KharnakIHazWoW

So my problem is, my asus mobo just died and i need a new one. So which mobo would be the best futureproof to get? Preferrably support for ddr2+ddr3 and support for crossfire AND sli... Im using a GTS 250 now, and a E8400, and overclocking potential is crucial aswell.. I didnt know where to post this, so it just went to Motherboard section too.

Phædrus2401

DDR3 is not worthwhile at the moment. It is actually slower than DDR2. The clock speed is higher, which means it's easier to get stable with high-FSB CPUs like the i5 and i7 CPUs. But the latencies are higher as well, so less gets done per clock.



You have to pick SLI or Crossfire. The only motherboards that support SLI are the nVidia boards, and they virtually never support Crossfire. Also, nVidia boards are often buggy with Intel CPUs. You don't need to bother with SLI anyway, not unless you have a 1920x1200 or greater monitor. Lower resolutions will only see a 10-20% performance gain from SLI, it only really works well on large resolutions.

A Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P or Asus P5Q Pro Turbo would be my recommendation for best stability.

KharnakIHazWoW

I have seen motherboards that support Crossfire AND SLI though, i just dont remember where? And for the DDR2/DDR3 part, i know DDR3 sucks right now, but it might turn out different in a few months or so, and then not having support for ddr3 is "meh" :)

wrench97

On 775 socket board stay with DDR2, DDR3 support and development is going be for the 1156 and 1366 socket boards(i5, i7).

The P55(1156) and x58(1366) socket boards are the only ones that support both xfire and SLI.

linderman

the only boards that support SLI & Crossfire "both" are some of the very high end i5 & i7 motherboards in the $300.00 range

what in hades would be the real sense to wanting one that does both ? would you ever have bought two ATI cards and then decieded to go buy two Nvidia chipset cards ?

The E8400 is best paired with DDR2 memory as the overclocking competitions have proven time and time again!

I would say you are best served with

GA-EP45-UD3L for $100.00
or

GA-EP45-UD3P = crossfire board

GA-EP45-DS4P = better crossfire board

Asus P5Q-Deluxe is one of my personal favs in the asus stable

one high end card like the 260 or 275GTX always will deliver more gaming horsepower than two cards like the 250GTX ........games just dont engineer as well as we think towards sli and crossfire use, there just isnt enough market share of sli and crossfire users to make such gaming tweaks a "priority"

as for SLI boards and intel cpu's ........thats a lame horse at best. those require an nvidia chipset which just dont shine in the performance world like you think they should.'

if you dont want to believe; I have a cherry used Asus P5N32-E SLI board you can buy for $75.00 I took that board in on trade for an i5 system build

I strongly advise if you want to game on the high end of performance, stick with a board with Intel P45 chipset, RMA your old board back to asus.

your money would be alot better spent on the ATI 4870 for $149.00 and dont get distracted in the wrong direction

your e8400 overclocked to 3.8ghz with a 4870 would game like a beast; almost on par with an i7 920. In fact we play a game of computer sharades at the college computer Rec center, all of our builds there use the Coolermaster Centurion case, we mix around the sytems after hours and see if the "know it all college gamers" cant tell which system they are gaming on!!
They cant tell which system they are as long as its a Core 2D at 3.6ghz or better all they way to the i7's

I'd would be willing to bet cash; I could trick them with the Q6600 overclocked to 3.2ghz with the 260GTX and then ask them how do they like that new i7-920 ?

I have seen them sitting on the i7's when their time ran out (3 hour limit) and they have to get back in rotation for another machine, the next machine will be the E8500 and they cant tell the diff when we lie and tell them its another i7 machine ! LOL

I love messin with those know it alls!

Tyree

Ditto on my Team Mates factual opinions.

Good quality Mobo & great match for E8400: ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131377

KharnakIHazWoW

Well okay, I guess I just need a 775 mobo, with onboard sound, not so much extra, my setup will be 1x IDE DVD Drive, 2x Sata harddrives, and i have a NZXT Beta case with front usb, e-sata and stuff... But anyways, just a decent motherboard, with 2000+fsb (like my friends DFI Blood Iron t2rs p45 supports like 2400fsb) and i will overclock my E8400 to about 8x 5xx so it will be around 4.2-4.4ghz. good northbridge cooling, whatever :P just aslong as it works for not too many $$$ if there is a such motherboard, ill take it, SLI or Crossfire support wouldnt hurt either :D i think my budget is around 100-180 $

Phædrus2401

You aren't going to get an E8400 to 4.4GHz. An E8500, maybe if you're really lucky.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20Motherboards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0%20-%20%24200

KharnakIHazWoW

Ehh, wrong.. I've been running my E8400 on a P45 Blood Iron T2RS at 4.6ghz actually, but at 1.6 volt. So turned it down to 1.45v at 4.2ghz. Orthos 12 hour stable, prime 12 hour stable aswell... FSB was up at 2300fsb or so.

Phædrus2401

That CPU is going to die at those voltages. I've never actually burned out a CPU, even on accident, but you're going to if you keep that up.

linderman

I hope your ready to pony up some cash for a new cpu if you keep it overclocked like that!

I have tried that, on water cooling system at the shop E8400 went belly up after 4 months of 1.55 volts of 24/7

pushing an E8400 that hard when you are using a 250GTX video card makes no sense at all; thats like trying to run a race car on walmart tires.

the video card does 80% of the work now on modern systems, as long as your dual core is at 3.8ghz your wasting your time any higher as long as the video card is of equal capability!

linderman

I would however love to see some 4.6ghz screen shots of orthos with E8400 if even for 10 minutes; if you could oblige please?

KharnakIHazWoW

But okay, the price for my current mobo is around the 180 dollars, but thats kind of, alot.. and i feel its not that futureproof, and the northbridge cooling is not really that good. (I am actually in the lookout for a motherboard, for my friend, not myself... but that doesnt really matter, it might help clear up some confusion though if there was any) My friend only has a shitty Mac, that barely plays anything, random shutdowns, and so on... His old mobo was an Asus P5N-E (32?) SLI, and the bios was outdated, so it would not support either 1066mhz ram, or E8xxx series cpu's... So we wanted to flash it with a Celeron Processor that it DID support and some 667 mhz ram, and everything went smoothly, except the power in the entire house shut down -.- ... So its rendered absolutely useless now. He really needs, if not deserves a new motherboard for his stationary PC so he can play the freaking games properly! :)

Phædrus2401

Agreed. Plus some CPU-Z caps.

Oh, and Lind, what's the status on that E8600? Can you PM me? Thanks.

linderman

why not save him some cash and just replace his bios chip for $10.00 / while you are at it the bios vendor will flash the new bios chip to the version which delivers wolfdale 1333MHZ cpu support?

KharnakIHazWoW

Not possible at the moment, but you could check out some hardcore OC forums, pretty sure people have had the E8400 at 5ghz aswell... 1.6 volt hurts, yes, abit... But it would probably still hold together for 2 years.. and that is far within my upgrade timer. And no i was running it with 2x 4890 both overclocked to 1050Core with Musashi Coolers :)

linderman

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bios-chip-Asus-P...item2555b5c10a

linderman

yeah 4.6ghz and more but you forget it was done with phase cooling or nitrogen cooling

not air or water; please be specific, many mid level computer enthuasist will read posts like this and try it only to discover they are in the market for a replacement board!

I know this from experience!

Phædrus2401

Lind's E8400 at 1.55V lasted four months of 24/7

Assuming your computer is on 8 hours a day, then at 1.55V you could expect it to last one year. At 1.6V, perhaps eight months. At 1.45V, perhaps a year and a half.


When we talk about "highest it can overclock" we mean "highest it can overclock without ruining it".

KharnakIHazWoW

Well, mine has been running for about 8months at 1.6volt, and an additional year at 1.45volt at 4.2ghz, but well its risky. I guess its not something everyone does. And yeah it was air cooled, max temp was 68c with orthos at full load after a few hours. that was at 1.6volt 4.6ghz (Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme) with some AS5 and some high CFM fans, + a very good caseflow (HAF 932 with additional fans) the cpu itself never got any warmer than 58c in game. (and yes it was on 24/7) my remote desktop workplace from school, and download station aswell :) My intention was not to encourage anyone to try overclocking it this much, but just saying it was possible, but still risky of course! :) sorry, but anyways back to topic.... How would i get a new bios here in Denmark?