S1366 advice - discount DFI board?

C

-ChEM-

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 25, 2004
Messages
110
Hi all, been away from all this OC business for a while... I was around for the old JIUHB tbreds, barton mobiles and I've been making do with an opteron 170 box since all that was happening, meaning i've missed core2 entirely, partly due to growing old and having to deal with life and money and other real-life constraints and partly because of being a fanboy and refusing to change to that hyperthreading company and take a step back to something with a shitty nb/fsb architechture even if it did happen to be fairly fast

Anyway now thanks to growing old and being forced out into the real world, i happen to have run into a couple of i7 965 chips free of charge so i might as well take the opportunity to upgrade but shameful as it is to admit, i'm back to being a complete fcking nub... plus i have practically zero money available, so the plan is just to worry about the mb and ram at the moment and keep the PoS graphics card i have now, the PSU should still be fine (Silverstone ST70F)

As far as motherboard goes i'm stuck around £150 ($230ish) or maybe another £20-30 ($30-40) on top if needed, which from what i can tell probably limits me to one of the asus boards (P6T)?

But I also noticed a DFI X58-T3eH8 going cheap and within my budget plus i see there's the Asus X58 Sabertooth which is cheap and pretty much brand new out

Bearing in mind i mainly care about:
- Something solid with good components i can get a good overclock out of
- Future upgrade to gulftown or higher - i hear there isn't a great deal of life in S1366 anyway though?
- good onboard sound (will have a digital output running into my hi-fi, analogue is irrelevant)
- a decent RAID1 controller if possible
- PCIe expansion for later on

And i don't give a damn about:
- bclk as i have an EE chip in case you missed that, although i would like to have something good in case i change the cpu later
- SATA 6gb/s and that sort of over-valued crap

What the hell should i get (pros, cons, future limitations)?
 
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Im a fan of dfi and run the board in my sig..the T3eH8 board was a decent board but had an issue with the digital vrm's running very hot..some even burnt up..if i were you id look for another board..the sabertooth board is a very good board and its got all the latest tech onboard..id pass on the dfi if the sabertooth would fit my budget...reviews are stellar for the sabertooth also....
 
I have a pair of sabertooths and they are the best X58 board IMO.Easiest OC i have ever done up until i got my SB rig setup last night.
 
+1 sabertooth. When I almost built an x58 rig, I was gonna buy the sabertooth. Looks good and 5 yr warranty is a bonus. DFI no longer makes motherboard and not sure about their RMA policy over there.
 
zero money available?

Keep checking the F/S section. You can pick up decent X58 motherboards for under $100 (I got mine for $85). Add in some decent memory, and you can be set for under $150 easy. You can always put the rest into better cooling.
 
With the 6-series chipset debacle, a cheap 1366 is looking better and better.
 
go the sabertooth, its got good rep

dfi is dead..

which EE have u got?
if u already have a s1366 cpu, u might as well throw together a cheap-ish rig.. yes s2011 will be better but its still ~9 months away
 
DFI was used to be a good mobo, but because their not in motherboard business again, that sould makes us questioned their rma services on mobo.

I heard good things about ASUS Sabertooth, but I think the military class is just gimmick, it won’t give you great enchancement over the regular mobo based on solid caps, but it shold give more security on the mobo toughness :) .

If the choice only between those 2…definitely Sabretooth.

But other mobo is good for consideration like ASUS P6T Deluxe, or Gigabyte UD3 or UD4 mobo.
 
This thread ain't quite dead yet

I would buy the sabertooth but the socket arrangement looks like a pain in the arse... if you've got an SLI config, the only slot that you'll have access to will be the 3rd full length PCIe slot at the bottom?? why the hell couldn't they just put the second SLI slot at the bottom where there's as much free space as you could want to put in a dual-width card and put something crappy and expendable like the small PCIe slot next to the primary full length slot at the top, it would be so much more flexible for someone that actually uses their computer instead of just maxing it out with graphics cards??

I guess I'll probably buy it anyway... but that means i then couldn't put in a decent raid controller if i wanted to... but i guess the onboard is good enough to just run a few mirrored pairs off

Thanks for the advice, at least i may have dodgy a turkey with that DFI board
 
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