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P45 MB recommendation
Need recommendation on a new MB, P45 possibly, don't think I'll be getting any X48! Something stable & hopefully
with a mature BIOS, able to OC some & use all 4 RAM slots! Also need memory remapping, don't want to lose 512-
768 MB of physical RAM addresses to bus & peripheral addresses.
Need atleast 8 SATA ports [10 will be even better, but the 4 extra SATA borts on the ASUS/Gigabyte MB's are based
on Sil5723 controller & doesn't recognize ATAPI/optical drives!] At least 1 eSATA, for future expansion; 2 will is
even better.
* RANT *
ICH10R, for all the stuff Intel did to update the P35 to P45, including PCIe 2.0 & a node shirnk to 65nm they left
the south bridge virtually same as ICH9R! 6 PCIe 1.1 lanes connecting all the preipherals, any 4x PCIe slots, +
any 1x PCIe slots, the whole plethora of 8-10 SATA + any eSATA ports, any number of 2-4 LAN chips + the audio, &
the whole legacy PCI bus, all this connected with a measly 2 GBps NB-SB link, called DMI or whatever!
You gotta hand it to nVidia in this case, 28 lanes in the south bridge alone & its connected to the NB with HT too!
* RANT *
Rest of the hardware I'm getting is listed as below:
-CPU - Q9450
-Cooler - I already have a Xigmatek HDT-S1283, the extra shiny things [heatpipies & sinks] around the CPU won't
make this thing useless junk.
-RAM - 8GB [4 x 2GB] DDR2-1066 Patriot or G.Skill. Will I be able to run all 4 modules at 1066/1000 in 2 dual
channel mode? It's ok if can't do 1000/1066 with all 4 slots, however I still need 8GB as I plan on using VMware.
-GFX - HD4870 or a HD4850 [the ones that I looked at, none seem to come with a HDMI port, they all need DVI->HDMI
converter & no DisplayPort either!] Also not planning on doing any CF, atleast not anytime soon.
I have looked at some Gigabyte & ASUS MB's, but not familiar with DFI's current P45 [or P35] boards, don't know
much about FoxConn other than their recent record setting FSB & abit just went down under! So, please make your
recommendation.
I looked at the following boards
ASUS P5Q Deluxe--
-ADI AD2000B audio; for a almost $200 board you'd think they'd put in a high end Realtek if not an X-Fi, one of
those 7.1+2 chips that can playback multiple streams through different ports, also DTS/DD, I forget which.
-Marvell 88E8001 Gbit / PCI; this LAN chip is on the PCI bus, hence besides pegging the CPU to death, will barely
do 400MiBit/s; what was the point of putting 2 LAN anyway if one of them are going to be a carppy one; the other
one is a PCIe Marvell 88E8056 Gbit chip.
-Sil5723; 2 extra SATA ports but these boards doesn't recognise/work with ATAPI optical drives attached to them,
& I need at least 8 SATA ports that will all work with ATAPI devices!
-1 PS2 port; I mean wtf? What exactly am I supposed to do for a mouse, I also doubt my KVM will work with a PS2
splitter!
ASUS P5Q Premium--
-ADI AD2000B audio; same as previous asus board.
-4 Gbit LAN; all PCIe but wheres all that extra lanes coming from? Nowhere; its all being shared with the 6 PCIe
1.1 lanes in the SB.
-Sil5723; 4 SATA ports but same problem as above, no ATAPI support.
-1 PS2 port; same as above.
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R--
+Realtek ALC889A audio codec; one of the best on board solutions.
+Realtek 8111C Gbit / PCIe x 2; actually also one of the best PCIe Gbit LAN chips.
-Only 6 SATA ports, also no eSATA.
?Dont know if memory remapping is supported.
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DQ6--
+Realtek ALC889A audio codec; one of the best on board solutions.
-Realtek 8111C Gbit / PCIe x 4; good LAN chip but wheres the bandwidth coming from; SEE BELOW!
-4x PCIe slot x 2; well these 2 slots have a PCIe switch that lets them share only 4 PCIe 1.1 lanes & that too with
the 4 Realtek Gbit LAN's!!!!!!
-Sil5723; 4 SATA ports but same problem as above, no ATAPI support. [& no eSATA.]
?Dont know if memory remapping is supported.
Well thats about all I can do for now, so please make your recommendation for other ASUS/DFI/Foxconn/Gugabyte board.
Thanks.
Need recommendation on a new MB, P45 possibly, don't think I'll be getting any X48! Something stable & hopefully
with a mature BIOS, able to OC some & use all 4 RAM slots! Also need memory remapping, don't want to lose 512-
768 MB of physical RAM addresses to bus & peripheral addresses.
Need atleast 8 SATA ports [10 will be even better, but the 4 extra SATA borts on the ASUS/Gigabyte MB's are based
on Sil5723 controller & doesn't recognize ATAPI/optical drives!] At least 1 eSATA, for future expansion; 2 will is
even better.
* RANT *
ICH10R, for all the stuff Intel did to update the P35 to P45, including PCIe 2.0 & a node shirnk to 65nm they left
the south bridge virtually same as ICH9R! 6 PCIe 1.1 lanes connecting all the preipherals, any 4x PCIe slots, +
any 1x PCIe slots, the whole plethora of 8-10 SATA + any eSATA ports, any number of 2-4 LAN chips + the audio, &
the whole legacy PCI bus, all this connected with a measly 2 GBps NB-SB link, called DMI or whatever!
You gotta hand it to nVidia in this case, 28 lanes in the south bridge alone & its connected to the NB with HT too!
* RANT *
Rest of the hardware I'm getting is listed as below:
-CPU - Q9450
-Cooler - I already have a Xigmatek HDT-S1283, the extra shiny things [heatpipies & sinks] around the CPU won't
make this thing useless junk.
-RAM - 8GB [4 x 2GB] DDR2-1066 Patriot or G.Skill. Will I be able to run all 4 modules at 1066/1000 in 2 dual
channel mode? It's ok if can't do 1000/1066 with all 4 slots, however I still need 8GB as I plan on using VMware.
-GFX - HD4870 or a HD4850 [the ones that I looked at, none seem to come with a HDMI port, they all need DVI->HDMI
converter & no DisplayPort either!] Also not planning on doing any CF, atleast not anytime soon.
I have looked at some Gigabyte & ASUS MB's, but not familiar with DFI's current P45 [or P35] boards, don't know
much about FoxConn other than their recent record setting FSB & abit just went down under! So, please make your
recommendation.
I looked at the following boards
ASUS P5Q Deluxe--
-ADI AD2000B audio; for a almost $200 board you'd think they'd put in a high end Realtek if not an X-Fi, one of
those 7.1+2 chips that can playback multiple streams through different ports, also DTS/DD, I forget which.
-Marvell 88E8001 Gbit / PCI; this LAN chip is on the PCI bus, hence besides pegging the CPU to death, will barely
do 400MiBit/s; what was the point of putting 2 LAN anyway if one of them are going to be a carppy one; the other
one is a PCIe Marvell 88E8056 Gbit chip.
-Sil5723; 2 extra SATA ports but these boards doesn't recognise/work with ATAPI optical drives attached to them,
& I need at least 8 SATA ports that will all work with ATAPI devices!
-1 PS2 port; I mean wtf? What exactly am I supposed to do for a mouse, I also doubt my KVM will work with a PS2
splitter!
ASUS P5Q Premium--
-ADI AD2000B audio; same as previous asus board.
-4 Gbit LAN; all PCIe but wheres all that extra lanes coming from? Nowhere; its all being shared with the 6 PCIe
1.1 lanes in the SB.
-Sil5723; 4 SATA ports but same problem as above, no ATAPI support.
-1 PS2 port; same as above.
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R--
+Realtek ALC889A audio codec; one of the best on board solutions.
+Realtek 8111C Gbit / PCIe x 2; actually also one of the best PCIe Gbit LAN chips.
-Only 6 SATA ports, also no eSATA.
?Dont know if memory remapping is supported.
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DQ6--
+Realtek ALC889A audio codec; one of the best on board solutions.
-Realtek 8111C Gbit / PCIe x 4; good LAN chip but wheres the bandwidth coming from; SEE BELOW!
-4x PCIe slot x 2; well these 2 slots have a PCIe switch that lets them share only 4 PCIe 1.1 lanes & that too with
the 4 Realtek Gbit LAN's!!!!!!
-Sil5723; 4 SATA ports but same problem as above, no ATAPI support. [& no eSATA.]
?Dont know if memory remapping is supported.
Well thats about all I can do for now, so please make your recommendation for other ASUS/DFI/Foxconn/Gugabyte board.
Thanks.
