Hi! This is my first post here. I'm building a new system this month and i'm not sure about which motherboard to get. I was going for asus p5k-e wi/fi as it seems great bang for the buck. But p35 chipset does not support pci express 2.0. I know, for now pci express 1.0 is more than enough, but as i plan to keep this system for at least 4 years i worry about that. This will be a gaming system so i think future cards will take advantage of pci express 2.0. I'm not interested in crossfire at all. What do you think? Should i go for x38? If i go for x38, i'm thinking about gigabyte x38-ds4 as it is not much more expensive than asus p5k-e wi/fi. What about this mobo? Have anyone tried it?
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Mobo Recommendation(p35 or x38)
- Thread starter Kubrick
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chrisf6969
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a PCIe 8x slot is "good enough" for pretty much every videocard out there now.
If you benchmark 8x vs. 16x you see very little difference in single card GPU situations. Using Turbocache or SLI/crossfire MIGHT changed that situation some, but the point is PCIe 1.0 is still fair overkill now.
That said, I don't see how you're going to need PCIe 2.0 when PCIe 1.0 is barely using half its bandwidth.
In fact, when older AGP systems are equipped with an EQUAL card to a PCIe system they perform about the same. (like when they had equal 7800GT cards) Now that should show you how PCIe 1.0 currently has a lot of headroom.
Anyway, I think you'll get about 95% agreement here to get P35 over an X38.
Reasons to get P35:
X38 uses much more expensive ddr3, point P35 = cheapr
X38 costs more than a similar P35, point P35 = cheaper
X38 offers only a small improvement in speed over P35
PCIe 2.0 offers practically NO improvement over P35
Reasons to get X38:
Price doesnt matter to you, you want absolute best performance
X38 is slightly faster
X38 ddr3, so if you buy ddr3 now, it may work with other upgrades down the line, but you could also use ddr3 with P35
If you benchmark 8x vs. 16x you see very little difference in single card GPU situations. Using Turbocache or SLI/crossfire MIGHT changed that situation some, but the point is PCIe 1.0 is still fair overkill now.
That said, I don't see how you're going to need PCIe 2.0 when PCIe 1.0 is barely using half its bandwidth.
In fact, when older AGP systems are equipped with an EQUAL card to a PCIe system they perform about the same. (like when they had equal 7800GT cards) Now that should show you how PCIe 1.0 currently has a lot of headroom.
Anyway, I think you'll get about 95% agreement here to get P35 over an X38.
Reasons to get P35:
X38 uses much more expensive ddr3, point P35 = cheapr
X38 costs more than a similar P35, point P35 = cheaper
X38 offers only a small improvement in speed over P35
PCIe 2.0 offers practically NO improvement over P35
Reasons to get X38:
Price doesnt matter to you, you want absolute best performance
X38 is slightly faster
X38 ddr3, so if you buy ddr3 now, it may work with other upgrades down the line, but you could also use ddr3 with P35
wtburnette
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I had really good luck setting up a P35 based Asus P5K-E/wifi with a Q6600 for my son. Great board.
chrisf6969
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You sir are right, Abit & Gigabyte make ddr2 / X38 boards.
Just all the reviews I've ever seen, plus when I looked up motherboards, I usually filter them down to Asus, LGA775, etc... and only saw ddr3 for X38. B/c I had considered X38 also, but wanted to keep my 2Gb of ddr2 800, instead of having to buy expensive ddr3.
asus makes x38 boards with ddr2 too, look at maximus formula or p5e
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=572
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=572
chrisf6969
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ok stop making me look stupid!! I haven't bothered keeping up with the X38's b/c they seem to be at nearly a $100 premium over P35 boards.
You can get nice P35 boards well equiped for $100-130, where for a similar X38 you're looking at 200-230, with many costing MUCH more.
But my statements about being faster, mostly applied to when its used with ddr3. I think its more optimized for ddr3 than the P35.
You can get nice P35 boards well equiped for $100-130, where for a similar X38 you're looking at 200-230, with many costing MUCH more.
But my statements about being faster, mostly applied to when its used with ddr3. I think its more optimized for ddr3 than the P35.
PanzerKrieg13
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The X38 chipset is optimized for use with DDR3, but not as much as the upcoming X48 will be. In fact, I'm not sure if the X48 will support DDR2.
But anyway, the X38 and P35 preform very similar when used with DDR2. I personally don't think there is benefit to running an X38 board. The reviews and tests and endless literature have shown small margin speed differences and I just don't see it being worth the extra money.
That's why my new rig will sport a P35 from Asus; the P5K-Deluxe. That is, unless I don't buy the board before the X48 and P45 chipset boards are released, and one of them happen to catch my eye.
If you absolutely have to go X38, check out the P5E for about $225 or I'd suggest the Maximum Formula for about $250.
If you're going P35, I like the P5K-Deluxe, but the P5K-Premium is also a good board from what I've read lately.
- Joey
But anyway, the X38 and P35 preform very similar when used with DDR2. I personally don't think there is benefit to running an X38 board. The reviews and tests and endless literature have shown small margin speed differences and I just don't see it being worth the extra money.
That's why my new rig will sport a P35 from Asus; the P5K-Deluxe. That is, unless I don't buy the board before the X48 and P45 chipset boards are released, and one of them happen to catch my eye.
If you absolutely have to go X38, check out the P5E for about $225 or I'd suggest the Maximum Formula for about $250.
If you're going P35, I like the P5K-Deluxe, but the P5K-Premium is also a good board from what I've read lately.
- Joey
PCI-e 2.0 cards are backwards compatible with PCI-e 1.0 slots so it doesn't really matter, It's likely that you would be CPU limited by a brand new video card and a 4 year old CPU before you would be limited by the PCI-e 1.0 slot.
Personally, I see no reason to go with an X38 board over a P35 board if you aren't looking for Crossfire support. The performance difference between the chipsets is negligible although the price definitely isn't negligible.
Personally, I see no reason to go with an X38 board over a P35 board if you aren't looking for Crossfire support. The performance difference between the chipsets is negligible although the price definitely isn't negligible.
chrisf6969
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p5k-e FTW
I would choose X38/X48 just in case the rumor about cheap 4 PCB-layer P35 and 45nm quad is true and incompatible. Even if they "fix" the CPU:s so that P35 can do 45nm quad doesn´t change my opinion because the board still have the faulty/cheap PCB. As a runner up i suggest upcoming P45 that surely can do 45nm quad without any "fix" of CPU and 45nm quad is the way to go if you want to keep the setup for more that one year even for gaming.
One question I have..is there a certain reason you are not considering any 780i boards? I'm just curious because i run a 780i board with a QX9650 and love the good speed i get in Crysis and COD4. But as far as either of the boards you mentioned, I -personally- like to try and stay ahead of the game. Perhaps an x48 would be a good thing for you in the future? Wait for them to dig their heels in on the market, and see how they make an impact. 
Intel chipsets are far superior than nvidia ones. Also 780i is much more expensive than p35. If i was in that price range i would go for x48. I think the only reason to run an intel cpu with nvidia chipset is to have 2-3 cards in sli. I do not need sli neither crossfire so i think p35 is the best option for me.
.PanzerKrieg13
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Intel chipsets are far superior than nvidia ones. Also 780i is much more expensive than p35. If i was in that price range i would go for x48. I think the only reason to run an intel cpu with nvidia chipset is to have 2-3 cards in sli. I do not need sli neither crossfire so i think p35 is the best option for me
I'll second that. I really want to see what the P45 and X48 offer in the DDR2 variant market, but I'm so damn impatient. Though finances may force me to wait, I want it now and I think right now, the P35 is the best bang for the buck, so to speak.
- Joey
Performance difference in real life between them is going to be minimal. If PCIE 2.0 and dual x16 slots for crossfire are important to you then go x38, if not there is no reason to.
The wide variety of boards over the two chipsets means you have a lot of picks.
The wide variety of boards over the two chipsets means you have a lot of picks.
Intel chipsets are far superior than nvidia ones. Also 780i is much more expensive than p35. If i was in that price range i would go for x48. I think the only reason to run an intel cpu with nvidia chipset is to have 2-3 cards in sli. I do not need sli neither crossfire so i think p35 is the best option for me
Very good point! Indeed, the only reason to have the 780 is for SLI. I didn't spend too much on my eVGA 780i because of the step-up program, which btw, is a friggin awesome thing to have! I remember hearing about the Gigabyte board ..the DQ6 or whatever it was. Can't remember if that was x38 or p35. I heard alot of good things about that board. But then again, that's just here and there
Very good point! Indeed, the only reason to have the 780 is for SLI. I didn't spend too much on my eVGA 780i because of the step-up program, which btw, is a friggin awesome thing to have! I remember hearing about the Gigabyte board ..the DQ6 or whatever it was. Can't remember if that was x38 or p35. I heard alot of good things about that board. But then again, that's just here and there
DQ6 exists in p35 and x48, p965 as well for that matter.
IMHO, it breaks down like this.
At the start of the race, the reference 680i boards were the best, cost less, worked better, less problems. Currently, the non reference boards (aka striker, in32-max) currently are the cream of the crop and their blunders paid off.
780i is still a crap shoot, I made the mistake of trying a striker II, went back to the striker extreme. And the reference boards still are stuck with that 6 phase CPU, yuck.
Unless you want SLI, pick the x38 or p35 board with the options you want. You're slicing hairs on performance. In real life gaming, my asus x38 and dfi p35, perform about the same. I'd have to run benchmarks to tell the difference.
If you want SLI, wait till 790i and see if anything changes. Till then, stick with intel boards and wait.
Yes! I am in the same situation, when would the X48 come out?
DQ6 exists in p35 and x48, p965 as well for that matter.
IMHO, it breaks down like this.
At the start of the race, the reference 680i boards were the best, cost less, worked better, less problems. Currently, the non reference boards (aka striker, in32-max) currently are the cream of the crop and their blunders paid off.
780i is still a crap shoot, I made the mistake of trying a striker II, went back to the striker extreme. And the reference boards still are stuck with that 6 phase CPU, yuck.
Unless you want SLI, pick the x38 or p35 board with the options you want. You're slicing hairs on performance. In real life gaming, my asus x38 and dfi p35, perform about the same. I'd have to run benchmarks to tell the difference.
If you want SLI, wait till 790i and see if anything changes. Till then, stick with intel boards and wait.
You make some good points. I have the Abit IN9-32x max, and it's been fantastic. It's, of course, a non-reference board. It is so good looking with those sequential led's on the back of it and its black PCB. I love the level of control and precision it gives when overclocking. Being able to use different ratios for linking ram, or even running it unlinked to push both CPU and ram to the max independently (I don't know if other board do this because I've never overclocked personally with anything other than my 680i board - some do, I'm sure). The precise voltage settings come in handy. I've got my quad core overclocked to 3.33GHz with excellent temps using only an arctic freezer 7 pro for air cooling. I've also got the northbridge strap set to 1333. I have my cheapo a-data ram (8GB of memory bliss - all four slots filled) overclocked to 1000MHz at 1.95v with better than stock timings. I also have 3 SATA drives running, a card reader, one PATA drive, and I used to have an 8800GT overclocked to 750MHz running on it. (I returned it and ordered the GTS 512mb ...)
I have loved it like you wouldn't believe. Everything is so stinking stable. I've got Vista 64 bit ultimate and uGuru works like a charm for monitoring temps (other than the CPU - it's off by about 5c) and controlling fans. Plus the board has room for expansion, e-sata ports out the back, plenty of usb ports/headers and firewire ports, and 6 internal sata ports. I don't like the wifi card it came with, though. PCI-E X1 is convenient and takes up almost no space inside, but if the signal's idle for too long it'll shut down requiring a reconnect.
Also of no small worth is that BIOS 1.4 beta has enabled penryn support, even for quad cores. Those with the extreme, however, can't seem to unlock multipliers higher than 10x. the Q9450 should run fine on it, though, and some people are having really good results on this board with the new E8400 penryn. Still some bugs to work out there.
I like the possibility of adding a second card for more performance in SLI later, and I especially like the price I paid: $119 (after rebate). I couldn't find a similarly equipped P35 or X38 board with that many features (not counting SLI), expansion ports, and overclocking power for anything close to that price at the time I purchased it, and so far I don't regret it. 3DMark06 scores with the 8800GT were 14,160, everything on air-cooling only. Sorry for the long post, but there are my two bits worth.
Just to make sure you don´t fall in the trap stay away from the crap Gigabyte sells, their X38-DQ6 is the badest board i ever own. They can´t do good board like ASUS Maximus witch is THE best X38 board besides DFI. They only make cheap crap and you as customer pays double for the low quality.
They have low expectations on their boards, thats the only explonation why they like it since it can´t be that it is good board or have good performance.
Here is my experience/opinon of this board after owning the crap GA-X38-DQ6:
GA-X38-DQ6 is genuine low quality and have to many faults that only hardwarerevision can change and they make it apears to be a BIOS-issue when it is nothing but hardware fault.
Usage of 4 dimms is no go when OC, meaning no highperformancememory is usable on this board so highqualitycomponent and propper dimension of parts should granted usage of 4 dimms but this boards failure on both parts.
Board can die by simple BIOS-flash in safe DOS-mode, i was lucky that mine did, sell it second hand should ended uup in giving it away "for free" since no one wants to pay for the crap second hand and not the price you need to take out so you not loose to mutch.
Way to low memorybandwith compare to the board that is standard when comparing and that i now own ie. Maximus/Rampage.
Undersized cooling of NB/SB, they should have used the bigger one from P35-DQ6 rev1 , the one from DQ6 rev2 can´t handle the X38 conterpart.
Only 6 SATA is usable when using IDE channel due to conflict between the 2 extra SATA and IDE.
BIOS support is a joke, a bunch of crapy beta and one good BIOS release and a few craprelease to show that they "care".
That is just a small sample of hardwarefailure of the X38-DQ6 that can´t be fixed by new BIOS and make me never buy any Gigabyteproduct again. That is way to expensive to buy a board and later find out i can´t use 4 dimms and OC and loose 50-75% of the money since no one wants to pay for it later.
Maximus is a bulls eye on all this parts where X38-DQ6 fails solid on all parts.
i can't speak to their X38 boards, but i'm very satisfied with my P35-DS3L from gigabyte and would recommend it to others. my only big complaint comes with setting voltages in bios (the interface will tell you how much extra voltage you're applying, but not what the actual voltage is). i don't believe the quality of their product in general is nearly as bad as your expeirence suggests.
that said, their color scheme is a little ecclectic, to say the least.
that said, their color scheme is a little ecclectic, to say the least.
I don't think Gigabyte overall makes crappy motherboards. For the most part, I think they're very good. I have only owned one, but never had problems with it. Some of the problems E.R. mentioned happen to many different boards by many different makers, and with many different chipsets. I am a very happy 680i user, but there are just as many 680i users out there not so happy. Some people experience problems using all four sticks of memory on the 680i. Some have trouble getting it to recognize 8GB. Some have trouble getting SLI to work on it. Many haven't been able to get good overclocks on their quad cores. I haven't had a single one of these problems with my board, and I know several others who haven't had any problems either, but I think someone by the name of Dan_D has gone through 11 different 680i boards of varying brands!!!
I know too many people who own Gigabyte boards and love the crap out of them to make a generalized statement that their quality sux, just based on a few bad experiences. There will always be a percentage of bad products per 100 good products manufactured by any electronics company. I do understand, E.R. where you're coming from. Sometimes you only have your own personal experience to go on, and if it's been largely negative, it's not hard to form a negative opinion/stereotype.
Don't swear off Gigabyte yet. You'll find lots of people using the same board as you that are quite happy with it. It's possible just to get a defective part or two. Use the RMA process and make them send you a replacement until you have one that works perfectly.
I know too many people who own Gigabyte boards and love the crap out of them to make a generalized statement that their quality sux, just based on a few bad experiences. There will always be a percentage of bad products per 100 good products manufactured by any electronics company. I do understand, E.R. where you're coming from. Sometimes you only have your own personal experience to go on, and if it's been largely negative, it's not hard to form a negative opinion/stereotype.
Don't swear off Gigabyte yet. You'll find lots of people using the same board as you that are quite happy with it. It's possible just to get a defective part or two. Use the RMA process and make them send you a replacement until you have one that works perfectly.
I have a 1st rev GA-P35-DS3R that was sweet while I used it. (currently trying to get rid of it...) I wanted a DFI board again so I got an Infinity P35-T2RL Blood Iron. It's a nice P35 board with everything you need for a good all around system plus an incredible DFI BIOS. Paired with an X3210 and I'm sailing smooth @ 425FSB.
I'm a big DFI fan...
I'm a big DFI fan...
I have 3 Gigabyte boards currently and I've had no trouble with them at all. I have an AM2 board with AMD chipset and it's going strong with a [email protected]. That board hasn't had a single hiccup. I have my old P965-DS3 running my C2D which will be switched to a Q6600 later today. It's been running totally solid for over a year now. My current P35-DS3R has been rock solid with a [email protected] for about a week now. I just got it but I haven't had a single problem with it other than vdroop which can be corrected.
Every single problem I saw posted in regards to the Gigabyte board can happen to any motherboard. There are many that don't care much for 4 sticks of RAM and overclocking which is why that's something I've avoided for a long time. Also, the brand of RAM and the specific sticks also factor in. Not all sticks, even from the same manufacturer, will work when running 4 of them. If you want a guarantee that they will work, buy a 4 stick matched set instead of pairs.
Quirks and incompatibilities will happen with the amount of brands and different hardware we have to choose from. To call a board maker crap because of these incompatibilities and quirks is doing yourself a disservice. All my Gigabyte boards have been cheap in regards to price but high quality in every other way.
Every single problem I saw posted in regards to the Gigabyte board can happen to any motherboard. There are many that don't care much for 4 sticks of RAM and overclocking which is why that's something I've avoided for a long time. Also, the brand of RAM and the specific sticks also factor in. Not all sticks, even from the same manufacturer, will work when running 4 of them. If you want a guarantee that they will work, buy a 4 stick matched set instead of pairs.
Quirks and incompatibilities will happen with the amount of brands and different hardware we have to choose from. To call a board maker crap because of these incompatibilities and quirks is doing yourself a disservice. All my Gigabyte boards have been cheap in regards to price but high quality in every other way.
PanzerKrieg13
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If you're going X38, the DFI DK X38 T2R is now available on MotherboardPro; http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-L...tel-X38-ATX-DFI-Motherboard-Retail-p-531.html
From the little information available, this board looks to be solid and another viable option. It features a digital PWM among other things.
That said, it's P35 counter-part has a few reviews already and appears to be another solid option. There is a short thread with some information on the board already; http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1266523
Not yet available on MotherboardPro however; http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-LanParty-Dark-P35-T2RS-Socket-775-Motherboard-p-428.html
Hopefully both these boards will soon be available on NewEgg and more information will also start to become available. They appear to be great boards for the price, especially for the P35 and it's sub $150 price tag.
- Joey
From the little information available, this board looks to be solid and another viable option. It features a digital PWM among other things.
That said, it's P35 counter-part has a few reviews already and appears to be another solid option. There is a short thread with some information on the board already; http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1266523
Not yet available on MotherboardPro however; http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-LanParty-Dark-P35-T2RS-Socket-775-Motherboard-p-428.html
Hopefully both these boards will soon be available on NewEgg and more information will also start to become available. They appear to be great boards for the price, especially for the P35 and it's sub $150 price tag.
- Joey
vanilla_guerilla
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diamond flower international. or the evga 780i board.
I have 3 Gigabyte boards currently and I've had no trouble with them at all. I have an AM2 board with AMD chipset and it's going strong with a [email protected]. That board hasn't had a single hiccup. I have my old P965-DS3 running my C2D which will be switched to a Q6600 later today. It's been running totally solid for over a year now. My current P35-DS3R has been rock solid with a [email protected] for about a week now. I just got it but I haven't had a single problem with it other than vdroop which can be corrected.
Every single problem I saw posted in regards to the Gigabyte board can happen to any motherboard. There are many that don't care much for 4 sticks of RAM and overclocking which is why that's something I've avoided for a long time. Also, the brand of RAM and the specific sticks also factor in. Not all sticks, even from the same manufacturer, will work when running 4 of them. If you want a guarantee that they will work, buy a 4 stick matched set instead of pairs.
Quirks and incompatibilities will happen with the amount of brands and different hardware we have to choose from. To call a board maker crap because of these incompatibilities and quirks is doing yourself a disservice. All my Gigabyte boards have been cheap in regards to price but high quality in every other way.
If i was the only one with this problem then i would agree, but now i have seen to many posts about this board rev1 and rev2 and this particular 4 dimms error when OC. I belive it its a simple thing like insufficiant power to the dimms since it shows up as soon as you use 4 dimms with just about any brand of memory and as long as good 2x1GB kits is so dirt cheap this problem will be a big one since people is chep and buy 4x1 rather than 2x2 if 4x1 is cheaper.
At least i am not willing to pay for a board that don´tt meet my (low?) demands, just be able to get good OC of CPU and 4 dimms should be used with good memOC on top of that. For me buying Gigabyte is like flushing the money is down the drain when it does not meet the demands.
My 4 sticks of Flex XLC is not matched at all but works like a charm on Maximus, even my old ones that died and was repalced by newer ones worked so i think the 4 dimms is a board thing.
Yes the board is Ok if you do not OC but that should be illegal when OC is so damn easy and save you a bunch of money.
All I want to contribute is that you be careful if your looking at a P5K-E based board not to fall into the nightmare I ran into with a ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP. Thought I got a steal deal and wound up with a flippin nightmare because I bought 1066 ram which this board and it's BIOS does NOT natively support for crap, see threads on ASUS' website here:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=P5K-E/WiFi-AP&SLanguage=en-us
People are giving up and buying DDR2-800 ram to fix the issue since even the latest BIOS done on January 30th still didn't fix the blasted issue.
See my thread here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1276310
If anyone has 1066 ram running on this board STABLE, please for the love of geekdum do us a fav and tell us which ram and what settings we're all missing. I'm typing this from said machine right now with settings in the BIOS on manual and here's what PCWizard2008 is showing:
Manufacturer : Corsair
Part Number : CM2X1024-8500C5D <---that serial number is 1066 Dominator, not 800
Type : DDR2-SDRAM PC2-6400 (399 MHz) - [DDR2-800] <--yet here's where it runs thanks to this mobo
Best part is see what that does to a 2.66 1333FSB conroe:
Real Frequency : 2003.74 MHz
Multiplier : 6x
Low/High Multiplier : 6x / 8x
Multiplier Locked : Yes
Marketing Frequency : 2666.72 MHz
It downclocks the proc, lovely, set the multiplier manaully and it refuses to post because this POS doesn't support 1066. Please someone feel free to school me as I have been fighting this several days and can't see straight anymore.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=P5K-E/WiFi-AP&SLanguage=en-us
People are giving up and buying DDR2-800 ram to fix the issue since even the latest BIOS done on January 30th still didn't fix the blasted issue.
See my thread here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1276310
If anyone has 1066 ram running on this board STABLE, please for the love of geekdum do us a fav and tell us which ram and what settings we're all missing. I'm typing this from said machine right now with settings in the BIOS on manual and here's what PCWizard2008 is showing:
Manufacturer : Corsair
Part Number : CM2X1024-8500C5D <---that serial number is 1066 Dominator, not 800
Type : DDR2-SDRAM PC2-6400 (399 MHz) - [DDR2-800] <--yet here's where it runs thanks to this mobo
Best part is see what that does to a 2.66 1333FSB conroe:
Real Frequency : 2003.74 MHz
Multiplier : 6x
Low/High Multiplier : 6x / 8x
Multiplier Locked : Yes
Marketing Frequency : 2666.72 MHz
It downclocks the proc, lovely, set the multiplier manaully and it refuses to post because this POS doesn't support 1066. Please someone feel free to school me as I have been fighting this several days and can't see straight anymore.
farfromhome
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Anyway, X48 isn't futureproof in the least. It's pretty much the last chipset (other than P45/G45) that's going to support the Core 2 microarchitecture before Nehalem is out late this year or early next year. Nehalem has its own memory controller (like AMD K8/K10) and will require completely new chipsets.
Yeah you're so right. Nothing's really "future proof" right now with Nahalem around the corner. My Abit 680i board advertised on the box "future proof". I had to laugh because most of the 680i's out at the time wouldn't support the new Penryn dual cores, let alone the quads. Turns out, though, their recent BIOS update is giving many 32x-MAX owners quite a bit of success running the new Penryn processors. I honestly think that the Q9450 is going to be the processor sweet spot. Right now people are reporting great performance with this board and the new E8400, but that's only a dual core. I have a hard time recommending the 680i based on some of the problems others have had with it, but it's been such a great experience for me. It's phenomenally stable, and I've got decent overclocks and benchmarks on everything, all still air cooled. The control I have over all the precise settings and voltages has helped me tweak for maximum stability and performance at the same time.
I know there are a few sub $200 X38 boards that are actually pretty decent. Gigabyte has one that gets good reviews. You have to be careful when looking at X48's though. Many of them are merely slightly modified X38's at the core that happen to run DDR3. I don't know that being able to run DDR3 is adequate justification for the price difference. We'll have to see how pricing on them stabilizes when they come out.
well, iirc according to Intel P35 doesn't support DDR2 1066 so afaik no mobo manufacturer can officially support it except by saying in overclocked mode.
However, they should be able to run it at stock processor speeds albeit not at DDR2 1066.
Isn't the apparent CPU downclock merely EIST doing it's job by dropping to the x6 multi when full power isn't required?