If I build it, will it run?

[StevieRay]

Mobo contender:
Newegg.com - ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

My thoughts are that the mobo, GPU, and PSU are good places to drop the coin for future proofing if possible.

So it is possible to run ddr2 in a ddr3 mobo?

If the x48 is not that noticable of a difference in performance from the p35 just yell at me now so I stop the fantasy....!

[polobunny]

No, you cannot put DDR2 in a DDR3 motherboard.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by StevieRay

If the x48 is not that noticable of a difference in performance from the p35 just yell at me now so I stop the fantasy....!

We can tell you whatever we want, but you should do some research on your own to and educate yourself, don't just take our word for it
Here is a review that compares top-end motherboards from different companies based on the different Intel chipsets. The Maximus Formula is X38, the Foxconn Mars is P35, and the Gigabyte X48-DQ6 is (as you can guess from the model) based on the X48 chipset. You will notice that there really isn't much of a difference, especially when you factor in price. The review is also nice because it shows you how much of a performance difference you can get by having a faster processor. In prettymuch every case, you are better off spending the extra cash on a faster processor rather than that more expensive chipset.

Here is another review looking specifically at X38 and X48...

[Stormcrow]

Anyone that's intrested in the Antec 900 should do a search for the NZXT Tempest, set to have a pricetag of about $99. I'd suggest that over the CM 690 personally, although the 690 is a awesome case as well.

[unknown555525]

wow.. what's with all this horrible DDR3 ram? Shure it runs at 1600Mhz, but at 7-7-7-20 which is bad. Then there's the OCZ gold that runs 1333 but the timings are 9-9-9-26 which is horrible. Timings are important. I think that's a huge negative tradeoff, and I would rather have a lower latency than higher frequency. And all this for typically over $500 just for 4GB is insane. Seems like just a marketing scheme like the whole Nvidia 9 series to me.

[screwballl]

The cheapest 4GB kit at Newegg is $264, quite a bit off from the mentioned $500, although the most expensive is $779

[unknown555525]

I didn't say cheapest, and it isn't far off considering it is the average cost of 4GB of DDR3 memory. You say the cheapest is $268, and the max is $779, and what I commonly see is around $500 which is in the middle, then that doesn't make it wrong.

[screwballl]

true but it depends on the budget and type that they're looking for, I tend to look at their budget and suggest accordingly... right now with DDR3 as high as it is, I wouldn't suggest much anything over the lowest priced kits anyways unless they have a $3000 budget.
A good portion of 4GB DDR3 kits are priced $250-300

[Hitman]

With 2GB DDR2 kits in the sub $50 range it makes it hard to suggest DDR3, since the performance increase doesn't justify the price difference.

[unknown555525]

My point is that I would easily suggest a high end 4GB PC6400 kit that costs around $99 than a PC12800 kit that costs $400. And I'm also willing to bet that in both synthetic, and real benchmarks, the DDR2 kit will beat the DDR3 kit clocked twice as fast due to the high latencies of most DDR3 kits.

Infact, there are even numerous review sites that pit DDR2 memory with latecies of 4-4-4-12 in 800MHz, that actually gets around 10% faster than DDR3 memory at 1333Mhz that runs higher latecies. In every benchmark including video decoding to gaming, and synthetic benchmarks.