do i really need 1366 socket and tri channel ?

phill1978

phill1978

phill1978

Associate
Joined
5 Sep 2009
Posts
1,225
was looking at the more expensive msi P55-GD80 mainboard. yet the cheaper gigabyte and msi have 1366 and tri channel (although no easy overclock)

it has exellent reviews with no bad features from all the main tech sites.

only things is doesnt have is future i9 support, or tri channel memory.


is a 1366 socket really needed ? hows about tri channel ?

i know in future games may require this ??? but if the life span of my new build is gonna be 5 years max will it matter.

from reading I have seen that GFX cards are the main things for games.

was looking at current cpu`s quad core and the like. seems like the processors are stupidly fast so much more than is actually used for gaming
 
X58 overclocks very easily as long as you use a reasonable cooler and think 4ghz is good enough.

If the P55 board costs more than an X58 one, i would go with X58 or a cheaper P55. X58 is undeniably the superior system, it just tends to cost more.

You don't need tri channel memory. Its nice to have 6gb of ram instead of four.

X58 might have i9 support, but it might not. Intel's past track record suggests it won't. Plus i9 is likely to start at the best part of a grand for just the processor.

I would get the X58 system. It's faster. For half a decade the extra investment now is probably worth it. Graphics cards matter most at high resolutions, but the cpu still makes a difference. Especially so when in three years time games have overwhelmed your graphics card and the x58 processor is still blazing along, so you add another matching graphics card at rather less money than you paid for it initially.


I think the P55 system is excellent for gaming when the budget won't allow X58. However when keeping a system for half a decade, you build a damned fast one now, and that's still the X58.

Doesn't really clear things up does it :D
 
jonJ678 thanks for the info m8

i get confused with all this stuff.

the P55 can support dual channel 2000mhz and upto 8GB surley thats enough ?

also the oc genie on the p55 will take an 870 i7 and straight away solidy push 3.8-4.0 also with proper tweaks run 4.5ghz !

hmm..

Im in love (over exagerated) with the MSI boards style, LED`s and easy oc genie mode + top spec components and silent cooling that really works..

i will wait i guess for an X58 version of this board even though i cant really see any real clear benefit when you compare speeds ? :D
 
X58 should have support for I9 as its on the same socket, might need a BIOS flash through, means they are already out
 
Bugger oc genie. Software overclocking inevitably leads to problems, overclock from the bios. It's just as easy, it'll go quicker on lower voltage, and you'll be more confident that it's stable. The only difference is you can't use the mouse and the screen isn't as pretty.

2000mhz is excessive, and 8gb probably is too. Dual channel is always going to lag behind triple channel, as it has 2/3 (approximately!) the available bandwidth for a given speed/latency. It's not that P55 isn't quick, it's that X58 is quicker and will therefore last longer before it must be replaced.

No chip is certain to hit any speed above stock. Certainly an 870 isn't certain to hit 4ghz, though it is likely to. Many, many processors just won't run at 4.5 whatever tweaks you use unless one of the 'tweaks' is well below ambient cooling. I will be genuinely astonished if the oc genie can take any 870 to 4.5ghz with something approximating stability. Certainly if the P55 boards routinely hit 4.5ghz all the owners of them would be crowing with glee, and I haven't seen any.


Silent motherboard cooling isn't so hard, it's almost universal. Silent cpu cooling is the trick, and that's rather harder. All good motherboards have very good components, the msi will have basically the same lot as the X58 UD5. LEDs don't matter very much to me, but fair enough if you like them.

Fair enough, the speeds are similar. Perhaps I'm blinkered by my own system. However I'm yet to see anyone claim that an overclocked P55 board is as fast as an overclocked X58, let alone quicker.

I'm trying to help I promise, I'm told I'm blunt :)

@ AMG how many 775 boards can't run a core two duo, or can run a 65nm but not a 45nm one? I hope they can run the i9 processors but I don't really expect them to.
 
jonJ678

i agree m8, but im a noob and really dont want to delve into serious bios tweaking , for the record the OC genie is not an unstable software tweaker it tweaks itself from the mainboard with a button push by testing dependant on what cpu and ram is installed so its a very quick and reliable way to properly OC in 1second !

so, for me an msi board running x58 will be a real bonus i guess.
 
"very quick and reliable way to properly OC in 1second" just isn't going to happen I'm afraid, whatever msi might say. I wish you luck with it. Every processor has different limits and reacts in different ways to voltages. Every stick of ram has the same issues. It's a process which is really, really difficult to automate and can't be simplified down to two buttons.

I'm not saying that the process is unstable, rather that the end result is more likely to be. I really do think that learning a bit more is the way to go, it's a lot less complicated than it looks to start with. You're in exactly the right place to learn as well if you go down that route.

Lack of knowledge is easily solved mate. You come across as a bright chap so I can't see it being an issue. The only strong reason I can see for P55 is that it's a bit cheaper than X58, but then I don't value the overclocking buttons so much. The UD5 I use has a clear cmos button on the back which resets things if it all goes wrong, and I really like that idea, but changing bsck by buttons doesn't sound like the way to go.
 
I bet a few can't...I know the 680i don't like quads much

So I would guess the chip set before p45/x48 although i know many can

most likey would be the first LGA775 mobos won't without a flash
 
JonJ678 said:
"very quick and reliable way to properly OC in 1second" just isn't going to happen I'm afraid, whatever msi might say. I wish you luck with it. Every processor has different limits and reacts in different ways to voltages. Every stick of ram has the same issues. It's a process which is really, really difficult to automate and can't be simplified down to two buttons.

I'm not saying that the process is unstable, rather that the end result is more likely to be. I really do think that learning a bit more is the way to go, it's a lot less complicated than it looks to start with. You're in exactly the right place to learn as well if you go down that route.

Lack of knowledge is easily solved mate. You come across as a bright chap so I can't see it being an issue. The only strong reason I can see for P55 is that it's a bit cheaper than X58, but then I don't value the overclocking buttons so much. The UD5 I use has a clear cmos button on the back which resets things if it all goes wrong, and I really like that idea, but changing bsck by buttons doesn't sound like the way to go.
Click to expand...


I suppose manual tweaking would yeild better gains but id be happy with 4.0ghz tbh !

all i can go by on the p55 msi is on this forum some 4.0/3.8ghz from msi genie on an i5 and on an i7 and i5 same results on guru3d review.


you seem to know your onions, its been a while since i was interested in 'pc' stuff, im more into networking,av,cars .. but now my interest is back and im soaking up lots of information to get where its all at right now

tell me, what is the main performance benefit of a X58 over a P55 in the markets current state
 
well looking at some of tomshardware articles a few months ago I seem to rember the i5 being quite quick in gaming, being within a few frame rates behined the i7 in multi card is most tests, however the i7 is a lot better for CPU intensive applications such as programming, decoding/encoding, not saying that no other CPU can do it, but I7 beats them thats what I m saying, also if you care about this X58 has full speed PCIe in multi card p55 does not
 
Seems a fair few can't AMG, but is it the earlier ones which cannot. My friend has a 775 board that won't run anything above a pentium D. Sadly as an X58 owner with the first revision of a board which came out with the first processors, I don't rate my chances very highly. Time will tell I suppose, it looks like the classified can run them at least.

If it does 4ghz stable on sane voltages then yeah, that'll do just fine. All motherboard overclocking I've seen so far overvolts enormously and just doesn't care if it kills the ram or processor. Auto is a risky setting to use.

I can't tell you the price difference I'm afraid, not paid much attention to the P55 systems. The big differences are triple vs dual channel memory, which kind of doesn't matter. The P55 boards can run two graphics cards at x8, the X58 can run two at x16. This doesn't matter much for the current generation but is likely to matter lots in two years time, to anyone using two cards at least. Turbo boost is run differently, it's more advanced on the P55 boards. Specifically the range of speeds it operates over when not overclocked is greater. This means that at stock some of the P55 chips are quicker than the X58 ones.

At equal clockspeed, the X58 ones are quicker. Not by very much, and probably not by a significant amount. However the cheaper P55 ones lack hyperthreading, which is fairly crippling and makes them largely the same as the previous generation of 775 processors.

X58 ones appear to overclock better, but again not by very much, and this is probably only seen under good cooling.

I suppose I must conclude that if the P55 system is much cheaper, using a hyperthreaded processor, it's the better buy over the X58. If the prices are similar (I believe it's possible to spend more on the P55 with care, then the X58 is the better choice.

Were I buying now, I'd get the x58. It might be worth finding a P55 vs X58 thread though, as I am certainly biased in favour of the very pretty machine purring quietly beside me at present, and am dimly aware that I can't think of many reasons to choose X58 over P55. I should probably go and check prices.


edit: I suppose I can summarise as no you don't need 1366 and triple channel memory, but you probably want it really :)
 
Last edited:
I was about to say you can get a i7 cpu that fits P55 with HT

oh yeah just looking, if the mobo does not support 1332FSB its likey not to like 45nm cpus

So yeah I still stress chipsets like the old G3X etc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom