Supermicro ATX Intel LGA1366 C7X58 Motherboard

Never could make it past the BIOs screen. CPU was a working Core i7 from a previous build. Temperature readings said the Northbridge was running excessively hot. After being unable to even install an OS (Linux / Windows - didn't matter) because of the constant system locking. I RMA'd the board to Supermicro. They in turn sent it back saying it runs fine and they installed an OS with no issues. I'll include a DVD of the endeavor next time I have to do this. Replacing the stock chipset heatsinks and fans allowed me to finally setup the OS and get running but alas its still overheating. I can tell from the stupid onboard speaker constantly squelching at me with no way to turn it off! I suppose I could've desoldered the speaker, but is that really a solution to a poorly manufactured board. Never again Supermicro - never again! And I sure as hell will steer away my department and colleagues from this company.Tyan boards never gave me such headaches!

With the current offering of x58 MB this one stands out for several reasons. It does not sport any of the bling-bling you see on "eXtreme gam3r" products like crazy heat pipes (moving "teh heatz" whole 3" away!) and overclocking widgets. Instead it offers sensible thermal design - all slots are aligned with the air direction in the case from front to back, this includes DIMMs and power connectors, and SATA are angled on the edge of the board so the cables don't obstruct air-flow too. Unlike heat pipes this does provide better cooling. In place of overclocking options it has comprehensive set of powersaving and monitoring tools also reducing heat and plenty of 4-pin fan connectors with controlled speed so it can be made whisper-quiet, especially when idle. It supports ECC and 6 DIMMs which is a pretty rare combo. Overall it's the best MB for work I could find - stable and quiet. Note that the picture is of another MB - C7X58 does not have two PCI-X slots shown. There are only solder points for them so keep this in mind if you have many add-on boards, this has 2 PCI-E x16, 1 PCI-E x8 and 1 PCI.