bofors Posted November 19, 2008 Share Posted November 19, 2008 I have been accused of being an Intel fan-boy in this forum before and I hope this thread shows that I am not. First of all, I have built about seven Hackintoshes on Intel motherboards, mainly BadAxe1/2. I skipped the x38/x48 generations and from what I have read on Intel x38/x48 boards, I am glad I did. There are three principle reasons why I have gone with Intel boards for OSx86 before: (1) Intel designs Apple boards. (2) Intel boards are supposed to be the most stable. (3) Intel boards uses EFI (note they may not work with EFI-X) . I have been very happy the Intel boards that I have used and that is why still seriously consider them instead of just jumping on Gigabyte OSx86 bandwagon (which I actually otherwise fully support). I am trying to carefully plot my next upgrade cycle (I usually build at least two machines at a time) and I have been waiting for the Nehalem/x58. Here I want to complain about the Intel DX58SO. My major complaint is that the triple-channel memory is limited to 6GB. Instead of six memory slots, there are only four and one is basically useless. If that where not bad enough, the board apparently does not support 4GB DIMMs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813121361 Compare this with the six slot, 24GB capacity of the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128362 While there are some features (or rather the lack of legacy {censored}) that I like about the Intel DX58SO which continue to include EFI (although one should note that EFI-based boards may not be EFI-X compatible), compared with Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, which is only about $20 more, the board is a joke: http://www.guru3d.com/article/intel-x58-ex...erboard-review/ I am probably going to wait at least six months before I jump on Nehalem/x58 and in the mean time I might just as well max-out the 8GB of RAM my Bad Axe boards and upgrade to Q6600 (I am still on Conroe) because last year's technology is now dirt cheap. I may also wait to see for what Intel brings forward as a SkullTrail-like overclocking dual socket board and go with that if I can justify a need for 16+ virtual cores (which may be very difficult). Either way, I expect to people to start using a lot more than 2 GB of RAM with Snow Leopard (10.6) and maxing out a 24GB board may be an economic way to go for high performance. But if I were in the market today, I would certainly pick up a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5. In fact, I think we should work to make that board a new OSx86 standard: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=136853 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/137184-intel-dx58so-6gb-ram-280-whatever/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
abscheele Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 sounds good if some people find that the gigabyte board works well, I just might pick one up this summer. So far though I am very happy with my current system I also like the idea of there being an osx86 standard:) Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/137184-intel-dx58so-6gb-ram-280-whatever/#findComment-972789 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted January 21, 2009 Author Share Posted January 21, 2009 Here I want to complain about the Intel DX58SO. My major complaint is that the triple-channel memory is limited to 6GB. Instead of six memory slots, there are only four and one is basically useless. If that where not bad enough, the board apparently does not support 4GB DIMMs:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813121361 I just want to update this thread to include the fact that the Intel DX58SO does now support 4GB DIMMs and hence 12GB of triple channel memory. I am not sure if the previous statements by NewEgg (and I believe Intel) were just typos. or if the firmware on the board was updated to support the larger DIMM size, but this solves my biggest complaint about this board. Now, my complaint about this board is the price, the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R appears to be comparable (with 14 perfect reviews so far) and is only $185 (after $15 rebate) at NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128375 Compare this to the $269 NewEgg currently wants for the Intel DX58SO (which has plenty of bad reviews). It is ridiculous, one would have to be a fool to get the Intel DX58SO over the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R (especially given the high level of OSx86 support for Gigabyte boards). Of course, people should also consider the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 for more power and other boards such as those manufactured by Asus. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/137184-intel-dx58so-6gb-ram-280-whatever/#findComment-1050008 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 After reading this thread, some people might find it amusing that I have now bought 3 DX58SO boards and just built one: http://www.convertit2mac.com/forum/index.c...mp;threadid=158 18 months later, there are still has some issues with the DX58SO worth complaining about: http://communities.intel.com/message/93229#93229 However, I did not pay any more $150 for my DX58SO boards new and got an Intel refurbished one for $100, all on eBay. So far it seems like a decent board even though it lacks 6 DIMM slots. We have now released the Ultimate Snow Leopard bootloader system for general testing on DX58SO and other select Intel boards here: http://www.convertit2mac.com/forum/index.c...mp;threadid=159 Ultimate Snow Leopard includes bootable RAID support, automatic detection of multiple Nvidia cards and essentially full, native support of the DX58SO (with the exception of analog surround sound output). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/137184-intel-dx58so-6gb-ram-280-whatever/#findComment-1483593 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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