TODAY INTEL FINALLY launched its two new X58 boards, the DX58SO2 and DX58OG, both long coming, although maybe not that much anticipated. Oddly enough, Intel doesn’t seem to be making much noise about the two new boards, at least not on its news site, but the company has sent out a press release to its channel partners which might be more important than telling the media about the new boards.
As we predicted, the DX58OG is indeed a feature light version of the DX58SO2, although as we don’t have the price for either board as of yet, we don’t know what the savings will be to go with the DX58OG over the DX58SO2. So let’s start with a closer look at the DX58OG. It’s of course based on the X58 chipset and as such is good for Intel’s LGA-1366 processors and it has the full six DIMM slots for DDR3 memory. It has two x16 PCI Express slots, three x1 PCI Express slots and one PCI slot.
Add to this two USB 2.0 ports, six rear USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, Gigabit Ethernet and three audio jacks for 5.1-channel audio and you’ve got all the rear connectivity options. There are headers on the board for an additional six USB 2.0 ports as well as one FireWire port and the board also has six SATA 3Gbps and two SATA 6Gbps ports. The board is also CrossFireX and SLI certified, although with only a pair of x16 slots, you won’t be running more than two cards on this board.
The DX58SO2 replaces one of the x1 PCI Express slots with a x16 slot, but Intel doesn’t specify how many PCI Express lanes the third slot is connected to. It also adds a second Gigabit Ethernet controller and two eSATA ports, as well as an upgraded audio solution with support for 7.1-channel audio and optical S/PDIF out. The only other features that sets the DX58SO2 apart appears to be slightly improved chipset cooling with heatpipes between the X58 chipset and the VRM coolers as well as a pair of buttons for adjust the base clock on the fly.
Both boards feature onboard power and reset buttons, alongside a set of status LEDs and a POST80 debug LED display. There’s also a mention of a Bluetooth module in the manuals, but we’re not sure if this is a standard feature or something that’s optional. We’d guess that these are Intel’s last X58 boards and the upgrade over the old DX58SO seems to be the addition of USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps connectivity, a slightly better board layout with six instead of four DIMM’s and in the case of the DX58SO2, three x16 PCI Express slots whereas the old model had two plus an open ended x4 slot.
For those that are fans of Intel motherboards, the new additions do look like a step up from the DX58SO in every respect, even the more basic DX58OG appears to offer some benefits. However, neither board appears to be anything out of the ordinary compared to what Intel’s partners have managed to come up with since the launch of the X58 chipset, so it’s questionable how many will be interested in investing in one of these new extreme series boards from Intel, despite improvements on offer.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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