Need a good @ MOBO for Q9450/E8500

[Zer0Cool]

Hello,

I’m currently in progress of choosing parts for my ultimate build. After doing lots of research about ddr2 and ddr3 memory I think I decided to go for DD2 because its cheep and some fast current ddr2 can beat ddr3. So that sad I need ur help please in choosing a good MOBO. I will be overclocking all of my components & I DON’T need an sli/crossfire mobo, I will only be using single card, like 9800GTX, 8800 GTS or maybe the GX2.

The board MUST have at least 3 PCI slots for 2 of my sound cards and 1 PCI gaming card, and also needs to be compatible with Q9450 & E8500. The board must also be a good overclocker (I guess high FSB?). I don’t care about the price! Also guys what are ur thoughts about the PCI 2.0 do I need it for the vid cards that I listed above? I wasn’t able to find a mobo with PCI 2.0 and 3 PCI slots. If possible I would like to have it.

I also was told that if I will be doing a high @ on my pc, I would need a good RAM. I want 4gb of it (Crysis u know), something FAST! Again money is not an issue (be reasonable plz) I guess I can spend as much as $400 on RAM.

Here are my specs:

CASE: COOLER MASTER COSMOS S 1100 ATX Full Tower Computer Case.
MOBO: ???
RAM: ???
VidCard: 9800 GX2, 9800 GTX or 8800 GTS (don’t know et)
CPU: Q9450 or E8500 (Haven’t decided et)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (X2 raid 0)
OS: Vista 64 bit Ultimate/Win Xp 32 (Dual Boot)
……etc

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you

 

[boonality]

motherboard - GA-X38-DQ6 or some X48 board, or 790i
Memory - Corsair DDR2 1066 (you'll want 8GB if you are willing to spend up to $400)

A note on the HDD, don't do RAID unless you plan to do large file transfers or like video editing or something, you won't see a performance increase. Instead you can use the 2 physical drives as 2 separate drives, one with Vista x64 and one with XP.

 

[Zer0Cool]

The 790i & GA-X38-DQ6 Don’t have 3 PCI clots, however the X48 does, I just checked. Thank you.

What u mean no performance increase? Its not crazy increase, but its there. I cant have my HDD bottleneck my PC, and Raptors are 2 loud 4 me (at least I think they will be) So raid 0 with .11 is the next best thing.

 

[boonality]

How is your HDD going to bottle neck your system? With Random I/O (mostly what happens in games apart maps loading) there is no performance gain whatsoever for RAID 0. RAID 0 doubles your write performance for large files and can increase read performance but it certainly isn't doubled. And for Random I/O there is no change in performance, in fact it benches a little slower but you'll never notice that.

 

[San Pedro]

You're right raptors are LOUD.

 

[Zer0Cool]

I will leave the HDD questions for another post, i still need to decided with this MOBO, its so hard!!!

I thought I found a good one, but after taking a clouser look maybe not, here is the link to the mobo i was thinking about: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136046&Tpk=DFI%2bx48

1st question, It has a standard memory of 800, what exacrtly does it mean? Does it mean I cant use more then 800 DDR2 ram? What If I want to use 1066+ RAM? Also can someone explain to me the what does PCI 2.0 does? How much of a performance increase will I get from usign it? lats say if I use 9800GTX card. This current model is T2R, anyone know when T3R coming out? T3R is DDR3 MOBO

Thanks

 

[DXRick]

I saw in another post that a Gigabyte X38 board will not boot with a Q9450 without a bios update. You would have to boot with another processor to flash to the latest bios that would support the latest quads. Be sure the mobo you get comes with the latest bios or have a supported processor handy so you can update it.

 

[cookin]

The Gigabyte bios recognizing the Q9450 was dated February 27. Anything produced after that date should have the newest bios and post with the Q9450. A board before that date would probably require a bios flash.

 

[xcskiier23]

Ok, so the 790i CAN support 3 PCI x16. AND DDR3 AND your Q940, so if you really want 3x16 PCI go for that! I use the 680i and I love the OC ability! those new penryn cores can OC like crazy!

PCI 2.0 has a slight increase over PCI 1.1, but allows for much higher data transfer, but no card can take advantage of it.

I might get the Cosmos S myself, looks pretty kick ass!

 

[mothhive]

Ok, so the 790i CAN support 3 PCI x16. AND DDR3 AND your Q940, so if you really want 3x16 PCI go for that!

I may be wrong, but from his original post it looks like he wants 3x PCI slots (not PCI express) as he has 2 souncards and a gaming card of some kind and doesn't want multiple graphics cards. Don't think any 790i's actually have that many PCI slots anyway, but I wouldn't think the cost would be worth it if they did if you weren't planning on using SLi.