X48 v 790i

Jayos

Jayos

Jayos

Associate
Joined
2 Jan 2005
Posts
69
Thinking of upgrading my mobo ready for a new Q9450 yorkfield.

currently have 8800gt and not looking to go down the sli route at the mo.

Which mobo would you go for and why?

currently have ddr2 can this be used in a ddr3 mobo? (then I can upgrade mem when ddr3 prices come down ;) )
 
I don't know the ins and outs of the chipsets, so I can't really comment on that, however I do know that X48's are just cherrypicked X38's (with some differences), but I wouldn't expect them to be much better than X38's from what I've read.

The 790i chipset has been positively received, but I'm not sure if they are worth it if you are not considerin SLi.

DDR2 will not work on a DDR3 board however so you would have to buy DDR3 RAM to use it (which imo isn't entirely worth it at current prices)
 
Some boards can do DDR2 and DDR3 by having seperate slots for the memory on the motherboard. But in general boards do DDR2 only or DDR3 only boards.

Personally I wouldn't bother with a board that does DDR2 and DDR3 as by the time you goto DDR3 then new and better memory controllers out there for DDR3.

If not going to SLI then go x48 as generally Intel Chipsets seem to be more stable.

The only real reason to go 790 is that want to SLI.
 
If you had to pick one of the two, I would have the 790 since it does have that SLI support, and, its showing intel boards a thing or two about stability. But, like has been said, the fact you need to go with DDR3, which costs about as much as the board themselfs, kind of erodes the credibility of the upgrade. DDR3, imo, is still the preserve of the money no object crowd. It has gotten more afordable, and the timings have dramatically improved, but, it's still just too expensive.

I would stick to what you have for now.

Martyn
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom