Intel DX58SO “Smackover” Motherboard

Conclusions

Intel DX58SO “Smackover” will be one of the first motherboards for the forthcoming Core i7 processors to reach the market.

It simply removes support for all legacy devices: there is no support for parallel ATA devices, PS/2 keyboard, PS/2 mouse, floppy disk drives, serial ports or parallel port.

It provides two x16 and one x4 PCI Express slots, allowing you to install up to three video cards either for having more video monitors or to increase gaming performance by using ATI-based video cards under CrossFire mode. Even though the x4 slot is physically smaller, you can install x16 video cards on it (it will achieve a lower performance compared to an x16 slot, of course).

Even though the first Core i7 CPUs can officially only access memories up to DDR3-1066, Smackover supports the installat
ion of DDR3-1333 memories. This is certainly an advantage for users looking for the highest performance possible. You have to be careful, though, as Core i7 only supports memories working at a maximum 1.6 V. According to Intel if you install memory modules that require more than 1.6 V you can damage the CPU. Intel DX58SO is limited to 16 GB of RAM, which we think is more than enough by today’s standards.

Smackover has four DDR3 sockets and for best performance you should install three identical memory modules. A four-socket configuration isn’t the best for future memory upgrades: if you want to add more memory, you can install a single module on the fourth socket with a sacrifice in performance (the fourth module will be accessed at 1/3 of the maximum possible transfer rate) or you can remove your current three modules and replacing them with three new modules with higher capacities, which represents a higher cost (the price of three new modules with higher capacity plus the cost of having three modules that will be left over – you can sell them on eBay, of course).

So the best option for memory upgrade with Core i7 is to have a motherboard with six memory sockets, because you can add more memory by installing three new memory modules and keeping your old modules installed.

The highlight of this motherboard is its audio codec, with 108 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its analog outputs and 106 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its analog inputs. We always complain that motherboards have a low SNR for the analog inputs, generating too much background noise when you convert analog audio to digital format (e.g., converting VHS tapes, LPs, etc to digital format), a problem that you won’t have with this motherboard.

The overall quality of Intel DX58SO is excellent, with all capacitors being Japanese and the capacitors from the voltage regulator circuit being solid, plus the use of ferrite chokes on the voltage regulator circuit.