Help picking.

Swordfish125

Swordfish125

Swordfish125

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23 Sep 2008
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357
After osme much needed help with CPU's I decided to pick a q6600 quad, not the mobo :D
Basically im planning on the 2 4870's so im after dual x16PCIE ports (x38/x48 i believe?). I had picked a Gigabyte board, put after reading the sticky above it put me off (too much hassle), so i was looking at these:

DFI Lan party. hate the name, but it seems good on paper?

ASUS P5E dont say it has xfire, but i read somewere it does.

Gigiabyte DS4 This is what i was originally gonna pick then read the sticky whcih put me off tbh. Im gonna use OCZ ram i think, though i could psuh to giel blackdragon. Or is this issue not really relevant anymore?

Basically im on a tight budget of about £150, so i cant afford sumin like the rampage :(. Just wondering which of these boards might be better, and hope someone could offer some alternatives if there are any...

More importnatyl which oe is good for overclocking the said q6600 cpu.

I did look at some p45 chipsets but they seem to give less performance for Xfrie with only x8 PCIE in xfire mode...
 
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just out of interest - if you are going down the 2 x 4870 route, why not an AMD board/CPU?
If it was dual 280's then Id say Intel, otherwise have a look around, there is not that much in it now...
 
Ive been reading that the AMD's dont perform as well, but i did notice that the AMD boards have quad xfire. I not partial to one CPU or the other, its just based on what i been reading.
All depends wrhter i build a new system or not. I already have a q6600 in my current system which a family member might buy in which case i can go AMD or Intel. if they wont buy it then im gonna use the q6600 i got.
If you can suggest a AMD CPU and Mobo then please do so!!
 
ASUS P5E dont say it has xfire, but i read somewere it does
Click to expand...
Of course it does, any board based on the Intel X38 chipset supports Crossfire in 16X/16X configuration.

If the board manufacturer actually puts 2 PCI-E 16X slots on the board is another question but if they use a top-end Intel chipset built for Crossfire and put only 1 slot on it, they'd be a total idiot!! In other words, any board based on Intel X38 or X48 will fully support Crossfire!

If you want some user comments try:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59

but keep in mind they push the boards way past what most of us would.

Couple of P5E reviews:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-p5e.html
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/user-reviews/1859-asus-p5e-living-review.html
 
Thanks Tetras.

Tyring to find differences between the x48 and the x38 now, god more boring reading.
Just a quick one, if i really want xfire, would i be better going AMD like edge posted above?
 
Swordfish125, I think your making really terrible hardware choices, no other way I can say it!

Your trying to build a state-of-the-art system from scratch and your choosing quite dated and very power hungry technology. . .

If I could plop a fast Wolfdale dual Core, P45 chipset and a Radeon HD4850 in front of you to evaluate you would understand where I am coming from.

I mean no disrepect but it sounds like you have no experience of current hardware and have spent some time reading out of date internet reviews or talking to people who have read the same out of date reviews! :cool:

One more time, Wolfdale + Eaglelake + ATI RV770 = uBer!
 
I dont really get what your getting at tbh...

How are two 4870's outdated? How is the x48 chipset outdated? I am tempted to go for a Dual Core, but i dont just play games, so the quad might be useful for me.

My current system is running a q6600 (whihc is good) and NForce Mobo 9which is ok) and a HD4850 (which i dont think is quick enough..) if i had 2 4850's i may think otherwise, but i would still want a x48 chipset for the dual x16 PCIE..

I agree that the q6600 is outdated, and should prob go for an e8xxx.

If this could run two ati cards at fullx16 PCIE speed then i would get a p45 board.

If you could explain what you mean it might help me understand, i will dmit im no current on the latest hardware.
 
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Well I didn't mean the HD4870 was outdated but its certainly power hungry, let alone two of them!

You say you don't play games? and also that the HD4850 isn't fast enough so I am a bit confused? . . . what are you doing?

If your a professional benchmarker then please accept my apologies, the way I read it you was wanting some good gaming performance and I thought a fast low powered dual core and a fast reasonably low powered GPU was a better choice! :o

I'm a low power nut btw who also enjoys gaming and other stuff, I hate to see people burning their money on tech they are not really seeing the full benefit from . . and also burning up power needlessly! :cool:

P45 chipset + the fastest single card you can afford is my suggestion if your a normal dude like me, quad-core is really not ticking many boxes in my world, perhaps if the extra cores powered down or shut off when not being used the quads would make more sense but burning up two extra cores 'just in case' you need the extra MHz grunt just seems a waste of resources to me!

The ASUS P5Q series of boards are really good, I've spent some time working with the P5Q-Deluxe and thats easily the best chipset I got my hands on, top pick IMO! :)

I don't like either the X38 or the newer X48 because they offer nothing really tangible apart from even more FPS from a Crossfire set-up when for the normal person a fast P45 + Single GPU is enough . . . .
 
Personally I'd avoid the Asus P5 series unless you like to see "display driver stopped responding" and associated problems a lot.
 
Interesting Comment Rroff my current board is asus and i alwyas got that error with nvidia cards, ATI work fine though.

I do play games wayne, i mainly use my computer for playing games, so a dual core is tempting for me. However i do occassionally do thing slike video editing etc. The main reason i would get a dual is cause it can be overclocked well.
I just feel Quad cores give more possibilities, although they are not being used properly now, its only a matter of time. Though even Dual cores arnt being used the the full.

As for power i dont really mind! Id be running an 850W PSU so it should be ok, i might go for a 1000w yet, depends on how muc my final build is.

I dont find a single 4850 good enough at all, i think a 4870 "might" do the job, but i do want the option to have 2 in the future.
 
Tyring to find differences between the x48 and the x38 now, god more boring reading
Click to expand...
Officially (according to Intel specs) X48 supports 1600 FSB CPUs where X38 does not but you'll find that pretty much all X38 boards have manufacturer support for 1600 FSB anyway. They are otherwise identical technically, X48 is little more than X38 version 2 (official sites: http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/chipsets/x48/x48-overview.htm, http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/chipsets/x38/x38-overview.htm).

P45/X48 Crossfire performance comparison:
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/10/intel_p45_vs_x48_crossfire_performance/index.html
 
Thanks for the confirmation Tetras!

90nm it is (P35, X38, X48) vs 65nm for P45 :cool:

I don't know for sure but I just have this feeling that X38/X48 didn't sell very well? I mean who really does use a multi-GPU setup in the real world? (these forums do not count lol as its a place for the geeks to huddle!) :p

Intel® P45 Express Chipset is brilliant! . . I just hope the G45 is a close match!
 
I don't know for sure but I just have this feeling that X38/X48 didn't sell very well? I mean who really does use a multi-GPU setup in the real world? (these forums do not count lol as its a place for the geeks to huddle!)
Click to expand...
X38/X48 offered more with P35 (16/4 PCI-E 1.0) but with P45 (8/8 PCI-E 2.0) you can get decent Crossfire (in a pinch) anyway. For those who want 2x high-end graphics cards the extra moolah to get optimum performance with an X38/X48 mobo is small beans.
 
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