Need Socket 754 mobo recommendation

[imported_Driller]

Running mostly photo scan work but occassional
high-end engineering CAE (math intensive) programs, dragging by with an older Gigabyte 71Xe , 800mHz Athlon, 512mB memory
but want to upgrade very soon

I thought I saw a review somewhere for a Socket 754 mobo
using either nForce3 250Gb or K8T800 Pro chipsets
that had the possibility amongst the IDE and SATA to have 3 IDE channels in use. It sounds intersesting to try running each of my two IDE HDD on separate channels with my opticals on one more channel.
Also this board had 4 DIMMS allowing easier and cheaper stepping-up to 2gB from 1gB which is where I wil start

Picked up Reviews on Epox and MSI "2nd gen" Athlon 64 boards and another roundup covering five boards but can't find these features on any of them.

Somebody tell me I'm not crazy and really did see this review??!
Can anybody point me in the right direction?

 

[mechBgon]

First of all, with Socket754 processors you will not want to use four double-bank DIMMs, usually not even three. If I were to put a third DIMM in my K8V Deluxe, the CPU's memory controller would downshift all of the RAM from PC3200 to PC1600. Obviously not good.

My suggestion is to use 1GB DIMMs (you can start with a single DIMM, it won't hurt the performance of a Socket754 processor since it's a single-channel memory controller). Or step up to the plate for an Opteron with Registered ECC memory.

 

[Bar81]

To my knowlege the best you're gonna get on S754 is 2xIDE and 3xDIMM. Moving to S939 will get you another DIMM but at a disgustingly high cost. Using 4 DIMMS however may compromise the speed at which you can run the RAM; I haven't looked into the issue but I know sticking in the third DIMM in a S754 board cripples the speed at which you can run. Also, it may be time to buy yourself a SATA drive like a Raptor. The performance is worth it and you'll be able to run everything on a seperate channel.

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

I am getting 70mb/sec on two sata 80 gig maxtor for under 70 bucks each in raid 0. That is the only way to go in my opinion. If you have to go with 2 gig...Hardcore cooling.com had 2700 1 gig sticks for about 115 each. You really don't want to fill all three slots since you WILL have instability issues. Not 100% but no one is going to guarantee stability...look at the sites and read the fine print, and call their tech support numbers...they will all tell you the same...only use 2.

939's are prohibitively expensive for sure.

JMO

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: BlindBartimaeus
I am getting 70mb/sec on two sata 80 gig maxtor for under 70 bucks each in raid 0. That is the only way to go in my opinion. If you have to go with 2 gig...Hardcore cooling.com had 2700 1 gig sticks for about 115 each. You really don't want to fill all three slots since you WILL have instability issues. Not 100% but no one is going to guarantee stability...look at the sites and read the fine print, and call their tech support numbers...they will all tell you the same...only use 2.

939's are prohibitively expensive for sure.

JMO

Not to rain on your parade, but you should be getting faster than 70MB/sec on a RAID0 of two modern Maxtor 80GB's. :Q I get higher STR than that from a single Cheetah 15k.3. What mobo do you have, I'll look up what I can find on its IRQ-sharing arrangements because they are sometimes at the root of that stuff.

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

On my Sandra benchmarking program it is right there with two raptors in a raid 0 configuration.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: BlindBartimaeus
On my Sandra benchmarking program it is right there with two raptors in a raid 0 configuration.

Oh, gotcha. It's probably just the difference in benchmarking programs then. SCSIBench... well, the 15k.3 is purty darn fast, but this is sort of the SCSI-to-PCI "burst-rate" test here. ATTO and probably HDTach would put it around 75MB/sec peak, and I think your RAID0 would go faster than that in a sustained-transfer-rate test.