E8400 owners...what mobo do you use?
- Thread starter asintu
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Gigabyte P35 DS3R , really like it & it was 1 smooth build with vista64 premium..
Have had nothing but joy, haven't even seen need to flash BIOS YET !!
If you don't need dual video cards [why] this is the one to get.. IMHO
Ol'Pal
Have had nothing but joy, haven't even seen need to flash BIOS YET !!
If you don't need dual video cards [why] this is the one to get.. IMHO
Ol'Pal
Just built a system for a friend last week with an E8400 and an Asus P5K-E WiFi-AP. While we weren't looking for extreme overclocking, I was able to push the CPU to 1600MHz FSB without touching any voltages. I ran two instances of RTHDRIBL at 800x600 with 8xMSAA to stress the GPU (BFG 8800 GT 512 OC2) and CPU for a couple of hours, and it never broke a sweat. The CPU was being cooled with a OCZ Vendetta (the 92mm fan version) and never broke 42C at any point during testing with the Asus Q-Fan set to 'Auto' in the BIOS.
The only change I made for this set-up to work was a BIOS update. While it still booted with the 0604 BIOS it shipped with, the BIOS kept stating that the CPU wasn't recognized. After I updated to 1012, the message went away.
Probably the smoothest overclocking experience I've had in a while.
The only change I made for this set-up to work was a BIOS update. While it still booted with the 0604 BIOS it shipped with, the BIOS kept stating that the CPU wasn't recognized. After I updated to 1012, the message went away.
Probably the smoothest overclocking experience I've had in a while.
Originally posted by: OLpal
Gigabyte P35 DS3R , really like it & it was 1 smooth build with vista64 premium..
Have had nothing but joy, haven't even seen need to flash BIOS YET !!
If you don't need dual video cards [why] this is the one to get.. IMHO
Ol'Pal
read a newegg review done in february that the e8400 was not recognized automatically. Did they update the bios in the meantime?
read some more reviews of different mobos and apparently a lot of them need a bios update to recognize the new 45nm cpus. Since I don't have an old lga775 processor, I really need a mobo that will recognize the 8400 right out of the box. Should I look for mobos released after the 8400's release just to be on the safe side?
DarkRogue
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Correct, most mobo's need a BIOS update to recognize E8400's properly. Gigabyte's Rev 2.1 boards (P35 chipsets) should have the proper BIOS already, an easy way to look for this is to look for the "E" in the code, such as my GA-"E"P35-DS3P I mentioned earlier. I don't know how to tell if other mobo's come with the proper BIOS, as I didn't go for them. Someone else may be able to help you out there.
alright, EP35 it is..didn't find the DS3L like that but I didn find DS3R, DS3P etc.
What's the differences between all these EP35 boards anyways?
What's the differences between all these EP35 boards anyways?
DarkRogue
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Just features really, basic board is all the same, and "E" is the same as the non-"E" version, it's just that the "E" is a guaranteed Rev 2.1. "E" comes with Dynamic Energy Saver, but you can just download the DES utility from Gigabyte and install it on a non-"E" board to get the same effect. Personally, I don't use it and I had to uninstall it because it autostarts on startup and removing it from Startup and disabling the service wouldn't make it go away. It won't work if you overclock anyway, so in effect, every time you boot up you get a message asking you to revert to stock settings.
If you don't overclock though, it supposedly helps lower power consumption.
If you don't overclock though, it supposedly helps lower power consumption.
just different features? sweet, might as well go for the cheapest one then.
so the EP35 is the convention for gigabyte to support 45nm.
how about the other brands..asus, abit etc. Do they have a similar thing going on?
DarkRogue
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"E" isn't the convention to say they support 45nm per se, it just happened to be that way, "E" was supposed to be for DES, not 45nm. I don't know about the other manufacturers, you'll have to wait for someone else who uses them to comment, I only did heavy research into Gigabyte when I was looking for my parts (partly because I was not impressed by the number of problems seen on ASUS and Abit boards at the time.)
alright cool...there's about four EP35 board variations. One distinct feature is the heatsink vs. pipe contruction. Is the pipe better for cooling/ long term "life" of the board?
Winterpool
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The Abit IP35-E was extremely popular amongst budget enthusiasts and does a pretty good job of overclocking Wolfdales. May have issues if you've populated four DIMMs of memory, however. The other thing is that, since the Abit board was so popular, a new purchase almost guaranteed a BIOS recent enough to POST a Wolfdale.
Helas, the IP35-E has completed its days of glory. You can either permit Abit to upsell you to the IP35 Pro (a very highly regarded P35 board, only $140 AR on Newegg) or try the $80 AR IP35P which appears to replace the IP35-E in the budget market segment.
The Gigabyte boards already mentioned have very stong reputations, though they're understandably less popular than the DS3L or the Abit boards -- owing to price, most likely. The GA-EP35 boards mostly sell in the $150 range.
Helas, the IP35-E has completed its days of glory. You can either permit Abit to upsell you to the IP35 Pro (a very highly regarded P35 board, only $140 AR on Newegg) or try the $80 AR IP35P which appears to replace the IP35-E in the budget market segment.
The Gigabyte boards already mentioned have very stong reputations, though they're understandably less popular than the DS3L or the Abit boards -- owing to price, most likely. The GA-EP35 boards mostly sell in the $150 range.
ya the GA-EP35 boards seem like pretty good boards but saw some bad reviews on newegg as well..so i really dunno.
DarkRogue
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No board is perfect, when you mass market something there are bound to be peopel unsatisfied with it. What matters is whether or not you're comfortable with the amount/seriousness of the negative replies in comparison with the positives. I personally have had zero problems with my Gigabyte board, so you can take that as a glowing positive review.
As for heatpipes, generally heatpipes are better than standard heatsinks, as the CPU heatsink industry has shown by shifting from the small compact heatsinks to the larger heatpipe towers. I chose the DS3P because it filled the features I needed and as a bonus, came with a heat pipe to cool the northbridge. The DS4 seems essentially the same, but extends the heatpipe to the southbridge as well, I couldn't justify paying extra for it though, $150 was pretty much hitting my tolerable limit on a motherboard.
Edit:
The placement of the connections on the board are also a factor depending on the equipment you put in. I saw many other boards had bad placement of some key items like SATA connectors and such, you may want to look those over. Specifically, some boards have their connectors blocked if you use a very long video card, or the memory slots are in the way of some heatsinks, or even that there may not be enough clearance around the CPU area to mount certain heatsinks.
From my build, I have an 8800GT and that fit fine (inside the P182) with nice clearance to the other parts of the board. However, if you are adding an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 to the video card, the cable of the upper SATA port will touch the heatsink. There's still room for it, but that might be something you'd want to know. The 4/8pin 12v connector is also a tight fit next to my Scythe Ninja, but it is very much out of the way of the heatsink, unlike some other boards.
As for heatpipes, generally heatpipes are better than standard heatsinks, as the CPU heatsink industry has shown by shifting from the small compact heatsinks to the larger heatpipe towers. I chose the DS3P because it filled the features I needed and as a bonus, came with a heat pipe to cool the northbridge. The DS4 seems essentially the same, but extends the heatpipe to the southbridge as well, I couldn't justify paying extra for it though, $150 was pretty much hitting my tolerable limit on a motherboard.
Edit:
The placement of the connections on the board are also a factor depending on the equipment you put in. I saw many other boards had bad placement of some key items like SATA connectors and such, you may want to look those over. Specifically, some boards have their connectors blocked if you use a very long video card, or the memory slots are in the way of some heatsinks, or even that there may not be enough clearance around the CPU area to mount certain heatsinks.
From my build, I have an 8800GT and that fit fine (inside the P182) with nice clearance to the other parts of the board. However, if you are adding an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 to the video card, the cable of the upper SATA port will touch the heatsink. There's still room for it, but that might be something you'd want to know. The 4/8pin 12v connector is also a tight fit next to my Scythe Ninja, but it is very much out of the way of the heatsink, unlike some other boards.
DarkRogue I have a quick question (excuse me if I seem ignorant) but I see in your sig that you have DDR2-800 memory. If the GA-EP35-DS3P is capable of FSB of 1333 why didn't you go with faster memory? Just curious.
DarkRogue
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FSB 1333 is the CPU's supported frequency, not RAM. Remember, CPUs are "Quad pumped" where as DDR is "Double Data Rate", so 1333 is actually 333MHz (1333/4)
That's the FSB speed you set in BIOS, 333x4 = 1333 for the CPU, 333x2 = 667 for DDR.
The board supports an overclocked FSB of 1600 which is what I took advantage of with my build.
1600/4 = 400MHz.
CPU = 400x4 = 1600
DDR = 400x2 = 800
Hope that helps
That's the FSB speed you set in BIOS, 333x4 = 1333 for the CPU, 333x2 = 667 for DDR.
The board supports an overclocked FSB of 1600 which is what I took advantage of with my build.
1600/4 = 400MHz.
CPU = 400x4 = 1600
DDR = 400x2 = 800
Hope that helps
See Sig.....Wanted something to run SLI. Easy install with slight voltage bump to Proc.
BTW, recognized E8400 OTB, no BIOS flashing for me!
BTW, recognized E8400 OTB, no BIOS flashing for me!
DarkRogue, ok, I think I understand. But then what system board would the higher memory speeds be for? You have 800, but I've seen 1066, 1333, 1600, 1800, and even 2000.
In fact, Gigabyte's web site says this about your board...
"Supports DDR2 1200(OC)* memory for outstanding system performance."
Which confuses me even more!
Thanks for your patience in explaining this.
In fact, Gigabyte's web site says this about your board...
"Supports DDR2 1200(OC)* memory for outstanding system performance."
Which confuses me even more!
Thanks for your patience in explaining this.
DarkRogue
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Those are usually used in conjunction with higher overclocks.
With DDR2-800 you're "limited" to a max FSB speed of 400MHz, and with an E8400 that would mean a "max" overclock speed of 400x9 = 3.6GHz.
If you want to go faster, you need to increase the FSB some more since the multipliers are locked and we can not go above 9x for the E8400's.
So if you had DDR2-1066, divide that by 2 and you get a new max FSB of 533MHz. IF you were able to push the CPU successfully to 533x9, your new "max" overclock is just shy of 4.8GHz. 4.8 is a pretty big leap so most people might lower the multiplier, however, even with 533x8 you're already at a little over 4.2GHz.
This is of course assume you want to run the RAM synchronously (1:1) with your CPU. This is not required but it is usually recommended.
There is a slight benefit to running faster RAM, but IIRC most of the benefits won't become apparent until you hit 1600+ and/or DDR3.
Hope that helped.
With DDR2-800 you're "limited" to a max FSB speed of 400MHz, and with an E8400 that would mean a "max" overclock speed of 400x9 = 3.6GHz.
If you want to go faster, you need to increase the FSB some more since the multipliers are locked and we can not go above 9x for the E8400's.
So if you had DDR2-1066, divide that by 2 and you get a new max FSB of 533MHz. IF you were able to push the CPU successfully to 533x9, your new "max" overclock is just shy of 4.8GHz. 4.8 is a pretty big leap so most people might lower the multiplier, however, even with 533x8 you're already at a little over 4.2GHz.
This is of course assume you want to run the RAM synchronously (1:1) with your CPU. This is not required but it is usually recommended.
There is a slight benefit to running faster RAM, but IIRC most of the benefits won't become apparent until you hit 1600+ and/or DDR3.
Hope that helped.
I see, so then your board as it says in the web site is capable of DDR2 1200 memory which is in fact 600 FSB? Is that right? And if that is right, why didn't you go with that higher memory (or is there some conflict with other component speeds?)
DarkRogue
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The reason I didn't go with the higher memory speed was due to several reasons.
First, it's more expensive.
Second, there's not entirely all that much of a noticeable performance gain.
Third, I wanted to run the memory at a 1:1 divider/ratio with my CPU. 600FSB is pretty hard to hit with any CPU, and I'm not sure the motherboard would even support 2400FSB.
In order to use the higher speed RAM, I would either have to run it 1:1 with a slower FSB (thereby paying extra for nothing) or use an alternate ratio such as 2:1 with an FSB of 300 or something.. I'm not exactly sure of the specifics as I don't know exactly how the ratios are derived, but it's a lot more work for little gain.
In checking Newegg, there aren't even any 4GB kits of DDR2-1200, and the 2GB kits are already as expensive as my DDR2-800 4GB kit. You could OC other RAM to hit 1200, which is what Gigabyte was probably referring to with the 1200 (O.C.) statement but that is a whole host of other problems.
First, it's more expensive.
Second, there's not entirely all that much of a noticeable performance gain.
Third, I wanted to run the memory at a 1:1 divider/ratio with my CPU. 600FSB is pretty hard to hit with any CPU, and I'm not sure the motherboard would even support 2400FSB.
In order to use the higher speed RAM, I would either have to run it 1:1 with a slower FSB (thereby paying extra for nothing) or use an alternate ratio such as 2:1 with an FSB of 300 or something.. I'm not exactly sure of the specifics as I don't know exactly how the ratios are derived, but it's a lot more work for little gain.
In checking Newegg, there aren't even any 4GB kits of DDR2-1200, and the 2GB kits are already as expensive as my DDR2-800 4GB kit. You could OC other RAM to hit 1200, which is what Gigabyte was probably referring to with the 1200 (O.C.) statement but that is a whole host of other problems.
Winterpool
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As DarkRogue points out, there's very little to be gained by FSBs substantially above 400 (and thus DDR2 memory faster than good 800 MHz or maybe 1066, aka PC2 8500). If you take a look round these forums, you'll see few overclockers are going much beyond 450 to 475 MHz FSB. Personally I'd be happy with a 'clean' 400*9 = 3.6 GHz on a Wolfdale (like DarkRogue's got). My issue is that I don't want to substantially increase voltage or get a massive aftermarket cooler to do so.
If money's not an issue, and you like pushing components, sure, buy the higher rated parts. But the sweet spot, price-performance-wise, right now is $100 to $150 P35 boards running E8400s at 400+ MHz FSB with 4 GB of DDR2 800 (aka PC2 6400) memory. Take any money you save from avoiding exaggerated claims and spend it on a good aftermarket cooler.
If money's not an issue, and you like pushing components, sure, buy the higher rated parts. But the sweet spot, price-performance-wise, right now is $100 to $150 P35 boards running E8400s at 400+ MHz FSB with 4 GB of DDR2 800 (aka PC2 6400) memory. Take any money you save from avoiding exaggerated claims and spend it on a good aftermarket cooler.
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