GA-8INXP Granite Bay Motherboard

[sabre2]

Ive read about the granite bay dual DDR motherboards and ive been wondering... Im thinking about getting myself something new for the new years and im deciding to build a new system. Ive seen the Gigabyte motherboard in a recent review about intels granite chipset.

Im all excited about this board, im hopeing someone can shed some light and make me change my mind or tell me if this is going to be a great idea. Its rather pricey so far only one vendor has it on pricewatch and its Royale Computers or something like that... total the board should be close to 235$ with shipping.

Should i invest my money into something better?

Help me make my mind please =)

Alain Desjardins

 

[halkebul]

For sake of performance and potential performance (upgradability) I wouldn't choose anything other than the Gigabyte 8INXP - praised for innovation (<A HREF="http://tw.giga-byte.com/products/6dual_miracle/6dual_miracle.htm" target="_new">6 Dual-Miracle</A>). Officially it supports up to Dual-Channel DDR266 but don't be fooled by that. It's quite capable of Dual-Channel DDR400 and 800MHz QDR FSB - important for a probable 800MHz QDR FSB processor upgrade. It costs a lot but the motherboard is the centerpiece of your entire system - not wise to try to shave dollars off in this area.

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[sabre2]

Now, there anyone out there that DONT praise the GA-8INXP or the granite bay chipset at all? Im trying to get views from both sides here. I dont want to make this purchase without proper research.

Thanks

Alain Desjardins

 

[halkebul]

Very well then. Anyone else want to chime in?

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[neilm]

What has this board got that the rest have not (apart from dual-ddr and hyperthreading support), can't get hyperthreaded CPU has it is too expensive, but I can definitely get dual-ddr.. just what else is there that makes this board so special?

 

[sabre2]

From what ive seen, it has alot of features to be looked at. Some that interest me is the AGP8X, Dual DDR, Raid controller, Dual Power system, and the HT Technology. Im thinking right now of getting it with a 2.53ghz processor and later on when the HT 3.06 processor goes down in price i will upgrade to that.

As far as im concerned thats all im interested in right now. And i see Royal Computers selling the 8INXP for 232$ and im going to preorder it though its ETA is 12/31

Alain Desjardins

 

[neilm]

But agp8x is useless, HT is useless for me atm, and no idea what dual power is, the only good thing is the dual-ddr.. so is it really worth getting for one feature among the rest (excluding GB boards)?

 

[hamoncules]

My understanding from what I have read is that the 8INXP is a very good investment.
The reason is that it has teh ability to scale up to future processors. You could infact install a processor with a 800 MHz FSB into this board and simply make the necessary changes to your bios and it should work fine. This is also true for DDR ram above 2100. Although it is not officially supported you could hypothetically put in 2 400 MHz sticks and have then run in dual to run in sync witha 800 MHz processor. All of this is dependent on making the changes in the bios but people have actually done this when reviewign the board.
I am no GuRu though so this is all just what I have read.

 

[cagemusic]

This is exactly what halkebul has been telling everyone all along. Looks like a good investment if you can afford it. Asus version also looks good.

I am assuming they will still produce single channel boards, because dual channel will represent the high end user. Am I wrong to assume this?

 

[hamoncules]

I would guess that dual channel will become the norm. There is nothing to prevent you from putting a single stick of ram in the system you will simply not get the performance increase from have them in pairs.