Which mboard for Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 + NVIDIA 7950 GX2 gcard + PC7200 RAM?

Discussion in 'CPU, Motherboards and Memory' started by unclebob, Aug 2, 2006.

  1. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    Hello forum

    This is my first post, so excuse my noobness.

    I want to buy a NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 with a Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 with either OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-7200 or Patriot 2GB (2x1GB) PC7200.

    This memory issue incompatability issue has put me off getting a Gigabyte DS4 so I was thinking about getting the Abit AB9 Pro. Has anyone here had experience of a similar setup? Or can anyone recommend an alternative mboard (available now or in the near future).

    any info appreciated

    thanks
     
  2. vol7ron

    vol7ron Guest

    I have an E6600 on the way -it is better for the price (overclocked by Anandtech to 4ghz with air cooling).

    I'm sort of in the same boat with you, regarding motherboards and what's available. For a GX2 you should get an nVidia chipset. Because you're spending so much money you obviously are going to want the best performance, I'd wait until the nVidia 590 motherboards are open to the market and see how they do.
     
  3. Swansen

    Swansen The Ninj

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    what about this board from gigabyte, i almost considered getting it until i realize i didn't want to switch to Intel just for some cool features GA-965P-DQ6
     
  4. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    Dont bother with this board, I heard it has the same memory problems (you can only use slow memory) as the DS3 and DS4. Think I'll wait for this: HEXUS.net : Headline : World exclusive photographs of DFI LANParty nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition! Perfect for Conroe? : Page - 1/1 Will this chipset affect performance or is it just so u can have 2 gcards running in parallel?
     
  5. Merlin

    Merlin Geek Trainee

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    All the ASUS mobos require a bios update, the Asus P5B's have an Intel UCode loding error and dont even think about the Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi.


    Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi
    "In order for a Core 2 DUO (Conroe) processor to work with this mainboard you may require to perform a BIOS update which will require an older processor or contacting Asus for a new BIOS chip."
     
  6. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    Thanks for the reply

    Amazing. So the Asus boards need a BIOS update, the gigabyte boards dont work?!? What a mess..................
     
  7. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    The Gigabyte is using a new chipset and is the first out the door for a new CPU line, while we're not seeing a barrage of Conroe boards. We'll see them soon, but you'll have to wait. I would guess within another month or so, there should be a few more Conroe boards available.
     
  8. vol7ron

    vol7ron Guest

    Asus boards for the most part do not need a bios update. Those are on the earlier versions that I believe have already been circumnavigated. If you notice the board is out of stock - new revisions will be distributed upon the next shipment from the manufacturer.

    As for this being a "mess", blame it on Intel. AMD does a good job of working with mobo. manufacturers and making sure that parts are readily available upon release. Intel, on the other hand, releases information only a matter of weeks before the scheduled launch. "Why?" you ask.. because Intel gets to push their own motherboards like the Bad Axe before anyone else. Combine that with a new redesigned technology and they'll own a big portion of market share right after release.

    It's good from a marketing perspective, but bad for the consumer. But what's the lesson? Wait. People rush to purchase right-out-of-beta (roob) merchandise (software and hardware) and expect it to work perfect. Manufacturers/designers have no way of testing everyones needs and cannot cater to specific instances until problems occur - so be safe and wait.
     
  9. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    Thanks for the replies. Has anyone tried the badaxe mboard with a similar spec to what I'm after? If I was intel I'd make sure it was not very good at overclocking - am I right?

    Also, any info on this MSI board (I currently have an old MSI board - great for overclocking) with a similar setup to mine?:
    MSI -- MICRO-STAR INT'L CO.,LTD.

    thanks
     
  10. vol7ron

    vol7ron Guest

    The BadAxe is good at overclocking, in fact that is a very decent board. The fastest out of the box, and one of the fastest if you know how to overclock. The problem is that Intel doesn't cater to overclockers. If you screw up there is no fail-safe restart, instead you'll have to reset the cmos and pull out the onboard battery - which is a pain.
     
  11. vol7ron

    vol7ron Guest

    I'm debating on whether to get the 7950GX2, I want to but it probably won't be compatible with Windows Vista while running SLI.
     
  12. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    Have you heard of any incompatability problems with the badaxe and the 7950GX2?
     
  13. vol7ron

    vol7ron Guest

    You're not going to be able to run SLI on the BadAxe, but I think the BadAxe does support X-Fire. For right now this doesnt mean anything to me, but in the future i may want to test an SLI or X-Fire setup.

    No known problems, but again you really want to run the GeForce on an nVidia northbridge. I think the nVidia 590 will probably be the best for it.
     
  14. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    I'm not too worried about SLI, I can always get a new mboard in the future. Will nVidia 590 chipset have any noticeable affect on performance when using a single 7950 GX2?

    Thinking about going for the MSI 975X Platinum PowerUP Edition, cant find any reviews on it though
     
  15. vol7ron

    vol7ron Guest

    MSI products are generally the cheaper low-grade that I don't trust. If you're going to spend money, do it right. I try to stay away from Sapphire and MSI, unless I see a benchmark that proves it's worth the buy at the cheap price.

    Because the nVid 590 hasn't been released yet, I haven't seen any tests on it. I don't know of anyone who's had a chance to get their hands on it either, but in answering your question - yes it can impact the performance. Every chipset can. Just compare the Intel 965 with the 975x, 975x proves better benchmarks.

    Bus size, memory controllers, pretty much the whole slew of resistors, capacitors, transistors, regulators and whatever other diodes may be on the northbridge; they all affect the quantity and speed of the electricity (data) that flows from point A to point Z


    --------------

    Another thing to remember is that although the GX2 is one card, it is essentially already in SLI mode. It has two GPUs on the same card. When you pair two of them in SLI on the board, you're running Quad-SLI.
     
  16. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    Thanks Vol7ron, very interesting reply. I'm still not sure how much of a permformance increase the chipset will make. Especially as performance differences between the 975X and nForce4X16 SLI are neglible:

    Legion Hardware

    I'm thinking about going for the Asus P5W DH Deluxe. Hopefully this will work with the 7200 memory..
     
  17. vol7ron

    vol7ron Guest

    It will, but the memory won't just run at 900MHz speed, you will need to overclock your proc to match the FSB. Otherwise the memory is going to default to 800MHz speed. See your other thread on what memory I'm getting (Mushkin Redline). It's PC2-8000, so I'll overclock my proc to meet the FSB of at least 1000MHz, but you'll be sure I will be going beyond this with the Core2


    In regards to your other post, chipsets do make a difference. Nothing is negligible.
     
  18. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    So the 7200 memory wont run faster than 800MHz, isnt that the same as PC2-6400?

    I thought it would run somewhere in between PC2-6400 (800MHz) and PC2-8000 (1000MHz)
     
  19. vol7ron

    vol7ron Guest

    Memory has to match the processor. 7200 mem modules have been tested/guaranteed to work at the speed they are labeled at. In this case 900MHz (2x450MHz). But the default on your board is 800MHz for the Front Side Bus.

    This means that your memory will underclock to 800MHz, but if you overclock your processor (the FSB), you can step it up so that it'll run at 900MHz. So why not buy PC2-6400MHz chips? You can, but they haven't been tested to go beyond that. PC2-7200 is guaranteed to go beyond 800MHz, so long as the FSB on the mobo supports it, or you overclock to reach it.

    Does this make any sense?

    I'm buying PC2-8000 (1000MHz), I'll have to overclock at least 400MHz to reach the memory potential clock speed.
     
  20. unclebob

    unclebob Geek Trainee

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    hmmm, I think so. In the mboard description it says "DDR2 800/667/533 architecture, 1066/800 FSB"

    So does this mean I cant run the 7200 RAM at 900Mhz?
     

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