip's heatsink, and continues on to cover two rows of power-management components cooled by thin aluminum fin-sinks.

At first glance it might not seem like the ASUS P6X58D-Premium offers anything new that the nine other ASUS P6T-series motherboards or both Rampage-II products don't already offer, but the devil is in the details as they say. At the time of this writing, the P6X58D-Premium is the only motherboard in the ASUS X58 product line to offer SuperSpeed USB-3.0 or Revision 3.x SATA 6.0-Gbps (aka SATA-III) controllers.

Surrounding the LGA1366 processor socket are several high-quality CPU power modules that utilize ferrite core chokes to minimize electromagnetic (and radio) interference signal noise and create a cleaner electrical circuit and comprise the finer points ASUS' EPU and 16+2 Phase Power Design. A lower Resistance from Drain to Source rDS (ON) MOSFET array allows for transitional power steps. Japanese manufactured SMD solid state capacitors, which contain a solid organic polymer and lower equivalent series resistance (ESR), are implemented throughout this board and will likely outlast the useful life of the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard.

Previous generation LGA775 cooling products are not compatible with the LGA1366 socket. The X58-Express LGA1366 socket increased the distance between CPU cooler mounting holes to 80mm, which is significantly more footprint area than the 72mm used by the LGA775 socket. This has opened the door for several new aftermarket cooling solution, since the Intel Core-i7 desktop processor series is by definition an enthusiast product line made to endure overclocking.

Many CPU cooler manufacturers have designed adapters to fit existing LGA775 coolers onto the LGA1366 socket, which isn't safe because of the enlarged processor surface area. For systems not receiving an overclock, this may not be such a problem. But if you're going to re-use your Core 2 cooler on any enthusiast-grade Nehalem LGA1366 Core-i7 processor, it had better be listed near the top of our Best CPU Cooler Performance list. I'll explain why in my final thoughts section, which should be helpful information for hardware enthusiasts.

The backside of the ASUS P6X58D-Premium PCB illustrates how much design effort went into making all of the new components fit. Notice that there are anodized-aluminum plate heatsinks covering the power VRM undersides, and an EPU-ASP0800 power phase IC chip is positioned nearby. There's more detail on the power phase enhancements in the next section, so please continue on...

Closer Look: ASUS X58D

In this section, Benchmark Reviews inspects those small feature details that set the ASUS P6X58D-Premium apart from all other X58-Express motherboards. While SATA-6G and USB-3 support are the highlight features, improvements to the power management, audio, and network functions also exist.

Like many other X58 motherboards, there are six DIMM slots available for DDR3 memory. The ASUS P6X58D-Premium accepts up to 24GB of DDR3 system memory. If overclocked 2000MHz DDR3 can be used; otherwise 1600/1333/1066MHz Non-ECC Un-buffered triple-channel memory architecture is supported. Support for Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory kits is standard on the X58-Express platform. X58-Express does not retire dual-channel memory mode, so enthusiasts who are already using their favorite DDR3 memory in an older system can upgrade to X58 without purchasing additional memory; the drawback is that dual-channel mode only doubles memory bandwidth while triple-channel mode will (you guessed it) triple the original bandwidth.

24GB of available system memory will really add momentum for 64-bit computing support, but the six DIMM slots might also help optimize current 32-bit systems with smaller 1GB modules. 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems for example, offers a 4GB maximum memory mapping space and anything more is ignored. Since most all PCI-E video cards available today offer at least 512MB of GDDR, it's theoretically impossible for enthusiasts to completely realize 4GB of system memory.

The rear Input/Output panel (I/O panel) receives the first major update: SuperSpeed USB-3.0 support. Color-coded PS/2 ports are available for older keyboard or mouse peripherals, purple for keyboard and green for mouse. Firmware 0603 originally came with the ASUS P6X58D-Premium, and a PS/2 keyboard was needed to enter the BIOS. Although it's difficult to see, a small black button offers the ability to clear CMOS settings and restart with defaults. Colored blue, two SuperSpeed USB-3.0 ports depend on the NEC-D720200F1 controller chip (part number µPD720200). Two more SuperSpeed USB3 ports could have fit directly beside the fist set, but ASUS engineers decided to leave this area empty.

Audio support on the ASUS P6X58D-Premium utilizes the Realtek ALC889 chip, which offers 7.1 High-Definition sound. This audio chipset may be integrated, but with a featured 106 dB Signal to Noise ratio over eight channels it's anything but low-end. The coaxial and optical S/PDIF out ports supply eight channels to PC audiophiles, delivering DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC support and Blu-ray Disc audio layer Content Protection. Realtek's ALC889 chip also supports audio-jack detection, multi-streaming, and front panel jack-retasking. Six analog-out audio jacks are available further down the panel, for backwards compatibility.

The VIA Technologies VT6308 controller powers two IEEE-1394a Firewire ports on the P6X58D-Premium, one at the back and another at the bottom of the motherboard. Four High-Speed USB-2.0 ports are stacked below dual Gigabit Ethernet adapters driven by a set of Marvell 88E8056-NNC1 chips. Both PCIe Gigabit LAN controllers offer the four-year old ASUS AI-NET2 technology, and although not documented on their website or in the manual, I've discovered can diagnose local area network connection issues before entering the Operating System. AI NET2 remotely detects cable connections at system power-on, and faulty connections are reported back up to 100 meters at 1 meter accuracy.

The Intel ICH10R Southbridge chip supports six SATA-3.0Gbps ports (colored blue) capable of RAID-0, 1, 5, and 10. Colored gray, a pair of third-generation SATA 6Gb/s ports are made available on the ASUS P6X58D-Premium by a Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 controller. For those familiar, this is the second revision of the Marvell SE9123 chip, as the first version had issues with concurrent onboard IDE/PATA instructions. Alternatively, the RAID-capable Marvell 88SE9128 chip is used on Gigabyte motherboards and the performance differences will soon be made clear by our benchmark tests.

Pictured below is the backside of the motherboard PCB showing a PEM-ASP0801 chip, and EPU-ASP0800 power phase ICs covered with solid aluminum heatsink plates. The massive number of power VRM phases are intended to allow overclockers a more stable platform for their tweaking projects.

The ASUS EPU feature provides total system energy efficiency by detecting current PC loadings and intelligently moderating power in real-time by using a 16+2 phase VRM design. The 16+2 phase power design (16-phase to vCore; 2-phase to vDRAM/QPI controller inside CPU) can reach high power efficiency, dispel heat generated by VRM modules effectively by using high quality power components such as low RDS (on) MOSFETs, Ferrite core chokes with lower hysteresis loss, and 100% Japan-made high quality conductive polymer capacitors.

One particular feature the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard offers gamers is a marriage of CrossFireX and Triple-SLI support on the same motherboard. ASUS includes a standard and 3-way SLI bridge connector, but CrossFire bridge connectors will need to be supplied by respective manufacturers.

ASUS offers three PCI-Express 2.0-compliant ports on the P6X58D-Premium: the first slot offers 16x link lanes, the second operates at 16x lanes or switches to 8x whenever the third slot is occupied, which also operates at 8x. In a two-card graphics setup using either ATI CrossFire or NVIDIA SLI configuration, the first two PCI-E 2.0 ports operating at 16-lanes per video card offers the most ideal bandwidth.

While adding a third video card for triple-SLI or CrossFireX won't come close to bandwidth saturation and should not see any measure of reduced performance for most video games, there could be a penalty for using that third PCIe slot when SATA6G (Marvell 9123) and USB-3.0 (NEC D720200F1) are enabled. Intel's X58-Express offers 32 total PCI-E 2.0 link lanes reserved for graphics, and the Intel X58 IOH provides an additional four lanes that can be used for graphics or I/O for a total of 36 PCI-Express lanes. More likely uses of those four lanes will be the DMI link, Marvell, and NEC chips, which will share those lanes or borrow as-needed for normal operation.

Another note of interest is the orientation of SATA ports, which utilize transverse-mount connections to stem cables off to the side of the motherboard for both SATA6G and four adjacent SATA3G ports. This layout works extremely well for all modern video cards, especially the larger GeForce GTX 285 and Radeon HD 4870 X2 video cards which occupy multiple expansion slots.

Please continue on towards the next section, which how Benchmark Reviews will go about testing the top-of-the-line ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard.

BIOS and Overclocking

Let's face it: X58 is the platform of choice for enthusiast overclockers and extreme gamers. This is why Intel offers the Core i7-965EE and Core i7-975 Extreme Edition processors exclusively for the LGA1366 socket on X58-Express motherboards. It's also a safe bet that ASUS understands what it takes to deliver the premier overclocking platform, which is what they've attempted to create on the P6X58D-Premium motherboard.

First and foremost, every chip is different. Despite close production tolerances and identical architecture, not all same-model computer hardware will perform the same. For example, the Intel Core i7-920 processor used for testing on the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard may overclock better on a different P6X58D-Premium. Likewise, a different Core i7-920 CPU might overclock better than the processor we've used. To avoid an unfair evaluation of overclocking performance, we will instead concentrate on the overclocking features available within the BIOS.

The ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard makes use of the American Megatrends (AMI) BIOS, similar to most other ASUS motherboards. Our test sample received firmware 0702, released in mid-February 2010. Future firmware releases may offer different options than those we illustrate in this section.

The 'Ai Tweaker' section of the BIOS offers a myriad of settings for the experienced overclocker. The Ai Overclock Tuner is the easiest method to achieve an instant overclock by offering four options: manual user-defined settings, automatic system optimized settings, DOCP (DRAM OC Profile) memory overclock via BCLK, or pre-set eXtreme Memory Profiles. Most experienced overclockers will choose to define their own settings using the Manual option.

While CPU overclock settings run moderately deep depending on your end-goal, system memory configurations become highly complex with options that travel well-beyond CAS latency, CAS-RAS delay, RAS pre-time, RAS act-time, and RAS delay. In fact, with over 26 different configuration options, it might be easier to keep within the first set of variable to avoid spoiling the overclock.

The real problems begin when you work with component voltages. Not everyone has committed their system hardware power requirements to memory, which seems necessary to choose from either 'Auto' voltage or either +/- 0.00625 volt increments. While I personally feel that having the current voltage displayed beside the new setting would be optimal, the Hardware Monitor → Power section will deliver some basic component voltage readings so long as you don't mind moving between pages.

In summary, the ASUS P6X58D-Premium X58-Express SATA-6G motherboard offers some basic entry-level overclocking options for novice hardware enthusiasts, as well as some very complex BIOS options for fine tuning minutia hardware settings. The current and default power variables would be more helpful if they were displayed near the voltage options, a la Award BIOS designs, but patient overclockers still have them available with some minor navigation.

Motherboard Testing Methodology

Benchmark results are only as good as their test methodology, and there are several different methods to compare product to one-another. Yet, even when you try to directly measure motherboard performance the features don't always stack up. Since processor compatibility changes across platforms, and firmware/driver updates change frequently, it's very difficult to compare motherboards in an "apples-to-apples" fashion. Still, we try.

Unless otherwise noted, exclusive P55 vs X58 comparisons use system memory configured to operate at 1333MHz on X58/P55-Express systems, with CL 7-7-7-20 timings. These are the specified memory speeds supported by the chipset, according to Intel. Unless noted, no overclock was given to any of the hardware and BIOS settings were matched as closely as possible.

At the start of all graphics tests, the previous display adapter driver is uninstalled and trace components are removed using Driver Cleaner Pro. We then restart the computer system to establish display adapter settings and define the monitor. Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. To compare and contrast CPU- and GPU-dependency, Benchmark Reviews conducts testing at both the lowest- and highest-possible resolutions. Low display resolutions create a dependency on CPU performance, while high display resolutions place the load on GPU power.

Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. Each test is completed five times, with the highest and lowest scored removed. The average results of the three remaining tests are displayed in our article.

Since all of the benchmarks we use for testing represent different game engine technology and graphic rendering processes, our battery of tests will provide a diverse range of results for you to gauge performance on your own computer system. Although many gamers and enthusiasts are still using Windows XP, Benchmark Reviews has made the switch to Microsoft Windows 7 as the Operating System of choice for our test platforms.

ASUS P6X58D-Premium Test System

• Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-Premium (Intel X58/ICH10R/Marvell SE9123) with F0702 BIOS
• Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Nehalem 2.66 GHz (BX80601920)
• CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems (fan attached to PSU - not motherboard)
• System Memory: 6GB 2000MHz DDR3 Kingston HyperX (KHX2000C8D3T1K3/6GX)
• Primary Drive: OCZ Agility-EX SLC SSD OCZSSD2-1AGTEX60G firmware 1.50
• Graphics Adapter: ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 (Forceware 196.21)
• Power Supply Unit: OCZ Z Series Gold 850W OCZZ850

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 Test System

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 (Intel X58/ICH10R/Marvell SE9128) with F4 BIOS
Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Nehalem 2.66 GHz (BX80601920)
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems (fan attached to PSU - not motherboard)
System Memory: 6GB 2000MHz DDR3 Kingston HyperX (KHX2000C8D3T1K3/6GX)
Primary Drive: OCZ Agility-EX SLC SSD OCZSSD2-1AGTEX60G firmware 1.50
Graphics Adapter: ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 (Forceware 196.21)
Power Supply Unit: OCZ Z Series Gold 850W OCZZ850

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P Test System

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P (Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset) with F10k BIOS
Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Nehalem 2.66 GHz (BX80601920)
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems (fan attached to PSU - not motherboard)
System Memory: 6GB 2000MHz DDR3 Kingston HyperX (KHX2000C8D3T1K3/6GX)
Primary Drive: OCZ Agility-EX SLC SSD OCZSSD2-1AGTEX60G firmware 1.50
Graphics Adapter: ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 (Forceware 196.21)
Power Supply Unit: OCZ Z Series Gold 850W OCZZ850

Benchmark Software

Lavalys EVEREST Ultimate Edition v5.30
Futuremark PCMark Vantage v1.0.1.1901 64-Bit
Maxon CINEBENCH R10 64-Bit
Far Cry 2 v1.02 (640x480 Med/High or 1920x1200 Ultra Performance and Quality)
Operating System: Windows-7 Ultimate Edition 64-Bit

Support Hardware

• HighPoint Rocket 620LF PCI-E SATA 6Gb/s Card (Marvell SE9128 with firmware 1.0.0.1210)
• Crucial RealSSD-C300 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive
• Crucial M225 CT128M225 SATA-3Gbps Solid State Drive
• P3 International Kill-A-Watt EZ (model P4460) Power Meter

EVEREST CPU Benchmarks

Lavalys EVEREST Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes EVEREST Ultimate Edition a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

All of the benchmarks used in our test bed: Queen, Photoworxx, ZLib, and AES, all rely on basic x86 instructions, and consume very low system memory while also being aware of HyperThreading, multi-processors, and multi-core processors. While the EVEREST CPU tests really only compare the processor performance more than it measures platforms, it still offers a glimpse into what kind of power each platform possesses.

Queen and Photoworxx tests are synthetic benchmarks that operate the function many times over and over-exaggerate by several magnitudes what the real-world performance would be like. The Queen benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and misprediction penalties of the CPU. It does this by finding possible solutions to the classic queen problem on a chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores.

Since the exact same Intel Core i7-920 processor was used for all tests it's not surprising to see similar results reported in each benchmark; which is why we're focusing on finding the trend. If we consider the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P to be our reference, then the GA-X58A-UD7 performs 1.25% better and the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard offered a 5.29% improvement in CPU-Queen calculations.

Like the Queen benchmark, the Photoworxx tests for penalties against pipeline architecture. The synthetic Photoworxx benchmark stresses the integer arithmetic and multiplication execution units of the CPU and also the memory subsystem. Due to the fact that this test performs high memory read/write traffic, it cannot effectively scale in situations where more than two processing threads are used. The EVEREST Photoworxx benchmark performs the following tasks on a very large RGB image:

• Fill
• Flip
• Rotate90R (rotate 90 degrees CW)
• Rotate90L (rotate 90 degrees CCW)
• Random (fill the image with random colored pixels)
• RGB2BW (color to black & white conversion)
• Difference
• Crop

Using the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard as a point of reference, the Core i7-920 performed only 1.28% better at PhotoWorxx tasks, while the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard delivered a 3.73% increase.

The Zip Library test measures combined CPU and memory subsystem performance through the public ZLib compression library. ZLib is designed as a free lossless data compression library for use on virtually any computer hardware and operating system. The ZLib data format is itself portable across platforms and has a footprint independent of input data that can be reduced at some cost in compression.

Zip-library performance produced 90,050 KBps with the EX-58-UD4 motherboard, while the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 delivered a slight 0.9% increase and the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard rendered a 4.71% boost.

The AES integer benchmark measures CPU performance using AES data encryption. It utilizes Vincent Rijmen, Antoon Bosselaers and Paulo Barreto's public domain C code in ECB mode and consumes 48 MB of memory.

The Gigabyte EX58-UD4 motherboard produced a 21261 score in AES benchmark, with the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 leading by only 1.27% and the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard by 5.31%.

The memory tests are included for illustration, since the system memory bandwidth offers a very minor impact on gaming performance and real-world experience. Nevertheless, it's evident from the results that not all motherboards respond to identical memory kits and settings in the same way.

The Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 motherboard delivered the best memory read, write, and copy performance, followed by the ASUS P6X58D-Premium and then the EX58-UD4 motherboard.

In summary, the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard offered a decent 5% boost to CPU performance in Everest CPU benchmark tests while delivering average memory bandwidth.

Maxon CINEBENCH Results

Cinebench is a real-world test suite that assesses the computer's performance capabilities. Maxon Cinebench is based on Maxon's award-winning animation software, Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. Maxon software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

Maxon Cinebench runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances. The benchmark application makes use of up to 16 CPUs or CPU cores and is available for Windows (32-bit and 64-Bit) and Macintosh (PPC and Intel-based). The resulting values among different operating systems are 100% comparable and therefore very useful with regard to purchasing decision-making. It can also be used as a marketing tool for hardware vendors or simply to compare hardware among colleagues or friends.

The OpenGL test measures graphics card performance and is run inside the 3D editor window. The project file used can test all graphics cards that support the OpenGL standard. In this scene, only the camera was animated. This scene places medium to low demands on graphics cards and tests the maximum speed with which the scene can be properly displayed at the 800x580 resolution. Essentially, the Cinebench test removes the system hardware from the scoring influence, and centers the results around the GPU.

Using processor-only graphics computation and ignoring the installed video card, Cinebench R10 revealed very interesting results which have been illustrated in the chart above.

While the ASUS P6X58D-Premium drops just below the Gigabyte EX58-UD4P being used as a reference point in OpenGL Standard benchmark performance, it picks up momentum in CPU-based rendering tests. In the Single-CPU and Multiple-CPU render tests, the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 motherboard also drops below the reference point, allowing the ASUS P6X58D-Premium to perform 5.64% better than reference in Single-CPU renders and 5% better at multiple-CPU renders.

In summary, the Intel Core i7-920 processor we've tested on each platform appears to perform up to 5% better on the ASUS P6X58D-Premium than it does when installed on other X58-Express motherboards.

PCMark Vantage Test Results

PCMark Vantage is an objective hardware performance benchmark tool for PCs running 32 and 64 bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. PCMark Vantage is perfectly suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista/7 PC from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops to dedicated workstations and hi-end gaming rigs. Benchmark Reviews has decided to use a few select tests from the suite to test the X58-Express platform in this article. Our tests were conducted on 64-bit Windows 7, with results displayed in the charts below.

TV and Movies Suite

The tests in the TV and Movies Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista TV and Movies Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common TV and Movies usage. The TV and Movies Suite gives a separate PCMark TV and Movies Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. TV and Movies Suite include the following tests:

• TV and Movies 1
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
  • Video playback: HD DVD w/ additional lower bitrate HD content from HDD, as downloaded from net
• TV and Movies 2
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 19.39 MBps terrestrial HDTV playback
• TV and Movies 3
  • HDD Media Center
• TV and Movies 4
  • Video transcoding: media server archive to portable device
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 48 Mbps Blu-ray playback

Gaming Suite

The tests in the Gaming Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista Gaming Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common Gaming usage. The Gaming Suite gives a separate PCMark Gaming Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. Gaming Suite includes the following tests:

• Gaming 1
  • GPU game test
• Gaming 2
  • HDD: game HDD
• Gaming 3
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • CPU game test
  • Data decompression: level loading
• Gaming 4
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • GPU game test
  • CPU game test
  • HDD: game HDD

Music Suite

The tests in the Music Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista Music Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common Music usage. The Music Suite gives a separate PCMark Music Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. Music Suite includes the following tests:

• Music 1
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • Web page rendering - w/ music shop content
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
• Music 2
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
• Music 3
  • Audio transcoding: MP3 -> WMA
• Music 4
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player

Using the same ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 video card with Forceware 196.21 driver and OCZ 1333MHz DDR3 memory kit with CL 7-7-7-20 timings between all motherboards, and aided by the OCZ Agility-EX SSD using TRIM/GC-enabled firmware 1.50, PCMark Vantage benchmark tests were repeated and averaged for the chart illustrated above.

Using the Gigabyte EX58-UD4P as a reference point, TV and Movies performance was improved by 1.9% with the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 motherboard, and output further increased by 4.0% with the ASUS P6X58D-Premium X58-Express SATA-6G motherboard. Gaming performance followed the same ratio among motherboards, while Music benchmark tests showed a 3.41% benefit to the X58A-UD7 and an impressive 9.0% performance boost on the ASUS P6X58D-Premium.

The conclusion we can build with these results that the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard offers better overall system performance, up to 9% according to PCMark Vantage benchmark tests, and may yield a better multimedia and gaming experience for enthusiasts.

HD Tune Pro Benchmarks

HD-Tune Pro is a benchmark designed for testing many different aspects of a storage device. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the Crucial RealSSD-C300 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive and Crucial M225 CT128M225 SATA-3Gbps SSD on four different storage controllers. The Gigabyte EX58-UD4P utilizes the Intel ICH10R storage controller, and operates as our point of reference for the others. Gigabyte's X58A-UD7 includes the Marvell SE9128 SATA 6Gb/s controller, while ASUS adds the Marvell SE9123 SATA-6G controller chip to their product. Tested on the Gigabyte EX58-UD4P, the PCI-Express 2.0-based HighPoint Rocket 620LF SATA 6Gb/s controller card also utilizes the Marvell SE9128 controller.

Our test results were obtained after each SSD had been prepared using the DISKPART program with the "clean all" command. Because performance will degrade after write-to operations, even in the presence of Garbage Collection and TRIM support, Benchmark Reviews utilized read-from tests for our performance benchmarks. Intensive read and write benchmark testing is appropriate for our Storage Device Reviews, but for this article the purpose is to illustrate top-end performance.

Since the Marvell SE91xx series of third-generation SATA controllers is still rather new to market, firmware and driver updates occur almost weekly. Benchmark Reviews originally tested each of these storage controllers with their out-of-the-box firmware, and in every test the ASUS P6X58D-Premium produced results there were 25 MB/s faster than the other motherboards. After we received the Marvell Magni Firmware 1.0.0.1210, performance results were much more level across the board.

Beginning with the second-generation SATA Solid State Drive attached to the EX58-UD4P to produce a reference score, the Intel ICH10 controller and M225 delivered a 198 Mb/s average read speed with 218 MB/s peak performance. Using the same M225 SSD on the other motherboards, Gigabyte's X58A-UD7 uses the SE9128 to produce 206/226 while the ASUS P6X58D-Premium uses the Marvell SE9123 chip to deliver 202-226 Mb/s. The add-in HighPoint Rocket 620LF delivered 200/222 using an integrated Marvell SE9128 chip.

Switching to the third-generation SATA-6G compatible Crucial RealSSD C300 Solid State Drive, the 222/223 MB/s reference score produced with a SATA-3G Intel controller becomes obsolete. The Crucial C300 SSD performed at 305/313 on the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 motherboard, which was matched by the ASUS P6X58D-Premium and HighPoint Rocket 620LF add-in card. As firmware is updated, it becomes increasingly likely that performance will change as well.

Random Access tests are divided into 512b, 4KB, 64KB, 1MB and random size test files sizes. The Random Access test measures the performance of random read or write operations. The amount of data which will be read varies from 512 bytes to 1 MB. Performance is reported in operations per second (IOPS), average access time, and average speed. Benchmark Reviews has focused only on 4KB transfer size IOPS read performance for this article.

Read IOPS performance was very similar among all SATA controllers when testing the Crucial M225 SSD, with the Intel ICH10 producing an average score of 6942. The Marvell SE9128-equipped Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 delivered 4.84% better performance, which was nearly identical to the SE9128-equipped HighPoint add-in card, while the ASUS P6X58D-Premium produced 5.27% better read-from IOPS performance.

Using the SATA-6G Crucial C300 SSD for testing, the Intel ICH10 controller reported an average of 7147 read-IOPS performance. Gigabyte's X58A-UD7 produced 7999, which the HighPoint PCI-E card improved by 1.58% with 8125. The ASUS P6X58D-Premium delivered the best read-from IOPS performance with 8167, for a 2.1% increase over the X58A-UD7.

Drive Hardware

Crucial RealSSD-C300 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive
Crucial M225 CT128M225 SATA-3Gbps Solid State Drive

Far Cry 2 Benchmark

Ubisoft has developed Far Cry 2 as a sequel to the original, but with a very different approach to game play and story line. Far Cry 2 features a vast world built on Ubisoft's new game engine called Dunia, meaning "world", "earth" or "living" in Farci. The setting in Far Cry 2 takes place on a fictional Central African landscape, set to a modern day timeline.

The Dunia engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2, by Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers realistic semi-destructible environments, special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storms, real-time night-and-day sun light and moon light cycles, dynamic music system, and non-scripted enemy A.I actions.

The Dunia game engine takes advantage of multi-core processors as well as multiple processors and supports DirectX 9 as well as DirectX 10. Only 2 or 3 percent of the original CryEngine code is re-used, according to Michiel Verheijdt, Senior Product Manager for Ubisoft Netherlands. Additionally, the engine is less hardware-demanding than CryEngine 2, the engine used in Crysis.

However, it should be noted that Crysis delivers greater character and object texture detail, as well as more destructible elements within the environment. For example; trees breaking into many smaller pieces and buildings breaking down to their component panels. Far Cry 2 also supports the amBX technology from Philips. With the proper hardware, this adds effects like vibrations, ambient colored lights, and fans that generate wind effects.

Included within the PC version of Far Cry 2 is an advanced benchmark tool, which offers an excellent array of settings for performance testing. For CPU-dependant testing, Far Cry 2 was configured to run at the ultra-low resolution of 640x480 with settings turned to their lowest possible options. With no strain on the GPU, frame rates were bound by CPU performance.

Oddly enough, it was the older Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard that has been designated as our reference point for benchmarks that performed the best when FarCry-2 was made to be CPU-bound. The other motherboards trailed behind the 102 FPS lead with 98.8 FPS each.

Benchmark Reviews used the maximum settings allowed for Far Cry 2 DirectX-10 tests, with the resolution set to 1920x1200. Render Quality and Performance settings were all set to 'Ultra High', and HDR and Bloom were enabled. At this resolution, the X58 systems all became GPU-bound.

The Gigabyte EX58-UD4P motherboard leads with 60.8 FPS, with the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 producing 59.8 FPS on average and trailed by the ASUS P6X58D-Premium which rendered 59.5 FPS. After comparing the results, it appears that the original X58-Express motherboard may have a very slight edge over the newer versions with shared PCI-Express 2.0 link lanes.

Power Consumption Results

Life is not as affordable as it used to be, and items such as fuel and electrical energy top the list of resources that have exploded in price over the past few years. Add to this the limit of non-renewable resources compared to demand and you can see that the prices are only going to get worse. Planet Earth is needs our help, and needs it badly. With forests becoming barren of vegetation and snow capped poles quickly turning brown, the technology industry has a new attitude towards suddenly becoming "green". Motherboard manufacturers, in particular, have been touting their new energy saving features. How effective these power management system are, is exactly what we intend to measure in our power consumption tests.

Up to this point, Benchmark Reviews has compared each X58-Express motherboard against one-another in benchmark performance tests. For this section, only one topic is of primary concern: electrical power consumption. So then, since the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P has relegated as the reference for our benchmarks, it should be interested to see how old power-management technology compares to the new features.

To measure system power consumption, Benchmark Reviews uses the Kill-A-Watt EZ (model P4460) power meter made by P3 International. A baseline test is taken as the system is allowed to boot into Windows and rest idle at the login screen for three minutes before power consumption is recorded. Once the baseline reading has been taken, Lavalys EVEREST Ultimate Edition is loaded and the System Stability Test is run with 100% stress on the CPU and FPU for five minutes and the results recorded. Next, the CPU, FPU, Cache, and System Memory stress options are turned on for five minutes. After the CPU/Cache/RAM test results are recorded, our final loaded power consumption reading is taken with the video card running at 100% using the FurMark stress test.

Power consumption is at it's least-controlled state before the Operating System and drivers can manage the hardware and deliver power efficiency. For this reason, power usage within the BIOS setup page is much higher than at idle. The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P, which lacks additional Ethernet, USB-3.0, or SATA 6Gb/s controllers, offered the best result at 166 watts of consumption. The Gigabyte X58A-UD7 required 170W, while the ASUS P6X58D-Premium fit in-between with 168W consumed. At idle, both the Gigabyte GA-X58-UD7 and ASUS P6X58D-Premium measured 136W, which is slightly more than the EX58-UD4P required.

When the power is turned up for 100% processor utilization, all three motherboards increased power consumption by nearly 84 watts. When the processor, system memory, and cache subsystem were all taxed, the EX58-UD4P increased by 92W over idle, while the Gigabyte GA-X58-UD7 added 96W and the ASUS P6X58D-Premium consumed 94W. Taken as a whole, all three X58-Express motherboards shared nearly identical power efficiency features and delivered similar power consumption. The level of power savings can be further improved using Intel SpeedStep and Core-i7 C-state features in conjunction with motherboard tools.

Tylersburg Refresh Final Thoughts

Back when Benchmark Reviews launched the Intel Core i7 CPU & X58-Express platform in November 2008, having a team of two or more graphics cards seemed plausible for a few elite gamers. Extremely low retail prices on DDR3 system memory helped ease the new standard into mainstream acceptance when it would return in the P55-Express platform. However, it's because of Intel's X-before-P launch schedule that new technologies such as SuperSpeed USB-3.0 and third-generation SATA 6Gb/s were delivered on the mainstream P55 and overlooked the aging X58-Express "Tylersburg" enthusiast chipset. Without fail, the manufacturers have created their very own Tylersburg-refresh options ahead of the Intel X68-Express platform.

If X58 is good for anything, it's the 32-link lanes it provides PCI-Express 2.0 graphics. For single-unit video cards this is a non-issue, since sixteen lanes are more than enough and both the P55 or X58-Express platforms offer this. It's the multi-card setups that will see the most benefit from X58, primarily Triple-SLI and CrossFireX 'Tri-Fire' sets with three video cards. Additionally, the new NEC SuperSpeed USB3 and Marvell SATA6G controllers won't cause any performance penalty for borrowing much-needed PCI-Express link lanes on the X58 platform like they would on P55. But even still, X58-Express cannot offer what P55 has introduced: optimal memory management. Benchmark Reviews has further documented the differences in our P55 vs X58 article.

With DRAM being sold at the lowest prices we've seen in many years, the introduction of a motherboard willing to harness large amounts of DDR3 may be a blessing in disguise. Even though enthusiasts have yet to fall in love with 64-bit versions of the Windows Operating System, there has been renewed interest since the launch of Windows 7. Supporting up to 24GB or system memory on a desktop motherboard is unheard of, and it's all thanks to triple-channel support on X58. The downside, however, is that transaction times are far worse than if the memory controller was integrated into the processor such as on Intel's 'Lynnfield' Core-i5/i7 LGA1156 processors.

As the Intel P55 chipset has now demonstrated, the future is in PCH-based designs, and 32- (or 22nm) technology has paved the way for Moore's law to continue as predicted. A true Tylersburg refresh (X68) may deliver all of the hardware features we desire for modern computing, but this isn't Field of Dreams, and if you build it they won't come. Computer hardware needs more than speed and power; it needs purpose.

New and upcoming DirectX-11 software notwithstanding, video games have generally required the same graphical power as they needed over the past few years. Newer server and virtualization technology continues to refine efficiency and uses fewer CPU cycles. So essentially software is barely moving forward while hardware is making leaps and bounds. Which raises the question: to what end?

Software just hasn't been keeping up its end of the deal, and most people still use 32-bit technology (introduced back in Windows 95). it's sad but true. Games like Crysis helped give reason for advancing graphics technology, just like virtualization technology and Terminal Services helped push processor power. But the apex of software demands hasn't really changed in several years, and having massive amounts of system memory are only helpful if there's an application that requires it.

I used to overclock my Pentium 4 (and later Pentium D and Core 2) processor to get a few extra frames out of Battlefield 2 and earn more work units per day with Folding@Home. But now I have a graphics card that performs 600x better at folding proteins than my CPU ever did, and I have a Core-i7 processor that can encode my self-authored DVD's in a fraction of the time it used to take. We haven't hit the wall, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting very close.

If software doesn't come around soon, perhaps in the shape of widespread adoption towards 64-bit computing using Microsoft Windows 7, we'll soon share the same dilemma facing the automobile industry: high-horsepower engines with break-neck torque driving down roads with a 65-MPH speed limit. I personally feel that this has been the case ever since Intel launched the Core 2 processor, which is why we're now sharing the other auto-industry dilemma: power efficiency.

ASUS P6X58D-Premium Conclusion

Although our rating and final score are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at different points in time. While we do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that would render our rating obsolete. Please do not base your purchases solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating at the time of publication.

Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate. The first is performance, which considers how effective the ASUS P6X58D-Premium X58-Express SATA-6G motherboard performs in operation against direct competitor products. Graded on a scale of 1.0 to 10, the ASUS P6X58D-Premium receives a score of 9.25 when compared against the other products in its related category. CPU benchmark performance was usually 5% higher than other X58 motherboards, even with the exact same settings applied. DDR3 system memory bandwidth was average for the P6X58D-Premium, but overall system performance was slightly better than others. The Marvell SE9123 SATA 6Gb/s controller performed extremely well compared to other SATA6G options, but firmware changes will keep all motherboard solutions closely approximate to each other. SuperSpeed USB-3.0 functionality is possible because of the NEC D720200F1 chip, although the market has yet to respond with storage devices optimized for the new specification.

Performance is further enhanced by utilizing SLI/Triple-SLI and CrossFireX/Tri-Fire video card sets for high-performance graphics. Intel supports their Extreme Edition (EE) Core-i7 processors on the LGA1366 socket only, and according to Intel's roadmap the future code-named "Gulftown" six-core Westmere chip will also be supported on the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard.

Opposite of other manufacturers, ASUS refrains from turning their motherboards into a full-color canvas. A black printed circuit board helps blue anodized aluminum components to stand out, and nickel-plated heat-pipe gives the hardware an exciting look. The colors used for expansion card slots are matched to bus speed and type, and the power phase and onboard LEDs give just as much for user feedback as they do for captivating looks. At the end of my testing I was pleased to say I don't miss copper heatpipe tubing winding around the motherboard, because the ASUS P6X58D-Premium gets the job done with a single rod.

Much like their original X58-Express motherboard series, ASUS has achieved near-perfect component layout on their P6X58D-Premium platform. The construction is what you would expect from world's leading manufacturers of mainboard products: outstanding. The Marvell-SE9123 and Intel ICH10R Southbridge SATA ports are turned sideways, except for two located along the bottom of the mainboard, allowing full access to them even with large video cards installed. Six DDR3 memory module banks are located far enough away from the socket for better access to them and unrestricted cooling for the processor.

In terms of functionality the ASUS P6X58D-Premium offers everything that previous X58-Express motherboards delivered, plus it adds third-generation SATA 6Gb/s and SuperSpeed USB-3.0 support. The second-revision Marvell 88SE9123 SATA 6Gb/s controller doesn't offer RAID functionality, but excels in single-drive performance as our test results have shown. Eight-channel high-definition audio and dual-Gigabit Ethernet adapters compliment the platform, along with 24GB total DDR3 memory capacity. Intel's X58-Express chipset receives 32 total PCI-Express link lanes, but when you consider that the SATA6G and SuperSpeed USB 3.0 take up to six PCI-E lanes there's only one place to borrow them from: graphics. With the Marvell and NEC controllers enabled in a single card configuration there are still sixteen link-lanes remaining for PCI-Express graphics bandwidth, which is more than enough, but a dual-card set would be reduced to 16+8 since these controllers require the remainder. For most gamers, this isn't going to make a difference because they're using only one or two video cards anyway, but triple-card sets may experience a small performance penalty.

As of 06 December 2010, the ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard sells for $286 at Amazon and NewEgg. This prices comes in well below the $400 ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer and $350 ASUS Rampage-II Extreme X58-Express motherboards (neither of which offer SuperSpeed USB-3 or SATA 6Gb/s), but it also offers a better value than the $350 Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 motherboard which it competes with directly. As it stands now, the P6X58D-Premium is the only ASUS X58 motherboard to support the new USB3/SATA6G features.

In conclusion, the ASUS P6X58D-Premium demonstrated that it can deliver better overall system performance against related X58-Express platform while also adding updated SuperSpeed USB-3.0 and SATA-III 6.0Gb/s functionality. The 16+2 Xtreme Phase Power Design offers energy efficiency similar to other motherboards of this platform when high-end power VRM features are incorporated. Casual gamers and mainstream computer users need not concern themselves with the P6X58D-Premium, especially since ASUS offers the Maximus-III Formula and P7P55-WS SuperComputer which both offer outstanding performance and value for the Intel P55-Express platform. However, if you're one of the elite few who use an Intel Extreme Edition processor or multiple video cards, then the ASUS P6X58D-Premium would go nicely with a Crucial RealSSD-C300 SATA-III 6Gbps SSD. If 64-bit Windows-7 is your Operating System of choice, there are several 12GB DDR3-1600 memory kits that will deliver exceptional performance for the density.

Casual overclockers may be a little overwhelmed, but enthusiast overclockers will feel right at home with the detailed BIOS options offered on the P6X58D-Premium. My feeling is that real-time power status would still be best served beside the power options, but otherwise the 0702 firmware tested in this article was bullet-proof. The ASUS Express Gate SSD feature is helpful if the O/S is unavailable or you're without a boot drive, but otherwise the added boot-up time will force many users to disable this feature until it's needed. Eight total SATA ports will ensure that no drive is left behind (a popular initiative for my SSD collection), but the SATA-III 6Gbps interface will only benefit compatible modern drives that can reach or exceed the SATA-3GB/s threshold. SuperSpeed 3.0 is really the only functional leap over the others, as SuperSpeed USB 3.0 External Storage Products are actually selling. The full depth of ASUS's proprietary product features is well worth the asking price, although TPM encryption security would have been a nice touch. Considering the improved real-world performance against existing USB-2.0/SATA-3G X58-Express solutions, enthusiasts can count on improving system performance with the ASUS P6X58D-Premium.

Pros:

+ Outperforms GA-X58A-UD7 head-to-head
+ SuperSpeed USB-3.0 offers 5Gbps transfer speed
+ 16+2 Xtreme Phase Power VRD reduces power costs
+ Supports ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI dual and triple video card sets
+ Supports 24GB of dual-channel DDR3 up to 2000MHz
+ BIOS offers infinite enthusiast overclocking options
+ Japanese-manufactured surface mount all-solid capacitors
+ Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Full-rate audio with DTS connect
+ Marvell 88SE9123 SATA 6Gb/s controller adds forward compatibility
+ 6 Intel ICH10R SATA ports deliver RAID 0/1/5/JBOD
+ NEC-D720200F1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 controller
+ MemOK! ensures memory boot compatibility
+ Express Gate SSD allows system/web access without O/S

Cons:

- Expensive 'enthusiast' motherboard solution
- BIOS options can be complicated for some users
- Only 3GB total memory be utilized by 32-bit O/S
- Lacks hardware-based encryption features
- SATA6G/USB3 borrow from PCI-E link lanes

Ratings:

• Performance: 9.50
• Appearance: 9.00
• Construction: 9.50
• Functionality: 9.25
• Value: 7.75

Final Score: 9.0 out of 10.

Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.

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