Sapphire Pure Black X58 Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

There is very little about the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard not to like. The name is very fitting, Pure Black. Built on a solid black PCB the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard is aesthetically pleasing. Like always, though, the look of the board should take a back seat to performance.

When it comes to performance, the Sapphire Pure Black X58 wasn’t lacking in that area. Although, it’s fair to say that the Intel X58 platform is becoming a bit dated. While it’s still a great platform, the Intel P67 “Sandy Bridge” platforms with our Intel Core i5 2500K gave the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard with our Intel Core i7 950 a solid run for the money. The only area that the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard truly excelled in was memory bandwidth. That can be attributed to the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard running triple channel memory.

There is one advantage that can still be had with an Intel X58 motherboard like the Sapphire Pure Black X58. The availability of hex core processor. Processors like the Intel Core i7 990X will still offer unparalleled processing power. If you are putting together a system that is going to need raw processing power and budget isn’t a primary concern, I would be able to recommend building a system with a hex core processor. Although, if I were building a system for gaming, I’m not sure I would be building an Intel X58 system.

Well, I apologize, I digressed a little bit above. If you are in need of an Intel X58 board, the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard may just fit the bill for you. If you are looking for a board with all of the latest features, Sapphire has you covered. The Sapphire Pure Black X58 covers just about all of the bases. Sapphire has integrated SATA 6 and USB 3.0 on the Sapphire Pure Black X58. The only feature that I would have liked to have seen added is support four NVIDIA SLI. Though with the fact that Sapphire has only produced AMD Radeon Graphics cards, this may have been out of their hands.

The Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard is the first motherboard in recent years from Sapphire. One area that had me concerned was overclocking. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard. In the past we have had our Intel Core i7 950 go beyond the 4.3GHz mark. We can honestly say that the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard didn’t disappoint! We were able to increase the speed of our Intel Core i7 950 to 4.323GHz on the Sapphire Pure Black X58!

Overall, the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard has suited my needs. Aside for the lack of NVIDIA SLI support it offers up all of the latest features for a decent price. At the time of this writing the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard can be found for $219.99 plus shipping ($259.99 minus the $40 mail in rebate). The Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard is backed by a one year warranty that will cover both parts and labor.

Legit Bottom Line: If you are in the market for an Intel X58 motherboard with the latest features and support for CrossfireX configurations, the Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard may just be the board for you!