Asus P5N-E SLI 650i or XFX nForce 650i Ultra ?

basil · 13 Jul 2007 at 16:44

Hi,

Title says it all really, I'm undecided between these two boards.
The PC will be used for Office based apps, some video encoding, surfing and gaming (though not extreme by any means).
I will be using an E2160, with 2gb of PC5300 memory and initially an Nvidia 6600gt. Storage will be two Samsung 80gb spinpoints in raid O.
I'm unlikely to run two cards in SLI.
Aim is to overclock, hopefully to 3ghz - will be satisfied with that.
I seem to have read vast amounts about both the processor and the Asus board (on this forum - excellent) but, with the exception of the SLI issue, am unsure of significant differences or advantages of one board over the other.

Thanks in advance - Mike.

ChrisD. · 13 Jul 2007 at 16:46

I've got the ASUS and it's easy to use BIOS is great.

Its_Me · 13 Jul 2007 at 17:08

If you have no intention of going for SLI, then don't go with the nVidia chipset.

Having owned a few 965chipset boards, and the P5N-E SLI ( i ran it in SLI), i can say that although its good value for SLI setup, its probably not that great for a single card.

My favourite cheapy was the P5B vanilla, and they are excellent value now.

Wiggins · 13 Jul 2007 at 18:15

I have an Asus P5N-E SLI with an Intel Dual Core 930 3Ghz @ 3.8Ghz, 4 sticks of Samsung (yes Samsung :eek:

) 533Mhz @ 680Mhz, a 7900GS Graphics Card clocked to 550/1500 (stock 450/1320) along with a bunch of other stuff.

I can convert a 700mb avi to dvd in 12mins.

This set-up has been the same for the past 5 months or so.

There is only one drawback about this board and that is when in SLI it works at 8x instead of 16x but to be quite frank, there are not many games out there that take full advantage of SLI in 16x. Its only the power hungry users that want to clock the ****** out of them and benchmark for results.

Draw your own conclusions

Edit: Just read the reviews on the E2160 and it clocks like a rabbit on speed. Good thing it has an 800 FSB which gives it more room to move.

WJA96 · 13 Jul 2007 at 19:23

EVGA 650i Ultra. Basically the same board as the XFX, but available for £60 delivered. It clocks really well, has the 90-day step-up programme (Black Pearl in October anyone?) and EVGA have superb aftersales support plus they are very active with BIOS upgrades.

basil · 13 Jul 2007 at 19:40

Thanks for the replies so far.

Hi, WJA96 I was hoping you might post having read some of your earlier posts in other threads.
I've found the board you mentioned, at that price and was thinking if I go that route, I would get an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO with the difference in price. Do you know if it will fit this board OK ?

Thanks - Mike.

WJA96 · 13 Jul 2007 at 19:53

basil said:
Thanks for the replies so far.

Hi, WJA96 I was hoping you might post having read some of your earlier posts in other threads.
I've found the board you mentioned, at that price and was thinking if I go that route, I would get an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO with the difference in price. Do you know if it will fit this board OK ?

Thanks - Mike.

I've got mine water-cooled so I couldn't guarantee the AC Freezer 7Pro fitting, but the Northbridge cooler is very small compared to the other 650i boards (it runs much cooler) so I would say it will fit fine.

For the money it's a very good board indeed.

Wiggins · 13 Jul 2007 at 20:03

WJA96 said:
but the Northbridge cooler is very small compared to the other 650i boards

Good point, your are kinda narrowed down a little when it comes to CPU Coolers with other 650i boards although the new Noctua NH-U9F snuggles in quite nicely.

basil · 13 Jul 2007 at 20:53

OK - I've looked over at EVGA'a site at the manual and so on and feel this is the way to go.
I can't see me using SLI - I'll get a decent single card a little later.
I shall get the AC Freezer 7Pro as CPU cooler.
Am I right in thinking that the "NVIDIA MBCP" is the Northbridge ?
If it is will a Zalman ZM-NB47J fit OK ?
I have one unused at the moment and reading various threads and posts the Northbridge can get quite toasty.
Thanks again for the advice I'll order now and post back in a couple of weeks (Holiday) with thoughts and results.

Thanks again - Mike.

PS - WJA96 I wasn't sure what a Black Pearl was - now I know what are you planning to use on the board and how far do you think it will go ?

WJA96 · 13 Jul 2007 at 21:41

basil said:
PS - WJA96 I wasn't sure what a Black Pearl was - now I know what are you planning to use on the board and how far do you think it will go ?

Xeon 3210 is what I'm running and I'm getting a nice conservative 3.2GHz out of it with my RAM (Crucial Anniversary) running at 1200MHz. I just turned up the QFSB to 1600 and ran the 3:2 multiplier. It's mentally fast and the price is the best bit for me (I am very Scottish

).

There is a thread elsewhere about the P35 boards where they compare all the P35 boards with the ASUS NVidia 650i thrown in as a reference. The 650i more than holds it's own.