Which Conroe Motherboard, Hmmmm?

Radio91PRadio91P Layton, UT New
edited October 2006 in Hardware
Hey guys,

Thinking of upgrading to the Conroe, I know I'm trendy. I have never done anything with Intel. Trying to find a good board to work with. I don't know about all of the different chipsets available. Could you guys let me know what you think would be a good board. I have always been an Nvidia man as well, but seems that most of the boards support ATI. Crossfire is an option. Please include boards that have both Crossfire and single gpu capabilities.

Here are the other parts I will be working with.

E6600 Conroe
MB ?
Mushkin DDR2800 4-4-3-12
7900GT Evga (could change over to ATI)
PC Power and Cooling 700W psu
74GB Raptor
400GB Barracuda

Any suggestions would be welcome, both cheap and expensive!

Thanks guys!
Radio91P
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Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    PC Power and Cooling 700W psu
    Overkill, unless you are planning several drives and high end SLI. Save yourself some money. The Conroes are not the energy hogs that earlier Intel dual cores were.

    Chipsets - go with Intel. 975X first, 965 second. Recommend Asus.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I recommend a 650w with a new Conroe computer.

    I also recommend the Asus P5B Deluxe (i965) before any 975x board.
  • Radio91PRadio91P Layton, UT New
    edited September 2006
    Ihave had the PSU from earlier SLI build. Could possibly go with ATI crossfire setup later. Don't know yet. thanks for the tips on the motherboard


    Radio91P
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I'd go with Thrax' recommendations before mine, as he has a Conroe system and I do not. I still think more than 550W is overkill. :D But when it comes to PSUs, overkill is not at all a bad thing, as long as you are willing to pay for it.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    My 580 is just scarcely enough to power my system properly. The only truly high-draw device is my video card, and the whole system requires about 530w.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Asus P5B Deluxe (i965)

    I 2nd that
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
    ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T
    1 - Nvidia 7900GTX 512MB Graphic Card
    2 - CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
    1 - Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
    1 - Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
    Antec PERFORMANCE Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
    APEVIA (ASPIRE) ATX-AS600W-BK ATX12V/ EPS12V 600W

    = 427 Watts & 498 Watts under heavy gaming... most of the higher draw comes from the Graphic card..
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
    ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T
    1 - Nvidia 7900GTX 512MB Graphic Card
    2 - CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
    1 - Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
    1 - Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
    Antec PERFORMANCE Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
    APEVIA (ASPIRE) ATX-AS600W-BK ATX12V/ EPS12V 600W

    = 427 Watts & 498 Watts under heavy gaming... most of the higher draw comes from the Graphic card..
    Thanks for the info, Sledge. :thumbsup: Do you know how much that system draws when it's just folding?
  • Datsun-1600Datsun-1600 Sydney.au
    edited September 2006
    With AMD buying ATI, SLI support for Intel is coming.

    Depends what you want in features, as some of the top of the range 965 mobos have dual PCI-Express x 8 slots, where as all of the 975 mobos have the same PCI-Express x 8 slots.

    I already run a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, an Abit AB9-Pro and a DFI Infinity 975X and run about a 25% overclock on all of them.

    The mobo I am waiting for is the Abit AW9D-MAX, to become available, as it has been getting good reviews.

    Datsun 1600
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    It runs as if it is idle around 243 Watts not to bad.... with 2 instances going :)

    As for the Mobo I did tons of research on all of the ones offered, via 32X SLI the higher end boards in the 975 range and they just can't compete with the 965 P5B Deluxe. The board has onboard Wifi good sound tons of USB plugs and the layout is superb.... has tons of room for any heatsink or water cooling supports 8GB of ram AND oc'S LIKE A DREAM.. The only issue I have with this board is the Battery placement. It is right under the Graphics card, when I was ocing it wasn't that fun to reset the bios. But if your not going to OC it won't really matter, and even at that it doesn't come close to out weighting the other features it has. I am almost certain Thrax will agree with me on this :)

    My C2D e6400 is running at 3.0Ghz "stock 2.16" and very stable... on the P5B which is about a 50% OC :) If I had better CPU cooling I could probably get 3.2Ghz to run stable.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I think what I may not be taking into account with my comments about PSUs is the video card. I tend to forget the higher power video cards are energy pigs. CPUs, both AMD and Intel, have become much more energy efficient due to die shrinks, but video cards keep getting hungrier. I'm not a gamer so I tend to purchase modest video cards with low power draws.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    The average Graphics GPU will consume between 85 - 115 Watts as higher end cards will use 150+ per GPU....
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited September 2006
    And that's not to mention the future high end vid card's power draw either, just present high end video cards. So far I've seen power numbers in the 175-250 watt range bandied about on the web for both Nvidia's and ATI's next gen high end vid cards. So unless the next gen high end vid cards come with an external power brick, they are going to tax the hell out of a psu, whichever way you go as far as vid card chipset for the next generation of DX10 capable cards.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited September 2006
    It is really amazing just how much power these latest cards draw. The X1900 is especially bad (still 110nm and over 200W at load.. just for the card). It looks like they will be dropping straight to 80nm which should help tremendously. The move to DDR4 on the X1950 also reduced power draw by 15-20% IIRC. Nvidia did well with the 7900 series cards, and they actually draw less power than the 7800 series. They also have plans for 80nm and GDDR4, so this will be interesting. Sorry just wanted to throw in my 2c :)

    As for the PSU, check out the OCZ Gamesteam series. It seems to be getting very good press lately. More bang for the buck over PCP&C, but don't let me talk you out of PCP&C (if you don't mind spending the coin). I love my 510 Express, and I don't plan on buying another PSU for quite some time. Simply the best PSU I have ever owned.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    the Nvidia G80 or better known as the 8800GTX will most likely be 80nm :) no one knows for sure, but Nvidia already has the 7700's out at 80nm...
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    You don't have to reset the BIOS on the P5B. Turn off your PSU and the BIOS is reset. The battery placement could be on the back of the mobo, and it wouldn't matter.

    The P965 does not officially support SLI, but many users have gotten it working with hacked drivers ( I don't know anything about them). The p5B officially supports Crossfire for Direct3D games, and OpenGL support is coming in January.

    As for PSU, I really have to recommend my HiPer. It's bloody amazing.. Build quality, weight, design, power. Top notch.

    The P5B has a 16x and a 4x (x16-sized) PEG slot.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Thrax wrote:
    You don't have to reset the BIOS on the P5B. Turn off your PSU and the BIOS is reset. The battery placement could be on the back of the mobo, and it wouldn't matter.

    The P965 does not officially support SLI, but many users have gotten it working with hacked drivers ( I don't know anything about them). The p5B officially supports Crossfire for Direct3D games, and OpenGL support is coming in January.

    As for PSU, I really have to recommend my HiPer. It's bloody amazing.. Build quality, weight, design, power. Top notch.

    The P5B has a 16x and a 4x (x16-sized) PEG slot.

    Nothing would reset the bios on my board until i removed the Batt.... and I have gotten dual 7900GTX 512MB to run on this board :)
  • Radio91PRadio91P Layton, UT New
    edited September 2006
    Hey guys,

    thanks for the great info on all of the issues. I am hoping that the draw on the PSU's will drop significantly. Probably not going to go the dual video card route. Maybe something like the 7950GX2. I dont know. Here are the final specs that I have gone with.

    ASUS P5B deluxe wifi
    E6600 Conroe
    Hiper 580W
    evga 7900GT
    Muskin Extreme at 3-4-3-9 1T
    74GB Raptor WD
    Barracuda 400GB

    I am selling my ASUS M2N32-SLI wifi motherboard, AM2 X2 3800+, and the PC Power and Cooling psu on ebay if anyone is interested.

    I just need to get two gigs of ram now
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Do you like to overclock? If so, the E6400 will do 3GHz on stock voltage.
  • Radio91PRadio91P Layton, UT New
    edited September 2006
    Yeah, I love to overclock. Get something for nothing. Just delightful. I have already bought the e6600. The only difference is the cache right. Got a special with the board and chip.

    Hey, I have never owned an Intel rig before. I heard that it was easier to overclock than the AMD's. Is this true?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Yeah, it took me about 10 minutes to get the chip up to 3GHz. It would've taken two, except I had to ask someone about the memory dividers.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    It's never easy to overclock properly. It takes several weeks to find a good stable configuration. But the system you have chosen looks darn good. However, you do get a bit more videocard for the money if you buy ATI than Nvidia at the moment. The X1900 XT goes for really cheap now and then.

    Sledge,

    You never have to reset the cmos on this board. Pull the switch at the back of the psu for 10 seconds to drain all remaining power, flip it on, hold "insert" while powering on and kep holding "insert" until your monitor led or keyboard led turns green. That's a soft reset and it's just as good as a total reset. I have practiced this since the NF7 days btw. Saves a lot of headaches.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Now someone tells me:)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    The mobo manual does. ;)
  • Radio91PRadio91P Layton, UT New
    edited September 2006
    Could someone give me the quick lesson on just the basics. I overclock my AMD's all the time, just not Intel.

    Thanks
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    For the most part " me being a OC noob also" you just increase the FSB. With AMD chips you kind of have to inch them up, with the Core 2 Duo you can almost just push it to the max right off the get-go. I have toned mine back to 340 FSB "2.720Ghz" until I get better cooling, when above 350 FSB I adjusted the Rams Voltage to 2.0 from 1.9 and the system just seems to run great :) so far 400 FSB is the best I can get but it runs pretty unstable... I believe cooling can fix that.
  • Radio91PRadio91P Layton, UT New
    edited September 2006
    Is the ram speed directly connected to the FSB like the HTT and ram speed on AMD? I am assuming that it is and that I will have to put memory dividers on.

    Thanks sledge
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    the higher the FSB goes the higher clock the ram goes... I got my ram to 600Mhz without turning any divider on that I know of :)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Is the ram speed directly connected to the FSB like the HTT and ram speed on AMD?
    Yes and no. Most of the 'Intel' motherboards designed for tweaking have what are called "dividers", specifically CPU/Memory dividers. In the BIOS you can set a ratio between the CPU FSB and the DRAM speed. What this means is you can select the degree of RAM speed elevation of the DRAM when you boost the FSB frequency. With a liberal range of dividers, it is possible to boost the FSB very high while maintaining DRAM frequencies that are close to default. The "no" part of my answer means simply that if the motherboard does not have FSB/DRAM (CPU:Memory) dividers, or if the user chooses not use dividers, the DRAM frequencies will rise at the same rate of the FSB frequency during CPU overclocking. Personally, I would not even consider purchasing a motherboard without dividers.
    the higher the FSB goes the higher clock the ram goes...
    That's great, if you have the very expensive RAM that will clock high. If you tend to purchase mid-performance RAM like I do, then dividers are critical. I'm not a die-hard overclocker in that I don't strive for system overclocks, rather CPU overclocks. My goal for overclocking is brute force CPU power because the applications I wish to improve rely heavily on CPU processing power. CPU overclocking is also very easy compared to system (CPU + memory) overclocking. But that's just my approach. :cool:
  • lewicronlewicron Glasgow
    edited October 2006
    Why 965i over 975?
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