ASRock X58 Extreme Review -Its a Full bandwidth PCI Express GPU party @ Magicmc.com Reviews

ASRock X58 Extreme Review -Its a Full bandwidth PCI Express GPU party

Designed to please both ATI and nVidia users, both SLI and CrossfireX solutions are supported for dual GPU card goodnes. Since upgrading away from the P55 means an opening up of all PCIe channels at full speed, you are unfettered to frag away and help yourself to some USB and SATA while you are at it.

4 more PCIe channels run from the Intel X58 Express northbridge, and a RAID controller or mid range card would find its self a nice home there. Two x1 slots and a slew onboard PCIe devices run channels through a tie in to the ICH10R southbridge, along with two legacy PCI slots for legacy GPU recycling or other devices.

The 7 slot combination gives the X58 Extreme amazing dexterity for upgrade among modern motherboards, as most have opted for 6 or less slots. You can even add a larger card to the top PCI slot keeping the Northbridge nice and safely out of the way if you make sue that nothing is in contact with the heat sink.

Another plus is that other than the inconvenience of the floppy controller being far off into the lower corner impeding simple driver installation for XP users, the ASRock X58 prbably has on of the mot feature rich and yet convenient controller displays of any modern board.

The motherboard reviewed overclocked with ease, and hitting over 1GHz+ caused no instability. The speed and power of the ASRock X58 is on par with any high end system.

About the only way you could tell that there were indeed corners that were cut in order to bring you the low price was the lack of 2 of the 6 connection cords needed for your 6 SATA ports, as it comes with only four.

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