Switching to the dark side, what MB?

G

Gio

Weaksauce
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Nov 25, 2005
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I'm planning on upgrading my current rig (specs in sig). Since the Phenom's are not as good as the Core 2's im switching to the 'dark side'. I'm a gamer and i love to OC. I will be getting a Q6600 and 4GB (2*2GB) ram not sure on the brand just yet. These are the boards i've been looking at:

eVGA nForce 780i SLI
DFI LANParty LT X38-T2R
ASUS Maximus Formula

I've read some posts here on the 780i and some on the X38. I dont "need" SLI but it doesnt hurt to have it. I want a solid board that i can hopefully push a Q6600 to 3GHz or beyond with the board not being the limitation to the results. Both my hdd's are sata and i might pick up a sata dvd-rw. What chipsets and MB's would you guys suggest?

Thanks :)
 
Awesome, thanks! I was looking at the Q9300 and the Q9450 and i dont like the low multi's so it looks like the Q6600 is better suited for my OC needs.
 
Either of those X38 boards would be a good choice. I would stay away from Nvidia based chipsets, but don't take my word for it, just ask around.

I'll throw in my vote for the Abit IX38 Quad GT just for fun.
 
q6600 is where its at. i've got three of them already. q6600@333fsb on asus p35 with zalman 9700. q6600@333fsb on asus 650 sli with zalman 9500, q6600@333fsb on evga 680 sli with water. these chips will probably do 3ghz on any retail board the isn't an ecs. all three samples achieved their clocks without voltage increases.
 
I would stay away from 6/780i boards as they have their issues and go with the Asus Maximus Formula.
 
I have the Maximus in this computer, but I wouldn't hesitate trying the DFI board. I probably wouldn't spend my money on the 780i right now, primarily because I don't use dual graphics cards anymore (used both SLI and Crossfire...decided single card was for me :) ). I have an older B3 Q6600 and it does 3.0Ghz without too much effort (334x9). Using a TRUE 120 also.
 
nvidia boards are ok but the north bridges tend to overheat, hence the memory eating/non-posting issues users tend to have. as long as you don't push the memory too far beyond stock speeds you should be ok. this issue is probably why nvidia boards feature unlinked memory buses, so ddr800 can run at 800mhz regardless of fsb. i know, it doesn't sound very fun to not be able to overclock your ram, but rather than just arbitrarily saying 'nvidia chipsets suck', this is why they suck.
 
Maximus Formula and wait till sometime next week when Corsair is releasing their DDR2 8500 2x2GB kit... thats what Im waiting on.
 
This is why i love the [H] :D In the past i've had only 1 Asus board, A7N8X Deluxe. I'm sure it was a great board for most but for me i had to RMA the f'n thing 6 times due to a poor bios hating memory adjustments, before i gave up. Since then i've been hesitant on Asus. How are their products since then?
 
If you aren't going SLI from the start, there is little reason to do so later. SLI really isn't the holy-down-the-line-upgrade-grail that everyone seems to think it is. If you aren't going for SLI'ing two very high end cards together almost from the start, save your money and yourself from headaches and go with an Intel chipset based board. You'll be glad you did.
 
Gio said:
..... Since then i've been hesitant on Asus. How are their products since then?
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I have nothing but good things to say about mine (see sig).

I'll throw an uneducated vote to either ASUS or DFI for those boards. Less enthusiastic regarding the eVGA..
 
I have had nothing but issues with SLi, thus my reason to switch and hoping Crossfire treats me with a little more freakin respect :)
 
MaXXimus said:
I have had nothing but issues with SLi, thus my reason to switch and hoping Crossfire treats me with a little more freakin respect :)
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eh you are going to get about the same as in terms of returned results with crossfire. I am going to stick with my 780i setup most likely and just see what comes up in the coming month.
 
heard a lot of good things on the DFI dark motherboards.
one question if you have a windowed case does it come with directions on how to paint over the window.
 
Gio said:
This is why i love the [H] :D In the past i've had only 1 Asus board, A7N8X Deluxe. I'm sure it was a great board for most but for me i had to RMA the f'n thing 6 times due to a poor bios hating memory adjustments, before i gave up. Since then i've been hesitant on Asus. How are their products since then?
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I've never had a problem with an Asus Intel board. Their AMD boards never worked right for me.
 
Gio said:
Since then i've been hesitant on Asus. How are their products since then?
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I think they are great. Pricey, but you get what you pay for. Quality construction. I'm running 4 Asus mobos right now and all are great. Now I will admit that I took a chance on the Striker Ex 680i and the first one I got was a lame duck. The RMA'd one is rock solid (knocking wood). Mind you, I'm not overclocking like mad - pretty conservative right now cause I want stability for 24/7 F@H. And I'm on air so don't want fried stuff...
 
coo-coo-clocker said:
I think they are great. Pricey, but you get what you pay for. Quality construction. I'm running 4 Asus mobos right now and all are great. Now I will admit that I took a chance on the Striker Ex 680i and the first one I got was a lame duck. The RMA'd one is rock solid (knocking wood). Mind you, I'm not overclocking like mad - pretty conservative right now cause I want stability for 24/7 F@H. And I'm on air so don't want fried stuff...
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As someone who's been through several strikers I can tell you it probably wasn't a lame duck, just a typical striker. The best advice I can give you is use the 1303 BIOS and be aware that high voltages are needed to get any sort of stable over clock. Hence why I dumped mine into liquid cooling.

SLI really isn't the holy-down-the-line-upgrade-grail that everyone seems to think it is. If you aren't going for SLI'ing two very high end cards together almost from the start, save your money and yourself from headaches and go with an Intel chipset based board.
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Agreed, I keep preaching this on gaming forums and people keep saying "but 6 months down the road I can buy another!". I just buy two of the second best (went from 6800gt, to 7900gt, to 8800gts) at the start and then waiting it out for the next one.

On AMD, it kinda makes sense, since nvidia boards are great there, for intel they are such a pain it makes no sense.

Crossfire is looking very, very, very tempting right now.

So is skulltrail, not for performance but for lack of headache. Two "cheaper" CPU's, SLI, not having to deal with nvidia based headaches... how much is that worth? I love playing with computers, but working in IT day in and out, having to work weekends often, there is only so much time I want to spend fixing problems at home, I do that enough at work. If only I could sell the wife on it:confused:
 
sd11 said:
So is skulltrail, not for performance but for lack of headache. Two "cheaper" CPU's, SLI, not having to deal with nvidia based headaches... how much is that worth? I love playing with computers, but working in IT day in and out, having to work weekends often, there is only so much time I want to spend fixing problems at home, I do that enough at work. If only I could sell the wife on it:confused:
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Well as I said before in the Skulltrail Preview article, I think that the D5400XS motherboard and a pair of Xeon 5400 series processors would be a really nice, stable setup for a gamer. Unfortunately you would still get more performance for less money with a more conventional setup, but you wouldn't have to deal with the bullshit that goes a long with the nForce 600 and 700 series boards.
 
Dan_D said:
Well as I said before in the Skulltrail Preview article, I think that the D5400XS motherboard and a pair of Xeon 5400 series processors would be a really nice, stable setup for a gamer. Unfortunately you would still get more performance for less money with a more conventional setup, but you wouldn't have to deal with the bullshit that goes a long with the nForce 600 and 700 series boards.
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That actually might be a viable option for me!
 
Dan_D said:
Well as I said before in the Skulltrail Preview article, I think that the D5400XS motherboard and a pair of Xeon 5400 series processors would be a really nice, stable setup for a gamer. Unfortunately you would still get more performance for less money with a more conventional setup, but you wouldn't have to deal with the bullshit that goes a long with the nForce 600 and 700 series boards.
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Agreed. The thing is, how much is your time worth?
 
sd11 said:
Agreed. The thing is, how much is your time worth?
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Probably not as much as the Skulltrail and dual Xeons retails for...I'll take an hour or two and play with SLI and pocket the $500 difference :p.
 
Well i got my Q6600 G0 yesterday :D . I am leaning towards getting the DFI LP LT X38-T2R due to my current DFI MB being the best MB i've ever owned or worked on. For ram i was looking at G.SKILL F2-8500CL5D-4GB pack. My question is how does overclocking the cpu work with DDR2? Do I need 8500 ram or is 6400 fine? Sorry for sounding like a newb but im use to AMD and regular DDR

Thanks :)
 
Gio said:
Well i got my Q6600 G0 yesterday :D . I am leaning towards getting the DFI LP LT X38-T2R due to my current DFI MB being the best MB i've ever owned or worked on. For ram i was looking at G.SKILL F2-8500CL5D-4GB pack. My question is how does overclocking the cpu work with DDR2? Do I need 8500 ram or is 6400 fine? Sorry for sounding like a newb but im use to AMD and regular DDR

Thanks :)
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PC2-6400 RAM is fine. You just have to use a divider to get your overclock.
 
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