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Motherboard/Case selection for E6600, BFG 8800 GTX OC

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I'm building a new PC, currently looking to go for the Striker, but all the bad reviews and horror stories I've read are instilling quite a bit of doubt. Basically I'm wondering if most of the bugs of the Striker have been ironed out, or if its worth going for another motherboard?

I've been looking at the BFG, eVGA, and the other ASUS P5N32-E board and I really can't make up my mind.

I'm looking for a board with fairly decent overclocking, stability, SLI ability(another 8800 GTX down the road) and with some decent features(not barebones).

Other particulars for the system are:
E6600 Conroe
BFG 8800 GTX OC
OCZ 850W GameXStream PSU
2x1gb PC-8500 DDR2-1066
Antec P182

Also, I was wondering if the P182 would house all the parts comfortably, with the option of upgrading to SLI later.

Any suggestions/tips/flames will be considered and appreciated

More about : motherboard case selection e6600 bfg 8800 gtx

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I have an MSI 8800gts 640mb in an P182...
the only problem with this is that the upper HDD-rack can not be used for other than an wind tunnel... so nope, the 8800 cards wont fit into it comfortably. even if I don't see anything wrong with having my 2 HDD's in the lower rack for them. so using an 8800 in p182 means that it's turned into max 4xHDD :p 

I have all at stock, (e6600) and all temps are <40 celsius. with stock cooling, psu-fan moved up to the upper hdd place to provide cooling to the 8800...

and I have found no problems with the asus pne-sli. but then again I don't oc... on another note: zalman 9700 does fit into the p182 (didn't find any info about that when I looked into it)

*edit* o yeah, cpu cooler is zalman9700nt, so not totally stock cooling :p 

p182 is still a mid tower, so its going to get quite warm with an sli setup.

as for suggestions, just look at full tower cases.

maybe a thermaltake mozart tx :lol: 
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What about the mobo question?

I read some great reviews about MSI P6N Diamond, does anybody have any experience with that?

What about Asus, have they fixed the bugs? For example is it safe to get a P5N32-E SLI 680i now?

DDR2-1066 RAM is pretty pointless. You'll never get an overclock to match that, and it's not worth having anything other than 1:1 FSB to RAM ratio with an intel processor. Even DDR2-800 can only be stably matched by the upcoming G0 core stepping based CPU's (e.g. E6850). You may want to hold out until those new processors are out around the latter part of July - you might even be able to afford a Q6600 with the price cuts.

Quote:
What about the mobo question?

I read some great reviews about MSI P6N Diamond, does anybody have any experience with that?

What about Asus, have they fixed the bugs? For example is it safe to get a P5N32-E SLI 680i now?


ASUS has had, in my opinion, the worst Customer service out there today. Last I heard they have fixed a number of the bugs they were having but given the situation, and there customer service, I couldn't recommend them.

That being said, given ASUS history (at one time they were really good), you will always have some fanboys who are diehards that will push ASUS down everyone’s throats.

As for MSI board I can not say, I have only ever used here boards once and i really never had any problems.

With EVGA I had some questions when OCing and they were most helpful.

Yup, eVGA does great work, it's just that my favorite local shop doesn't carry their products. I'm looking for something based on 680i too and I have to choose between Asus, Gigabyte and MSI.

I also think Asus is better avoided at this point.

The Gigabyte GA-N680i-DQ6 gets great reviews from magazines but I did find some unhappy customers writing about it. Same for the MSI P6N Diamond. Anyway, the OP should get that eVGA if he can, it's cheaper too.

johnw18, why are you looking at BFG 8800 GTX OC and not BFG 8800 GTX OC2?
Just curious... I was trying to decide between these two myself and I picked OC2 just because it's overclocked a bit higher. Am I just wasting $40 here?

aevm - what's the performance difference between the GTX OC and GTX OC2?

I third the decision to avoid Asus. My friend put an Asus in his computer a year back and the build quality was pretty shoddy. The SATA ports were loose and meant that sometimes the computer wouldn't boot due to a poor connection. I can also say that their customer support is useless. I e-mailed them when I was having trouble getting the latest ADI drivers for my onboard soundcard working, and they really didn't help. I still can't play Test Drive Unlimited with sound...

Haven't seen any benchmarks. Based on the technical specs
(http://www2.bfgtech.com/bfgr88768gtxoc2e.aspx)
I expect a few percentage points more from the OC2 than the OC, but not too many. I'd say 4% based on fill rate. Considering prices (CAD$770 OC2 and $727 OC, for example), that's 6% more money for the card, or 1.5% more money for the entire PC. Of course you'll get better prices at newegg, if you're in the US :p  :p 


BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB PCIe

Performance
GPU NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Core Clock 600MHz (vs. 575MHz standard)
Shader Clock 1400MHz (vs. 1350MHz standard)
Fill Rate 38.4 billion/sec.
Stream Processors 128
Memory
Video Memory 768MB
Memory Type GDDR3
Memory Data Rate 1800MHz
Memory Bandwidth 86.4GB/sec.


BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX OC2 768MB PCIe

Performance
GPU NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Core Clock 626MHz (vs. 575MHz standard)
Shader Clock 1450MHz (vs. 1350MHz standard)
Fill Rate 40.0 billion/sec.
Stream Processors 128
Memory
Video Memory 768MB
Memory Type GDDR3
Memory Data Rate 2000MHz (vs. 1800MHz standard)
Memory Bandwidth 96GB/sec.

Edit: here's the Ultra too, less than 1% better fill rate than the OC2 :p 

BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra OC 768MB PCIe

Performance
GPU NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
Core Clock 630MHz (vs. 612MHz standard)
Shader Clock 1566MHz (vs. 1500MHz standard)
Fill Rate 40.3 billion/sec.
Stream Processors 128
Memory
Video Memory 768MB
Memory Type GDDR3
Memory Data Rate 2220MHz (vs. 2160MHz standard)
Memory Bandwidth 106.6GB/sec.


Anyway, I don't want to hijack the thread, this is really not important.

So, shall we all go with eVGA motherboards for SLI???

Quote:


So, shall we all go with eVGA motherboards for SLI???


I would have to support that, the other plus of the board is that it has two 16X slots and a third 8X (Just right for SLi in the future). Not many good boards in that price range that can say that....

For a case, how about a Lian-Li? The PC-A10 is ultra roomy, easy to fit a big graphics card in it. And it has a removable mobo tray, room for two power supplies, very good cooling, and provisions for water cooling.

Quote:
DDR2-1066 RAM is pretty pointless. You'll never get an overclock to match that, and it's not worth having anything other than 1:1 FSB to RAM ratio with an intel processor. Even DDR2-800 can only be stably matched by the upcoming G0 core stepping based CPU's (e.g. E6850). You may want to hold out until those new processors are out around the latter part of July - you might even be able to afford a Q6600 with the price cuts.


cant you run ddr2 1066 at ddr2 800 at tighter timings than what normally ddr2 800 can achieve?

I am an Asus fanboy, but EVGA is more popular then Asus when it comes to tech support and their mainboards as well as their GFX cards. Asus tech is horrible, so if you find yourself in a jam might as well fix it yourself. Asus tech support is basicly well basic at its best. If money is not important I recommend the SilverStone TJ09 for $289.- at NewEgg. Heres at look, the four picture is designed for cooling GPU's. You will also notice two more fans can be installed on the top part in back of the case.

Quote:
DDR2-1066 RAM is pretty pointless. You'll never get an overclock to match that, and it's not worth having anything other than 1:1 FSB to RAM ratio with an intel processor. Even DDR2-800 can only be stably matched by the upcoming G0 core stepping based CPU's (e.g. E6850). You may want to hold out until those new processors are out around the latter part of July - you might even be able to afford a Q6600 with the price cuts.


cant you run ddr2 1066 at ddr2 800 at tighter timings than what normally ddr2 800 can achieve?

Even at 800 speed, the RAM would be much faster than the processor (which is again pointless with Intel CPUs). I'd personally just say to get some CL4 DDR2-533 RAM. I think you can get some CL3 stuff with Crucial Ballistix, but you need to increase the voltages for that.

The Antec P182 case can be a bit tight for a SLi setup. I'd recommend the aforementioned CoolerMaster Stacker or SilverStone TJ09.

I actually scoped the TJ09 myself, it is sturdy and very nice overall. I chose the Stacker for the Overall room, the thing is a beast, and the great airflow, I have not seen a case, or read about a case, that can match the airflow in the Stacker 832. Given its size, airflow, and lastly the cost, if you go to the one link I posted it was like 220.00 with shipping, than it really is a good buy.
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