Whats the current dominating northbridge chipset?

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killingfield1975

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I dont know much about the Northbridge chipset but I do know that it handles the communication between cpu, ram, pci bus, xpci bus and etc.

in order to make an overclocking experience worth while, which northbridge chipset should i take into consideration and which chipset should i try and dodge completely?

so far from my search the intel p35 chipset is a pretty solid northbridge.
 
The P35 is good for mainstream and single GPU gaming builds. It OCs well and runs reasonably cool. P35 boards run from $90-200 for a good, solid board depending on feature set.

If you want CrossfireX support (ATI's multi-GPU technology) you're looking at the X38, which also adds PCIe 2.0 support -- this may prove more and more important with upcoming GPUs.
A good X38 board runs $200 or so.

If you want SLI you have to go Nvidia. The current top end SLI chipset is the 780i, which is effectively the 680i with an additional chip onboard to allow 3 full 16x PCIe slots for Tri-SLI vs. the 680i's 2 16x mechanical/electrical slots and 1 16x mechanical / 8x electrical slot, as well as PCIe 2.0 compliance. The 750i is also coming out, but hasn't yet arrived in retail. It will be, like the 650i before it, a stripped down version of the high end chipset.

Most people avoid Nvidia chipsets if they aren't going to be using SLI as they have a reputation for being troublesome. It seems very hit and miss. I've personally had my board for around 7 months now without a single issue, while others have been through as many as 6 boards in the same length of time.
 
yeah i took that into consideration when i was planning on making my next purchase. since i have no plans to ever go with SLi or Crossfire set up I might as well stick with a different northbridge.
 
killingfield1975 said:
yeah i took that into consideration when i was planning on making my next purchase. since i have no plans to ever go with SLi or Crossfire set up I might as well stick with a different northbridge.
Click to expand...

P35 it is, then.

Popular boards would be the Abit IP35 line and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3x (DS3L, DS3R) / DQ6 line.

I personally like the DFI Blood Iron P35-TR2L. It's cheap, around $100 if you look around, it has 6 SATA connections vs. the 4 on most $90ish boards, RAID support (which the low end Abit and Gigabyte boards don't), and a ton of overclocking options. I built for a friend with one 2, 3 weeks ago and was impressed.
 
silent-circuit said:
P35 it is, then.

Popular boards would be the Abit IP35 line and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3x (DS3L, DS3R) / DQ6 line.

I personally like the DFI Blood Iron P35-TR2L. It's cheap, around $100 if you look around, it has 6 SATA connections vs. the 4 on most $90ish boards, RAID support (which the low end Abit and Gigabyte boards don't), and a ton of overclocking options. I built for a friend with one 2, 3 weeks ago and was impressed.
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what do you think of this bad boy right here?
Gigabyte p35-DS4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128064

i'll lookinto the dfi blooiron board as well. by the way when the motherboard spec states that it does ddr2800 or ddr21033 standard what does that mean? Is it the minimum requirement thhat is needed? Or does it mean that right out of the box the motherboard needs ram that runs on that specified speed?
 
killingfield1975 said:
what do you think of this bad boy right here?
Gigabyte p35-DS4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128064

i'll lookinto the dfi blooiron board as well. by the way when the motherboard spec states that it does ddr2800 or ddr21033 standard what does that mean? Is it the minimum requirement thhat is needed? Or does it mean that right out of the box the motherboard needs ram that runs on that specified speed?
Click to expand...

The DS4 is nice, but unless you need the extra 2 SATA connections for something it's really not worth $50-60 more than the DFI for most.

You want to match your RAM speed to the chip you'll be getting (and your maximum intended/expected OC of that chip) -- not the board you'll be getting.

So, for example, take the Q6600.

2.4Ghz stock at 1066Mhz "Quad Pumped" FSB. That's 266Mhz real FSB.

266 x 9 = ~2400, or 2.4Ghz, so the Q6600 is a 9x Multiplier chip.

DDR2 is rated at 2x base or real FSB, and you should run a 1:1 ratio for best performance on Intel platforms.

With that in mind you take 266Mhz x 2 and get 533Mhz. So, if you don't intend to OC the Q6600 at all all you need is RAM rated for DDR2-533.

Most people around here buy the Q6600 intending to OC it.

400Mhz FSB get you 400 x 9 = 3.6Ghz, which is a very good OC with a G0 stepping (newer) Q6600

400 x 2 = 800, so at 1:1 ratio with a Q6600 OCed to 3.6Ghz you'd only need DDR2-800 RAM.


So:
Take the chip you intend to get, its rated speed, its rated quad pumped FSB, divide the speed by 1/4 the FSB and you get the multiplier.

To see what speed RAM you need for a given OC take the multiplier and multiply it by 1/2 the rated speed of the RAM -- so, 400 for DDR2-800, 533 for DDR2-1066, etc. and that gives you the max speed you can achieve with that CPU (it may not be able to go that high, of course) without OCing the RAM.

For example, just because 533 x 9 = ~4800 does /not/ mean you could get a Q6600 up to 4.8Ghz with DDR2-1066. That'd be a feat even with a Vapochill rig or custom phase change.

Also remember that fairly good RAM will OC some too, especially if you relax timings. It's a fairly safe bet that if you buy CAS4 rated DDR2-800 and run it at CAS5 you can get another 100-150Mhz out of it, and possibly more. No need to buy DDR2-1066 if you figure out DDR2-850 would be enough (not that such a rating exists, but you could easily OC good DDR2-800 sticks to DDR2-850 speeds)
 
killingfield1975 said:
...when the motherboard spec states that it does ddr2800 or ddr21033 standard what does that mean? Is it the minimum requirement thhat is needed? Or does it mean that right out of the box the motherboard needs ram that runs on that specified speed?
Click to expand...

Its newegg's misleading category, lol. The board can support those ram speeds listed, but usually supports more speeds (not necessarily higher speeds, just more) than what's listed. The P35 chipset itself supports DDR2-667 and DDR2-800. Since theres no official spec for DDR2-1066, its not "supported" by Intel. So, check with the mobo manufacturer to be sure which memory speeds it supports.

As for selecting the proper memory speed for your system, silent-circuit explained it pretty well. I also have a little copy and paste table for such occasions:

/*------------- <cut n paste> -------------*/
Formulas for Intel platform @ 1:1 settings: (base FSB speed is SDR, or single data rate)
c x [Base FSB speed] = CPU speed (c = CPU Multiplier)
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed (DDR: double data rate)
4 x [Base FSB speed] = FSB speed (QDR: quad data rate; Effective FSB speed)

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is, for the most part, useless, so don't bother trying to do so. If the BIOS does it for you, just let it. All you need is a 1:1 config, though. Here's some possible clock speeds (as always with OC'ing, your results will vary):

E8400: 9 × 333 = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 << STOCK
E8400: 9 × 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Nice OC
E8400: 9 × 445 = 4.0Ghz, DDR2-890 << Good OC
E8400: 9 × 500 = 4.5Ghz, DDR2-1000 << Great OC
E8400: 9 × 533 = 4.8Ghz, DDR2-1066 << Nearly impossible

Q6600: 9 × 266 = 2.4Ghz, DDR2-533 << STOCK speeds
Q6600: 9 × 333 = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 << Nice OC
Q6600: 9 × 378 = 3.4Ghz, DDR2-756 << Good OC, near max for B3 stepping
Q6600: 9 × 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Great OC, near max for G0 stepping
/*------------- </cut n paste> -------------*/
 
Silent Circuit

I completely understand how to overclock a system at 1:1 ratio. Thank you for your post. The only partt that I might have a little trouble with is messing with RAM timings.

My plans are with the E8400 is to hit 4.0ghz. By doing simply math operations here is what i get:

4000/9= 444.44 mhz <--- this will be my fsb speed

444.44*2= 888.88mhz <---- my ram should be DDR2-890 but nothing exist at that speed. So my questions is should I go with ddr2-800 and bump the speed of the ram by lowering the timings OR should I get ddr2-1000 and bump it down. What would be the ideal choice here? ddr2-1000 will probably allow me to hit around 4.5ghz but theres no way i'm planning to go that high.

by the way, you mentioned that i should lower my timings if i do go with ddr2-800. Should i pay attention to the stock voltages that the ram need? if i raise the speed of ddr2-800 to ddr2-890 and relax the timings from 4-4-4- to 5-5-5- do you think i will need to raise voltage on ram as well? theres probably no way to tell unless i try it first.

444.44*4=1777.76mhz <--- quad pumped fsb
 
I'd go for DDR2-800 sticks that are known to OC well, like the OCZ 4GB SLI kit from Fry's that was on sale for $55AR.

EDIT: it looks like the deal is dead. If you want to be safe, pickup the G.Skill DDR2-1000 4GB kit. Then again, theres no guarantee your CPU will reach that high, but there is a good chance it will.
 
enginurd said:
I'd go for DDR2-800 sticks that are known to OC well, like the OCZ 4GB SLI kit from Fry's that was on sale for $55AR.

EDIT: it looks like the deal is dead. If you want to be safe, pickup the G.Skill DDR2-1000 4GB kit. Then again, theres no guarantee your CPU will reach that high, but there is a good chance it will.
Click to expand...


well if you saythat the OCZ Sli kits are the way to go, i would rather do that. I want to hit 4.0ghz for sure.
 
killingfield1975 said:
well if you saythat the OCZ Sli kits are the way to go, i would rather do that. I want to hit 4.0ghz for sure.
Click to expand...

If you buy the DDR2-1000 G.Skill kit you /know/ it's good for that, because it's rated for higher than the speed you intend to run. So unless you can get the OCZ kit for less, I wouldn't worry about it.

End result is you need to be picky about the DDR2-800 kit you get, or not so picky about the DDR2-1000 kit you get.
 
I recommend th DDR2 1000 RAM since, as silent-circuit has pointed out, you know that it can hit DDR2 1000 speeds since it's rated for that. It'll give you the headroom you need for OCing to 4.0Ghz and more. And since DDR2 1000 RAM is only $15 to $20 more, I say its worth the extra costs for that headroom and certainty.
 
if i get ddr2-1000 that means i have to run my fsb at 500mhz. i dont think i can hit 4.5ghz on that chip on air.

so... my question is can i underclock the speed of the ddr2-1000 ram to run at 445mhz? so more like to run at ddr2-890?
 
killingfield1975 said:
if i get ddr2-1000 that means i have to run my fsb at 500mhz. i dont think i can hit 4.5ghz on that chip on air.

so... my question is can i underclock the speed of the ddr2-1000 ram to run at 445mhz? so more like to run at ddr2-890?
Click to expand...

Of course you can underclock the ram. ;)
 
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