Motherboard Supports...

[chastity]

did some digging and found these two boards that support though of not at the same time both DDR2 and DDR3 though the total amounts of the 2 types might be under what you want

http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Product...ew.aspx?ProductID=2524&ModelName=GA-P35C-DS3R

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1694&modelmenu=2

 

[Not Bman]

What is the difference between P35 and X38 chipsets?

P35 says it supports both DDR2 and DDR3, but this motherboard says its P35, but does not

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicati...tails.asp?EdpNo=3109410&body=MAIN#detailspecs

 

[Not Bman]

I think this motherboard looks like it's what I am looking for

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1694&modelmenu=2

but I just want to make sure that when they are talking about ATI Crossfire support, it does support Nvidia cards. I don't want to buy this board and not be able to use Nvidia. How many of you believe SLI (dual cards) are going to be more usefull in the future, because if they are I might want to get a board that supports SLI.

Also the board states this:

" 2 x DIMM, Max. 4 GB, DDR 1333*/1066/800 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2 1066*/800 / 667 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory
Dual channel memory architecture
* The chipset officially supports the memory frequency up to DDR3 1066MHz/DDR2 800. Due to the tuning by ASUS exclusive technology, this motherboard natively supports up to DDR3 1333/DDR2 1066MHz. Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL"

Does that mean I can only have up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM? And up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM?

Or am I mistaken with that?

*edit, and even more, i think I just read that it only supports 800/667 MHz DDR2 RAM, which I believe if I were to use the RAM i have now I could not, I have 1066 RAM, what is the cheapest largest DRR2 RAM out there right now?

This is what I want

Quadcore 2.66 or 3.00GHz
4 to 6GB 1066 (or 1 stage lower) RAM
Ablility of Nvidia cards (SLI would be nice)


Along with that I want to be able, in the future to upgrade to 4GB to 8GB of DDR3 RAM

Anything else I don't care, seems to me there is no motherboard that does all this...

 

[Sazar]

You have it reversed.

4GB for DDR3, 8GB for DDR2

 

[Not Bman]

Above comment edited....

Saz, what did you just buy....maybe that could help me choose..

 

[Sazar]

I bought a P5K WS which is probably not what you are looking for.

I bought it for stability and upgrade options (primarily the PCI-X slot) so I can grow my system to be a media center.

 

[Not Bman]

Why does this have to be so hard.

Like if I were to get that board, sure I can have 8GB of DDR2, which I won't need at this point. By the time DDR3 RAM is cheaper and I want to upgrade, we might need 6GB or more of RAM, which I wont be able too, so it's not even worth getting the dual DDR2 & DDR3 RAM. Yet DDR3 is so expensive right now.

Arg...

 

[chastity]

Truthly I would just go with a single card setup and maybe get the "SLI on a single card" vid card from nVidia. Though as of the last I heard the difference between SLI and none SLI setups were not worth the money, howevr I know that could have changed

 

[Not Bman]

No one answered this question...

What is the difference between P35 and X38 chipsets?

 

[chastity]

nothing much is different between the 2, about the only difference is the x38 can support ecc

http://compare.intel.com/pcc/showchart.aspx?mmID=29003,29001&familyID=10&culture=en-US

 

[Not Bman]

This is where I am at, at the moment.

Motherboard Choices

ASUS P5KC
·Average price of $150
·Supports Quad & Dual Core
·Socket 775 P35 Chipset
·Supports DDR3 & DDR2 (4GB MAX for DDR3, 8GB MAX for DDR2)
·ATI Crossfire Technology (supports single Nvidia cards)
·2 PCIe Slots
·3 PCI Slots



ASUS STRIKER 2
·Average price of $420
·Supports Quad & Dual Core
·Socket 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Chipset
·Suports DDR2 RAM 8GB MAX 64Bit 667/800/1066MHz ONLY\
·Nvidia SLI Technology
·2 PCIe 2.0 Slots
·1 PCIe Slot
·2 PCI Slots


ASUS P5N-E SLI
·Average price of $150
·Supports Quad & Dual Core
·Socket 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI Chipset
·Supports DDR2 RAM 8GB MAX 64Bit 533/667800MHz
·Nvidia SLI Technology
·2 PCIe Slots
·2 PCI Slots



And none of them are really future proof. I am leaning towards the STRIKER, yet it's expensive.

 

[Sazar]

Just buy a decent, non-ridiculously expensive board now. The striker is exorbitant for the features honestly.

It's a great board but, nothing is worth that much.

 

[Not Bman]

Would

9800GX2 Videocard
XFI Xtremegamer Soundcard
and PCIe Satellite card

fit on this motherboard

http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Product...board&ProductID=2524&ProductName=GA-P35C-DS3R

It states

1 PCI Express X16 slots
3 PCI Express X1 slots
3 PCI slots

but I don't see that?

*edit no worries

I believe this is what I will be picking up

EVGA nforce 780i SLI Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor 2.4Ghz (going to overclock to 3.2Ghz easily)
6GB of DDR2 RAM, not sure what company yet, but it's going to be 1200Mhz RAM.
Nvidia 9800 GX2 1GB Videocard (a second one once it goes down in price)
Soundblaster XFI Xtremegamer Soundcard
Coolermaster Cosmo Sport Full Tower Case
1000W Powersupply (not sure what company)
4TB of Hard Drive Space (Seagate 1TB Drives x4)
A CD/DVD ROM Burner/Reader Multi Drive, and a Bluray Drive (not sure which ones yet)

And hopefully with all that I might be able to pick up (sooner or later) a Dell 30" LCD Monitor.

 

[chastity]

I would would consider a different brand of sound card. As I've read even the best Creative card doesn't work right in regards to all of the features it offers.

Otherwise sounds like a nice system and wish you luck

 

[Not Bman]

Yea, I have heard all about that Creative problems at the moment, but I have wanted one of those soundcards for awhile now, and well, what other soundcard creators are out there?

 

[Not Bman]

So

the EVGA nforce 780i SLI Motherboard and Windows Vista Ultimate are on their way in the mail. Next up is the CPU.

 

[chastity]

there are is at least one company that makes better sound cards using the same chip as Creative don't remember its name off the top of my head, also Asus makes sound cards

 

[Not Bman]

I never knew that, I always just heard about Soundblaster (creative) and that is all I ever knew. And really, all the PC makers and people talking about computer systems, it's the only cards they talk about..

 

[Sazar]

So

the EVGA nforce 780i SLI Motherboard and Windows Vista Ultimate are on their way in the mail. Next up is the CPU.

Save a little money and go with the 9300 or 9450 or something in that vein.

 

[Not Bman]

your talking about the cpu right....why don't I recognize the numbers 9300 & 9450?