Asus p5b vs. p5b Dlx vs. p5w Dlx

[NightRhyme]

So it's soon time to upgrade again. I have a lot of questions.....
Looking for info on the above mentioned boards.

I'm going to pare the board with a E6600, 2gb corsair XMS pc6400 (TWIN2X2048-6400C4), 8800gts 320mb.

I'm not going to need crossfire support. I just need a no hassle board with good overclocking potential. Will be satisfied hitting 3Ghz :<

Which is the better board ?

Also I need some info regarding cpu/ram ratio settings to hit 3ghz without down-clocking ram ?

Sorry for the many questions
Hope you guys can help

Thanx in advance

- NightRhyme

 

[gramboh]

Don't go with a plain P5B, it doesn't have good overclocking options and is old. The P5B-E is good but only if you can find a Revision 1.02G (which supports memory voltage to 2.2 or higher, the 1.01 only supports 2.1V, not enough).

I looked at the P5W but it seemed outdated and not worth the extra cost. The P5B-Deluxe is what I went with and am very happy with it.

I have a similar setup to you and these are the settings I used for 3.2GHz:

FSB: 400MHz
Multiplier: 8 (default is 9)
VCore: 1.4 in bios, 1.37 reported
VDimm: 2.1
Memory: 4-4-4-15 at 400MHz
PCI-e freq: 110MHz
Northbridge/Southbrdige/FSB term voltages: Lowest possible option (to lower temps on MB)
Speedstep/C1E: disabled

The board is easy to work with and of a high build quality. Everything booted first try, even with 2 DIMMS and although the memory defaults to 1.8V which isn't enough (you change it to 2.1+ V on first boot).

Good luck.

 

[NightRhyme]

Thanx so much for your detailed reply.
P5B Deluxe it is
I sure hope the E6600 I buy will do 3.2Ghz

Do you know anything about the Corsair ram ? Any good ?

 

[mofoliar]

it should i built a gaming rid for a customer E6700 i had it up to 3.4ghz with Big Typhoon...

C2D E6400 (stock speed)
Asus P5W-Deluxe
1gig X 2 Geil PC4300/533mhz
Sapphire X1900GT 256mb
200gig sata hard drive & 250gig

 

[gramboh]

Originally posted by: NightRhyme
Thanx so much for your detailed reply.
P5B Deluxe it is
I sure hope the E6600 I buy will do 3.2Ghz

Do you know anything about the Corsair ram ? Any good ?

Yes Corsair is great stuff, I had some in my last PC. I went with OCZ this time because it was much cheaper ($60 cheaper for the 2GB CAS4 kit) and it is performing great.

 

[Jumpem]

Stay away from the P5B. I am on my second Deluxe, and it just died. Look under the Newegg reviews for no post/black screen problems.

 

[Shimmishim]

that's bad luck jumpem.

my last p5b was awesome! it was so awesome, i just bought another one

you won't be disappointed with the p5b deluxe.

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
that's bad luck jumpem.

my last p5b was awesome! it was so awesome, i just bought another one

you won't be disappointed with the p5b deluxe.

Something like that. I'm thinking of trying that new Commando board instead.

 

[Icepick]

Originally posted by: gramboh
Don't go with a plain P5B, it doesn't have good overclocking options and is old. The P5B-E is good but only if you can find a Revision 1.02G (which supports memory voltage to 2.2 or higher, the 1.01 only supports 2.1V, not enough).

I looked at the P5W but it seemed outdated and not worth the extra cost. The P5B-Deluxe is what I went with and am very happy with it.

I have a similar setup to you and these are the settings I used for 3.2GHz:

FSB: 400MHz
Multiplier: 8 (default is 9)
VCore: 1.4 in bios, 1.37 reported
VDimm: 2.1
Memory: 4-4-4-15 at 400MHz
PCI-e freq: 110MHz
Northbridge/Southbrdige/FSB term voltages: Lowest possible option (to lower temps on MB)
Speedstep/C1E: disabled

The board is easy to work with and of a high build quality. Everything booted first try, even with 2 DIMMS and although the memory defaults to 1.8V which isn't enough (you change it to 2.1+ V on first boot).

Good luck.

2.1V is plenty voltage for most RAM when aiming for a 3.0GHz overclock. I'm running an e6300 at 3.0GHz and my DDR2 800 RAM is running at 2.0V. This is on a P5B-E rev 1.01. There's no need for more RAM voltage unless you'll be pushing your RAM and aiming for ultra high CPU overclocks.