Do I really need X38?

D

DaCoOlNeSs

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
1,474
Hey there everyone.

I have been seriously considering upgrading my computer as of late. Even though it is very fast for what I want, I am always wanting more more more. So I am looking into investing in a quad core, but I really have no reason to wait for one other than to get stupid MHz out of an OC. I am perfectly content with having a "last gen" processor, as long as it is fast. Do I really need to wait for the new quad cores? should I just go and buy a G0 Q6600 and be happy along with a P35 mobo?
 
You all ready have a good PC, the E4300 is no slouch. I'd just stick with that and maybe upgrade to a Q6600 later.
 
why?

is you system slow
is it not performing how you want?

dont bother, spend your money on something else.
 
I recently returned my P5K Deluxe for a Maximus Formula SE, as it appears to be more OC stable when dealing with 4GB of ram. My P5K OCed my q660 pretty good, but i had been hearing about the x38 for quite some time which is what I really wanted. P35 is a solid chipset, but if you want all the bells and whistles Id recommend the asus x38. Some people always are satisfied when their systems do what its suppose to but if your like me, playing with the latest hardware and having more cores than you know what to do with is what makes it all fun.

On a side note, I say to go for a Q6600 as upcoming games are going to make good use of them.
 
DaCoOlNeSs said:
Hey there everyone.

I have been seriously considering upgrading my computer as of late. Even though it is very fast for what I want, I am always wanting more more more. So I am looking into investing in a quad core, but I really have no reason to wait for one other than to get stupid MHz out of an OC. I am perfectly content with having a "last gen" processor, as long as it is fast. Do I really need to wait for the new quad cores? should I just go and buy a G0 Q6600 and be happy along with a P35 mobo?
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so when you throw out that pc can you send me your DQ6??? :D LOL
 
FIGHT THE URGE!!!

:D Your 965 is probably, what, 2-3% slower in some benchmarks compared to x38? Fuggedaboutit!

go to a strip club or something, lol. I kid, sort of.
 
Do you need 2x PCI-E 2.0 both at 16x and guaranteed FSB up to 1600MHz? I don't need them but I want them and since I needed a new mobo anyway, I just buy the X38 :D Fight the urge but I'm sure that you will have a second thought if you decide to skip the X38 later :p
 
DaCoOlNeSs said:
Hey there everyone.

I have been seriously considering upgrading my computer as of late. Even though it is very fast for what I want, I am always wanting more more more. So I am looking into investing in a quad core, but I really have no reason to wait for one other than to get stupid MHz out of an OC. I am perfectly content with having a "last gen" processor, as long as it is fast. Do I really need to wait for the new quad cores? should I just go and buy a G0 Q6600 and be happy along with a P35 mobo?
Click to expand...

Whack a Q6600 Go Stepping in that baby and overclock the bejesus out of it - you'll be good to go for Crysis, Alan Wake...etc
 
It's aways a good idea to buy things you do not need because of some internal imbalance that equates shopping as a direct reward for an action.

If ya need retail therapy, rock out a new rig!
 
hehe, well I probably should wait, but I am an upgrade whore :( whenever I see something new come out its OMG I want!!! but I resist until after a week or so and decide if I really do. spontaneous purchases don't help out my high school student wallet very much at all.

Well that raises the question now of 4GB of RAM or a quad core? (btw I am running vista, which doesn't help the RAM situation)
 
DaCoOlNeSs said:
hehe, well I probably should wait, but I am an upgrade whore :( whenever I see something new come out its OMG I want!!! but I resist until after a week or so and decide if I really do. spontaneous purchases don't help out my high school student wallet very much at all.

Well that raises the question now of 4GB of RAM or a quad core? (btw I am running vista, which doesn't help the RAM situation)
Click to expand...

I said it before and I'll say it again, get the friggin ram. It's amazing your running vista and not running 4GB makes a huge difference. Considering nothing even really uses all 4 cores it's pretty much overkill so you might as well get something that you will notice a significant difference right off the bat. I sure did.
 
If you can afford it, get the X38 and extra RAM. That's what i did today. Money and fish are better if consumed fresh.;)
 
it really doesn't matter to me that much, I kind of want to get rid of the mobo, it is holding back my OC, that is why I asked. As a high school student with a decent job I can afford a lot of things without having to worry about bills so its pretty nice, I will just get the CPU and mobo later.
 
Well I'll go ahead and chime in here. X38 has a place in the market in new high end non-SLI OEM PC's, but will it provide you the computer enthusiast and DIY type individual anything performance or features to speak of today? No. Quite frankly if you already have a P965, P35 or some other high end chipset you will see nothing worth while in terms of performance gains or even feature improvements. Frankly the X38 is nothing more than a stepping stone to X48 and nothing beyond that. Sure the X38 may have some features on paper that are worth paying for, but in the real world it offers nothing over it's predecessors. The only reason to buy X38 based boards today is if you don't already have a board and you are upgrading from an older platform Really until DDR3 matures more I don't think we will see anything compelling for some time.

Let me put it another way. I can get any board I want and I've got no burning desire to upgrade to X38 or the next high end 700 series SLI compatible chipset once those become available.
 
DaCoOlNeSs said:
it really doesn't matter to me that much, I kind of want to get rid of the mobo, it is holding back my OC, that is why I asked. As a high school student with a decent job I can afford a lot of things without having to worry about bills so its pretty nice, I will just get the CPU and mobo later.
Click to expand...

When you hit college, you'll want that money for more important things... condoms and beer.

Edit: Dan D said it best, and from his sig you can see that if there was any benefit he would be running it already.
 
x38 doesn't make that big of a difference. It has overclock protection removed, which most other good p35 boards overcome anyways.

The biggest benefit on X38 is probably the true dual 16x PCI-E crossfire, currently the P35 uses the second card in the crossfire as 4x and routes it through south-bridge.
 
Well I have mine fully operational right now and im pretty impressed by it. Quality and features are nice, ofcourse they should be for the price. I returned my P5K Deluxe and ordered this board as I was within my 30 days, though I prolly wouldnt have if that time period had passed. The main feature I do like about the maximus is the face that vdroop is gone. Finally, no need for a #2HB pencil.
 
Dan_D said:
Well I'll go ahead and chime in here. X38 has a place in the market in new high end non-SLI OEM PC's, but will it provide you the computer enthusiast and DIY type individual anything performance or features to speak of today? No. Quite frankly if you already have a P965, P35 or some other high end chipset you will see nothing worth while in terms of performance gains or even feature improvements. Frankly the X38 is nothing more than a stepping stone to X48 and nothing beyond that. Sure the X38 may have some features on paper that are worth paying for, but in the real world it offers nothing over it's predecessors. The only reason to buy X38 based boards today is if you don't already have a board and you are upgrading from an older platform Really until DDR3 matures more I don't think we will see anything compelling for some time.

Let me put it another way. I can get any board I want and I've got no burning desire to upgrade to X38 or the next high end 700 series SLI compatible chipset once those become available.
Click to expand...
thanks for the insight Dan, I have decided to spend my money elsewhere :)
 
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