Spec'ing out a new box for a Q9450, which board and what ram?

DanG

I'm currently looking at building a new box (it's not an addiction, I can stop any time I want).

The board I'm looking at is the Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R. I'm looking at either this as a higher end board, or going to a a cheap DS3L.
The thing that intrigues me about the DS3R is the fact that it will take either DDR2 or DDR3. Last I read about DDR3 was to save my money, but that was 6 or 8 months ago, so I'm wondering if things have changed, or should I stick with DDR2.

I've looked at the X38 and X48 based boards, but don't feel like spending 250+ on a board.

The box will be my gaming system, and replace the main rig in my sig as the new main system, and I'll be keeping the original as a folding box.
I will be taking the 8800GTS out of it and throwing a radeon 2400 into it, same with the 150GB raptor, which I will replace with my old 36gb raptor.

The rest of the new system will have an Antec 900 case, 4GB of OCZ ram, either DDR2 or DDR3, a corsair modular PSU, probably around 600w, a thermalright ultra 120 extreme and some sort of dvd burner.


I'm open to suggestions and advice.

Thrax

DDR3 is astronomically-priced. It won't be reasonable until 2009.

In order of awesome, I recommend:

DFI LP P35-T2R
DFI DK P35-T2R/S
DFI BloodIron

All are P35, stellar overclockers, amazing boards and generally supermofo badass.

Qeldroma

DanG wrote:

The board I'm looking at is the Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R. I'm looking at either this as a higher end board, or going to a a cheap DS3L.
The thing that intrigues me about the DS3R is the fact that it will take either DDR2 or DDR3. Last I read about DDR3 was to save my money, but that was 6 or 8 months ago, so I'm wondering if things have changed, or should I stick with DDR2.

I'm looking at doing the exact same thing soon (week or two) with a Q9450 looking at the very same boards.

I'm looking harder at the DS3R mainly because of the extra readily available USB ports and it gives me the option to at least play with DDR3 later. I'm not interested in kick-butt overclocking but will do a moderate amount with energy saving in mind. I'm going to use this rig as my main machine, so I'm willing to pay a little premium for some extra features. If it's not to be your main system, I'd think about the DS3L.

DDR3 has gone down ... but it ain't gone down enough for me yet. I'm thinking of the same mem configuration but using 1066 DDR2 (maybe GSkills). That may be a little overkill for what I'm thinking about, but I'd rather be caught long than short.

DanG

Thrax, I can get OCZ Gold OCZ3G13332GK 2GB DDR3 2X1GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-26 Dual Channel Memory Kit for $120 plus a $30 mail in, vs OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-4-4-15 DDR2 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit for $102 and a $30 mail in, so it's about double, which isn't the worst thing in the world...

I will check out those DFI boards.

THanks.

lemonlime

I was surprised to see DDR3 starting to drop quite a bit the last month or so. It is at about the same pricepoint that DDR2 was in late 2007 for 2GB kits.

The DFI DK P35-T2R/S gets my vote too. If you don't plan to run dual graphics cards, it is a great choice.

DanG

Just a single 8800GTS at the moment, I have no plans of going SLi, I'd rather just add a new single bad ass card.

muddocktor

Just a word of advice on the Q9450 results I've seen so far. The few results I've seen posted over at OCForums have the procs all hitting a max fsb wall somewheres around 455-460 fsb. And it's not vcore related either from what I've seen either. I don't know whether it's a weakness in the mobo's bioses right now or if it is related to the Yorktowns itself. Right now the ram I am running in my main rig is fsb limited (not great overclockers) so I really can't test whether this QX hits a fsb wall there too, but I have a feeling it won't be too far off from that either.

So if you are looking to get a 4 GHz overclock out of a Q9450 right now, I don't think it will happen. It's looking like ~3600 MHz will be doable but not much higher. It will run cooler than a comparably clocked kentsfield though.

DanG

I'd be happy with a box that gets a 1000MHz OC and is stable.

mmonnin

I've got a 1700+ (1.6GHz) TBredB that does 2.5 easy, you want that?

DanG

mmonnin wrote:

I've got a 1700+ (1.6GHz) TBredB that does 2.5 easy, you want that?

I was thinking something with a wee bit more cowbell than that...
Nice try though.

DanG

ordered the stuff today. I wasn't able to find any DFI stuff in stock, so I went with the DS3L, which I already have one of, and am very happy with it. Got a 750W OCZ PSU, 4GB of OCZ DDR2 ram, a pioneer sata dvd writer and a thermalright ultra 120 extreme. I also got a pair of 88CFM Scythe fans to go on the heatsink.
I'm going to find a case locally, probably another nine hundred, or maybe a lian li if I can find one for a decent price.

_k

All I have to say about this is I am currently running a stable q9450(3.5GHz) on an EVGA 790i board(PO4 bios) with 2x1GB OCZ 9-9-9-26 1333(875 current) and a 8800GT. The highest the board has booted on and not hardlocked is at 3.9GHz with the x8 mult. The evga boards CAN run over a the predicted bus wall of 450-475 but it takes voltage and updated bios. I got my ram for $100 in store($50 employee discount), patriot was not allowing me to oc the proc for some reason. The other boards I have seen people getting 4GHz on air and close is with Abit boards. I know this is a late post for decisions. I am using the 900 right now with the OCZ vendetta 2 and i have a about 1cm of clearance, fyi for the thermalright.

Qeldroma

Dan,

I'm about to pull the string on one of these too (but probably the DS3R). I'm wrestling with better bargain ddr2-800 or spending the extra for some headroom- what speed did you finally decide for your memory?

Leonardo

Last I read about DDR3 was to save my money, but that was 6 or 8 months ago, so I'm wondering if things have changed

No, they haven't changed much.

I see you've already ordered your parts. Good choice going for 4GB DDR2 instead of 2GB DDR3. There is a very nice overall improvement in day to day operations in 4GB over 2GB. I upgraded one of my rigs from 2 to 4 a couple months ago. The noticeable improvement was immediate.

mmonnin

The improvement should only be made until you actually use 2gb+ of memory at which point its no longer using the page file. Unless windows will put more of a program in memory because you have more memory now the feeling is artificial.

DanG

For ram I went with a 4GB kit of OCZ DDR2-800. I haven't had much time to monkey with it, so I couldn't tell you how well it OC's yet, but I am also hunting for a deal on some faster ram, 1066 or faster and just haven't found much. By the time I get the rebate back, it will be ~$80 for the stuff I got, so it was a pretty sweet deal.

Qeldroma

DanG wrote:

For ram I went with a 4GB kit of OCZ DDR2-800. I haven't had much time to monkey with it, so I couldn't tell you how well it OC's yet, but I am also hunting for a deal on some faster ram, 1066 or faster and just haven't found much. By the time I get the rebate back, it will be ~$80 for the stuff I got, so it was a pretty sweet deal.

QFT

I'm a little frustrated at having good 1066 costing, in some cases, almost twice as much :sad2: .

Thrax

That's why you get PC2-8000. Virtually nobody is going to get their chipset up to 533MHz, and if you're not running 1:1, you already wasted your money on RAM bandwidth you won't be using.