This mobo can handle triple card configurations, has 8 SATA slots, 6 memory slots, clean and open CPU socket, solid chipset cooling and a matching color scheme. This board is a lot cheaper than the Premium version, is a good overclocker and is 32nm CPU ready. Temperatures were always good on all the heatsinks, and performance was normal for a motherboard. This board has the right price/performance.

Overclocking: It was easy to overclock and went past 205 BCLK with minimal effort. There is a screenshot of a Core i7 920 that was OCed @3895.1MHz. The TurboV software was a bit buggy and caused a BSOD at the first attempt to use it, after the reviewers swapped to the latest version it worked perfectly.

Test Setup:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 920
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE 1366
• Memory: Mushkin Redline DDR3 PC12800 6-8-6-24
• Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5870
• PSU: Mushkin 800 watt modular
• HDD: Seagate 1TB
• Optical Drive: LG DVD-RW
• OS: Windows 7 Professional x64
• Computer Case: Hiper Osiris

Compared to:

• Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
• MSI Eclipse SLI

Benchmarks:

Apophysis, WinRar, Geekbench, MS Office 2007, POV Ray, PC Mark Vantage, SiSoft Sandra, Sciencemark, Cinebench, HD Tune, Far Cry 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, 3D Mark 2006, 3D Mark Vantage.

This 'Gulftown ready' mainboard has new features like a PLX Bridge which makes True USB3 and SATA3 possible, MemOK, a solution to memory compatibility issues and a 16+2 Phase power for stable overclocks and long component life. Asus eliminated the IDE and floppy ports to increase the amount of space on the motherboard. Legacy connetors like PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports are still on the back panel. An Excellent mobo for an Excellent price, the reviewer gave it a 10 out of 10 score.

Overclocking:

An Intel Core i7 920 was overclocked @ 3.9Ghz overclock running stable.

Benchmarks:

PT Boats, 3D Mark 2006, 3D Mark Vantage, Call of Juarez, Cinebench, Crysis, PC mark vantage, Sisoft Sandra, SuperPi. In the gaming benchmarks a Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 graphics card was used.

Compared to:

This mainboard was not compared to another motherboard in the benchmarks, instead it was compared to its own overclocking results.

Test Setup:

• Memory: 3X2GB DDR3-1600 OCZ XMP Ready Series
• PSU: EliteXStream 800 Watt
• Air Cooler: Zalman CNPS 10X Performa
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64

Conclusion:

The lay-out of this mobo is very good and when all three PCI-E ports are used there's still enough room for a Creative X-FI sound card. This board is also a good overclocker and has many features, with extras like RAID support on the SATA3 controller.

Overclocking:

An Intel Core i7 930 was OCed @ 4.3GHz 205X21.

Compared to:

ASUS Rampage II Extreme, Gigabyte X58A-UD3R.

Test Setup:

• RAM: Crucial Ballistx DDR3 1333MHz
• Hard Drives: 4x Seagate 320GB 2.5" Momentus in RAID -0, WD 1 TB green drive.
• Optical Drive: Lite On Blue Ray
• PSU: SilverStone 1200 Watt Zeus
• OS: Windows 7
• Air Cooler: EK Supreme HF with a Quad 120mm XSPC Radiator

Benchmarks:

SiSoft Sandra, Everest Ultimate, wPrime, Excel, Auto MKV, Blender, POV Ray, CineBench R11, WinRAR, Dirt2, 3D Mark Vantage, Stone Giant, Unigine Heaven 2. In the gaming benches a PNY 470GTX was used.

This mobo is very similar to the ASUS P6X58D Premium, but has some minor differences. The Premium has eSATA, dual LAN, better heatsinks and a Reset button.

Conclusion:

The design is very good, with enough room for large components and this board has a great layout with well placed power connectors and large CPU coolers will be no problem. The SATA ports at the bottom of the board are not accessible with a (large) video card installed in the bottom slot. The P6X58D-E is very stable and the functionality is enough for extreme users. In short this mobo is a very good feature-rich all-around board.

Overclocking:

An Intel Core i7 980X was overclocked @ 4.15GHz on air with a Xigmatek Balder cooler, and with water cooling the reviewers reached 4.55GHz. TurboV is still the most user-friendly OC utility among all board manufacturers.

Benchmarks:

Atto disk benchmark, HD tune PRO.

Compared to:

This mainboard was not compared to another board.

Conclusion:

The major visual difference between this mobo and the Premium is the difference in heatpipes, besides that ASUS has taken a few unimportant features off their Premium model to produce this board. The BIOS is easy to navigate with all the necessary options for easy overclocking. SATA6 and USB3.0 make this mobo ready for the future. In short this mobo has an excellent overclocking performance, is well laid out and has a nice look. Most important it's a bargain. The reviewer gave it a recommended award.

Overclocking:

A Core i7 930 was OCed @4.2GHz, 200x21.

Benchmarks:

POV Ray3D Mark Vantage, Cinebench, Crysis, DiRT 2, Lavalys Everest Ultimate, PC mark vantage x64, Sisoft Sandra, Unigine Heaven 2.0, wPrime. In the gaming benches an ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB was used.

Test Setup:

• Memory : 3X2GB Corsair Dominator GT
• Power supply : Corsair HX850
• Hard Drive : WD 160GB
• Display : Samsung 2433 24 inch
• Operating System : Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Compared to:

This mainboard was not compared to another board, instead it was compared to its own overclocking results.