QX9650 vs i7 CHOICES - OC - MOTHERBOARD - STABILITY - RECOMENDATION

Hi all

3Danimator(chop socky chooks, Ultra Sheen) and Avid Gamer (workstation / gaming rig)

Have a QX9650 proc given to me

Now I need a Motherboard What one? leaning towards a HIGH end ASUS (RECOMEND? striker II or Asus P5E3 WS Professional or a Asus P5E64 WS) or something 790i

I want Stability and some degree of Overclockability (On Zalman 9700 - AIR) later maybe H20 cooled

VID CARD a 9800 GX2 will be going into it(heat may be an issue)


P48 X48 X58 or I790 chip sets. RECOMEND?


Thank you all So much for your positive input!

Thank you, these are great recommendations as well as new things to consider.

So the 790i chipset is out? no real advantage stick with a X48 or P48 is what I am hearing?(best for future usage? expansion)


I guess all those boards provide a STABLE OVERCLOCK of the QX9650 so it may be a moot point what I choose, correct?

Working on TV shows with Maya or Houdini/edit AEffects, combustion just want to be able to render a BIG scene and have it chewed up quickly in a healthy stable overclock. Ram under Linux i should be able to see 8 gigs+ YES? or? NO. DUAL boot , for the windows side of things VISTA 64bit? will it hinder any of my 32 bit applications? Any Motherboards to avoid on the route?

what about this monster? or stick to a premium

Will be using NVIDIA CARD with this better choice? want SLI not CROSSFIRE

Asus P5E64 WS Evolution Socket 775 Intel P48 ICH9R Chipset Dual-Channel DDR2 1800(O.C.)/11600(O.C.)/1333/1066Mhz 4x PCIe x16 eSATA / 6x SATA 3.0Gb/s 8CH HD Audio Dual GigaLAN 12x USB 2.0 ATX



Ram recommendations?

No, the X58 motherboard is out. The 790i will work and is required if you want to go with SLI. On the other hand, if your monitor is 1600x1200 or smaller, a single card should fill the bill, especially if you're using a 9800 GX2.

I personally choose the ASUS Rampage Formula X48 mobo for its ease of overclocking and features for my QX9650. Yes, I do think there is an advantage with the X48 chipset, but it depends a bit on how far into overclocking that you intend to go. You imply that it might make much difference which motherboard is used, but I would disagree. If you plan to use the QX9650 to its limits, the motherboard can make a great deal of difference. On the other hand, if you'll be satisfied with 3.6ghz or so, then almost any quality motherboard should do.

Any 64 bit OS, Linux or Windows, will let you see 8 gig of ram. Some people like dual booting, others don't I tried a dual boot setup years ago and found that I spent 90+ percent of my time on only one OS and no advantage when I did use the second OS, so I never did it again. I do see it as a possible advantage if you have a lot of software and/or hardware that will use only 32 bit software, while you want to slowly migrate to a 64 bit OS and associated software/hardware.

As to the heatsink you have, a Zalman 9700, it was a good heatsink a few years ago but its time has come and gone. While its better than a stock heatsink, there are many heatsinks that are far better and don't cost much money. I use a TRUE and run 3.84ghz stable with 8 gig of ram. With 4 gig or ram, some people have achieved up to 4.2ghz speed.

oh yeah best ram for OC'ing with that rampage and QX9650

free qx9650? dang

its an unlocked multi so give it 8gb (give it a bit more v's) and raise that multi!

avoid nvidia chipsets - rubbish, nothing next to a P45/X48

was Told the I7 was not that much faster on any front.


i7 not faster than Qx9650

Are there benchmarks for MAYA MAX HOUDINI seen some vague things but nothing concrete. seems to go back to the old MHZ rating almost a 3.8 will out do a 2.4 no matter what the processor unless they are generations apart (pentium 4 - i7 is a far enough gap) but QX - i7 aint.

No proof the I7 is faster in rendering or practical manipulation of the packages interface.

Seems the Nehalem i7 was touted as a fast chip but just ends upbing a good processor not a paradigm shift for speed.

If you get the Formula Rampage, which I use, then DDR2 ram would be used. I use 8 gig of OCZ DDR2-800 ram and have it at 2.1v and running 920mhz, though it can be taken as high as 1066mhz. Anandtech had a good article on this board here: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3208 with some talk about ram here: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdo [...] i=3208&p=4

Specific brands that I've used with success are OCZ, Corsair, and Mushkin. There are other good brands as well. I decided to save some money and get DDR2-800 and clock it higher, as much of the DDR2-1066 is just factory overclocked DDR2-800 anyway.

As Wusy said, if you go to the the DDR3 Maximus Extreme board, the best ram package would probably be DDR3-1066/1333 in a 2x2 gig package, or if you want, a 4x2 package. I don't think the brand of ram matters as much as that its a high quality ram.

smoke may if you call 5% speeds gain only in some areas smoke and the i7 falls behind in other practical areas. Please don't say it beats it on all fronts, that is very wrong.

whoopeee what does this junk mean I mean honestly, 5 more FPS in some game or what? love to see a practical applications test.


http://www.passmark.com/baselines/top.html

Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz 5402 6
Intel Core i7 940 @ 2.93GHz 6062 4
Intel Core i7 965 @ 3.20GHz 6703 2

Intel Core2 Extreme X9650 @ 3.00GHz 4357 18
Intel Core2 Extreme X9750 @ 3.16GHz 4359 17
Intel Core2 Extreme X9770 @ 3.20GHz 4874 10

what 20% faster, what about long term stability? still i feel we will fall prey to i7 hype?

Better still X58 is unstable over the long haul overclocking.