GIGABYTE GA-EX58-EXTREME Ultra Durable 3 Motherboard Review – Page 8

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

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Obviously, the GIGABYTE EX58-Extreme makes for a fantastic gaming rig if given a proper video card (or two, or three). It does its best work when coupled with at least a GTX 260 (216 Core) or GTX 285 which are arguably the two best choices on a budget or not. While it can easily handle games over the next four plus years, it’s not all that the platform can do.

It provides a very stable platform for encoding and formatting your favorite media or software titles. That’s due to the new processor’s integrated memory controller. And none of this can happen without a reliable platform. This is especially true if you plan to overclock.

Overclocking is definitely one area you can expect the GIGABYTE EX58-Extreme Ultra Durable 3 Motherboard to excel. It’s rather perfect if you really want to get your money’s worth out your I7 920 or 940 processor. Those processors have a lot more head room for scaling while the 965 is pretty much near its max. It’ll push those processors to the extreme limits and beyond assuming you have capable cooling.

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Even though this is a first revision chipset launch supporting the new Intel i7 Processor, you wouldn’t think so just by these great results. GIGABYTE’s engineers did a great job of designing the board from the BIOS to the button placements. It’s also apparent that the community that they’ve supported has given them hints in the right direction. Comparing the GIGABYTE EX58-Extreme to previous experiences, it’s my #1 enthusiast platform of choice…so far. I can’t wait to see what they do for an encore.

Pros