p45 or X38

[youknowmyname]

I see a lot of people recommending P45 chipsets over the x38. I know currently that the 8x - 8x PCI-E crossfire doesn't really effect the speed in benchmarks and is better than the P35 16x-4x, but does the P45 overclock better or something? Trying to do research on a new build and want to make sure that I am not missing something. I know the x38 chipsets are a little more expensive, but the price of a DFI x38 is about the same as the Asus p5q that everybody seems to love. Is it worth it for the lack of 16x-16x PCI-E. Any info would be appreciated. thanks.

 

[Dangman]

The main reason why the P45 is recommended over the X38 is due to price. Most P45 motherboards are cheaper than either X38 or X48 motherboards. I personally do not recommend any P45 motherboard over $180 since, as you pointed out, the DFI X38 motherboard can be had for that price. I see zero reasons to recommend a "lesser" motherboard over a higher motherboard if both are the same price.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

if you are getting a quad, get a p35/45. some x38/48 boards, especially dfi x38/48 boards, have fsb walls with the 45nm quads. mine did, and lots of guys at xs did, also. this may have been fixed by a bios update, but i havent heard anything yet. so i fell back to the dfi p45 from the dfi dk x48 because i am getting a q9550. its not bad enough that i would get an asus or gigabyte or something, but an fsb wall is an fsb wall.

 

[INFRNL]

if you are getting a quad, get a p35/45. some x38/48 boards, especially dfi x38/48 boards, have fsb walls with the 45nm quads. mine did, and lots of guys at xs did, also. this may have been fixed by a bios update, but i havent heard anything yet. so i fell back to the dfi p45 from the dfi dk x48 because i am getting a q9550. its not bad enough that i would get an asus or gigabyte or something, but an fsb wall is an fsb wall.

Yeah, I just found this out. Im a little pissed now since I was recommended to go with the X38/48 and went DFI. I am running a Q9550 on it; not doing so well. wish I would have went P45 instead now. I had this cpu in my Asus P5k Deluxe (P35) but since its an ES chip the Asus wont read it properly. I can overclock the 9550 higher with a stock cooler on it compared to my vendetta 2 on the same cpu with the DFI. I think I will try to upgade the bios and see if that helps.