Does this chipset offer any real benefits over the p35's?

hi crazymage,

The only difference I heard was that the memory timing are slightly better than P35, there's and improved bios suite and X38 can take PCI-E 2.0 and that it runs crossfire well.

So it may overclock a bit better than P35 but not hugely. Try typing X38 vs P35 into google and you'll get a few other discussions.

hope this helps

I've tracked down a few discussions and it seems that it will come down to whether or not the X38's end up supporting 1600mhz fsb, is that correct?

NO

The X38 doesn't "officially" support a 1600MHz FSB but it can. Just like the P35 doesn't officially support a 1333MHz FSB but it can.

Actually P35 "officially" supports 1333Mhz FSB.

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/P35/index.htm

But yes, as you said, both X38 and P35 should run 1600Mhz FSB fine.

@ OP:

The question really depends on, whether you're thinking of running Xfire or not. Due to its PCI E's limitations, P35 is not an ideal board for Xfire. Other than that, both chipsets should be nearly identical.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh i see now

dual 16x thats it

The X38 has a lot of memory timing adjustments that blows the mind, mine included.

Well I've ordered an EVGA 8800GT already (just sitting here as I wait till Christmas to open it ) and my original plan was to step up to the 9000 series if it releases in my 90 day window. But I've been reading a couple of promising things about Xfire, so hopefully it matures enough for me to want to utilize the dual 16x lines

If you are going to do a Penryn build, wait until its officially announced.

Intel is supposed to have P45 and X45 boards with official 1600FSB support.
My guess is these will OC the Penryn the best.

And require DDR3

DDR3 is simply too expensive, yet provide too little benefit at the moment.

There is some news of a G92 based duel GPU graphics card that maybe released on Feb 13th 2008. So if it does come true you'll be able to step-up no problem.


By systemlord at 2007-12-24