Intel's new X58 chipset and i7 CPU's have caused an almighty storm in the mainboard world. The professional community champing hard at the bit waiting patiently for the dual variant to come forth - well that's not too far around the corner now, we reckon.

We knew that Supermicro had something very interesting coming forth with its X8SAX variant of the X58. Therefore for those wishing to take that upgrade path now embracing the complete advantage of Intel's new offering of the i7 and X58 but, rely heavily upon ECC memory for those mission critical systems, then look no further; here is the Gold Standard.

On paper this looks to be one mighty beast, supporting up to 24GB of Non ECC or ECC memory. It's understandable why the professional would want such a board. Though conversely speaking hidden within the Bios are a huge amount of overclocking variables that will keep those who love to do this very happy for a while to come.

Our time scales here have been tight therefore we did not get the opportunity to look at this in more detail, though it's there. If it's anything like we have discovered within at stock levels then this solid foundation of a mainboard will keep overclockers very happy indeed.

The obvious target market for this entry level high end workstation is geophysicists, designers, scientists, engineers, Medical Imagery and other technical professionals demanding nothing but the best out from their workstations. Notwithstanding with the variants listed below, this mainboard is going to be found in many a server rack or render studio looking for a solid solution as it's very aggressively priced.

From the X58 Tylersburg Supermicro have developed no fewer than eight different mainboards to suit all needs. It shows how that they have advanced their train of thought on how influential this chipset is going to be within the professional arena.

The boards in question are the X8SAX, C7X58, X8ST3-F, X8STE, X8STi-3-F, X8STi-F, X8STi-LN4 and the X8STi.

If you check out the Supermicro site for details of these boards, you will get a pleasant surprise at how enriched they are with features, an example being SAS via LSI 1068E SAS Controller on the X8STi-3-F.

Today's outing is be squarely focused on the Supermicro X8SAX which is one of the best single CPU workstation mainboards from any manufacturer in a long time. The built in slots and devices mean that there can be no waste what so-ever of all those valuable raid cards, hard drives and anything else that have long supported the current systems

But before we move any further forward let's have a swift look at what this mainboard actually has to offer the demanding end user.

Test Systems
Our "in house" test systems for this outing are mostly courtesy of Intel EU and Supermicro. We have already given Intel's stock X58 (SmackOver) mainboard very through outings with both ATI's FirePro V8700 and most recently the NVIDIA Quadro FX4800. Within both sets of tests the X58 Smackover mainboard performed impeccably returning superb results and most importantly, resounding stability. Can it be now replaced with Supermicro's offering?

Hardware Suppliers for the Review
Intel EU for the supply of the 3.2GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, Supermicro for the X8SAX mainboard. Crucial Memory for the DDR3 Non-ECC and ECC Memory, thank you for pulling out the stops here, currently DDR3 ECC memory is a very limited supply option from most memory makers. Western Digital for the VelociRaptor Hard Discs. AMD for the supply of the FirePro V8700 professional graphics card and NVIDIA for the supply of their new Quadro FX4800 professional graphics card. Finally Akasa for the peripherals required for this review.

With the support and help of all the companies involved. It gives you the reader a new choice on upgrade paths that many of you look for here with the performance ratio's each system has to provide.

Systems Integrators, OEMs and VARs should contact all companies directly for pricing and availability of all components. Members of the public should contact their respective suppliers requesting the parts directly.

Benchmarks and Software Used
To maintain our target audience within the professional market place, though we are now seeing many old readers coming back who like the style we produce; we opted for this outing a complete set of professional applications benchmarks. This in turn means all walks of life have a very good idea what they are about to buy and just how fast it really is from this factual article. The test systems shown within are varied but readily found within many arenas now, therefore those wishing just the simple upgrade of the NVIDIA Quadro FX4800 they can see readily how much performance gain has been achieved.

Test System 1 - 32-bit Mode
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3
MAXON CINEBENCH 10
Autodesk 3ds Max 9 SP2 Scenes
Bentley MicroStation V8 XM Graphics Benchmark v1.0.0.5
SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007
SPECviewperf 10

Each set of tests has been applied on the clean system hard drives shown above to ensure that no residue drivers were left installed with all updates/patches applied. A test/render has been completed many times over different periods of the system uptime. Maintaining the fair play rules of SPECviewperf and SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007 we did not manipulate any of this mainboards functionality and left it at its default settings in which it was supplied. Tests have been conducted at 1280 X 1024 @ 60Hz in 32 bit colour. Results that have been shown within this review are from the application/benchmarks first run in accordance with the SPECviewperf fair play rules. Not an average of three runs as some places seem to think is right. 

To test the ECC functionality of the system we completely refreshed the Hard Drive Array and rebuilt it using a complete fresh install. This will allow us to accurately determine on how good the ECC functionality of the system actually is in comparison to the non-ECC system. In theory a good system should be showing approximately 3-5% performance difference. Whilst an exceptionally well-built mainboard with thorough memory timings we should see only minor differences.

The results speak very clearly for themselves as a picture paints a thousand words; so there is no need for a running commentary of the results gained from each system.

Conclusions
This has been an exceptional first outing of this mainboard and the R & D team from Supermicro should be yelling from the rooftops with its resilient success here today. We have thrown just about everything at it and it keeps coming back for more without batting an eyelid. Solid in construction and an end user manual that maintains meticulous accuracy of explanation on how to successfully set-up the mainboard to its optimal performance. There is much more to this mainboard than meets the eye. The overclocking within the board will be easy enough for most who are experienced within this remit. Fun they will have.

Normally with new mainboards of this nature we most always see a niggle or 2 and a swift call to the right support team sees the issue resolved. Not so here. First time right which is very rare in today's massive choices of hardware. Kudos must go to the bios engineering team within Supermicro for achieving a feat of this magnitude.

The big surprise to all is the robust support of EEC memory and the performance whilst most would expect within the region of 3-5%. Not so as the engineers at Supermicro have put a tremendous amount into the bios and board memory timings. The results shown from the tests are remarkably close and we would expect to see very slight deviations from completed check sum runs of the tests. For those in doubt the facts shown within cannot be argued as they are precise and to the letter within the fair play rules. This should be giving other mainboard manufacturers something to think about as this is as good as it gets.

The results shown are good within many areas and to recap from earlier in a more concise consolidated format.

Once more, one is hard pressed to see and tell the actual differences as there normally is a slight variance. You would be hard pressed to tell which is which from above. Blown away, well you should be as this really is a remarkable feat of engineering.

Cinebench 10. The OpenGL results these are much better than what we would have expected, this is a testament to both Supermicro and ATI as to gain results like this much collaboration between the two companies has to be completed. In previous outings on Intel's Smackover we were pleasantly surprised at both the OpenGL performance and the Multi CPU render times. A 55 second render time of the test scene is something to be admired, though with the aid of the supersonic VelociRaptors it is easy to see why.

The results from SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007 spooked us the most - we have never seen such high scoring from an ATI FirePro professional graphics card. To check it was no fluke, we completed a fresh run and the results came in extremely close to the first. Some very happy people within the ATI professional graphics card team will be hoping for good bonuses this year. We knew that the driver was to be good but did not expect it to be this good.

To side track ever so slightly indeed, we must look carefully at the actual performance of the memory supplied to us today from Crucial. DDR3 ECC is fairly new to the arena and not many suppliers have this type of memory. On going to print Crucial have confirmed that they have stock and the pricing of these modules are an absolute snip at $102 USD, €80 Euros or £73.99. It goes without saying that today's magnificent performance has been well supported by the aggressive timings which Crucial have deployed within these 1.5 volt modules. Pleased, they should be.

What of cost and availability of this new wondrous bit of equipment fresh from the pedigree stable of Supermicro? The current pricing of the Supermicro X8SAX is $400 USD, €270 Euros or £245 (before taxes and shipping). The board is available now from many sources, meaning for some very excited users, Christmas has come early this year.

We will be sad to see this mainboard make its way back to Supermicro as it has provided us with a platform of first choice which we would have liked to see remain within our arsenal of test systems. Though looking on the bright side of life we should be seeing very soon the next phase of excitement with the dual Nehalem platforms.

Final thoughts
This is one of the best single CPU mainboards we have encountered in a very long time. It has the ultimate performance and flexibility and is going to be very hard to match by any other mainboard maker out there. Much thought has gone into the actual design and upgrade paths for peripherals that are still only a year old.

In our introduction we stated that here is the gold standard. A standard of this magnitude deserves only the best award possible - our Editors Choice. X