Conroe MOBO for OC'ing noobie

[AndeeG]

I'm going to be building a new PC soon for the first time. It'll either have an e6600 or e6700 and most likely a x1900xt 256mb or an x1950 pro. At this point I don't intend to use crossfire so the 965 chipset would make sense (AFAIK). Since this will be my first time building I probably won't be overclocking at all initially. However, I want to leave that option open for the future but will probably still keep it mild. Also, there aren't really any features in terms of plugs etc. that I really need, though firewire would be nice but it's not a deal maker/breaker. All this considered, what would be nice solid motherboard for my needs?

Edit: While you're at it, what would you reccomend for memory?

 

[NoStateofMind]

Asus P5B-Deluxe/WiFi - Team Group DDR2-6400.

 

[AndeeG]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Asus P5B-Deluxe/WiFi - Team Group DDR2-6400.

Would you mind saying in a couple words or so why you reccomend the motherboard?

 

[NoStateofMind]

Well for starters, it was my first system build. One of the features I liked was the Asus Q-Connector. Makes it simple to hook up your USB/firewire stuff from your case to the motherboard. Had a previous experience when changing cases where I couldn't use my USB, so this meant something to me.

The only REAL problem I would warn you about it the onboard HD sound. Lot's of people (including myself) have trouble with it. Interference from the motherboard gives you bad sound at higher volumes than normal. I experienced some popping til I turned off the bass in the SoundMax control panel. Easy fix though, just buy an external sound card. That's what I plan on doing here soon.

It is noob friendly when trying to OC. This was my first Overclocking experience as well. If its a failed OC, it will simply reboot. Do note that it will (before BIOS 714?) have a "false start boot" after OC'ing. It will start up, shut down, then start up agian. Doesn't bother me, but some think it may be hard on your componants. But since BIOS 714 IIRC, stops it from doing that. Using the componants I recommended, I easily OC'd my E6400 to 3.2GHZ @ stock vcore. Vdroop seems to be bad though, about .5vcore. But all boards do that, just maybe not as much. It reaches a high FSB without much effort, and will save you money on a CPU if you don't mind OC'ing a little bit.

Black PCB and copper heatpipe looks good, silent and decent cooling all at once. One of the sexiest boards I've seen

With BIOS 714, you can now run Crossfire, although at a performance hit. It can run SLI as well (with hacked drivers). Leaving you options down the road to add another graphics card, giving that little bit of boost you may need.

Taking into account the Overclockability, looking good, ease of use, flexability (Crossfire/SLI) and being stable as you can get with a motherboard, makes this a no brainer.

And you asked for a few words....pfft!

 

[AndeeG]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Well for starters, it was my first system build. One of the features I liked was the Asus Q-Connector. Makes it simple to hook up your USB/firewire stuff from your case to the motherboard. Had a previous experience when changing cases where I couldn't use my USB, so this meant something to me.

The only REAL problem I would warn you about it the onboard HD sound. Lot's of people (including myself) have trouble with it. Interference from the motherboard gives you bad sound at higher volumes than normal. I experienced some popping til I turned off the bass in the SoundMax control panel. Easy fix though, just buy an external sound card. That's what I plan on doing here soon.

It is noob friendly when trying to OC. This was my first Overclocking experience as well. If its a failed OC, it will simply reboot. Do note that it will (before BIOS 714?) have a "false start boot" after OC'ing. It will start up, shut down, then start up agian. Doesn't bother me, but some think it may be hard on your componants. But since BIOS 714 IIRC, stops it from doing that. Using the componants I recommended, I easily OC'd my E6400 to 3.2GHZ @ stock vcore. Vdroop seems to be bad though, about .5vcore. But all boards do that, just maybe not as much. It reaches a high FSB without much effort, and will save you money on a CPU if you don't mind OC'ing a little bit.

Black PCB and copper heatpipe looks good, silent and decent cooling all at once. One of the sexiest boards I've seen

With BIOS 714, you can now run Crossfire, although at a performance hit. It can run SLI as well (with hacked drivers). Leaving you options down the road to add another graphics card, giving that little bit of boost you may need.

Taking into account the Overclockability, looking good, ease of use, flexability (Crossfire/SLI) and being stable as you can get with a motherboard, makes this a no brainer.

And you asked for a few words....pfft!

heh... more than a few was nice! thanks for the input.

I was under the impression that the intel p965 chipset only supported one video card. Or does it just support one x16 slot? I seem to remember that the p975 supported one slot at x16 and one at x1 or two at x8. Does the p965 only support one card at full speed or what?

Also, is there any reason to get the wi-fi versoin over the normal one if I won't be using wireless internet?

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: AndeeG

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Well for starters, it was my first system build. One of the features I liked was the Asus Q-Connector. Makes it simple to hook up your USB/firewire stuff from your case to the motherboard. Had a previous experience when changing cases where I couldn't use my USB, so this meant something to me.

The only REAL problem I would warn you about it the onboard HD sound. Lot's of people (including myself) have trouble with it. Interference from the motherboard gives you bad sound at higher volumes than normal. I experienced some popping til I turned off the bass in the SoundMax control panel. Easy fix though, just buy an external sound card. That's what I plan on doing here soon.

It is noob friendly when trying to OC. This was my first Overclocking experience as well. If its a failed OC, it will simply reboot. Do note that it will (before BIOS 714?) have a "false start boot" after OC'ing. It will start up, shut down, then start up agian. Doesn't bother me, but some think it may be hard on your componants. But since BIOS 714 IIRC, stops it from doing that. Using the componants I recommended, I easily OC'd my E6400 to 3.2GHZ @ stock vcore. Vdroop seems to be bad though, about .5vcore. But all boards do that, just maybe not as much. It reaches a high FSB without much effort, and will save you money on a CPU if you don't mind OC'ing a little bit.

Black PCB and copper heatpipe looks good, silent and decent cooling all at once. One of the sexiest boards I've seen

With BIOS 714, you can now run Crossfire, although at a performance hit. It can run SLI as well (with hacked drivers). Leaving you options down the road to add another graphics card, giving that little bit of boost you may need.

Taking into account the Overclockability, looking good, ease of use, flexability (Crossfire/SLI) and being stable as you can get with a motherboard, makes this a no brainer.

And you asked for a few words....pfft!

heh... more than a few was nice! thanks for the input.

I was under the impression that the intel p965 chipset only supported one video card. Or does it just support one x16 slot? I seem to remember that the p975 supported one slot at x16 and one at x1 or two at x8. Does the p965 only support one card at full speed or what?

Also, is there any reason to get the wi-fi versoin over the normal one if I won't be using wireless internet?

Well at one time you were right. It only "officially" supprted one video card. But with the addition of BIOS 714, it allows you to use dual cards. Now for the performance, I would check out AnandTech's benchies with this board running Crossfire. I couldn't find it, but its around here somewhere. This board has one 16x PCI-e, and one PCI-e running at 4x or 1x. So essentially, the second grahics card is limited to 4x bandwidth and hence the performance drop compaired to other Crossfire setups. Do note that Crossfire is the only "Officially" supported dual graphics solution at this time. SLI will work with hacked drivers as stated before, just not officially.

If you are not going to run WiFi, then skip it. Nothing but a PC ornament if you won't use it.

 

[AndeeG]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon

Originally posted by: AndeeG

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Well for starters, it was my first system build. One of the features I liked was the Asus Q-Connector. Makes it simple to hook up your USB/firewire stuff from your case to the motherboard. Had a previous experience when changing cases where I couldn't use my USB, so this meant something to me.

The only REAL problem I would warn you about it the onboard HD sound. Lot's of people (including myself) have trouble with it. Interference from the motherboard gives you bad sound at higher volumes than normal. I experienced some popping til I turned off the bass in the SoundMax control panel. Easy fix though, just buy an external sound card. That's what I plan on doing here soon.

It is noob friendly when trying to OC. This was my first Overclocking experience as well. If its a failed OC, it will simply reboot. Do note that it will (before BIOS 714?) have a "false start boot" after OC'ing. It will start up, shut down, then start up agian. Doesn't bother me, but some think it may be hard on your componants. But since BIOS 714 IIRC, stops it from doing that. Using the componants I recommended, I easily OC'd my E6400 to 3.2GHZ @ stock vcore. Vdroop seems to be bad though, about .5vcore. But all boards do that, just maybe not as much. It reaches a high FSB without much effort, and will save you money on a CPU if you don't mind OC'ing a little bit.

Black PCB and copper heatpipe looks good, silent and decent cooling all at once. One of the sexiest boards I've seen

With BIOS 714, you can now run Crossfire, although at a performance hit. It can run SLI as well (with hacked drivers). Leaving you options down the road to add another graphics card, giving that little bit of boost you may need.

Taking into account the Overclockability, looking good, ease of use, flexability (Crossfire/SLI) and being stable as you can get with a motherboard, makes this a no brainer.

And you asked for a few words....pfft!

heh... more than a few was nice! thanks for the input.

I was under the impression that the intel p965 chipset only supported one video card. Or does it just support one x16 slot? I seem to remember that the p975 supported one slot at x16 and one at x1 or two at x8. Does the p965 only support one card at full speed or what?

Also, is there any reason to get the wi-fi versoin over the normal one if I won't be using wireless internet?

Well at one time you were right. It only "officially" supprted one video card. But with the addition of BIOS 714, it allows you to use dual cards. Now for the performance, I would check out AnandTech's benchies with this board running Crossfire. I couldn't find it, but its around here somewhere. This board has one 16x PCI-e, and one PCI-e running at 4x or 1x. So essentially, the second grahics card is limited to 4x bandwidth and hence the performance drop compaired to other Crossfire setups. Do note that Crossfire is the only "Officially" supported dual graphics solution at this time. SLI will work with hacked drivers as stated before, just not officially.

If you are not going to run WiFi, then skip it. Nothing but a PC ornament if you won't use it.

Well that clarifies things!

If anyone else has any input, even just to agree with Surgeon, it would be very welcome

 

[The-Noid]

Read my FAQ of Conroe boards and shopping for a new pc.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...?catid=28&threadid=1947261&STARTPAGE=1