Gigabyte GA-X58-EXTREME question

[gdjacobsen]

Does this mobo come both as water and air cooled, from the pictures i've seen of it it look like they all are fitted with nozzels for warercooing, and since im quite sure ill never be OCing my hardware enough to justify investing in a watercooling kit. So if i HAVE! to put waterooling on it, which i'd prefer not to do, what is the closest thing Gigabyte has made to this Mobo that does not require watercooling, but still have all the awsomeness of the X58-extreme?

Thx

[jlreich]

Though the board is setup for water cooling it looks like it comes with finned heat blocks that you can install instead of using the water block on the northbridge.

However, if you don't plan to overclock much why get the extreme board? I would say you can do just fine with this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128374) and save a few bucks.

[gdjacobsen]

well since im not very skilled at OCing and have not had the need to do it yet, but i might still want to try it at some point, and then i'd like to have a mobo that allows for some serious ocing once the time comes.

[jlreich]

Well I certainly applaud you for recognizing that you don't know much about OC'ing yet. :) Many people come here and simply ask "how can I get my 2.66MHz Core2 to OC to 4.5GHz?" or "why won't my E2200 go past 3.0GHz without rebooting when others are getting 5GHz?". LOL! :D

If you are willing to do the research and to take the risk to your hardware then get the extreme edition and have at it. :)

Actually, looking at the board again it is a hybrid cooling setup on the NB. It has those two big fins and still has the hookups for water. You would think the fins would be just fine if you have good cooling in your case. But I wouldn't swear by it. Here is a link to the board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128361) if any one else wants to have a look at it. And for better pics the Gigabyte page for it (http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2960). It sure is purrdy. :D

http://www.gigabyte.us/FileList/Image/motherboard_productimage_ga-ex58-extreme-4_big.jpg

If you want to avoid the hybrid cooling the next board down is this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362). And then the one I linked to earlier.

By the way, I have fallen in love with Gigabyte boards ever since I built my machine with a GA-EX38-DS4 over a year ago, and then rebuilt my daughters machine about six months ago with a lower end Gigabyte board. I have had a healthy OC on my system (CPU from 2.66-3.2, ram 800-940) almost since day one and have had zero issues. Not one hiccup, ever, not one. The Iron-Ox MOSFETS and Chokes plus the all solid state caps provide a very stable system. Yeah, they are standard now on mid-high end boards, but at the time Gigabyte was the only one offering that in the $200 range that I paid for it. With others you had to go closer to $300 to get them. And the silent pipe on the NB has kept it running consistently in the low 30"s no matter what I am doing.