P5W or DQ6 for x6800 gaming build in a professional environment

TSCrv

Senior member
Jul 11, 2005
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first, please forgive me, i am very long winded

Ok, my company just picked up a few C2Ds for resale, so i gobbled one up, now i need to figure out a board and other components that would hopefully last me 4 years.

my current system is an A64 3200+ and 6600gt agp that i have been using for a few years, so its a bit outdated but games pretty nicely

Keep in mind this is a spare no expense build, except for some items, like i will not buy the sound card untill after a few months, and i also run a lot of at home server hosting so when this pc gets replaced it will be put into server duty (game/voice/crunching).

first off what i allready have:

1) C2D extreme, x6800, retail (and under $1k USD)
2) 4u rackmount case, what all of my pcs are in
3) 2x NEC 3550a's
4) 2x 74gb raptors raid 0 (boot)
5) 2x 750gb seagates, raid0 (these are NOT going in the build, because i am not building this computer for continous service, these store all of my server backup files, and ISOs. with quarterly tape backup as redundancy)
6) seasonic 600w PSU
7) a bunch of professioal completly flat 21inch crd monitors, no need to buy another

Stuff i do not have and is what will be going on my list:

1) ram. 2gb mushkin redline ddr2 8000, (if they all use the same chips y not get the lower priced?)
2) heatsinks, from reviews on newegg i will be buying a zalman CNPS9500 AT for the cpu and a VF900 ? CU for the video card.
3) video card. this is the second biggest hurdle for me, which brand x1900XTX to buy, and to decided if i will be going crossfire in the near future
4) motherboard, ok here is my main problem. Which mobo to buy for this setup... the asus P5W DH Deluxe, or the gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6...

ok, about what i want in the mainboard. PLEASE correct me if my views are wrong, i tend to focus on not so important features which screw me over. What i was looking for is to be able to OC this x6800... but idk if i should be focused on an FSB OC or a multiplier OC, or a combo of the both. obiously i will be tinkering with it extensivly when i get the board but i dont want to screw up and get the wrong board.

i would like to go the asus board because it supports crossfire, but ive read about people having problems with the shipping bios.. (i work in a commercial pc repair shop, no problem pulling a lower cpu to flash it).. on the other hand is gigabyte, i have read about people getting wicked fsb OCs with that thing, plus the 12 phase power and solid caps (is it true 12 phase? or just a marketing ploy?) but the gigabyte doesnt support crossfire. BUT, i dont know if i will even need to use crossfire, what do you guys think? will i want to buy another card in the future for crossfire? say in 2 years, which is 2 years before i retire this pc?

Then theres the video card itself. i am not familiar with crossfire, if i buy a regular x1900xtx could i add a crossfire edition card to it and its automatically able to work in a crossfire setup? hopefully that assumtion is correct.
Now for which brand to buy, the asus extreme weighting in at a hair under $500, or do all of the lower priced ones offer the same performance? obiously i would like to save money, but i want something that is going to last physically and performance wise.... any recommendations? (no powercolor POS stuff please)

also about the video card, is the stock cooler fine to use if it is reapplied with as5? how much of a temp diff would i expect to see with the zalman cooler?

Ram, would the mushkin redline ddr2 8000 surfice to my OCing needs? my logic says if i am upping the multi i wont need to rely that heavily on surpreme ram?? but then again which would i need to squeeze more porformance out of the cpu mobo and ram?

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aside from that, I am leaning more towards the asus board, if it OCs jsut as good as the gigabyte board. if it does then it seems that it would be the better buy because of crossfire support.

suggestions? flames? links to reviews that i have failed at finding?
 

TSCrv

Senior member
Jul 11, 2005
568
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TTT

after some thought and research im leaning towards the possibility of crossfire, and getting cheaper msi cards for the setup..... asus board.... would there be any reason i wouldnt be pleased with this setup?
 

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
9,291
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For an Allendale processor, get the Gigabyte board. Since you have a Conroe, you'll want the Asus motherboard. It has the ability to supply more amperage, it seems to the cpu, it seems, giving higher overall overclocks, as long as you have a high multiplier.

You more than likely won't want to go Crossfire, since noone who's done it has been all that happy with it, especially since it costs an extra $500. Just buy an X1900XTX. That's really enough video card for anyone. And Mushkin Redline is very, very good RAM. If you're willing to spend the money for it, you'll be happy you did. Even though an X6800 has an adjustable multiplier, the higher you run your fsb/RAM, the more performance you get.
 

TSCrv

Senior member
Jul 11, 2005
568
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Would getting an ati built card be better performance wise over a cheap msi 1900xtx?

what are some reputable brands out there for the 1900xtx?