Intel's DX58SO
Serving up a Smackover

With the exception of the lackluster gaming performance of its integrated graphics chipsets, Intel's core logic offerings are widely regarded as the best in the business. Even notoriously fickle enthusiasts have flocked to them, dating all the way back to the venerable BX of yesteryear, and more recently, with the P35 and P45 Express. Given this chipset pedigree, it's a little surprising that Intel hasn't been able to build a motherboard that has really caught on with enthusiasts. Intel wasn't interested in catering to overclockers back in the day, of course; tweaking clock speeds was officially taboo back then. These days, though, Intel's high-end motherboards are loaded with overclocking options, littered with pictures of skulls, and branded with edgy code-names like Skulltrail and, er, Smackover.

Say what?

Smackover is indeed the code-name for Intel's X58-based DX58SO motherboard, and it must be some sort of inside joke. Given the Core i7's performance, Smackdown might've been more appropriate. But at least the board looks like a proper enthusiast offering. It comes draped in a black and blue color scheme that looks pretty good, and Intel hasn't gone overboard with its little skull logos, which are tastefully applied.

The first thing you'll notice about the DX58SO is its unconventional layout. The DIMM slots have been placed parallel to the top edge, the north bridge chip to the right of the CPU socket, and the processor's voltage circuitry across the middle of the board. This arrangement is unique among the X58 boards that we've seen thus far, and some of it's quite clever.

Take the placement of the auxiliary 12V power connector, for example. The plug sits mid-way down the board, but over to the right-hand side, where associated cabling won't block airflow between the processor cooler and rear chassis exhaust. Because the 12V plug is equidistant from the top and bottom of the board, cable reach shouldn't be an issue with either a traditional or upside-down enclosure.

The DX58SO's socket layout actually reminds me a little of the BTX form factor, which also put the DIMM slots parallel to the path of chassis airflow. This should help memory modules run cooler than with more traditional layouts, although you'll only be able to use four DIMMs at a time. The DX58SO still taps all three of the Core i7's memory channels, but two of those channels are limited to a single slot each. Intel says it went with only four slots so that memory would be closer to the CPU, reducing latency. That's also why the slots are exactly centered relative to the socket.

Putting DIMM slots so close to the CPU socket may create clearance problems if extremely tall memory modules like Corsair's Dominators are paired with larger aftermarket coolers. The board's north bridge cooler is a little on the tall side, too, and the manual suggests that it should be used with an included 40mm fan. We didn't find the fan to be necessary when running at stock speeds, and it didn't help us when overclocking, so you can probably do without. A high-end motherboard really shouldn't have to rely on active chipset cooling, anyway.

By now you've no doubt noticed that the DX58SO is entirely without heatpipes—a pleasant change of pace given the tangled networks of copper we've seen on many enthusiast boards. I don't expect the lack of plumbing will compromise the board's ability to cool various components, especially since it won't be sharing heat between them.

Considering that Intel dropped support for "parallel" ATA from its south bridge chips a while back, it's no surprise that the DX58SO is entirely devoid of IDE ports. Given the popularity (and affordability) of Serial ATA optical drives, there's really no reason to saddle a system with bulky ribbon cables anymore.

All of the board's Serial ATA ports are lined up along the right edge, spaced in pairs of two. These SATA couplets are carefully spaced such that longer graphics cards—even those with bulky double-slot coolers—won't interfere with cabling. The low-profile south bridge heatsink won't get in the way of longer cards, either.

The DX58SO serves up an onboard power button like the P6T, but not a reset switch, which you may or may not miss. Intel hasn't bought into the solid-state capacitor craze that's sweeping the high-end motherboard market, either, so you'll find plenty of electrolytic caps dotting the board. That's not necessarily problematic, but it seems a little low-rent given the DX58SO's price tag.

There's only one PCI slot on the DX58SO, but plenty of PCI Express. An x4 slot sits atop the slot stack, and not only is it notched to accept longer x8 and x16 cards, there's also a retention clip to hold those cards in place. You also get a couple of x1 slots and a pair of x16s.

While the DX58SO supports CrossFire, Intel wasn't able to reach an SLI licensing agreement with Nvidia. As a result, this may be the only enthusiast-oriented X58-based motherboard that won't work with the green team's GPU teaming scheme (that is, until someone hacks an SLI certification key into the BIOS).

You won't find any throwback touches in the DX58SO's port cluster, which is fitting considering the board's lack of other legacy connectivity options. Intel does provide eight backplane USB ports, though, and they're joined by a couple of eSATA ports, Firewire, and a Gigabit Ethernet jack. The single networking option is a little sparse for a high-end motherboard, but it does tap the ICH10R's integrated GigE controller—something that other motherboard makers have shied away from in favor of auxiliary Gigabit chips from Marvell and Realtek.

A collection of audio ports fills out the right side of the port cluster, offering a host of analog inputs and outputs alongside a digital S/PDIF output. These ports hook into a Realtek ALC889 codec chip that supports Dolby Digital Live, allowing users to encode multi-channel audio from any application into a pristine digital bitstream that can be passed to compatible receivers or speakers.