Thursday, May 20, 2010

Gigabyte LGA1366 SATA3 ATI CrossFireX ATX Motherboard GA-X58A-UD3R

I picked up one of these for my latest system build, and I'm pleased to say that it booted up perfectly the first time and has been running rock-solid ever since.

Here is the hardware that I'm using with it:
1) Core I7 920 CPU
2) 12GB Corsair DDR3 1600 memory (9-9-9-24)
3) Seasonic M12II 620w PSU
4) Radeon 5770 1GB (running 2 screens @ 2560x1600 & 1200x1600)
5) Intel X25M-G2 160GB SSD

I am a Java and Python programmer and I tend to use my system heavily. A typical work load would be running Windows 7 x64 with copies of Netbeans and Eclipse + VMware Workstation 7 with up to 4 or 5 VMs running simultaneously, and all the other source control and debug utilities that I am using at any given time. This system breezes through that like butter.

The main issue I typically have is that I keep my PC locked in an enclosed cabinet with only one 92mm intake fan and a 120mm exhaust fan vented into the garage - both are running at low speeds to keep it quiet. Because of that, my hardware needs to run solid at fairly high temps. In this system, the CPU temps have gotten as high as 160F and I haven't seen any instability at all.

I used to only buy Asus motherboards until a few years ago when their quality started to drop off. Now I only buy these Gigabyte 'durable' boards and they have all been true to their name for the kind of stress I run them under. This board hasn't had any problems at all going in or out of standby (S3) either.

Personally, I don't overclock anything anymore (I got sick of burned up hardware when I blew up my P90 system 15 years ago); but this motherboard is extremely flexible if you are inclined to do that.

Overall, I highly recommend this board if you are looking for a solid entry in the socket 1366 space.

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