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Comment [23] Email to Friend Printable Version

Asus X58 Sabertooth Review

Test Setup and Overclocking

Published: 11th October 2010 | Source: Asus | Price: £155.90 | Author: Tom Logan

Test Setup

Intel Core i7 930 @ Stock and 4.2 GHz
ASUS X58 Sabertooth
Corsair AX1200w
6GB Corsair Dominator GT
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Prolimatech Armageddon with Arctic MX-3
ATI HD5870

As the pricing is similar, and it is one of our favourite "value" motherboards, we'll be putting the Sabertooth up against its stablemate, the P6X58D-E.

Overclocking

With a board that places such an emphasis on longevity and quality we weren't too sure what to expect from our overclocking venture.

Partly because companies normally like to sing about their overclock capabilities, and partly because experience has taught us that high quality power components usually lead to excellent overclocks.

Starting as we always do with testing the maximum BCLK, we were somewhat disappointed to only manage 214.8 MHz. Knowing how much the stability of this drops off as you increase the CPU multiplier

Imagine our delight at finding that once the multiplier was increased back to normal, the Sabertooth barely took a hit on the BCLK, only dropping 8 MHz. The emphasis on build quality has had the happy side-effect of producing a serious overclocker.

As we wouldn't want to run with 1.4v on the CPU Core as a 24/7 overclock, we dropped things back a little and found a perfectly stable 200x21 for 4.2GHz with 2000MHz RAM. I think you'll agree this is a fantastic result for such a great value board.

Most Recent Comments

10-10-2010, 19:53:38

tinytomlogan

Asus have finally released the Sabertooth in Europe. How 'TUF' is it?

Continue Reading

11-10-2010, 06:00:16

F-alienware

I like it. A lot.

You could do a wicked cammo computer using that. I was thinking about it the other week as it goes. There's this company in the USA that dips things in this weird cammo stuff and it coats it. They used it on American Chopper once to do a military chopper.

11-10-2010, 06:23:16

AMDFTW

i bet this could kill a man

11-10-2010, 08:36:02

AMD_PBz

Color Scheme taken from the pages of noctua

11-10-2010, 09:26:43

hmmblah

Yeah, I really like the color scheme. Getting sick of blue/red.

11-10-2010, 09:32:15

SnW

Indeed a cool looking board al tho i really loved this one,

11-10-2010, 11:45:03

Todd

Wow.. saw it on overclockers a couple of days ago and quite liked it. I think it'll fit in perfectly with a Maelstrom and a pair of MSI Hawks for a good "Military" theme... and then maybe strap a couple of USB 3.0 cannons and machine guns.. and possibly put it in a tank.

11-10-2010, 13:46:04

silenthill

I suppose this M/B is designed to compete with my current M/B from Gigabyte

11-10-2010, 13:53:22

Complex!

It's a great board, but I still don't like the colour scheme. I mean.. it's originial, but I don't like it.

15-10-2010, 13:35:49

sliuman

Wow! I joined the site just because last week I happened to upgrade to an i7 950 (not realising there had been a price drop) and picked up the Sabertooth X58 (store recommendation) to replace my aging P4 board...I'm not an overclocker so I didn't know what to expect, but your reviews of these two core pieces of my new system sure make me happy that I bought them.

Now, Tom, I'll be waiting on that overclocking vid you promised to make...I'm going to need it. If I can unleash a bit more power you'll make me a happy man!

Nice reviews. Keep it up.

18-10-2010, 05:59:52

Tankou

The Sabertooth looks sweet and appears to perform well. But I still like a black and red color scheme more.

04-11-2010, 16:32:51

Black

What is max safe temp on NB?

Mine has 65 in idle and is bloody hot when touching it.

04-11-2010, 16:53:48

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black What is max safe temp on NB? Mine has 65 in idle and is bloody hot when touching it.

is it overclocked?

04-11-2010, 17:35:34

Black

Well it is now, but BTW same temp I'm getting with OC and without - not so bad I recon.Under prime and superpi32M at 3.8 GHz I'm getting 80C and this is too much I beleive.

One question, what is best QPI voltage when CPU set at 4 GHz

Is there any VTT voltage?

And should I leave PLL voltage at Auto?

04-11-2010, 20:13:54

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Well it is now, but BTW same temp I'm getting with OC and without - not so bad I recon.Under prime and superpi32M at 3.8 GHz I'm getting 80C and this is too much I beleive. One question, what is best QPI voltage when CPU set at 4 GHz Is there any VTT voltage? And should I leave PLL voltage at Auto?

qpi volts depend on the memory speed an amount.

leave the pll at auto as it shouldnt matter.

If you are getting 80c what cooler/vcore are you using?

Whats you bclk and multi?

05-11-2010, 04:10:55

Black

I'm using watercooling for my CPU mate, BCLK 190, multi x20 and vcore 1.225v, RAM 1531 Mhz - 1.64V, QPI voltage 1.25v

I notice when only prime running max I can get on NB temp is 72 C - idle still 65 C.

05-11-2010, 07:13:57

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black I'm using watercooling for my CPU mate, BCLK 190, multi x20 and vcore 1.225v, RAM 1531 Mhz - 1.64V, QPI voltage 1.25v I notice when only prime running max I can get on NB temp is 72 C - idle still 65 C.

ram 1.66

qpi 1.45 (for 1600mhz)

turn on LLC

you should get 200 bclk with that and a few more tweaks.

05-11-2010, 07:46:19

Black

Ok thanks mate.

06-11-2010, 10:49:59

PINS

Hi,

Does anyone know if its ok to put a single HD 6870 in the lower PCI express x16 slot, so the regular PCI slot is free for my old soundcard? I think its the "secondary" x16 slot but if I'm thinking if only using one card, all 16 lanes should be available?

Thanks in advance

06-11-2010, 11:43:23

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by PINS Hi, Does anyone know if its ok to put a single HD 6870 in the lower PCI express x16 slot, so the regular PCI slot is free for my old soundcard? I think its the "secondary" x16 slot but if I'm thinking if only using one card, all 16 lanes should be available? Thanks in advance

The black is x4 - The beige ones are both 16x

06-11-2010, 12:16:10

PINS

ok, cheers

06-11-2010, 14:48:03

Black

I'm using the second slot for now, as one of my GTX460 died - what a bad luck.

BTW it is working fine into this slot.

Any way - is it all right that after OC I can't see or i can't set Turbo mode?It is visible only when stock clocks.

12-11-2010, 18:34:08

Suggy

Hello all.

I am interested in getting this board but I have a question regarding PCIe x1 cards. If I went SLI, one of the PCIe x1 slots will be unusable. I intend to use two PCIe x1 cards (TV tuner and sound card). If I move one of the PCIe x1 cards into the third PCI x16 slot (the black one), it looks as though, according to the manual (p. 2-21), that the two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots won't be affected i.e. both lanes will still be operating at 16x.

I am wondering whether anyone would be good enough to confirm this?

24-11-2010, 11:58:41

Todd

It just hit me... One of these, 6 gig of Mushkin Radioactive, scuff the heatsinks up a little, take some of the paint off, pop a 950 in there with an NH-D14 and a pair of MSI "military grade" cards and whack it all in a big 50 cal ammo box. A bunch of fans around it, make it look old and rugged, rusty and stuff, maybe shoot it with a 45 cal (preferably not with the components still in) and you've got an awesome "pre-war" rig. Addicted to Fallout, I am.

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