# GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 vs ASUS RAMPAGE 2 EXTREME



## tollickd (Dec 11, 2009)

I am doing a gaming i7 920 with crossfire of 2x HD5850 I am looking at the

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5

With 12gb RAM

Which from the website and reviews is good, also better as it has 2oz of copper (is this much better?)

or a ASUS RAMPAGE 2 EXTREME with only 6gb ram.

Which from the reviews has many many cool extras

what is everyone's advise for a long term board that might be used for a i9 in a few years time! 

Also would 12gb be too much?


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## PaulieG (Dec 12, 2009)

I've owned several 1366 boards. As far as I'm concerned, the UD5 and the EVGA Classified are the best 2 boards on the market for this platform, period. However, I do think that 12gb is serious overkill for 99% of all consumers.


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## RejZoR (Dec 12, 2009)

ASUS > everything else


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## PaulieG (Dec 12, 2009)

RejZoR said:


> ASUS > everything else



LOL. Simply NOT true with the LGA 1366 socket. I've had 75% of the LGA 1366 boards on the market. Gigabyte (including the UD5 and UD4) and EVGA made the best motherboards for the platform. I think a majority of enthusiasts that are not fanboys of a particular brand will agree with me.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Dec 12, 2009)

Go with the Giga


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## GSquadron (Dec 12, 2009)

Even if i am an asus fan i recommend gigabyte


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## freaksavior (Dec 12, 2009)

ive had a p6t deluxe, and a dfi ut as well as the ud5. the ud5 is my favorite


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## overclocking101 (Dec 12, 2009)

neither get an EVGA board read the reviews they are simply better


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## PaulieG (Dec 12, 2009)

overclocking101 said:


> neither get an EVGA board read the reviews they are simply better



There is ONE EVGA board that may be better, and that's the Classified E759. Beyond that, Gigabyte rules 1366. Super stable boards, great bios layout. Hell, in the 6 months of owning the UD5 under heavy overclocking, I never had to even clear the cmos. It always recovered on it's own. I've never owned another board that did that, and I've owned 50+ higher end boards over the last few years. I miss that board. Still wish I never sold it.


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## kylzer (Dec 12, 2009)

When i was testing the rampage II extreme the build Quality was poor imo

the gigabyte UD4P i tried on the other hand was fantasic i assume its the same as the UD5.


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## freakshow (Dec 12, 2009)

lookie here lol 


http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=110223


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## SummerDays (Dec 12, 2009)

*Love The Rampage II Extreme*

Personally, I've had this Rampage II Extreme for over a year now.

It's an excellent board.  At the current price of it on Newegg it's also a good deal.

If I was spending $500 again, I would go with the Asus P6W7 Revolution, only because it has three x16 slots.

If you're looking for 12GB of ram.  G.skill has low voltage high speed ram and it's inexpensive.


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## MicroUnC (Dec 12, 2009)

I've got Gigabyte X58A-UD7, Simply awesome!!! Oh and 12gb is seriously overkill.


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## Wile E (Dec 12, 2009)

Go with the Gigabyte. Asus has been on a steady decline in quality and clocking the past couple of years, while GB has been on the steady rise. They have absolutely been kicking X58 ass. 

GB actually started surpassing Asus in the 775 days. I wish I would've bought the X38 DQ6 instead of my Maximus.


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## tollickd (Dec 12, 2009)

ok thanks guys Gigabyte it is then with 6gb  wish I had my xmas bonus now. I have to say a big thank you to everyone who has replied to one of my threads!


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## SummerDays (Dec 13, 2009)

I would check on that UD5 and see what the warranty is on the Gigabye board. 

The new UD7 series (at $500) is only 2 years, while ASUS offers a 3 year warranty.


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## SummerDays (Dec 13, 2009)

EVGA's lastest Classified board comes with a 1 year warranty.

As a consumer, I'm not going to buy a $500 motherboard with only 1 year warranty.


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## PaulieG (Dec 13, 2009)

SummerDays said:


> EVGA's lastest Classified board comes with a 1 year warranty.
> 
> As a consumer, I'm not going to buy a $500 motherboard with only 1 year warranty.



For most enthusiasts it's rare to hold on to a board for more than a year or so, so any warranty over 2 years is actually overkill for a large percentage of the intended market. I certainly wouldn't buy the UD7 though. I'd buy the UD5 and save the cash for something else. The UD7 is simply a rebadged UD5 Extreme. The only difference is going to be a slightly better sound card.


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## tollickd (Dec 13, 2009)

It has a 3 Year warranty.


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## trt740 (Dec 13, 2009)

Paulieg said:


> LOL. Simply NOT true with the LGA 1366 socket. I've had 75% of the LGA 1366 boards on the market. Gigabyte (including the UD5 and UD4) and EVGA made the best motherboards for the platform. I think a majority of enthusiasts that are not fanboys of a particular brand will agree with me.



The Rampage Extreme II is a really good board ( it did have trouble when it was first released but after 15 bios updates is rock solid), best I have owned with the exception of possible the orginal DFI Ultra D and Rampage Extreme 775. It is every bit as good as a classified. You can tell it is good because as you know I'm Mr. upgrade and have kept this board for almost a year.   P.S I have owned 7 x58 boards. It also has zero trouble over clocking 12gb of ram.   On a side note I may sell this current board and move to AMD I have a itching to try a new AMD 965 and the new asus crosshair.


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## vivek90 (Dec 13, 2009)

Ok guys ,seems to me this is a serious topics
Im here with my Ques 
Im now having a UD5 & i7 920 C0 , but i want to bring a new mobo.
Should it be extreme or ud7 or any other brand mobo ?


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## trt740 (Dec 13, 2009)

*the guys on this thread wouldn't agree with you.*



Paulieg said:


> LOL. Simply NOT true with the LGA 1366 socket. I've had 75% of the LGA 1366 boards on the market. Gigabyte (including the UD5 and UD4) and EVGA made the best motherboards for the platform. I think a majority of enthusiasts that are not fanboys of a particular brand will agree with me.




but to each his own   Still I do like both boards you mentioned and the DFI X58 are great aswell.
*Rampage extreme II thread*
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=210275&page=130


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## PaulieG (Dec 13, 2009)

trt740 said:


> but to each his own
> *Rampage extreme II thread*
> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=210275&page=130



To be fair, I haven't owned the Rampage Extreme. I've only owned it's little brother, the GENE. That was a decent board, but it was nowhere near as good as the UD5 was. Oh, and you did say that it was good after several bios updates, which is sad for such an expensive board. The Gigabyte was rock solid on the initial bios. 

Like you said, to each his own. I'm simply saying that out of the many x58 boards I owned, the Gigabytes consistently performed the best from day one.


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## trt740 (Dec 13, 2009)

Paulieg said:


> To be fair, I haven't owned the Rampage Extreme. I've only owned it's little brother, the GENE. That was a decent board, but it was nowhere near as good as the UD5 was. Oh, and you did say that it was good after several bios updates, which is sad for such an expensive board. The Gigabyte was rock solid on the initial bios.



It was the first major overclocking x58 motherboard and 15 bios updates shows Asus dedication to the board and getting it right, stable and maxed out overclocking wise. The classified and the rest came later, but don't outperform or have anymore bells and whistles than this board. I also believe the classified now has 4 versions.


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## PaulieG (Dec 13, 2009)

trt740 said:


> It was the first major overclocking x58 motherboard and 15 bios updates shows Asus dedication to the board and getting it right, stable and maxed out overclocking wise.



But NEEDING the numerous bios updates shows a lack of initial quality, trying to rush a product to market. IMHO.


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## trt740 (Dec 13, 2009)

Paulieg said:


> But NEEDING the bios updates shows a lack of initial quality, trying to rush a product to market. IMHO.



Nope  the last 4 have just added more overclocking head room and support for new chips, ram etc.. Asus hasn't abandoned it motherboard like others do. Good enough isn't good enough in this case. Your analogy is similar to the guy who first speaks up in a conversation giving his opinion on a subject, it always easier to sit back and wait then speak up and build upon the first guys ideas and mistakes making yourself look better. In this case Asus went out on a limb and is constantly improving on their product while others stood back and watched.  However, like I said the boards you mentioned are great as well. It is actually hard to find a bad x58 board. Even the low end msi and jetways are good. *Love you( in a manly sort of way) Paulie boy and your statements are just as vaild as mine.*   Selling my rig soon to some lucky bastard.


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## RejZoR (Dec 13, 2009)

Paulieg said:


> LOL. Simply NOT true with the LGA 1366 socket. I've had 75% of the LGA 1366 boards on the market. Gigabyte (including the UD5 and UD4) and EVGA made the best motherboards for the platform. I think a majority of enthusiasts that are not fanboys of a particular brand will agree with me.



I'm not a fanboy, but once you get rid of the 4th or 5th Gigabyte board that was eating my nerves, i'm not going to touch that company ever again. ASUS on the other hand has yet to disappoint me. And with Rampage II Gene, i can't say i feel any need to look for anything else.
Very high end motherboard with great features, nice design and rock solid performance.
I can say the same for ASUS P5Q Deluxe that i was using before and vanilla ASUS P5Q that i was just assembling for my friend. It just works beautifully.


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## Wile E (Dec 13, 2009)

I, on the other hand, am disappointed with my Maximus, and wish I went with the DQ6 instead.


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## PaulieG (Dec 13, 2009)

All brands seem to fluctuate on quality and performance from platform to platform. I was just simply astounded at the quality, performance and stability of the Gigabyte for the 1366 platform. On the other hand, the Maximus was my favorite s775 board.



trt740 said:


> Nope  the last 4 have just added more overclocking head room and support for new chips, ram etc.. Asus hasn't abandoned it motherboard like others do. Good enough isn't good enough in this case. Your analogy is similar to the guy who first speaks up in a conversation giving his opinion on a subject, it always easier to sit back and wait then speak up and build upon the first guys ideas and mistakes making yourself look better. In this case Asus went out on a limb and is constantly improving on their product while other stood back and watched.  However like I said the boards you mentioned are great as well. It is actually hard to find a bad x58 board. Even the low end msi and jetways are good. *Love you( in a manly sort of way) Paulie boy and your statements are just as vaild as mine.*   Selling my rig soon to some lucky bastard.



I agree with you here. Most every x58 board performed well, including my Biostar and Asrock.


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## trt740 (Dec 13, 2009)

Wile E said:


> I, on the other hand, am disappointed with my Maximus, and wish I went with the DQ6 instead.



disappointed with what with  certain chips it will do 600FSB


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## Wile E (Dec 13, 2009)

trt740 said:


> disappointed with what with  certain chips it will do 600FSB



Mine won't go above 450 on a quad, no matter the chip or the BIOS used.


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## trt740 (Dec 13, 2009)

Wile E said:


> Mine won't go above 450 on a quad, no matter the chip or the BIOS used.



Well thats how the old quads were they didn't go above 450 fsb none did really. If you look I7 they don't either. Some 775 sockets would bench at 500 FSB but rarely hit that 24/7


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## Wile E (Dec 13, 2009)

trt740 said:


> Well thats how the old quads were they didn't go above 450 fsb none did really. If you look I7 they don't either. Some 775 sockets would bench at 500 FSB but rarely hit that 24/7



Mine won't even post or setfsb above 450, neither would either of my Q6600's. This QX will go all the way to 480fsb in my friend's DQ6, which is why I wish I had one.


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## trt740 (Dec 13, 2009)

Wile E said:


> Mine won't even post or setfsb above 450, neither would either of my Q6600's. This QX will go all the way to 480fsb in my friend's DQ6, which is why I wish I had one.



most of the time it's the chip and not the board but over 450 fsb is alot to ask on those chips.


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## Wile E (Dec 13, 2009)

trt740 said:


> most of the time it's the chip and not the board but over 450 fsb is alot to ask on those chips.



But not for the X38 DQ6, apparently. lol.


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## fire2havoc (Dec 14, 2009)

I've been nothing but very happy with my UD5. Then again, I'm biased. I'm sure that the ASUS board is very good as well and doubt that there will be any significant performance differences between the top X58 boards.


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## trt740 (Dec 14, 2009)

Wile E said:


> But not for the X38 DQ6, apparently. lol.



I had that board and it was no better than my old rampage sometimes it's the ram aswell.


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## Wile E (Dec 14, 2009)

trt740 said:


> I had that board and it was no better than my old rampage sometimes it's the ram aswell.



Same ram. Same exact everything, taken right out of my system.


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## glenncol (Dec 14, 2009)

Hi guys

I am considering the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 for a i7 920 cpu at the moment, i seen you al love the UD5 which i hear the UD7 is a updated version off. Here in Australia i can get a UD5 for about $50 more than a UD5 do you think this is a good board to go with?

Others i have considered are the Asus P6T Delux but i must say i am more a GB fan, and over here for get about EVGA as they are bloody expensive


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## trt740 (Dec 14, 2009)

Wile E said:


> Same ram. Same exact everything, taken right out of my system.



the same ram might not be as good in a different board but no matter. Try this thread http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=57098


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## PaulieG (Dec 14, 2009)

glenncol said:


> Hi guys
> 
> I am considering the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 for a i7 920 cpu at the moment, i seen you al love the UD5 which i hear the UD7 is a updated version off. Here in Australia i can get a UD5 for about $50 more than a UD5 do you think this is a good board to go with?
> 
> Others i have considered are the Asus P6T Delux but i must say i am more a GB fan, and over here for get about EVGA as they are bloody expensive



Like you said, the UD7 is an updated version of the UD5. Actually it is simply a rebadged version of the UD5 Extreme. I think the only real difference is sound. If that's worth your extra $50, then so be it. Enjoy either board. The UD5 may have been the best board I ever owned.


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## trt740 (Dec 15, 2009)

just tried a new bios update for my rampage and wow!!! another voltage drop when overclocking my cpu this board gets better and better.


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## Wile E (Dec 19, 2009)

trt740 said:


> the same ram might not be as good in a different board but no matter. Try this thread http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=57098



I've tried everything. Multiple sets of ram on every divider the kits would run on, multiple cpus, every single variation of settings and voltages, every BIOS for both Rampage and Maximus. Trust me, it's the board. My board is complete junk for clocking.


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