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EVGA X58 SLI Classified S1366 vs Asus P6T deluxe
- Thread starter Bambi
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hahajakethesnake011
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2009
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- 163
I would say egt the ASUS since the classified is the best board when overclocking using LN2 or Dice, that is where the classified shines over any other board, but for general use save the 200 bucks and buy a better GPU instead.
The P6T Deluxe O.C's just fine...
The Classified is a better board for extreme overclocking.
LOCO LAPTOP
[H]F Junkie
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- May 4, 2006
- Messages
- 12,667
I would go with ASUS P6T deluxe because it is cheaper.
Customer service is something that must be considered too.
1) EVGA website and forums are much faster than ASUS.
2) EVGA offers much better customer support.
3) EVGA 90 days step up option is interesting. Personally, I do not upgrade my mb very often (once a year) and this option seems more relevant for graphic cards...
4) Tri-SLI. IMO, this technology is a dead end and I would ignore it...
Customer service is something that must be considered too.
1) EVGA website and forums are much faster than ASUS.
2) EVGA offers much better customer support.
3) EVGA 90 days step up option is interesting. Personally, I do not upgrade my mb very often (once a year) and this option seems more relevant for graphic cards...
4) Tri-SLI. IMO, this technology is a dead end and I would ignore it...
vanilla_guerilla
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2005
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- 5,895
the evga is fairly pricey, there are other evga boards that are good for much less. besides, the other board you mentioned is an asus.
I have an Asus P6T (vanilla) and an EVGA X58 Classified. The P6T isn't bad in the overclocking department. I have a C0/C1 Stepping 920 that in it that I can easilly run at 3.8GHz. It has load line calibration and that helps under certain circumstances. But it probably can't hit the max overclocks like the Classified can.
The Classified is a no holds barred Overclocker! But it has it's quirks. So including the fact that it's BIOS is sparse in comparison with the Asus board. It has some "features" turned off by default in BIOS that help with high end overclocks, but not when you want the machine to be a day to day work horse.
For instance; when I first set that system up I configured my drives for RAID5. Then later when I decided I wanted to flash the BIOS - it was recommended that I reset my BIOS to defaults. Then perform the flash - in this case off a CD. Then reprogram the BIOS to my liking. The problem was that when I got into Windows again, it couldn't see one of my drives. I restarted and doubled checked my settings and then Windows could see the drive. But then I was forced to wait hours for it to "rebuild" the array (which it could only do in Windows). Finally I gave up (after 16hrs it had only completed 56% of the rebuild process).
So I reset the drives to a "non-RAID" state and proceeded to try installing Vista. At first I had no partitions, so I partitioned each drive and formatted it. I then restarted the whole system and Vista couldn't recognize these drives as being "bootable". They had been set up in AHCI mode and I had the proper drivers on a floppy disk. And still it kept telling me this and not allowing me to proceed. So that's when I noticed a "legacy" setting on the page where drive systems are configured. It was associated with "IDE mode" so I had not previously bothered with it. But what I did was switch to IDE mode, changed this "Legacy support" setting to Enabled then switched back to AHCI mode. After that Vista installed fine.
Another example would be related to a BIOS feature named "Memory Low Gap". Basically it sets the memory range to be reserved for Hardware I/O. And since I intended to run this system with 3GB of memory and a 32-bit version of Vista (Windows 7 later...), I was having issues with the default setting. What was happening is that only 2GB of my memory was showing up as "Usable". And I couldn't find any info describing "why"? So I was eventually forced to trying an alteration to the "Memory Low Gap" feature. It 6 settings ranging from 3GB to 1GB in 500MB increments, plus an "Auto" setting (with Auto being the default). I first tried 1.5GB and when I got into Windows I could then use 2.5GB of my memory. One reboot later I could see all 3GB of my memory and I was happy.
So my point in all of this is that the Classified board, while Excellent in it's own right, has a BIOS that is less user friendly. And the real question for you to ask yourself: Are you willing to figure out how to get the Classified to do what you want? Or do you want a good day to day board that also Overclocks really well?
If your answer is the later, I would suggest an Asus board. But consider the Rage II Extreme, I personally didn't care for the layout of the P6T Deluxe (fan connectors an such...). And though I bought the P6T vanilla, I did so because it was cheap and the RIIE is probably a much better board.
Note: Asus boards have one feature I love! They have a BIOS based Flash Utility. For my Classified I'll have to burn a CD each time I need to flash... But that's something I'm willing to accept. As with most things, "You're Mileage May Vary"...
The Classified is a no holds barred Overclocker! But it has it's quirks. So including the fact that it's BIOS is sparse in comparison with the Asus board. It has some "features" turned off by default in BIOS that help with high end overclocks, but not when you want the machine to be a day to day work horse.
For instance; when I first set that system up I configured my drives for RAID5. Then later when I decided I wanted to flash the BIOS - it was recommended that I reset my BIOS to defaults. Then perform the flash - in this case off a CD. Then reprogram the BIOS to my liking. The problem was that when I got into Windows again, it couldn't see one of my drives. I restarted and doubled checked my settings and then Windows could see the drive. But then I was forced to wait hours for it to "rebuild" the array (which it could only do in Windows). Finally I gave up (after 16hrs it had only completed 56% of the rebuild process).
So I reset the drives to a "non-RAID" state and proceeded to try installing Vista. At first I had no partitions, so I partitioned each drive and formatted it. I then restarted the whole system and Vista couldn't recognize these drives as being "bootable". They had been set up in AHCI mode and I had the proper drivers on a floppy disk. And still it kept telling me this and not allowing me to proceed. So that's when I noticed a "legacy" setting on the page where drive systems are configured. It was associated with "IDE mode" so I had not previously bothered with it. But what I did was switch to IDE mode, changed this "Legacy support" setting to Enabled then switched back to AHCI mode. After that Vista installed fine.
Another example would be related to a BIOS feature named "Memory Low Gap". Basically it sets the memory range to be reserved for Hardware I/O. And since I intended to run this system with 3GB of memory and a 32-bit version of Vista (Windows 7 later...), I was having issues with the default setting. What was happening is that only 2GB of my memory was showing up as "Usable". And I couldn't find any info describing "why"? So I was eventually forced to trying an alteration to the "Memory Low Gap" feature. It 6 settings ranging from 3GB to 1GB in 500MB increments, plus an "Auto" setting (with Auto being the default). I first tried 1.5GB and when I got into Windows I could then use 2.5GB of my memory. One reboot later I could see all 3GB of my memory and I was happy.
So my point in all of this is that the Classified board, while Excellent in it's own right, has a BIOS that is less user friendly. And the real question for you to ask yourself: Are you willing to figure out how to get the Classified to do what you want? Or do you want a good day to day board that also Overclocks really well?
If your answer is the later, I would suggest an Asus board. But consider the Rage II Extreme, I personally didn't care for the layout of the P6T Deluxe (fan connectors an such...). And though I bought the P6T vanilla, I did so because it was cheap and the RIIE is probably a much better board.
Note: Asus boards have one feature I love! They have a BIOS based Flash Utility. For my Classified I'll have to burn a CD each time I need to flash... But that's something I'm willing to accept. As with most things, "You're Mileage May Vary"...
FoxhoundOp
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2003
- Messages
- 1,129
I'm surprised that there are so many people willing to pay over $400 for a motherboard.
For most consumers, $400 is almost the price of a PC... Only enthusiasts would pay that kind of money for a motherboard. But this is [H] forums, home of the hardcore enthusiasts!
Nevertheless, I agree with you and I would rather invest my money in a better graphic card, a SSD or a good restaurant!
Personally, I would go with the Asus because of experience. I was able to RMA an Asus motherboard in 2 hours once because I lived closeby. I've been dealing with an eVGA RMA since February and will never recommend them to anyone. Others had positive experiences with them, so kudos, but just know that that is not the case for everyone.
burningrave101
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2003
- Messages
- 11,825
If you're looking for a comparable Asus board in overclocking to the Classified then I would be looking at the Rampage 2 Extreme or P6T7 Supercomputer boards. I ordered the P6T7 the other night even though I have an unopened Classified 760 sitting here now because I was afraid I may have problems with the Classified due to reports of an incompatibility with my new Enermax 1250w PSU. If money is a concern then I would look at the Foxconn Bloodage, Asus P6T Deluxe, Rampage 2 Gene, Gigabyte UD5, ect.