Abit IP35 PRo vs Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 vs wait for x38?

C

CoMPiLeR

n00b
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
18
Hi,

am building new pc and need help deciding between the mentioned two boards.
i excluded the Asus P5K series because they overheat a lot...or thats what i read!

anyway i am not extreme gamer nor o'clocker ... might use little o'clocking... more of media user and programming n web development thats it.
thinking of E6750 to go with it n 1066 DDR2 RAM...or can i overclock 800 DDR2 RAM to 1066? (don't know am new to this).

any suggestion for over boards are welcome :)

thanx
 
nevermind. seeing the string of posts by this guy, i'm not going to take the bait.

hard to go wrong with either of those boards.. i wouldnt wait for a X38, just because preliminary results didn't show much improvement over the p35
 
-MikeHawk- said:
DO NOT BUY ANY A-BIT P35 CHIPSET

they don't work ...
Click to expand...

what do u mean they dont work!!?


FanZ: i didnt get ur point :S!?

DaNotoriousDOM: thaanx..but is there a reason for choosing this specific gigabyte model besides supporting DDR3?
 
CoMPiLeR said:
what do u mean they dont work!!?


FanZ: i didnt get ur point :S!?

DaNotoriousDOM: thaanx..but is there a reason for choosing this specific gigabyte model besides supporting DDR3?
Click to expand...

How did that C get in there. I meant GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R. :cool:

When I was doing my research I came to these 2 boards. I don't think you can go wrong with either. Both have solid caps. Plenty of people are happy with each. I'm biased towards Abit because I have 2 NF7-S boards running now for 7 years each. I want to try their uGuru BIOS.

The only difference I noticed is that the Abit has an additional 8 pin power connector where as the Gigabyte has a 4 pin. I have no idea what the difference is or if it matters.
 
CoMPiLeR said:
anyway i am not extreme gamer nor o'clocker ... might use little o'clocking... more of media user and programming n web development thats it.

thinking of E6750 to go with it n 1066 DDR2 RAM...or can i overclock 800 DDR2 RAM to 1066? (don't know am new to this).
Click to expand...

You don't need either of those boards if you're not OC'ing. Stick with the IP35 vanilla or GA-P35-DS3L or DS3R instead. Even if you were OC'ing, these boards would still be good enough. I have the DS3R and it OC's my E6750 to 3.8Ghz with a Tuniq Tower and DDR2-800 RAM. Chipsets only run hot when OC'ing, hence the elaborate heatpipe chipset coolers on higher end boards (for better OC'ing). If you want to stick to high end, you cant go wrong with either board.

Formulas for Intel platform @ 1:1 settings: (base FSB speed is SDR, or single data rate)
(CPU Multiplier) x [Base FSB speed] = CPU Clock speed
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed (DDR: double data rate)
4 x [Base FSB speed] = Effective FSB speed (QDR: quad data rate)

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is, for the most part, useless. All you need is a 1:1 config. Here's some possible clock speeds (as always with OC'ing, YMMV):

E6750: 8 × 333 = 2.6Ghz, DDR2-667 << STOCK speeds
E6750: 8 × 400 = 3.2Ghz, DDR2-800 << Easy OC
E6750: 8 × 450 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-900 << Good OC
E6750: 8 × 500 = 4.0Ghz, DDR2-1000 << Great OC

You won't notice a difference between CL4 and CL5, unless you're running benchmarks, so don't pay a huge price premium for lower latency.

For an E6750, I recommend Ballistix, because they can reach DDR2-1066 speeds if you want to hit that HIGH OC... if you're not OC'ing, they're still good, but you can get by with cheaper pre-rebate RAM:

$110 - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 BL2KIT12864AA804 ($47MIR)
$65 - G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$63 - A-DATA 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 ADQVE1A16K ($10MIR)
 
enginurd said:
You don't need either of those boards if you're not OC'ing. Stick with the IP35 vanilla or GA-P35-DS3L or DS3R instead. Even if you were OC'ing, these boards would still be good enough. I have the DS3R and it OC's my E6750 to 3.8Ghz with a Tuniq Tower and DDR2-800 RAM. Chipsets only run hot when OC'ing, hence the elaborate heatpipe chipset coolers on higher end boards (for better OC'ing). If you want to stick to high end, you cant go wrong with either board.

Formulas for Intel platform @ 1:1 settings: (base FSB speed is SDR, or single data rate)
(CPU Multiplier) x [Base FSB speed] = CPU Clock speed
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed (DDR: double data rate)
4 x [Base FSB speed] = Effective FSB speed (QDR: quad data rate)

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is, for the most part, useless. All you need is a 1:1 config. Here's some possible clock speeds (as always with OC'ing, YMMV):

E6750: 8 × 333 = 2.6Ghz, DDR2-667 << STOCK speeds
E6750: 8 × 400 = 3.2Ghz, DDR2-800 << Easy OC
E6750: 8 × 450 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-900 << Good OC
E6750: 8 × 500 = 4.0Ghz, DDR2-1000 << Great OC

You won't notice a difference between CL4 and CL5, unless you're running benchmarks, so don't pay a huge price premium for lower latency.

For an E6750, I recommend Ballistix, because they can reach DDR2-1066 speeds if you want to hit that HIGH OC... if you're not OC'ing, they're still good, but you can get by with cheaper pre-rebate RAM:

$110 - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 BL2KIT12864AA804 ($47MIR)
$65 - G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$63 - A-DATA 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 ADQVE1A16K ($10MIR)
Click to expand...

+1 very wise advice.


and even the boards enginurd listed will OC very well (he mentions that but not sure it got sufficient attention). That 8 x 400 is a very nice "sweet spot" as PC6400 (800MHz) ram is running right on spec with no OC on the memory and a easy OC on the cpu and allows sync memory timings. Dont worry if you dont get all that, just saying, like Enginurd is, any decent enthusiast board with PC6400 memory, even 5 5 5 15 timings should be able to do 8 x 400 = 3.2GHz cpu and 800MHz memory speed and run like a scalded cat with minor or no stress on the system. All you need is some decent heatsink for the CPU and it might even do 3.2 on stock heatsink but run a bit hotter than I would like.

to add to the above, ignore the X38's unless you wish to go through a couple of months of bios updates and take the chance you get a board that has unfixable flaws due to the rush to manufacture and get to market. The performance increase is not worth the price premium and the only impact to you an X38 would have is to make the P35's maybe drop in price a bit after the X38 release on the 11th

The only difference between the DS3 and the DS4 is the second bios chip on the DS4 to recover you should you bork the primary bios. These boards are mature and have stable bioses so I do not even seeing you needing to update the bios and so it is almost a moot point (spend $12 and get a floppy for installing raid driver and doing bios update and the bios bork chances drop to almost 0) and I wonder if that second bios chip is worth the price difference. There might be a difference in the onboard audio an you would need to check that if you have $500 speakers hooked up or some special need for audio processing, otherwise you would never hear the difference.
 
-MikeHawk- said:
DO NOT BUY ANY A-BIT P35 CHIPSET

they don't work ...
Click to expand...

Almost had orange juice coming out the noise on that one. :D

Edit: Holy crap. Definitely look at this guys other posts. He's like the Abit and P35 Antichrist. Almost every post is "Don't buy Abit (And or the P35 Chipset)". Almost always in caps too. ;)
 
CoMPiLeR said:
Hi,

am building new pc and need help deciding between the mentioned two boards.
i excluded the Asus P5K series because they overheat a lot...or thats what i read!

anyway i am not extreme gamer nor o'clocker ... might use little o'clocking... more of media user and programming n web development thats it.
thinking of E6750 to go with it n 1066 DDR2 RAM...or can i overclock 800 DDR2 RAM to 1066? (don't know am new to this).

any suggestion for over boards are welcome :)

thanx
Click to expand...



Of the three you have listed,I would jump on the Abit.GL !
 
osirus35 said:
isnt x48 coming out soon? Maybe i read some bs article
Click to expand...

I too have seen speculation that the X48 will be here first of next year and perhaps even earlier. This chip set is supposed to have native support for 400MHz buss (in Intel CPU speak a 1600MHz buss) and be ONLY DDR3. Google "X48 chipset" for all the latest gossip. Somehow I think that unless Intel cripples the DDR2 support or even deletes the hardware from the silicon, the manuf will offer DDR2 versions, DDR3 is just still to pricey for most, me for sure.
 
I am using a Abit P35 pro with Q6600. It is rock solid. OC to 3.0GHz with only Vcore adjust to 1.265v. Very stable and solid.
 
thaanx alot guys for ur help..
i think i will go with one of the gigabyte's because i like their ultra durable thing...
i will give u specs as soon as i finish :p
special thanx to enginurd for ur post..although i dont understand much of it...but thanx for ur effort
 
CoMPiLeR said:
thaanx alot guys for ur help..
i think i will go with one of the gigabyte's because i like their ultra durable thing...
i will give u specs as soon as i finish :p
special thanx to enginurd for ur post..although i dont understand much of it...but thanx for ur effort
Click to expand...

What ultra durable thing? You mean the solid capacitor stuff?

The Abit IP35 Pro I have has that stuff too, and I assume the IP35 and IP35-E both sport the same thing. I love my Abit IP35-P, after that initial memory trouble I had since I finally realized that my Firestix RAM's SPD had CL3 timings programmed in, but of course, the IP35 I had did not support CL3 timings until I updated the BIOS.

Either way, enginurd's advice is great, you don't need the high end boards if you don't need extreme OCing. I also run the Ballistix RAM he links to, since I couldn't pass up the hot final price (after rebate).
 
enginurd said:
any questions?
Click to expand...

ur saying that no need to pay much for high-end memory?
i mean i was thinking of 1066 DDR2 but from ur post n what i read online..paying more money for better CPU rather than faster memory will get u better performance!?

so i take 4GB DDR2-PC800 with CL5 rather than spending the same amount of money on 2GB DDR2-PC1066 is better?

i think the E6750 is enough thats why am thinking of 4gb memory!

also will 10,000 RPM HDD for the OS give me a noticeable diff. in my performance over 7,200 RPM?
 
CoMPiLeR said:
ur saying that no need to pay much for high-end memory?
i mean i was thinking of 1066 DDR2 but from ur post n what i read online..paying more money for better CPU rather than faster memory will get u better performance!?

so i take 4GB DDR2-PC800 with CL5 rather than spending the same amount of money on 2GB DDR2-PC1066 is better?
Click to expand...

There's no need for DDR2-1066 PC2-8500 RAM at all. At stock speeds/settings, a 1066Mhz FSB QDR CPU will only need DDR2-533 RAM; 1333Mhz FSB QDR CPU will only need DDR2-667 RAM.

The E6750 CPU you chose runs with an FSB of 1333Mhz QDR (Quad data rate; multiply the base rate times 4).

Since the FSB is 1333Mhz, the base rate is 1333/4 = 333Mhz. That means the RAM would be running at 2 x 333 = DDR2-667.

If you want to run the CPU at stock speed, but overclock the RAM only, you will not notice any performance gains -- thats just how the Intel platform performs.

At stock settings:
8 x 333 = 2.66Ghz CPU Clock speed
2 x 333 = DDR2-667 RAM speed
4 x 333 = 1333Mhz Effective FSB speed

So, there's no point in buying faster RAM unless you plan to OC. Even if you plan to OC, the Ballistix I linked to can reach DDR2-1066 speeds for much less money. They use the same ICs as the DDR2-1066 ballistix.

CoMPiLeR said:
also will 10,000 RPM HDD for the OS give me a noticeable diff. in my performance over 7,200 RPM?
Click to expand...

Slightly. If you can wait a few seconds for windows/game levels to load, don't bother spending the extra money on a Raptor.
 
I'll add this...

I really miss my raptor. I intend on getting another one ASAP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top