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X48 vs X38

Greebo said:
But he did mention he wanted it to last four years at least so why limit yourself with a p45 board which might restrict his future choices of graphics cards?

I made that mistake when I bought my p35 board. Never thought I would entertain the idea of going xfire but looking at adding a 2nd 4870 now so have now swapped to a x38 board. Okay
not that much cost to do it but the hassle of rebuilding my pc etc was annoying.

To me the x38 is the win all the way.
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I wouldnt do it. Drive support is not good atm, performance is realy hit and miss. You would be better buying a more expensive single card imo.
I have just returned my second 4850, due to inconsistant performance, 100FPS one second then 6 the next with no good reason.
Certain games maybe better, but i dont think its worth the hassle.
 
Reality is that no motherboard currently out is going to be fine in four years time anyway unless development of games and other software comes to halt so recommending based on it lasting and being good for four years is a non starter.
 
hmm interesting point you guys have there... my main concern is not as much to do with having the latest tech, rather I would like to have an upgrade route in the future ( 4 years down the line at current patterns) ...this upgrade route should consist of the CPU complimenting the graphics card...

case in point: have myself a S939 Opt170 with an Asus A8N Sli Deluxe...can't really clock it to beyond 2.2Ghz before system freezes or starts restarting... have a Radeon 4850 that is being bottled neck by the CPU ...

hence can't make optimum use of the above with games like Crysis etc...

currently I have no upgrade path (i.e. in terms of CPU) ... I would be happy to buy a faster processor if it existed or was feasible , but I think I've reached the end of the line for my S939..

The rationale behind a X48 is to get a mobo that will leave me as many upgrade paths open as possible, without having to do a system revamp (i7 is too expensive right now)..

e.g. if I pair it with an E8500 and clock it down the line, should last me a good 3 years with current games and graphics card.. then I have an option to upgrade to a faster (E9???) chip or maybe a Quad Core CPU (since by then 4 cores should be more mainstream wrt applications) ...may also even consider X-Fire as an upgrade option at that point since it should be more refined by then!...

so considering the above, am I on the right path wrt to Intel or should I consider an AM2??

Gaming, vid editing, office and internet are main applications.

Cheers!
 
Yeah you are on the right path. If you can't afford an i7 setup (who can?) then the x48 is the next best thing.

Intel are still going to be making new cpus for it for 2009 at least.

At some point you can put a cheap q9550 or greater in it when games use all 4 cores eventually for a speed boost.

You will always have the option of xfire without any slowdown as well.

So Intel all the way really.
 
Mature x38 chipset boards area available at or below the price of the premium P45's if you look hard enough

x48's have a price premium way above the small improvements over the x38 so forget about them unless they are on sale

X38'/x48 do seem to be a little less overclock friendly than the P45's but thats mostly an issue at the extreme edge of performance which is not a comfortable or cost effective area for most of us.

There ae inconsistent views on the merits of P45 crossfire vs x series (tweaktown etc) but there does seem to be a measurable penalty in some games with current cards at high resolutions and high image quality which will only widen as more bandwidth is used in the future. This matters not one iota if your not running games on a fast gpu at high res & image quality.

An x38 board at decent price would see you through 4 years if you get a modest cpu & gpu now and upgrade or add a seconf card as crossfire in say in 2 years time when newer parts get cheap.

Basically If you ever want crossfire look at the x38 series, if not then check out the P45 and only buy that if the P45 is cheaper than the best price for an x38 or you want to be at the edge of overclocking
 
I managed to get an Asus Maximus Formaula XE x38 board for £80 recently (was £170 when first launched) and its a cracker.

Much better overclocker than my old p35 board and gets my cpu to 3.8Ghz.

Not sure I can see how much better a p45 board would be overclocking my cpu.

And I can always flash it with the x48 bios if I get bored.
 
Greebo said:
That's my point though. No effect now but he want the mobo to last 4 years. He doesn;t want to be buying a p45 now, only to have to change it again later.

Who knows how the 5870x2 and 6870x2 might be throttled by it?
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Im pritty sure that the 6870x2 will be cpu limited on the p45 long before the pci-e slot is throttled.

Either way you will want to upgrade to i7 by then ;)
 
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