Asus Striker vs. Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R

matteo2000

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Hi all,

I am currently looking to build a new gaming pc. I've done a fair amount of research and decided to go for the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R as my motherboard. My friend is trying to persuade me that the Asus striker is better (a nvidia 680i board). Looking at the prices, the older striker board is about twice the price of the gigabyte board.

Am I right? Would the p35 gigabyte board allow me to build a better gaming rig?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Matteo
 

dswissmiss

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I'd go for the P35 if you don't want SLi.
SLi doesn't seem to make any sense unless you have some huge monitor. A single nVidia next gen gaming card will outperform todays SLi setup, so save your money and just upgrade more often.
 
If your screen resolution is huge, wait 3 weeks, then pick a motherboard based on the X38 chipset. If it's 1680x1050 or less you'll be fine with the GA-P35-DS3R.

The GA-P35C-DS3R will cost you a bit more without any real benefit, and the Striker is way overpriced.
 

Granite3

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Check support for your FSB, the striker will go over 1300 for the new e series conroe chips, if the DS3R will, that is what I would get.

And this from a 680I owner....... :sol:
 

matteo2000

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Well, I'm not a fan of SLi, I've already bought the 8800 GTX to go in this new computer and I don't really want to have to fork out for another one!

Ok, firstly, surely the P35C is a better bet than the P35 as it gives you the ability to upgrade to DDR3 in the long run?

Secondly, I'm currently running my dell 24" monitor at 1920 x 1200. Why wouldn't the GA-P35C-DS3R be good enough for this?

Thirdly, what's so special about x38? Support for the new penryn cores? Would be nice, but not sure I want to wait. This board has 1333 fsb and ddr3 support, so it seems a good half way house. Plus, I'm looking to put a quad core cpu in, something like the q6600?

Thanks again
Matteo
 

ravx

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Well the rumor is that the x38 will have support for the new cores PLUS SLI/Crossfire capability amongst other things like PCIe 2.0 etc.... So you are in essense getting the best of both worlds since it has the SLI/Crossfire capability that the P35 doesn't.

Downsides? Well you can bet its going to be expensive and from what I have read they are only going to support DDR3 which means more expensive RAM as well.

I am kind of in the same situation - I've been looking at i650 boards and the same P35C you mention above. I think I am going to sit on things until the x38 comes out and see where it falls in respect to everything else out. If anything it might drive the P35 boards down a bit.

I would have to think a GTX card would drive the 2407WPF just fine at 1900x1200, but I think what they are saying is that you would realize the benefits of SLI more with a bigger monitor/resolution
 

skyline0511

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Yeah get the GA-P35C-DS3R. SLi would be a waste of money as a single 8800GTX is enough for current and upcoming games at widescreen 1920 x 1200 resolution. The main advantage of x38 is support for dual x16 PCIe electrical and PCIe 2.0 which you won't be needing.
 
Well it depends , i always say get SLI if u play @ 1920x1200 resolution or higher , but a single 8800GTX is good for that resolution , it depends on u , but here are some facts :

1_If u get P35C , u will have both DDR2 , DDR3 , Next gen 45nm CPU support(Penryn)
2_If u get SLI , u will have only DDR2 , Next gen 45nm CPU support , but SLI has some issues too ,

overall i say get P35C
 
Well, if you've already got the video card and you don't want SLI then go for the P35 or P35C. X38 was interesting because of SLI and PCI-E 2.

Between P35 and P35C: I got the P35C myself, but I don't really expect to ever use it with DDR3. By the time my 4 GB of DDR2-800 aren't enough I expect there will be better LGA775 motherboards out there, or I'll want a Nehalem-based CPU (which will not work on LGA775). I just couldn't find the P35 where I live.
 

matteo2000

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Yeah, I think I will go with the P35 or P35C.

Has anyone had any problems with the relative lack of features? I.e. overclocking tools, etc...? Do you guys recommend some special cooling as it doesn't have the heat pipes of the striker?

Thanks
Matteo
 
Read this:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35c-ds3r.html

If you intend to do some major overclocking you may be better off with an Asus P5K (or P5KC, if DDR3 interests you). The Gigabyte has some advantages over Asus, which convinced me to buy it, but apparently the Asus overclocks better. That's what I get from the review, I haven't tried an Asus P35 myself. Either way, get something based on P35, not the Striker.

Apparently the Gigabyte doesn't need the heat pipes because it has higher quality components and it consumes less and it doesn't get hot. I loved that part :)
 

fausto

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Has anyone out there tried DDR3 ram on this board? how is it working?
any improvement over DDR2 800 that you notice?
they have a sale right now at FRY's and I am trying to decide if i should get 4gigs of 2x2gb DDR2 1066 ram (Cas 5) or 4 gigs of 2x2gb DDR3 1333 ram(cas 9), they selling both kits for the same price.

 
I use mine with DDR2-800. Haven't tried DDR3 on it. I did some research about it and decided it wasn't worth it. Reviews showed negligible improvements with DDR3. Mind you, that was a year ago when DDR3 was a lot more expensive. If they are the same price, go with DDR3.