ATI chipsets

[Piccoro]

I'm looking for a good ATI chipset and I'd like to be able to OC pretty well and run stable. Besides the crossfire differences, is it worth it to go to a board with the Xpress 3200 chipset over the other? There is at least $50 cost between a lot of the boards.

 

[soydios]

In order to overclock well, get Xpress 3200 (RD580). It was explicitly designed for overclocking. I would recommend the A8R32-MVP for Socket 939, or the M2R32-MVP for Socket AM2 whenever it comes out (it's been waiting in the wings for far too long).

Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe review @ AnandTech
DFI CFX3200-DR review @ AnandTech

 

[Piccoro]

Originally posted by: soydios
In order to overclock well, get Xpress 3200 (RD580). It was explicitly designed for overclocking. I would recommend the A8R32-MVP for Socket 939, or the M2R32-MVP for Socket AM2 whenever it comes out (it's been waiting in the wings for far too long).

Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe review @ AnandTech
DFI CFX3200-DR review @ AnandTech

Thanks for the reply, i'll check those reviews out.

What about this Abit board?

 

[MegaWorks]

The Abit has some average overclocking results but if you want extreme results. I would rather go with the ASUS or DFI.

 

[Cruise51]

Originally posted by: MegaWorks
The Abit has some average overclocking results but if you want extreme results. I would rather go with the ASUS or DFI.

Actually I've heard the Abit AT8 32X is the best crossfire board for overclocking.
Here is a review with the abit and dfi boards:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/xpress3200-s939/index.x?pg=17

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: Cruise51

Originally posted by: MegaWorks
The Abit has some average overclocking results but if you want extreme results. I would rather go with the ASUS or DFI.

Actually I've heard the Abit AT8 32X is the best crossfire board for overclocking.
Here is a review with the abit and dfi boards:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/xpress3200-s939/index.x?pg=17

WOW! That's a nice board and for it's price the ABIT is the better deal!

 

[Piccoro]

Originally posted by: Cruise51

Originally posted by: MegaWorks
The Abit has some average overclocking results but if you want extreme results. I would rather go with the ASUS or DFI.

Actually I've heard the Abit AT8 32X is the best crossfire board for overclocking.
Here is a review with the abit and dfi boards:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/xpress3200-s939/index.x?pg=17

Nice review there.
To be honest, I'm not a big fan of DFI. I'm probably looking between the Asus and Abit boards.

How's the 8GB RAM support work out? I assume it will slow the DDR speed if there are 4 or more RAM sticks. (not planning on using it but thought i'd ask)

 

[soydios]

With 4 sticks of RAM, all AMD Socket 939 processors (I dunno about Socket AM2) are unable to run at 1T, they must be run at 2T command rate. This has to do with the memory controller on the processors, not the motherboards/chipsets. Intel is different.

 

[Piccoro]

Here are some of the Abit reviews I skimmed.
Legitreviews (294Mhz)
Techreport (340Mhz)
bytesizedreviews (306 Mhz)
ocworkbench (350Mhz)

Lot of the reviews that showed the Asus and DFI boards also were hitting around 300-340 OC with a low multiplier.

Originally posted by: soydios
With 4 sticks of RAM, all AMD Socket 939 processors (I dunno about Socket AM2) are unable to run at 1T, they must be run at 2T command rate. This has to do with the memory controller on the processors, not the motherboards/chipsets. Intel is different.

Alright, thanks. That is what I thought. Just didn't know if there where any other catches.