building in 1 month, which chipset to choose?

[Kabobi]

I'm planning on building a Gaming/Multitasking PC in a month, but i'm unsure about which chipset to choose. I originally planned on the P35, for 45nm support. However, my current pc is a 650i, and it performs quite well. So i was wondering if the Nforce 600's support 45nm (up to the standards of P35)?

I could also use some advice on motherboards as well. There are a lot of P35 DDR2 mobos, ranging from $130 to $200+, but i fail to see any difference between them. I currently own a MSI P6N Platinum, and i'm very happy with it (i dont overclock at all), but the new Gigabyte P35 mobos look interesting as well. So please give me some advice.


One more thing, i was planning on buying a 8800 GTS 640mb, however do you recommend i buy something cheaper and wait for 9800's, or go ahead and pay an extra 100 for a 8800 GTX? After this build, i dont plan on upgrading ANYTHING for at least 2 years, so keep that in mind.

 

[Maziar]

What resolution do u play at ?
well , as i know ASUS 650 MOBO's support next gen 45nm ,
http://event.asus.com/mb/45nm/


but Your motherboard :
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodcpusupport&prod_no=1140&ma incat_no=1&cat2_no=&cat3_no=#menu

It says UNDERTESING for 45nm CPU's , so u better ask them

 

[Kabobi]

I have a 19" Sony monitor and i play at 1280x1024 70Hz.

So your saying i should go with a P35 board?

 

[Maziar]

If u play @ 1280x1024 , then SLI will be useless, but as i said aks MSI and see wether your board supports 45nm cpus or not

 

[rammedstein]

if what happend to the p35 happens to the x38, get it, it will eb out before release.

 

[Kabobi]

Btw, should i buy 2gb of DDR2 1066, or 4 gb of DDR2 800?

(Again, i dont overclock)

 

[aevm]

4 GB of DDR2-800, absolutely.

I would get the GTX. NCIX had a very nice price for the eVGA 8800 Ultra too yesterday, cheaper than some GTXs.

I would wait a month until X38 is out and reviewed, then decide between P35 or X38. I'd only recommend 650i or 680i to people who want SLI, and it's not your case. 975x and 965x are also good chipsets but I'd only recommend them for CrossFire setups, again not your case.

If X38 motherboards support DDR2 and don't cost much more than P35 motherboards then you should get X38. Otherwise P35. Unfortunately we don't know these details yet. Ask again in two or three weeks.

 

[Maziar]

4GB DDR2 800 definitely

 

[geofelt]

There is no guarantee that any motherboard will support the as yet unannounced 45nm processors. Support is likely, however on those motherboards that have already announced support. The catch is that they might deliver this support via a revision to the motherboard which will not help you if you have already bought a lower revision board. If you are looking at a month out, this situation can only become clearer. The performance of all motherboards is primarily determined by the cpu, not the chipset. If you are overclocking, then there is more of a difference, but not much. Once you know your processor, pick your motherboard based on the features you need, and your assesment of the quality of the manufacturer. Among today's choices, I would go with a P35 based board on the theory that Intel knows best what their new 45nm processors will need. If you will not upgrade for 2 years, then 45nm support is not necessary; the 32nm processors will be the new thing then. You can find P35 mobo's that will serve you well for <$100.

The 8800GTS-640 is a very good card and is bettered only by the 8800GTX. I doubt that you will find the 8800GTS limiting. If your use is gaming, then the vga card is the limiting factor, not the cpu in most cases. If you have a few extra dollars to spend, get the 8800GTX. If/or the 8800GTX becomes inadequate in the future, sell it on e-bay and but the next greatest card.

As to memory, The first task is to get enough. If you will be multitasking, then get 4gb. If you use a 64-bit OS, you will see all of it, if you use a 32-bit os, then you will only see about 3.3gb. That is still better than 2gb. The C2D processors are not very sensitive to memory speeds. Real application performance differs by only 1-4% between ddr2-556 and the fastest around unless you are overclocking. Get the cheapest 4gb of DDR2 memory from a quality manufacturer that will run on your motherboard. This will likely be 800 speed, no need to go faster.

As a side note, your monitor will look better if you can go from 70hz to 85hz. This takes both a vga monitor capable of 85hz, and a vga card capable of driving it at that rate.

---good luck---

 

[Maziar]

Its guaranteed that p35 boards will support :
http://event.asus.com/mb/45nm/
some of them are native and some need new bios , also xbitlabs has confirmed it for their P35C DS3R review :
http://xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35c-ds3r.html

 

[aevm]

The catch is that they might deliver this support via a revision to the motherboard which will not help you if you have already bought a lower revision board.

Oh crap... (Am I allowed to say crap on the forum???). As in, I buy a GA-P35-DS3R this week, after getting clear assurances that it will work with Penryn, and then it doesn't work, and they release some other hardware called GA-P35-DS3R rev 1.1, which helps me not at all because I don't have it, but still they say they told the truth and I have no reason to complain? Never thought of it that way, it's horrible

I really hope it's just a matter of updating the BIOS, otherwise this legal loophole could be abused like crazy.

 

[Kabobi]

Alright thnx for the advice.