Question on what MB to get??

[Csst]

I order a QX6850 and i have a GeForce 8800 Ultra on its way should have it sometime this week, but i need to upgrade my MB can i get the best advice on what to get for a MB for OC'ing the CPU the best. I do have my eye on the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R. But want to know what would be the best board for Oc'ing I'll be keeping the rest of my hardware like Ram, PSU, sound card,just swapping the CPU and the and VC. Want something that i can switch to DDR-3 but just not right now i'll stick with the DDR-2..Thanks for the advice....Also i will be using water cooling of course.

Also on a side note does the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R can use both DDR-2 and DDR-3 this is what i was reading just want to confirm this..

Csst

 

[5t3v0]

Originally posted by: Csst
Also on a side note does the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R can use both DDR-2 and DDR-3 this is what i was reading just want to confirm this..

Not at the same time. There's 4 slots for DDR2 and 2 slots for DDR3. Maybe an obvious statement, but if keeping this board for DDR3 when it comes, you wont have an option for expansion so will likely have to buy 2x2Gb modules to future proof the system. That's going to cost big bucks.

 

[Heidfirst]

also apparently engineering a board with both DDR2 & DDR3 has a negative effect on overclocking ability compared to 1 designed to run only 1 (optimising traces etc.).

 

[5t3v0]

That's the theory but there's a lot of good press about this board which was why I bought it (and coz it was cheap). I cant complain with my overclocks on both cpu and ram. Board is solid at 450MHz & I didn't find any fsb holes on the way up. I'm sure it will go higher but I've reached my personal vcore & temperature limits.

 

[Csst]

Any other advice on what i should do i just want to get a pretty good oc if possible... Anyone use this CPU and recommend a board?

 

[fire400]

just get a 965 from asus or do a 680 from nVidia

around 100-150 bucks.

if you don't overclock it's fine. the slowest quadcore is generally faster than the last most expensive generation stock speed processor from Intel.

DDR3 isn't an absolute right now, performance increases, barely audbile for what a quadcore can already accomplish on it's own with current generation DDR2.

you can 2 gigs of XMS for like under a hundred bucks, DDR667 or DDR800.

don't go too expensive with the board unless you want all the tweakin' features.

honestly if you asked me, your system should kill just about any modern application you throw at it, stock or overclocked, don't matter.

 

[Csst]

Yea i know it will it's just i like this to last me a while too so if i can get a good oc with it that would be great. i don't want to have to upgrade for a long time.. lol As far as the Ram i'm not planing to get any DDR-3 right now anyways i'm going to be keeping the DDR-2 that I'm currently using now. i would just rather be perpared if i can get a good board that will use DDR-2 and DDR-3 i will be all set, and not have to go out and buy another board. i like the board i use now which is the DS3 but i have the first rev of it the 1.1 and that doesn't surport the 1333 FSB so i'm kinda force to get another one.

Csst

 

[5t3v0]

For overclocking, P35 is the best choice unless you cant live without a 1T command rate. If you dont need 2 pci-e x16 slots, dual gigabit lan & firewire, the GA-P35C-DS3R is a cheap, reliable P35 overclocking board. It also supports 8 SATA2 drives with RAID. Given the cost of the modules, the minimal performance gains & the lack of expansion for DDR3 on the board, DDR3 support is nothing more than a sales gimmick at this stage. However, if you think you'll still have the same board in 2 years time, then it's maybe a real reason to buy. Not sure what the OCing ability with DDR3 will be like though. By the time DDR3 becomes mainstream, there will be better chipsets out that will be optimised for DDR3 that will make this board obsolete. Useful as an upgrade path though.

 

[Csst]

Thanks alot for the info its been very helpfull