drwho

As I will most likely be upgrading my computer again soon with the new Intel Penryn processors coming out in January, Which motherboard will you guys who are planning to upgrade to one of the new processors go with? Also what memory will you plan on using? Just curious as to what your choices will be.

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kris23

im going to order the ASUS MAXIMUS Extreme along with the rest of my system during the Christmas season.

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Kazeko

I'm eyeing a Maximus Formula, but I don't know that overclocking my Q6600 is worth the 250 I'd spend on the board, plus the forthcoming future investment of two 3870's.

I will say, I'm VERY disappointed in the 680i SLI chipset.

kris23

i HIGHLY suggest buying the best motherboard you can afford, as you add up all the other components in the system, the added expense of a quality board with the best chips becomes insignificant.

there are two components one should never skimp on for stabiliity and performance, the motherboard and the PSU.

the motherboard due to it being the entire backbone of the system, and the most strained part in the system, the more you ramp up the system, the more the board heats up and is closer to its max

CPU gets hot, but without a good mobo, the components dont reach their peak of performance


the PSU because voltage stability is THE most necessary thing when OCing to high levels. eventually the CPU, graphics, memory and the board itself pull more power than what is considered safe and good

some OC to the point that they require DOUBLE the power but thats the total extreme stuff.....

think about it, youre only spending 30-40 dollars extraa for a far better board with a better coo;ing setup, free game, free antivirus, and free 3DMark06 full edition

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ChaosMinionX

top 3 are Mobo/Ram/PSU...... Bad ram = no OCing outside of 1:1

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Kazeko

Didn't know about this.


But good points. Perhaps I'll drop the cash on it. Plus, added Penryn support and PCI-E 2.0 will be nice, I just agonize over the DDR2/3 question. I suppose it's going to be a while until DDR3 takes the standard, however.

kris23

im dropping the cash on DDR3, i looked at the whole pattern of prices and i see that probably by Mid Q1 08, DDR3 will be around 250 dollars for a set of DDR3 1600 6-6-6-15

chips are getting better and companies are getting cheaper man, im probably gonna get a cheaper set of DDR3 to tide me over but yea.....

latest cheapo sticks are Supertalent DDR3 1600 at 7-6-6-21 at 350, they came a long way from 500 and 600 at 1600MHz

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Tipstaff

I've been looking at getting a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R mobo so I can move up to 1333fsb, and picking up an E6850. I'll use this in my gaming rig, and move over the current board into my main rig along with one of my now old X1950 Pros.

I had considered getting an SLI supported board, but to be honest I've pretty much given up on SLI/Crossfire. To expensive, can be way to loud, produces a lot of heat, draws to much power, and the payout of having 2 cards over 1 card wasn't all that much to justify it all. I also had thought about going with a DDR2/DDR3 combo board, like the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R, or the Asus P5KC, but recently I've been finding that none of the systems I've built using either of these boards have been stable. Every single one has stability issues up the butt. So, my advice to anyone looking to go DDR3: get a pure DDR3 board, and stay away from the combo boards. While they aren't as stable as a pure DDR2 board (they do have their quirks), they are at least more stable than one of the combo boards.

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PangingJr

next year?
i would check again next year, and not now.
maybe something likes Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 (or maybe GA-X48-DS?, GA-P45-DS?)

PangingJr

the only thing that would make me consider buying E6850 over the E6750 is, the E6850 may have more overclock-ability, and higher overclock potential.

the E6750 will be capable to run 3.0GHz, and it will easily runs at this clock speed with all default volts offered by the Gigabyte P35 board's,
so if i were you, instead of buying E6850 i would get E6750, and it would be better to get P35-DS4, it's quite a bit better all around than the P35-DS3R.

temeteus82

Thanks PangingJr for that info I got one E6750 here waiting for Abit's IP35 mobo. Now all I need is the cooler.

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kris23

why dont you guys all buy quads if your getting 6850s? they're still better at the similar price man.....

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PangingJr

well i used to see the prices different at some certain stores are up to 90-100 bucks

E6850...
CPU multiplier (CPU clock ratio, Core Ratio) = 9
CPU front side bus = 333 MHz
CPU Clock (CPU Core speed) = 9 x 333 = 2997MHz or about 3.0GHz
System Bus (FSB) = 1333 MHz (4 x 333)

E6750...
CPU multiplier = 8
CPU Clock = 2664MHz or around 2.67GHz.

when the system memory in use are DDR2-800's, your system memory multiplier will be default to 2.4x 333x2.4 = DDR2 at speed of around 800MHz,
or CPU FSB : DRAM freq 1:1.20 (1.20 x 333 = DRAM freq of around 400 MHz, which is DDR2 speed of 800MHz.)

i assume most (or all) of today's DDR2 that are rated for DDR2-800 are able to run DDR2-900 without a problem...
E6750 overclocked to 3.0GHz (8 x 375)... the system memory multiplier remain the same while raising up the CPU FSB (and the system BUS) from 333 to 375 MHz,
the system memory will then be running at DDR2-900 MHz, you just need to check and adjust the DDR2 voltage to suit the memory modules needs,
then after that, the E6750 based computer system will most likely be running quite a bit faster than a E6850 based computer running at its default clock and default FSB.

Tipstaff

Thanks for the info, Panging.

Only problem for me is that I don't overclock (except the video card by a bit), or that I won't be going the Crossfire route again for quite some time (so the second PCIE slot becomes useless unless I can use it for some sort of physics card), so I'd rather pickup the faster of the two processors, as well as a board that still offers RAID, but still cheap enough that I can put money into something else.

Mind you, minus the fact that the board supports Crossfire, or that it has Firewire, would there be another reason to grab the DS4 over the DS3R?

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PangingJr

real Dual BIOS.

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you obviously don't want this new board, but anyway, you might want to check it out....
don't get the P35-DS4, the new X38-DS4 just available in stores and it costs about just a few more, or might be almost the same in your area.

Gigabyte has removed the 2 additional SATA ports in X38-DS4, Gigabyte SATA2 controller (most likely to be built by JMicron's) on this board only support the IDE port that exists on the board,
X38-DS4 only has 6 SATA ports, which controlled by Intel's ICH9R, new and the most latest design board, it seems to be a very good overclocker board, lol, you are not interested in this.

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and btw, Tips, what i meant to say before was, at the (or about) same amount of money spent in a new motherboard and a processor, instead of getting P35-DS3R and E6850 i would go for P35-DS4 and E6750.
E6750 and E6850, unlike E6400 and E6600. and P35-DS4 is overall a better board. i'm sure you understand this.
however, since you don't want to overclock at all, which i 'think' you have not been doing it before and therefore you have not yet known what it likes. however, whatever your decision will be, it's always best to be you own boss and have made your own decision.

Tipstaff

I see what your getting at. Price wise the E6750 is almost $80-90 cheaper than the E6850 here. So, getting that and a better overall board = better value.

Hmm.. something to think about.

Thanks, Panging.

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PangingJr

you're welcome Tips.
but anyways, be sure to check out the X38-DS4 you might find it suits you better to use it.