Asus Sabertooth 55i Motherboard: Born for Reliability
Introduction
Back in August we learned that Asus was preparing a brand-new TUF (The Ultimate Force) motherboard series which claims to provide decent overclocking performance as well as high stability and durability. In this article we’re reviewing the first model of the lineup – Sabertooth 55i.
Being more affordable than Asus’ other motherboard families like R.O.G, Premium and Deluxe, the TUF lineup’s biggest highlight is ultra-high reliability.
Introduction
Asus Sabertooth 55i Features I
Asus Sabertooth 55i Features II
December 19th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
What a BS review and I expect better from Expreview. Clearly the PWM of the MSI is cooler and the Big bang is not even using the ceramix stuff. I rather have that the PWM is cooler than the PCH, because the PWM is important for overclocking.
And than the conclusion “For those who require best stability, Asus Sabertooth 55i should be on your short list of boards to look at.” From this test I didn’t see any proof that it is stable hence I would say the MSI one is better.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
@eric
I think the point is that the PWM is cool without the need for a massive heatpipe cooler like the big bang. This means you have more space and airflow for a really large cpu cooler. I like the Ceramix idea, it makes sense. The real problem I have with all motherboard vendors is that they use plastic pins to hold the PWM heatsinks in place. This does not provide nearly enough pressure to maximize cooling performance.
December 20th, 2009 at 12:44 am
The ceramic coating looks and acts more like an insulator than a heat dissipating material. That is the purpose of a heatsink, to dissipate heat, so it must get hot as seen in the thermal images because it transfers the heat away from a hot source. With the coating, it looks like it has lower temperatures, but in fact, the heat is stored inside the heatsink and does not radiate it out.
December 20th, 2009 at 1:44 am
@Aramid
Arctic Silver Céramique is not an insulator.
“Céramique uses a high-density layered composite of five unique shapes of thermally conductive aluminum oxide, boron nitride and zinc oxide sub-micron particles to maximize particle-to-particle contact area and thermal transfer in micro to moderate bond line situations.”
December 20th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Arctic Silver Ceramique’s thermal interface compound is made up of semi-conductive oxides, of which are classified as ceramics. The mixture together gives you something that isn’t an insulator. However, alone by themselves, they are insulators (of heat and electricity) by their crystalline properties.
That is why no heatsinks are covered with oxides or ceramic coatings because it will then be an insulator. The thermal image shows what I am talking about, the heat is stored inside the ceramic coated heatsink and not released or dissipated, that is why it doesn’t appear hot.
If you want a much better coating or thermal interface material, there is graphite.
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