Opinons on my soon to be build?

[dbrimberg]

Not all the parts are purchased yet, but I will indicate which ones were and which aren't. I'm torn between the E8400 and E3100 so whichever is cheapest at the time of my purchase will be the winning, unless someone has reason to believe one is better than the other. So what do you think, any recommendations on substituting something on my list that *isn't already purchased?*

* = Indicates purchased already

EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

XFX PVT88GYDD4 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Alpha Dog Edition

Intel Xeon E3110 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E3110 - Retail

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF

ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail

* Antec Nine Hundred Case
* Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 (I know I know, not that much space...reality is I have a
80GB drive on my old machine and still have 17GB left).
* Corsair CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply
* Samsung Black SH-S203N 20X SATA DVD+RW/-RW LightScribe DVD Recordable Drive

 

[dagger]

Depend on if you want to oc, consider 780i motherboard if you need sli, p35 or x38 if you don't. Both 780i and p35 can reliably oc 9x multiplier cpu to 3.6ghz. X38 can oc it as far as the cpu can take.

Otherwise good as is.

 

[dbrimberg]

Is there something that NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI board won't do that p35, 780i and X38 won't do? I was under the impression this board is new and was made for overclocking?

 

[dagger]

Is there something that NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI board won't do that p35, 780i and X38 won't do? I was under the impression this board is new and was made for overclocking?

It is definately not "made for overclocking." Other than that, it's fine. Older 600s Nvidia chipset boards have problems with ram and is known as the "ram killers." 700s are fine though. 780i/p35 runs at 1333mhz fsb natively, and oc reliably to 1600mhz. 750i runs at the same 1333mhz fsb natively, but don't oc as well. x38/48 runs at 1600mhz fsb natively, and oc reliably to 2000mhz. 1600mhz fsb = 3.6ghz for e8400. If you're only doing that amount of oc or lesser, 750i or 780i are fine.

 

[dbrimberg]

Anyone else got an opinion?

 

[dagger]

Anyone else got an opinion?

Chipset capacities are hard specs, there's just nothing else to add there.

Why don't you decide on a chipset, and ask people which brand of board with that chipset perform the best. Those are a matter of opinion.

 

[dbrimberg]

I want to stick to ddr2 ram, which rules out 790i's for the most part. So 750i and 780i's are what I am aiming at. I want to buy the E8500 for my system, if it becomes available in the next month. If not the E8400/E3110 will be my final decision. I read a review comparing the 750i FTW to the EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 780i and there seemed to be very little differences between the two. Ugh new egg just raised the 750i price today by $10 lol...so the 780i is $60 more in price. If it's worth that for the additional features it has then I am sold.

Here is the 750i review with overclocking the Q6600 with easy and stability. http://www.guru3d.com/article/mainboard/525/2

 

[uguv]

Why buy an nvidia board if you're only running 1 video card? Intel chipsets generally overclock better and don't cost as much. Go with P35 or X38 if you don't need SLI.

 

[dbrimberg]

I had planned to go SLi in the future, but yanno what...I probably will never need it. One 3780X2 is fair priced and would be an idea 1 card solution. There are a lot of choices, I even see a X48 Asus board in my under $300 range.

So hands down what are the top 3 X38 boards?

 

[uguv]

I don't have an X38 board myself, but from what I hear the Asus Maximus Formula is the most popular X38 board out there.

For P35 I've had good luck with Asus P5K Deluxe, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R, and DFI LANPARTY DK P35-T2RS.

Edit: Since you mention NVidia in the first post and ATI in the one just above this I want to make sure you know you can run the NVidia cards fine in P35 or x38 chipsets; you just can't run 2 of them in SLI. P35 (somewhat) and X38 support ATI Crossfire so you can run multiple ATI cards with the Intel chipsets, though most P35 boards only allow for a single card.

 

[dbrimberg]

I understand SLI and Nvidia.

 

[dagger]

Here's the X38 board I used. Q6600 oc prime95 stable at up to 4ghz, chipset voltage at stock, didn't test any further. $207
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128089

Crossfire is the same as sli, except doesn't have to be the exact same model. Also, there is quad crossfire, and currently only tri sli.