Okay, so I am looking to upgrade my gaming rig to a C2D chip, one of the 6x50 chips which have the 1333mhz FSB. I was going to go with a 680i SLI board but then I thought about it and realized that there is a 90% chance I am not going to go SLI simply because with an 8800GTX card I won't have to anytime soon. And by the time this card is too slow, the next gen will be out and one of those would be faster than two of the 8800GTX cards. So I started looking into the Intel P35 chipset based boards and liked what I saw.

So here is the question I have for my fellow enthusiasts:

Intel P35-based board such as Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6 with Corasir 2x1GB DDR3 1333 RAM with the XFX 8800GTX card I have and a C2D E6850 3ghz 1333mhz FSB chip

-OR-

the nVidia 680i based eVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 board with Corasir Dominator DDR2 1250 RAM and the same video card and CPU?

The cost of each combo is not an issue and while I may OC the setup, I figure the stock performance will be more than enough for the time being so OCability is a small factor, but not major.

Get an Asus P5K Deluxe. Currently one of the best boards on the market, and an overclocking monster. The 680i series of boards are good, but a bit outdated now.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux Get an Asus P5K Deluxe. Currently one of the best boards on the market, and an overclocking monster. The 680i series of boards are good, but a bit outdated now.

+1

Or if you really want DDR3 P5K3

But bear in mind that DDR3 is very expensive at the moment and the chips still aren't very mature so won't overclock very far.

I'm not really that concerned about Overlcoking to be honest. Starting out at 3ghz with 1333mhz FSB is pretty damn fast to begin with. And like I said, the price isn't an issue. If it was, I wouldn't have even listed the DDR3 option....

But in a nutshell, you guys would recommend the P35 chipset over the 680i,

Like, i show in the poll, i like 680i more.

If you do make the switch, from recent reviews, i'd go Asus P5K Deluxe and skip the step to DDR3. Until it get more mainstream. (kinda like DDR2, it was around with intel for what two years, jut ddr2 -533 and 667 weren't the most popular chips, when AMD jumed into the game (or around then) DDR2 really steped p, and then all the manufactures got in the game.

I would pass on DDR3, just don't buy those dominators, they are way overpriced, and ugly. Get a set of Team group, or OCZ, they look good and have great speed/timings.


good luck on your decison

I was looking at the OCZ water cooled DDR2 and am tempted to get those. I saw the Team Group "Team Extreme" RAM, but I have never heard of them before. Are they any good?

And from what y'all are saying is that DDR3 isn't ready for prime time yet, so just get the fastest DDR2 I can find and call it a day.

Basically the best DDR2 you can buy at the moment are these kits:

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Newegg.com - OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

The Dominators and the Reapers will both OC to around 1.2ghz, giving you shedloads of memory bandwidth to play with. Core 2 systems benefit more from lots of bandwidth than they do low latency timings so don't worry about those. They're still damn fast even at stock.

And I really would suggest getting a decent aftermarket heatsink and OCing your processor, 3GHz is pretty fast but you should be able to do at least 3.6 - remember, that's absolutely free extra performance.

Oh have no fear about the heatsink. This is going in a water cooled case with a triple 120 Black Ice GT360 Rad, Swiftech Storm block, EK 8800GTX block, with a Laing D5 pump.

I'll have plenty of cooling to overclock the hell out of it. It is more of a question of do I have the patience to do it. And I probably will for some benchmarking, but will most likely opt to run it at stock with the fans turned down real low to make it quiet.



Hmmm, wonder if I can find some of these OCZ watercooled PC9200 chips.....

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux Basically the best DDR2 you can buy at the moment are these kits: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail Newegg.com - OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail The Dominators and the Reapers will both OC to around 1.2ghz, giving you shedloads of memory bandwidth to play with. Core 2 systems benefit more from lots of bandwidth than they do low latency timings so don't worry about those. They're still damn fast even at stock.

I disagree Ballistixs are some of the best, mine will do DDR-1300 @ 2.35v stable They use high binned D9GMH
Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Cheaper too

Yup, yup, forgot about the Ballistix. They rox0r. I love mine, just wish there was some way of pushing em higher on my motherboard, damn ration options are all for rubbish frequencies.

Quote: Originally Posted by killert I disagree Ballistixs are some of the best, mine will do DDR-1300 @ 2.35v stable They use high binned D9GMH Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail Cheaper too

they run great until they fail on you, which they are famous for doing.

im on, no joke, my 3rd RMA after having EIGHT sticks of their ram die on me (not all at once).

mind you, this was their older pc3200 memory, but i would still steer clear of ballistix modules.

P35 for performance/overclocking and lack of fuss. 680i for fuss and lack of performance/overclocking.

Intel Chipsets FTW. I would still probably get DDR2 (Ballistix 1066) due to crazy DDR3 (if you get DDR3 get SuperTalent 1600MHz CAS7, its Gods memory) prices.

Quote: Originally Posted by Fu3lman they run great until they fail on you, which they are famous for doing. im on, no joke, my 3rd RMA after having EIGHT sticks of their ram die on me (not all at once). mind you, this was their older pc3200 memory, but i would still steer clear of ballistix modules.

Ouch. I haven't had any problems yet with mine. So I can't complain, also a lot of guys @ XtremeSystems use them too and my tracers are kickass when running OCCT.

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Well, so far it seems like we have agreement on P35 with DDR2 being the best option, just some, um, discussion, on which DDR2 to use. Unless I can get some of that SuperTalent DDR3....

See, one of the reasons I am looking at the DDR3 is upgradability. In the not to distant future DDR3 is going to get more and more popular and when I want to bump up to 4gb or more, it will probably be the RAM of choice. Right now I know it is more expensive and DDR2 is more mature, but that also means that DDR2 is almost at the end of it's life. I mean, DDR3 is just going to get better and faster. So DDR3 will eventually go from the timings they are at now to better, while DDR2 isn't going to get any faster.

Did that make sense, or am I rambling again?

I voted 680i. I have the EVGA SLI Deluxe and it's been a good board so far.
If all you want to do is overclock then get the P35. The 680i is a good stable
overclocker still and you may find a deal on a second 8800GTX. And remember
that most 2nd Generation cards are just upgrades to the previous versions.
2

You have some very valid points about DDR-3, and it IS forward thinking.


My response got a bit too detailed, and started to stray off topic a bit...so I made it a thread of it's own!

Thanks for inspiring the discusiion!


http://forums.pcapex.com/intel_cpu_m...tml#post657737

DDR3 is still very pricey. The timings to speed arent really as great as teh current ddr2 we have right now. Think of how ddr2 was before c2d barely anybody was using it and it had super relaxed timings and slow clock speeds.

Im going to be testing the P35 boards soon. I have the EVGA 680i and Asus Striker Extreme. The 680i are great boards. If your going to go P35 wait for the DFI Lanparty or some of the other offerings the gigabyte boards arent the best you can get. I beleive the Biostar P35 board is 100 dollars and did something like 600 FSB.

Also avoid XFX aka Pine Technology. Yes they changed their name a few years back because Pine was so terrible. Try contacting XFX Monday-Friday 9-5 and your going to wait 30 minutes. Try calling BFG or EVGA you get somebody in minutes 24/7. It took XFX 2 months after recieving my card to get me a new one. When I called up they didnt know what was going on with it. It wasn't the first time they screwed up an rma. Their tech support just plane sucks.

I will add you on msn to discuss in further detail

Quote: Originally Posted by Cpt.Planet DDR3 is still very pricey. The timings to speed arent really as great as teh current ddr2 we have right now. Think of how ddr2 was before c2d barely anybody was using it and it had super relaxed timings and slow clock speeds.

I don't think they are in quite as bad of a postion with DDR-3 as they were when DDR-2 came out..it is definately showing gains over DDR-2...NOW, "Loose timings" or not

AnandTech: FIRST LOOK: Kingston DDR2 Next-Generation Memory (DDR-2 533 at 4-4-4, lol)

OCZ is hitting 8-8-8-8 at 2040MHZ and 7-7-7-7 at 1900MHZ with 2.1v using Micron Z-9 chips. when DDR-2 came out, it was not even close to matching Overclocked DDR-1's performance 3-6 months after launch. these new chips are easily surpassing DDR-2 within 3 months of launch.


Anadtech's take on Z-9 DDR-3

Quote: By 1333 the timing advantage for DDR2 is gone and DDR3 pulls clearly in the lead in all benchmarks. The Micron Z9-based memories top the 1333 performance charts in all benchmarks, and this is just the beginning of a range that extends to DDR3-2000 and beyond for some of these memories

On Super Pi:

Quote: Some end users consider 7-7-7 timings a benchmark with DDR3. We set those timings and pushed the OCZ as far as possible..The DDR3-1800 reached DDR3-1900. It is interesting that by 1333 the lower latency DDR3 has completely closed any gap that existed with the fastest timing DDR2, which can run as fast as 3-3-3 timings at moderate memory clocks. Lower latency DDR3 clearly demonstrates you will not have to give up a thing with DDR3 in the overlap speeds and you will gain higher speeds as well. The only current roadblock to DDR3 is the high price of admission.

AnandTech: OCZ Introduces DDR3-1800

Will things be better performance and price wise in 3-6 months? most definately!

The choices are extremely limited righ t now...and way overpriced.

P-35 and DDR-2 makes the most sense right now for single video card users at this point in time...Check out Oscar Woo's latest DFI performance in my post,thread link above , and you can see it's a real runner!

If you can afford the low latency Z-9 ram now..it will perform well, but at 600+$ for 2GB, I can think of lots of other things to spend my money on to get more bang for the buck...like another 8800GTX and a SLI board!

Cpt, I have the XFX card already, and so far so good. I've had it for several months.

The high price of the DDR3 is daunting, but I am looking for a setup that will get me through the next 2-3yrs without requiring another complete overhaul, and I think that DDR3-based board is the way to do that. With one of those I can just replace the board with an X38 (or whatever comes after that) and re-use the CPU, RAM, and VC. Then I could go SLI then upgrade CPU then RAM. That should take me out to late 2009 or later, depending upon the games and the amount of OC I can run stable.

At least that is my thought process.