Q6600 Pairing! What MoBo?

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Capper

Ok, in all seriousness, I was a big fan of the NVIDIA NForce 4 Ultra and SLI boards, I really liked the eVGA 680i SLI, until my original board decided to cook a couple kits of memory, and the NVIDIA 650i Ultra is a fantastic chipset (except when its attached to the ASUS P5N-E SLI....which is the worst ASUS board in a long time).

I spend basically every waking moment testing hardware for articles, to the point that I am constantly testing on no fewer than two systems 24/7. I take this site, our content, and the opinions I and the staff express very seriously, and i stand behind anything and everything we print.

Recommending the cheap chipset instead of the expensive one? :P
I was a fan of the NF4 myself, whether ultra, SLI or even vanilla, but I can hardly read a review not pointing out 680i, 780i and 790i problems. Is this chipset that difficult to deal with?

[Capper]

Check out the links posted.

The 680i was notoriously bad at overvolting/killing memory.

As I've said a few times now, the 790i is a much different board, for the better. My experience thus far is all positive.

[polobunny]

As I understand, 780i is nothing more than a binned, tri-sli enabled 680i. Still killing memory, still having driver issues in Vista. Right to assume that?

[Capper]

Pretty much.

Theres nothing wrong with building off a good foundation, thats basically what INTEL has done with the X48. The X48s I've played with this last week, the ASUS P5E3 Premium and Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 are both very good board....but the P5E3 Premium has really stood out with an impressive FSB and equally impressive memory overclock without any effort.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Capper

Pretty much.

Theres nothing wrong with building off a good foundation, thats basically what INTEL has done with the X48. The X48s I've played with this last week, the ASUS P5E3 Premium and Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 are both very good board....but the P5E3 Premium has really stood out with an impressive FSB and equally impressive memory overclock without any effort.

That makes me feel good about not jumping on the eVGA 780i SLI + Q6700 deal I posted in the marketplace area. :P

Review of the Asus P5E3 coming soon?

[Capper]

yes, Monday......X48T-DQ6 will be Wednesday.....and hopefully we'll have the Striker Extreme II on Friday

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Capper

yes, Monday......X48T-DQ6 will be Wednesday.....and hopefully we'll have the Striker Extreme II on Friday

Looking forward reading that, even if I can't buy because I'm as broke as they come. :P

[Lord Gaebril]

Man you guys are scaring me. I'm afraid my PC is gonna blow up tomorrow.
I wish I had found this site a month earlier when I was making my choices on parts. I was looking at the Asus P5E3 myself but price was a big factor(about $100 cheaper) and I read alot about EVGA's customer service and went that route. Funny thing though, I can't find my Mobo on Newegg's site anymore. Not giving me alot of confidence in my choice when they do that. Oh well. Its gonna have to last at least a couple a years. My last PC was built in '02 if that tells you how often I buy a PC. This was my first solo project. Rest assured I'll check with you guys first next time.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Lord Gaebril

Man you guys are scaring me. I'm afraid my PC is gonna blow up tomorrow.
I wish I had found this site a month earlier when I was making my choices on parts. I was looking at the Asus P5E3 myself but price was a big factor(about $100 cheaper) and I read alot about EVGA's customer service and went that route. Funny thing though, I can't find my Mobo on Newegg's site anymore. Not giving me alot of confidence in my choice when they do that. Oh well. Its gonna have to last at least a couple a years. My last PC was built in '02 if that tells you how often I buy a PC. This was my first solo project. Rest assured I'll check with you guys first next time.

From what I can gather, Nvidia chipsets lately are hit and miss. It works, cool, it will work for as long as you need it. Best performance if you can get the drivers not to BSOD in your face. :P
It doesn't work out of the box? RMA time.

[Lord Gaebril]

Originally Posted by polobunny

From what I can gather, Nvidia chipsets lately are hit and miss. It works, cool, it will work for as long as you need it. Best performance if you can get the drivers not to BSOD in your face. :P
It doesn't work out of the box? RMA time.

So far so good. I was really worried getting what I did with what I've heard about Vista (Not to mention the 64 bit version), but have had miniminal problems (None being drivers that I can tell). Most of them I believe are due to my **** status in the OC world. I am slowly learning with the help of everyone here. Only thing I can see needing to redo is my Heatsink. Temps jump up to 60c under load, but Capper gave me several good suggestions and when my funds allow think I will pick up the Zalman 9700 he suggested.