Is the EVGA X58 motherboard cooler silent?

MartyMcFly · Post by **MartyMcFly** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:21 pm

I'm about to build my first i7 system and just wanted to know about the EVGA motherboard's cooler, because I've never had an active cooling motherboard and am afraid of ruining it all with that.

I'm going for a fairly quit system:

Antec P182
Enermax Modu82+ 625W
Intel Core i7 920
Corsair 3x2GB 1333MHz
EVGA X58 Motherboard
EVGA GTX260 FTW Edition
Intel SSD X25-M

What do you think? Will I ever notice the noise coming from the motherboard's cooler?

Thanks!

tehcrazybob · Post by **tehcrazybob** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:06 pm

I have never in my life stumbled across a motherboard where the active chipset cooler was anything less than the absolute loudest thing in the system. This doesn't just hold true for SPCR-type systems designed with silence in mind; chipset coolers are often the loudest things in very typical loud computers.

I can't comment directly on the board you're looking at because I have never used it. However, based on past experience, I have low expectations.

niels007 · Post by **niels007** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:27 am

You are likely to find a just as decent board that has passive chipset cooling. This one looks expensive and overclocky which has been proven time and time again to be mostly nonsense; often any decent board will perform more or less the same.

I would avoid any mainboard with fan cooled chipsets as they're tiny relatively fast spinning fans, guaranteed to annoy in the long run!

mkk · Post by **mkk** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 8:18 am

Just say no to motherboard designs with fanned cooling, for the good of all.

MartyMcFly · Post by **MartyMcFly** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:22 am

Yes, I 've noticed that there are other motherboards in the market that do the same thing but have no active cooling, that's why I don't think EVGA is making a good job here...

The problem is that the other motherboard I'm interested in is the ASUS P6T Deluxe. The reviews are excellent, but from the newegg user reviews I've noticed that they frequently come dead on arrival or malfunctioning, while the EVGA X58 does not (or at least it's not that frequent). Also, the ASUS P6T Deluxe has its V2 announced and it's not yet available to buy (been waiting for a month now), making the V1 almost obsolete (?)

I'm buying this in the USA from Argentina, and it's almost impossible to RMA it from here (or more expensive than buying a new one), so I have to go with the most reliable one.

MSI and Gigabyte have not earned my trust yet, and the newegg user reviews are not as positive as the ones from the EVGA mobo.

What do you think? Should I go for the ASUS disregarding the user reviews?

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 11:36 am

You might consider buying a motherboard from Mwave. They have a testing option for about $10, but I have never used it. It might be the best ten dollars you ever spent. How are things in Argentina? I used to enjoy traveling through there. I liked Mendoza, Mar del Plata, and of course BA.

MartyMcFly · Post by **MartyMcFly** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:44 pm

Thanks Greg!

I've checked it out, it seemed like a very good idea, but in their FAQ they say they won't accept a credit card with a non-US billing address...

Amazon accepts it, that's the best thing about Amazon for me.

These are hard times here, but well... we've been hosts of a Rally Dakar not long ago, and they've passed through Mendoza and BA, places you seem to know!

Eyedolon · Post by **Eyedolon** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:46 pm

I don't know about whether the X58 has a removable cooler - the fan is the same design that I *could* put on my 780i if I wished. If it's removable, chances are the mobo can run just fine without it.

It's mostly there (mine is at least) for heavy overclocking.

As for reliability, I've been buying solely EVGA for two years now - everything in my current rig that can be EVGA is. I've never had a single equipment failure at all, and my old brand (Asus, actually) never gave me a perfect board.

It doesn't hurt that EVGA is willing to give a lifetime warranty on their gear. That's reassuring even if making use of such a perk is unfeasible.

MartyMcFly · Post by **MartyMcFly** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:55 pm

I was planning to do some light overclocking, taking the Core i7 920 from 2.66 to 3.2 on stock Intel cooler... but I really don't know if that's going to make that damn fan rev up a lot

If it could be taken off, that would be very nice, but I don't want to fry my motherboard just for the noise.

LilKevin715 · Post by **LilKevin715** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:08 pm

You could also look into the Asus P6T (non deluxe aka vanilla) for around $250 USD, no active cooling on the chipset and it overclocks pretty well. I got my i7 920 to 3.6ghz with just a small voltage bump above stock.

I used the stock heatsink that Intel provides for a few days just to get my system up and running before I got my thermalright ultra 120 extreme. All I can say the stock cooler is complete garbage, idle temps for me were in the 50C range, load was in the 70C range assuming you have good airflow. Noise from it was... well noisy even when idle.

Here is a link to my system as well as the specs
viewtopic.php?t=52195