Quick Short Test & Review of X58 PRO-E

gzhil

gzhil

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SECOND LIEUTENANT
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Here is an upgrade version to the entry level X58PRO motherboard that MSI has to offer before. Model name is ?X58PRO-E? and this was introduced to solve the High IOH Temp that other users encountered before with the X58 Pro. The chipset & VRM heatsinks are now screwed on the board thus making a good contact for better & fast heat dissipation. Don?t get worried  also for the price because this would be still around 10k PHP and if paired with a good i7 920 processor (priced around 13-14k PHP) you will own a system which would be great for video editing, graphics processing & gaming as well (SLI or Crossfire can be done on this motherboard ^^ ). On the other hand, if you are an overclocker like me. It is very easy for the board to overclock the i7 920 to 4ghz at a minimal voltage increase and few bios tweaking.

So here is a shot of the box and its contents
BoxAcsry.jpg


?Four Sata Cables
?One IDE Cable
?Two Molex to SATA power Adapters
?1x Cross Fire Bridge
?Front Panel header labels
?Driver & Extras CD
?User manuals & Backplate

Features

?Support for Core i7 LGA1366 CPUs at 4.8-6.4GT/s QPI
?Intel X58 northbridge and ICH10R southbridge
?Six 1.5V DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 24GB of memory
?One Realtek RTL8111C Gigabit Ethernet controllers
?Three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (x16/x16/x4)
?Two PCI-EXpress x1 slots
?Two PCI slots
?Seven SATA II ports - six from Intel ICH10R (supporting Intel Matrix RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD), one from JMicron JMB363
?One IDE port supporting one device from JMicron JMB363
?One eSATA port from JMicron JMB363
?Ten USB 2.0 ports - six on rear I/O, four via pin-outs
?JMicron JMB381 IEEE1394a Firewire supporting two ports - one via pin-out, one on the rear I/O
?Realtek ALC888S 7.1 Channel High-Definition audio codec

Layout & I/O Ports
chipsinks.jpg

BackPCB.jpg

Black heatsink screw design. Three well placed PCIE (x16/x16/x4) slots which won?t give any users a problem installing three dual-slot video cards. You will also find below the Easy OC Switch sticker are the Easy Power/Reset/ Clear Cmos Buttons & beside them is the OC Switch.

backports.jpg

On the rear you will find 6 USB Ports, Firewire port, E-SATA, SPDIF Out , PS2 for KB & Mouse, Gigabit LAN & lastly 7.1 audio ports.

BIOS
I only took pictures of the Cell Menu because this is the most important part of the bios especially in overclocking. This is where you will tweak your system.

bios1.jpg

bios2.jpg

bios3.jpg

CPU Specifications

bios4.jpg

Memory Specifications

bios5.jpg

More Memory Options for Tweaking

bios6.jpg

Voltages

bios7.jpg

This is where you can save all your overclock or tweak settings

Test Setup
Setup.jpg

?Intel Core i7 920 C0
?G Skill Trident 2000 CAS9 1.65V
?MSI 4770
?FSP 800 watts PSU
?Seagate 500GB SATA
?Windows Vista Ultimate 64BIT SP2

Below are quick short tests on how good the board can handle high memory clock speeds even though in the manual it only says there that the highest OC for the memory speed is up to 1600mhz only for the motherboard.

Tridents16006-7-6-18TRFC60158V.jpg

G Skil lTridents 1600 6-7-6-18 TRFC60 1.58V

Tridents18667-8-7-20TRFC65160V.jpg

G Skill Tridents 1866 7-8-7-20 TRFC65 1.60V

Tridents20008-9-8-20TRFC80165V.jpg

G Skill Tridents 2000 8-9-8-20 TRFC80 1.65V

Tridents21009-9-9-24TRFC88172V.jpg

Tridents 2100 9-9-9-24 TRFC88 1.72V

I was able to get a good bclock 222 also with the i7 920 C0 I have. I guess if I used a D0 stepping instead , I can push the bclock higher.
X58PROEBclck222.jpg


Final Thoughts & Conclusion
I was very impressed on the capabilities of this entry level X58 motherboard can do. A few tweaks on the cell menu I was able to get high memory clocks and all were stable. You would also notice on one of my shots running the memory @ 2100mhz, my uncore ratio turned to a high of 4200mhz speed. All of these were done all on air. 

Pros :
- Cheap Entry level X58 Board
- Easy to overclock
- Support SLI and Crossfire
- No issue on Bigger aftermarket CPU cooler
- 90 degrees placement of SATA & IDE ports

Cons :
- No SLI Bridge included in the Box
 
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So, how were the chipset temperatures with your stock setup?  Do you think MSI fixed the heat problem?
 
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I wish mine were that low...  I just built a machine with the X58 Pro-E, all stock, no overclock.  Mine idled at around 80c.  I removed the heatsinks, scraped off the pink gummy stuff they used, put on new thermal paste, and reattached using two red fiber washers at each screw to increase the heatsink pressure on the chips.  It now idles at around 66c.  It is much better, but still not near the 50c that you're seeing.  I wonder why?  My case is an Antec Nine Hundred Two, with great airflow.  I also moved my video card down a slot so the cips weren't covered.
 
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@Dankirk2
Try removing the black foam underneath the ioh heatsink and check if your temp goes down  :)
 
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@joker
thanks bro hehehe. By the way check out the youtube link i provided with my previous post  :D
 
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Dankirk2 said:
I wish mine were that low...  I just built a machine with the X58 Pro-E, all stock, no overclock.  Mine idled at around 80c.  I removed the heatsinks, scraped off the pink gummy stuff they used, put on new thermal paste, and reattached using two red fiber washers at each screw to increase the heatsink pressure on the chips.  It now idles at around 66c.  It is much better, but still not near the 50c that you're seeing.  I wonder why?  My case is an Antec Nine Hundred Two, with great airflow.  I also moved my video card down a slot so the cips weren't covered.
Click to expand...

Can someone else using the X58Pro-E board post their IOH temps as I want to change out my X58 Pro board before summer arrives.

I am not prepared to attempt to remove the heat sink and if other people are still getting 80c IOH temps, which is what I am getting and it is winter here at the moment, then it will be a waste of time me paying to have my board replaced.
 
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Dankirk2, 'DO NOT' remove the black isolation pad under the IOH heatsink unless you want to take the chance of shorting out your board. Use some nylon washers between the springs & factory black washers to get a little more downward pressure. Intel recommends 50 inch pounds torque, but not many of us have the luxery of owning a torque screwdriver.  :-))
 
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Do you think the foam is keeping the heatsink from properly contacting the chip?  What are the IOH temps for other X58 boards?  Do these chips just run hot, or is it only a problem for MSI boards?
 
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It could be a recent revision by MSI, but my Pro-E does not have the transparent plastic you speak of (manufacture date 04-21-09). As a word of caution then for future heatsink modifiers, before the isolation pad is removed, ensure the heatsink has the plastic.  :-))  Depending on ambient, Intel considers around 65c at idle plenty good enough.
 
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