Best Intel mo/bo for the QUAD processor??

[Dana Joan]

Anyone have an opinion on the best motherboard to purchase for the QUAD processor?

 

[happy medium]

Asus 680i.

Edit: it's called a Striker

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131074

 

[Dana Joan]

I read this review at NewEgg on the Conroe (duo core):

"Watch out for the ASUS motherboards on this one. I have tried 4 motherboards from the p5 series... sli deluxe, premium. Most of witch needed to have the bios flashed to the new versions to even post. Only one ever actually worked with this chip but not that well. Was not memory or OS problems. I switched to an intel motherboard and magically the same hardware worked with great performance and stability.
Other Thoughts: I would stick with intel motherboards with this chip. Compatibility and performance is much better. Ever since i build machine with this chip I use only intel boards. Perhaps ASUS has dropped the ball. Maybe they just got a bad shippment of chips in for their motherboards... who knows"

This sort of turned me off on ASUS. Is the above only true for the Conroe - and not for the QUAD processor? There ARE many mentions of the Striker in the previews for the Quad. I figured an Intel motherboard with an Intel processor would be a better match, no???


I appreciate your expertise......

 

[ShawnD1]

The guy who wrote that article about Asus boards isn't telling the whole story. I have a P5LD2 that works perfectly ok when using default settings. It will only stall on post if I enable the automatic overclocking utility that comes with the board.

 

[Rubycon]

Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional. A real workstation board and can overclock if you wish. It won't tolerate much of an FSB o/c with quads but if you have a 6700 the multi is open anyways.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Dana Joan
I read this review at NewEgg on the Conroe (duo core):

"Watch out for the ASUS motherboards on this one. I have tried 4 motherboards from the p5 series... sli deluxe, premium. Most of witch needed to have the bios flashed to the new versions to even post. Only one ever actually worked with this chip but not that well. Was not memory or OS problems. I switched to an intel motherboard and magically the same hardware worked with great performance and stability.
Other Thoughts: I would stick with intel motherboards with this chip. Compatibility and performance is much better. Ever since i build machine with this chip I use only intel boards. Perhaps ASUS has dropped the ball. Maybe they just got a bad shippment of chips in for their motherboards... who knows"

This sort of turned me off on ASUS. Is the above only true for the Conroe - and not for the QUAD processor? There ARE many mentions of the Striker in the previews for the Quad. I figured an Intel motherboard with an Intel processor would be a better match, no???


I appreciate your expertise......

Looks like your looking for a non overclocking motherboard that has good compatibility and stability . Am I hearing you right ? If not what features or strong points are you looking for?

 

[Dana Joan]

happy medium - that's EXACTLY right!! Stable and not requiring any maintenance.....

 

[bob4432]

i would probably go with one of the intel boards then. they have, in my expierience, always been very stable and work very well with their procesors. they are usually very limited though in the o/c dept.

 

[Dana Joan]

Really not looking to overclock - I think there will be enough power in the QUAD processor for what I will use it for.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Dana Joan
Really not looking to overclock - I think there will be enough power in the QUAD processor for what I will use it for.

are you sure your software will even take advantage of all 4 cores? not sure you knowledge level but software has to be written to take advantage of multiple cores/cpus. some software you think may be able to take advantage of it doesn't, so just be sure your software is smp/smt aware

 

[Dana Joan]

bob4432 wrote:

are you sure your software will even take advantage of all 4 cores? not sure you knowledge level but software has to be written to take advantage of multiple cores/cpus. some software you think may be able to take advantage of it doesn't, so just be sure your software is smp/smt aware

It would STILL run, wouldn't it? Just that 3 cores sit and do nothing? And 3-4 years from now - then software would catch up, wouldn't it?

 

[Rubycon]

Yes it will run fine.

I have a lot of post process plugins for content creation that are not multi threaded but that's ok. Having four cores will let you run a lot more programs all at once without the machine feeling slow.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Dana Joan
bob4432 wrote:

are you sure your software will even take advantage of all 4 cores? not sure you knowledge level but software has to be written to take advantage of multiple cores/cpus. some software you think may be able to take advantage of it doesn't, so just be sure your software is smp/smt aware

It would STILL run, wouldn't it? Just that 3 cores sit and do nothing? And 3-4 years from now - then software would catch up, wouldn't it?

yes it would still run as MS Dawn pointed out, but 3 cores may be idle. but i wouldn't buy a machine now for something that my happen in 3-4yrs software wise because the hardware in 3-4yrs will kill anything you build today. imho yo build for what you have and know now and for maybe the next 6 mos becuase of the amount the processor power grows. look at my rig in sig - 6-9mos ago a pretty decent rig, now mediocre at best, in another 3-9mos it will be considered low end.

also the $$$ factor, currenly the qx6700 is ~$975....$975, but in 3-4 yrs when you could probably use 4+ cores more than now there will probably be 8 core cpus 4 core variants will probably be cheap. just look at how quick the dual cores have come down in price - with the amd 65nm brisbane being had for ~$95 or even look at am2 or c2d - easily under $200 - these are just things to consider before spending more on a cpu than most around here do on a complete box that still is probably 95% as powerful unless you use certain software that can take advantage of those other cores...

 

[vailr]

There was an Anandtech article describing upgrading the Intel Mac Pro to run dual Quad-core CPU's.
At stock, the Mac Pro is "dual-dual-core". For about $2,000, you get the base model Mac Pro and OSX.
Dual-boot OSX and Windows with Boot Camp.