Operational Specifics

We experienced no problems of any kind during system assembly, operating system installation or regular everyday work with Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R mainboard. All functions and technologies work in default mode that is why the processor clock frequency multiplier was increased to 21x due to Intel Turbo Boost technology. DDR3 SDRAM worked in triple-channel mode at 1066 MHz with 8-8-8-20-1T timings.

In idle mode the multiplier and processor Vcore lowered due to Intel processor power-saving technologies kicking in.

There would be nothing else to add at this point if it weren’t for our four-pin processor fan. The interesting thing is that each of the new mainboards we have tested so far demonstrates a unique ability to control its rotation speed. The first mainboard to “meet” the new fan was ASRock X58 Extreme. Unfortunately, the mainboard controls fan rotation speed using some unrealistically low processor temperature as a reference, which increases and lowers very slowly. This big lag only allows controlling the fan rotation speed automatically only in nominal mode. If we overclock memory or CPU, the fan must be working at its maximum speed, otherwise the system will get overheated long before the mainboard starts responding to temperature increase.

EVGA X58 SLI LE mainboard demonstrated a completely different rotation speed control approach. We can call it “digital”, because the mainboard can’t gradually change the fan rotation speed, it knows only two possible states: zero and 1, on and off. When the CPU temperature is below a certain threshold, the fan rotates at a very low speed. Once it exceeds this threshold, the fan immediately speeds up to maximum 2200 RPM. Despite some evident drawbacks this approach has, this fan rotation speed control solution proved efficient enough for an overclocked processor.

As for Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R mainboard, we were very concerned at first that the approach it offered wouldn’t be efficient enough at all. Unlike ASRock X58 Extreme, Gigabyte solution responded immediately to increasing operational load and growing CPU temperature. But unlike EVGA X58 SLI LE, it increased the fan rotation speed slowly and gradually, reaching the maximum at by far not all times. Of course, it means that mainboard will work flawlessly in nominal mode, but will the board cope with an overclocked processor; will it be able to speed up the processor fan before the system starts showing errors caused by massive overheating? Luckily, all our concerns proved ungrounded. It turned out that we don’t have to push the processor fan rotation speed to its maximum every time. Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R proved that in most cases our CPU cooler was efficient enough even at lower fan rotation speed. It improves the acoustic comfort. Moreover, smooth transition from low fan rotation speed to high and back is perceived much better than abrupt jumping from low rotation speed to high and back.

So, we could call Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R a leader among all recently tested solutions. It implements the most optimal approach to controlling processor fan rotation speed, which is efficient enough even during overclocking and doesn’t annoy you from acoustical standpoint. However, when it comes to giving away awards, we should never forget about Asus solutions.

The BIOS of Asus mainboards has so-called “Q-Fan Control” parameter responsible for the adjustment of processor fan rotation speed. It can be set to one of the following three values: Turbo, Standard and Silent. Turbo mode turned out too aggressive for our testing conditions. It increased the fan rotation speed too quickly under heavy processor load, but it still remained way too high in idle mode. Standard mode seemed to be the most optimal of the three. In this case, the startup fan rotation speed is pretty low in idle mode, but as soon as the load increases, it jumps to the maximum very quickly. As for Silent mode, we didn’t consider it as a possibility at first. The startup fan rotation speed was the lowest, which was good, but it didn’t immediately increase to the maximum under heavy load and we assumed that this mode won’t suit for an overclocked processor. However, Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R mainboard proved that even during overclocking the fan rotation speed doesn’t have to be pushed to the maximum limit. That is why we got back to Asus P6T tests and confirmed that Silent mode was perfectly suitable for an overclocked CPU and provided much more acoustically comfortable environment than Turbo or Standard modes.

The ability to select one of the three modes for fan rotation speed control in the BIOS is the advantage of Asus mainboards. Overclocking fans have always been pleased with their momentary reaction to workload increase. Even such simple single-threaded application as SuperPI can be detected by ear in this case. Even when an application starts, you will be able to hear slight increase in the fan rotation speed and the immediate return to the previous rotation speed level. This impressive response time is definitely an advantage, but I have to admit that slower and smoother reaction provided by Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R seems to be more acoustically comfortable for everyday work. It may not react to an application launch, but will respond in time to really serious workload increase.