Conclusions
As I mentioned in the introduction, ASRock commonly comes up with innovations, that is what they are known for, coming up with cost-cutting solutions in their boards for the more economy-minded. I never really thought about what they would do with a mainstream motherboard, and weren’t sure if they would even go the X58 route for some time.
The guys at ASRock have done it up right with the X58 Supercomputer. The quality and attention to detail is as good as you’ll find with the premium board companies like Asus and Gigabyte. I have mentioned things in the past like some wiggle in the memory slots in ASRock boards, but you don’t find any cheapness in this motherboard.
ASRock has added all of the things you’d expect from a mainstream motherboard.eSATA, plenty of onboard fanbuses, and heatpipe NB cooling. ASRock has utilized the full capabilities of the X58 chipset, including full SLI and CrossFireX support, and the capability of 24 gigs of memory. The X58 SuperComputer is a full-featured motherboard, and has all of ASRock’s unique features too.
As far as cable management, not only has ASRock placed all but a couple of connectors along the edges of the motherboard, they have gone the extra distance and placed the case header port and internal USB ports right up front with the memory slots, making those hard-to-hide case wires the easiest to reach of any motherboard I’ve seen. Only the fanbuses are not on the edge, and they are hidden by the video card.
Though I am extremely impressed that ASRock is the first motherboard manufacturer to build a Tesla-capable LGA 1366 motherboard, I haven’t mentioned much about the X58 SuperComputer’s Tesla Personal Supercomputer capabilities. Since most people that purchase the motherboard won’t spend an additional $8000 for the necessary components, I opted not to spend a lot of time talking about it. If you would like more information on Tesla Personal Supercomputer technology, visit nVidia’s Tesla page. Also, for more information of the Tesla capabilities of the X58 SuperComputer, visit ASRock’s YouTube InfoChannel.
In the overclocking department, though I was unable to use many of them due to my locked Engineering Sample CPU, ASRock has included all of the i7 specific settings in the BIOS, including Uncore settings. Keep in mind that there are only a handful of locked i7s out there, and none are available to the general public. Even with my locked CPU, I was able to attain a respectable overclock. Hopefully in the near future I will have a retail i7, expect a “X58 SuperComputer Revisited” article when that happens.
I found no issues with the X58 SuperComputer. ASRock has done an excellent job with their first mainstream motherboard. The ASRock X58 SuperComputer sells for $295 at my favorite online retailer. Looking at the X58 boards on the market, the price is about right with the PCI-E slot setup and Tesla capability. ThinkComputers.org gives the ASRock X58 SuperComputer Motherboard a 10 out of 10 score and our Editor’s Choice Award!
– Well designed, well built
– Only Tesla-capable X58 motherboard on the market
– Real innovations, including EZ Overclocking, and location of USB/IEEE 1394/case header ports
Cons:
– None that I found