What would you do?

C

Coolestnameever

n00b
Joined
May 29, 2008
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You have a moderately good computer, with the following specs:

Antec P182B case
Corsair HX620
Brand new evga 8800GT Superclocked that you know you will take advantage of the step up program when the new cards come out, to either one of them, or a GX2, depending on the price
Intel Q6700 with a Thermalright Ultima 90 (this requires a bracket to be installed on the back of the motherboard and takes up a little more room than the standard HSF but I like it VERY much)

Intel DG33Tl motherboard (the reason for this post)
4x1gb Adata DDR2 800mhz, this was bought because the motherboard can only go to
1.8v for the ram

The motherboard obviously is really weak. I got it for free. But I am going to toss it, and get a replacement.

I will never use SLI, especially since I like to keep my computer on at night and I appreciate a quiet system. But I've always been a supporter of Nvidia and EVGA has proven to be a great company to buy from. I want to get a new motherboard for the obvious reasons that performance is certainly limited with my current set (pci express version 1.0a on it, and it only supports 800mhz ram at only 1.8 volts)

Can Motherboards that use DDR3 ram use DDR2? They both have 240 pins, but there might be some other reason. My ram is poor, I know this. Good DDR3 ram is a little spendy though!

So my question is............would you buy a new motherboard with PCI Express 2.0 that works with DDR2, so you could use your existing ram, or would you buy a DDR3 based board and buy new ram? I'd likely buy 2 of the OCZ Reaper DDR3 chips if I went that way.

The nice motherboards seem to be around the $300 mark, and another $300 or so on ram, in addition to the money that I have spent, and might spend on an upgrade to a different graphics card in the next month or two has me hesitating.
 
I'd just stick with the DDR2. The thing is on the quad you proabably arent going to go above 400 FSB = you don't need anything more than PC6400 and to me 4gb of ddr2 > 2gb of ddr3. No you can't put a DDR3 module in a DDR2 slot. As far as a mobo just search the forums there are many good mobos out right now. If you are never going to use SLI then you shouldn't spend the premium to buy an SLI board, just get a good P35 board (P5K-e, DFI DK P35, MSI Neo2-FR are the top three that I recommend).
 
My quandary was, does a DDR3 motherboard allow DDR2 ram. I doubt that it does, but if it did, all the better! The marketing bonuses to DDR3 do sound enticing, its just a little expensive for me. (its getting a lot better though)

I would be going with 4 gigs of ram, no matter which way I go, to clarify.

Thanks for your feedback though.
 
Coolestnameever said:
So my question is............would you buy a new motherboard with PCI Express 2.0 that works with DDR2, so you could use your existing ram, or would you buy a DDR3 based board and buy new ram? I'd likely buy 2 of the OCZ Reaper DDR3 chips if I went that way.
.
Click to expand...

No to the last plan and no with a "but" on the first plan.

DDR3 RAM offer very very very very very little performance increase with current Intel C2D systems. So don't bother with DDR3 RAM now due to it's high costs now and very very little performance benefit.

As for buying a new mobo with PCI-E 2.0, current graphics cards don't even saturate PCI-E 1.1, let alone PCI-E 2.0. By the time PCI-E 2.0 is truly needed, PCI-E 3.0 will already be out and it'll be time for a new mobo anyway. Considering that current PCI-E 2.0 mobos are either good, expensive, and overkill (790i & X38, X48) or cheap but not too stable (750i), just stick with a mobo based on the P35 chipset with PCI-E 1.1 slots if you want stability at a good price.

However, and here's the "but" part, if you can wait another month, Intel's new P45 chipset motherboards are being released. It's pretty much the stable P35 chipset updated with PCI-E 2.0 slots. So you get all the stability of the P35 chipset with PCI-E 2.0 but at about the same price as many P35 mobos.
 
That sounds good to me, especially since newer motherboards tend to have all the nice little extra things that I like.

I wasn't aware to new chipsets coming out, I will have to check that out. I've always heard great things about intels chips, such as the x48, etc. So we'll see!
 
Coolestnameever said:
That sounds good to me, especially since newer motherboards tend to have all the nice little extra things that I like.

I wasn't aware to new chipsets coming out, I will have to check that out. I've always heard great things about intels chips, such as the x48, etc. So we'll see!
Click to expand...

Well it's just one new chipset coming, the P45. The 790i, 780i, 750i, X48, X38 and P35 chipsets are already out. Actually the P45 chipset will be Intel's last chipset release for their current Socket 775 CPUs.

Still worth the wait.
 
I am in full agreement with Danny Bui -- DDR3 in its current form is a joke, and you should not buy it, or a board that requires it.

Also, no, DDR2 and DDR3 are /not/ interchangable in the same slots on the same board. For the time being, forget about DDR3. Stick with your current RAM. You may consider selling your 4 1GB sticks and buying a 2x2GB kit of DDR2, but that's about it.

I have no idea what kind of "nice little extra thing" you think you want or need... but were I in your position, I'd buy a nice P35 based board and be done with it.
 
silent-circuit said:
I have no idea what kind of "nice little extra thing" you think you want or need... but were I in your position, I'd buy a nice P35 based board and be done with it.
Click to expand...

Probably the PCI-E 2.0 slots considering his original post.
 
Danny Bui said:
Probably the PCI-E 2.0 slots considering his original post.
Click to expand...

I'm still not really sure what's wrong with the board, aside from it's not an OCing board and won't do more than 1.8vdimm. Could always pad mod it and OC the CPU that way. If it's stable and does what it needs to do (which Intel boards are known for...) there's no compelling reason to replace it.

OP -- if you do replace it, I'd like it. PM me with a price and we'll talk. I could use a cheap LGA775 board.

heatlesssun said:
I understand the cost issue with DDR3 at this time, but it is far from a joke: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=174&Itemid=38

At present DDR3 is not cost effective, but its also not dead end. One of the reasons DDR2 is so cheap right now is that you'll probably have to toss it in the garbage next year as it will be useless. But its so cheap that it may not matter.
Click to expand...

A negligible drop in power draw and a ton of bandwidth that translates to zero real world performance gain for 2x-8x as much cash per GB? That's anything but compelling.

You bought a 790i Ultra. You bought DDR3. You bought an Extreme Edition chip. We get it -- you have a huge budget, or no real budget at all.

At the end of the day, a 750i with DDR2 and a Q6600 is just as fast in the real world. It won't bench as high, but there will be zero difference in appreciable performance.
 
Dude, benches are where it's at :p







Seriously you won't see any real world perfromance difference between ddr3 and ddr2.
 
heatlesssun said:
I understand the cost issue with DDR3 at this time, but it is far from a joke: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=174&Itemid=38
Click to expand...

We never said it was a dead-end tech. We (as in silent-circuit and I) understand that, technologically, DDR3 RAM is far superior to DDR2 RAM. However, none of that technological enhancements has actually translated to worthy real-world performance increases with current Intel systems. That's our main gripe with it and why we think it's a joke: Not enough bang for the buck despite better technology.

Hopefully Nehalem will take advantage of DDR3 RAM but for current Intel systems, DDR3 RAM is a joke.
 
Memory banter aside.....


If the OP has money to spend, I see no reason to recommend the budget boards. The higher end DFI P35 and X38 boards are very nice and use better quality components. 'Certainly worth looking into.

You've got a very good PSU, case and video card. I see no reason to put mag wheels on a Yugo.
 
Valnar said:
Memory banter aside.....


If the OP has money to spend, I see no reason to recommend the budget boards. The higher end DFI P35 and X38 boards are very nice and use better quality components. 'Certainly worth looking into.

You've got a very good PSU, case and video card. I see no reason to put mag wheels on a Yugo.
Click to expand...

None of the boards I recommended I'd ever consider "budget". Several were running $150+ not long ago. The DS3R was once $170, if I remember right. The T2RS is ~$145. The Neo2-FR has always been less expensive, ~$120, but it's practically a Diamond with what -- firewire and a second NIC almost no one will use removed? None of them budget boards.

IP35-E, DS3L, IP35-V, those are budget boards.
 
I think I'm going to hold out and get some more information on when the P45's are due. It sounds like they are due out VERY soon.

I also need to RMA one of my hard drives, since the connector broke on it. Right now its attached with krazy glue, a business card as a shim, and a prayer. I'd like to run raid finally since my current setup proved to be a giant hassle to get raid to run with vista since the drivers would just not take.
 
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