So I've been hearing nothing but good things about the new Intel Duo processors, I'm way behind on the gaming scene due to inferior hardware, and I'm looking to expand my computer knowledge with an overclocking project.
This will be my first time doing this, so I was wondering what kind of good motherboards are available for this proc. I'm looking to get into the 3+ ghz range.
I have done a bit of homework regarding the GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3, and have heard it has quite the many problems:
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The Northbridge runs very hot - hotter than the CPU. It can creep up to 70C after a few hours of gaming and is right next to the processor/PCIE x16 slot, which is definately not going to help with system temps. So due to this, an active cooling solution for the Northbridge is required, which means shelling out some extra $.
With the 965P chipset, Intel dropped support for an IDE channel in their onboard SATA controller. To get IDE on this board, Gigabyte did what Asus and MSI did - they got a third party SATA/IDE controller made by JMicron. This controller is unsupported by Linux kernel pre 2.6.17, and since it manages the IDE interface, it's impossible to install most Linux distros.
Only has 1 IDE controller that is horribly placed, which introduces a multitude of problems. Since IDE is only as fast as the slowest device on the chain, you have to run either SATA optical drives, hard drives, or both. Since the IDE controller is at the bottom of the board, a long IDE cable will likely be required. The positioning also causes the IDE cable to interfere with PCI cards.
Gigabyte has not solved their Micron D9 1GB module issue yet so they are stuck in the 450FSB range.
It also has a reputation for being very picky about RAM (defaults to 1.8v, whereas many high performance memory is 1.9 - 2.1v). If your RAM does not work at 1.8 volts, you will need to either get different RAM or borrow some that does. Gigabyte has a list of compatible memory on their website. Check it before getting your memory so you know if it will work or not.
The OS will not recognize the drives using the Jmicron chip in Raid or AHIC mode without the third party driver installed, which renders most backup and disk image programs useless, to include Gigabyte’s own recovery program. Do not let Windows Update install the new JMicron/Gigabyte driver or you'll lose your CD/DVD drives with no way to recover except re-installation of Windows.
The RAID controller is limited to a RAID 0 or RAID 1 array. GRaid and IDE devices do not work right together. If you do plan on using RAID then you must know that when you burn with IDE optical devices you will get buffer underruns, it will take forever to finish a burn, and it will slow your PC down considerably. The Southbridge heatsink interferes with some video card fans (Zalman GPU coolers won't fit).
Make sure PCI is set to 100mhz in bios, otherwise your GPU will freak out on bootup when overclocking. Do not leave CPU fan on "Auto" in the bios!. Occasionally the fan won't come on at the proper time. Set the fan control to "disabled".
The board only has two 4-pin fan headers, is known to not POST and go into multiple reboot cycles, the default BIOS is garbage, and there's no SLI support.
If you Google search, you'll find many people who can't get any video or POST to work on this board. People are also reporting major IRQ issuse with this mobo. There is speculation that an entire US shipment from Gigabyte is bad.
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So with that said, would the GA-965P-DS3 still be a board of choice? I'm not going strictly for budget here, so if there is a superior board worth the money that can OC well, let me know.
I would also like to know if the NB on a particular board is going to call for an active cooling solution. For the processor, I'm looking at picking up one of these that have been going on high recommendation and are pretty hard to find in-stock.
Also feel free to recommend good cases/PSUs/RAM. Looks like that Tuniq requires a bit of clearance space in the case.
Thanks in advance.
This will be my first time doing this, so I was wondering what kind of good motherboards are available for this proc. I'm looking to get into the 3+ ghz range.
I have done a bit of homework regarding the GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3, and have heard it has quite the many problems:
----------------------------------------------
The Northbridge runs very hot - hotter than the CPU. It can creep up to 70C after a few hours of gaming and is right next to the processor/PCIE x16 slot, which is definately not going to help with system temps. So due to this, an active cooling solution for the Northbridge is required, which means shelling out some extra $.
With the 965P chipset, Intel dropped support for an IDE channel in their onboard SATA controller. To get IDE on this board, Gigabyte did what Asus and MSI did - they got a third party SATA/IDE controller made by JMicron. This controller is unsupported by Linux kernel pre 2.6.17, and since it manages the IDE interface, it's impossible to install most Linux distros.
Only has 1 IDE controller that is horribly placed, which introduces a multitude of problems. Since IDE is only as fast as the slowest device on the chain, you have to run either SATA optical drives, hard drives, or both. Since the IDE controller is at the bottom of the board, a long IDE cable will likely be required. The positioning also causes the IDE cable to interfere with PCI cards.
Gigabyte has not solved their Micron D9 1GB module issue yet so they are stuck in the 450FSB range.
It also has a reputation for being very picky about RAM (defaults to 1.8v, whereas many high performance memory is 1.9 - 2.1v). If your RAM does not work at 1.8 volts, you will need to either get different RAM or borrow some that does. Gigabyte has a list of compatible memory on their website. Check it before getting your memory so you know if it will work or not.
The OS will not recognize the drives using the Jmicron chip in Raid or AHIC mode without the third party driver installed, which renders most backup and disk image programs useless, to include Gigabyte’s own recovery program. Do not let Windows Update install the new JMicron/Gigabyte driver or you'll lose your CD/DVD drives with no way to recover except re-installation of Windows.
The RAID controller is limited to a RAID 0 or RAID 1 array. GRaid and IDE devices do not work right together. If you do plan on using RAID then you must know that when you burn with IDE optical devices you will get buffer underruns, it will take forever to finish a burn, and it will slow your PC down considerably. The Southbridge heatsink interferes with some video card fans (Zalman GPU coolers won't fit).
Make sure PCI is set to 100mhz in bios, otherwise your GPU will freak out on bootup when overclocking. Do not leave CPU fan on "Auto" in the bios!. Occasionally the fan won't come on at the proper time. Set the fan control to "disabled".
The board only has two 4-pin fan headers, is known to not POST and go into multiple reboot cycles, the default BIOS is garbage, and there's no SLI support.
If you Google search, you'll find many people who can't get any video or POST to work on this board. People are also reporting major IRQ issuse with this mobo. There is speculation that an entire US shipment from Gigabyte is bad.
----------------------------------------------
So with that said, would the GA-965P-DS3 still be a board of choice? I'm not going strictly for budget here, so if there is a superior board worth the money that can OC well, let me know.
I would also like to know if the NB on a particular board is going to call for an active cooling solution. For the processor, I'm looking at picking up one of these that have been going on high recommendation and are pretty hard to find in-stock.
Also feel free to recommend good cases/PSUs/RAM. Looks like that Tuniq requires a bit of clearance space in the case.
Thanks in advance.
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