3-10-2011 review by hardwarecanucks

Only the first PCI-E x16 slot of this mainboard can actually operate @ x16, the other two blue slots top out @ x8, besides that this mobo doesn't support SLI. It's expensive when compared to the competition, and those boards have similar connectivity specifications and superior multi-GPU capabilities. This board simply doesn't offer anything compelling enough to recommend it.

Compared To:

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7

Benchmarks:

3D Mark 2006, 3DMark Vantage, 7-Zip, AIDA64, Cinebench R10, Cinebench R11.5, Crysis, Deep Fritz, Far Cry 2, HyperPI, Lame, Left 4 Dead, MaxxMEM2, PCMark Vantage, Photoshop CS4, POV-Ray, Resident Evil 5, ScienceMark, Valve Particle, WinRAR, Word in Conflict, wPrime, X264, X3: Terran Conflict.

Test Setup:

• CPU : Intel Core i7 980X EE
• CPU Cooler : Prolimatech Mega Shadow
• Graphics Card : EVGA GeForce GTX 280 1GB
• HDD : WD 320GB
• Mainboard : Sapphire Pure Black X58 PB-CI7S41X58
• Operating System : Windows Vista Ultimate x64
• PSU : Tuniq Miniplant 950w
• RAM : 6GB Crucial BL3KIT25664TB1608 DDR3 1600 MHz