sorry but same old question

mrt88 · 22 Aug 2008 at 12:42

hi all
it's finally d-day for me, ordering my first ever build today but still can’t decide on a mobo.
been looking at all the graphs and charts about the p5q's and still can’t decide.
it’s between the deluxe the pro and the p5q-e
can anyone explain the difference between the 3 in layman's terms.
The rest is:
Q9550
4870
4gb 800 gell
2x320gb f1’s
thanks all

sibeer · 22 Aug 2008 at 12:57

The Pro has more basic cooling, no E-Sata and only 2 x PCI-E slots for crossfire.

I honestly can't see much difference between the E and the Deluxe, so maybe the E is the best mid-ground for a serious overclocker

sibeer · 22 Aug 2008 at 12:58

Oh and upgrade your RAM to the 1066Mhz stuff for proper overclocking.

tigerstyle · 22 Aug 2008 at 12:59

differences in networking, LAN vs Dual LAN vs Wifi

differences in northbridge/mosfet cooling, heatsinks vs heatpipes

the vanilla version also doesn't support crossfire

sibeer · 22 Aug 2008 at 13:20

sibeer said:
The Pro has more basic cooling, no E-Sata and only 2 x PCI-E slots for crossfire.

I honestly can't see much difference between the E and the Deluxe, so maybe the E is the best mid-ground for a serious overclocker

I've found the difference between the E and the Deluxe. The Deluxe has a 16 Phase PWM rather than the 8 Phase on the E. This will be helpful for stability in really serious overclocking or with high power sucking processors (such as the old Quads).

To my mind, if all you want is a reasonable overclock and the ability to crossfire an extra card at a later date then the Pro will be fine, if you think you may want to play a little more then the E has a bit more to give. The Deluxe is really for the serious Overclockers (water cooling, etc probably needed to push the processors hard enough that it becomes beneficial).

mrt88 · 22 Aug 2008 at 13:31

thanks guys,
ive only got one 4870 maby add another at some point.
this is what im thinking, get the p5q-e save a bit of cash (it's a bit tight at the mo) and spend that i save on some faster ram ?

sibeer · 22 Aug 2008 at 14:17

For a first build I would do the following:

Swap the Quad for a E8400. Not only is it cheaper, it is far easier to achieve good overclocking and will give better performance in most games.

Don't run a RAID0 drive as your only drive (they are prone to issues and can easily mean you lose everything). I would start with either a single 320 Samsung and a big drive for storage and backup, or a raptor and a big drive for storage and backup. If you then still feel the need to go to RAID 0 you can backup your small drive to the larger disk and then reload it onto the RAID pair after buying a matching disk.

Get a good quality PSU at around 500W (Hyper 550 is a good price here) and a decent cooler like the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 or the Tuniq Tower.

Get a case with a decent airflow.

With regards motherboards it sounds like the Pro will do all you need, the E just isn't much more expensive and has some more bells and whistles. Up to you and your budget.

sibeer · 22 Aug 2008 at 14:18

Sorry for the RAID 0 lecture if that isn't your plan, just saw two matching small drives and know what fun I had with my first RAID 0 system

mrt88 · 22 Aug 2008 at 14:47

the raid lecture is cool lol, it’s my first build from scratch. but ive built custom workstations to do my work on for years so no stranger to builds. I’m a 3d artist so the q5500 and the extra cache come in well handy.
Got a 500gbat home that i plan to use and was going to raid the 2xf1’s with that for some backup (raid 5 i think that is lol). Got a new 850w thermaltake at home with some water cooling.
Just decided to build my own cos workstations look crap and i just got some extra so thought i would be ace to do.

sibeer · 22 Aug 2008 at 15:50

mrt88 said:
the raid lecture is cool lol, it’s my first build from scratch. but ive built custom workstations to do my work on for years so no stranger to builds. I’m a 3d artist so the q5500 and the extra cache come in well handy.
Got a 500gbat home that i plan to use and was going to raid the 2xf1’s with that for some backup (raid 5 i think that is lol). Got a new 850w thermaltake at home with some water cooling.
Just decided to build my own cos workstations look crap and i just got some extra so thought i would be ace to do.

For rendering I would be really surprised if you are pushing the hard drive at all and your data is worth quite a bit so I would still stay clear of RAID 0. Good Quad is a must though as I'm sure you know. I would actually consider getting a better quad from the start as an extreme overclock then two days with all four cores at 100% to produce a scene is a recipe for disaster. May even be worth waiting for the E0 stepping ones or picking up a Xeon (they tend to be slightly better chips for similar cash).

If you are looking to do a Raid 5 install (which would make sense to me as it offers slightly faster perfomance and any one drive can fail without losing data), then you need to get two 500GB disks. If possible I would match the original one, but it's not worth getting upset over. You will get 1TB space and are fairly secure against losing data. I would still back up work , photos, etc though.

If you regularly leave it rendering I would even consider the Deluxe board just for the better PWM. Again running a Quad at 100% for over 24 Hrs on a regular basis is a killer.