Need Help Understanding Differences

[syclone]

This is my first time building a PC. What I need help with is understanding the differences between the 3 below. Newegg's great "compare" feature only tells a newbie so much when they don't understand everything.

I am looking to learn to overclock, so yes this will be in the future if not near future.

Lastly, I have comtimplated an EVGA board, but one difference is that they hold 12gb memory vs. Asus 24gb. I am looking to keep this system for as long as possible, so does anyone think 12gb memory will be a shortfall in the future? How long into the future?

Thank you for any feedback and advice and working with a new builder.

ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386

ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131365

Processor will be i7 920

 

[ausch30]

Look at the specs.

The V2 has 6 SATA ports while the others have 8. All 3 use different audio chips. The V2 has 8 external USB ports while the others have 6. The V2 allows for the 3 PCI-E 16x slots to be used in a 16x-8x-8x or 16x-16x-1x configuration while the others are 16x-16x-4x. They all use different network chips. Looking at the boards from above you can see that they are using different components (capacitors and such) which I'm sure vary in quality.

Currently there isn't much reason to go above 4gb but you will see slight increases with 6gb. Over that there is no performance difference. It will be many years before you will see a noticeable improvement above 12gb and by that time we may not even be using DIMMs and certainly not DDR3 or socket 1366 CPU's.

A bit off topic:
Just to avoid the issue I just answered in another post while your thinking of a DDR3 system. The JEDEC specification for DDR3 is 1.5v. DDR3 is still very new and hasn't matured so it's difficult to find it at reasonable timings at that voltage. What you should be looking for is the lowest timings you can find nearest the standard 1.5v. Low timings will provide better performance than higher speeds. People see DDR3 270,000,000 and they start getting a chubby. They don't realize though that something like this or this will perform better.

If you look at the second set I linked and then look at this. This set is actually in Mushkin's higher line of memory but requires slightly more voltage to reach the same timings (hence the reason for the rebate, they need to encourage sales to unload lesser chips). You have to be very careful when buying memory, companies will do shifty things to try and sway you to a particular product.

 

[skittle]

Does anyone think 12mb memory will be a shortfall in the future? How long into the future?

Yes. Approximately 15 years ago.

 

[syclone]

FIxed it!

 

[syclone]

ausch30...thanks for taking the time to give such good feedback.

I do look at the specs, but I am unsure what is better when I see something likfe 16x16x1 vs 16x16x4. I actually understand this particular spec, but used it as an example of how specs don't always add up when one is unsure of the meaning.

thanks again.

 

[ausch30]

It really depends on what your planning for you system. Also just as cheap PSU's use cheap components to cut costs, cheaper motherboards use cheaper components. If your planning on using a sound card then the onboard sound doesn't make a difference. If your never planning SLI or Crossfire then the PCI-E configuration really doesn't matter.