x48 vs 790i

[Stalfosknight]

I am about to start an epic build but I cant decide weather I should go with the x48 board or the 790i. If I went with x48 I would probably go with 9800gx2 but then I have the problem of the new ati 4870x2 that is going to be launched.... Also x48 rampage formula supports ddr2 which is a plus...

If I go 790i I would prefer to do either 8800gts 512 in sli or 9800gtx in sli but then I end up with ddr3 ram not that I am against ddr3 other than the price

I will be using either q9450 or x3350 cpu
vista 64bit
raid 0 2x 500 gig
mostly going to be a gaming / rendering machine

just looking for recommendations

ddr3 vs ddr2
sli vs crossfire

Thanks in advance

 

[MrGuvernment]

Well

Do you need SLI // Xfire? do the games you play support it, what res do you play at?

ddr2 right now, cheaper and performance ddr3 doesnt give much right now over ddr2

 

[K1tty]

goodluck with vista x64 ... I have tried it now 4 times since it's inception and it has improved but it is far from usable for gaming unfortunately.
Why would you not consider the x38 or the 780i since you have no real desire for ddr3?
I have a x38 with a 3870x2 and a 780i with 8800GTS 512 SLi. I prefer the sli over the xfire. However, depending on whether you want to OC or not that may affect your motherboard choice. I know that the nvidia boards do not play as nicely with the quads as the intel chipsets do. I have been able to get a
Q9650 to 4ghz on the 780i whereas I reached 4.7 on the x38.

 

[toddw]

See sig, running WinXP. 18306 3Dmark06

I can get in @ 3.4 but it's not prime stable.

I like the 790i but I'm not in "love" with it. Really thought I'd get 3.5+ stable... still, DDR1600 runs native linked/synced at this speed. Would I do this system again? Yes, but I'd have waited until May for some price drops to happen This setup cost me ~$1.8k

Mabe with a new bios and a MB guide for the 790i I will get 3.4 prime stable, but the same can be said of the X48 when it has a few bios upgrades.

 

[NKDietrich]

goodluck with vista x64 ... I have tried it now 4 times since it's inception and it has improved but it is far from usable for gaming unfortunately.

Thats crap. I've had no trouble gaming on my crap ass 7800 GTX/Opteron system in Vista x64 for months now. Im tired of seeing this tired shit spewed by people who couldn't figure out how to properly configure their operating system and maintain their drivers. State specific problems or stop spewing FUD out of your ass.

But enough of that, to the OP's concerns...

If you game at 1920x1200 or higher and plan on using SLI, the 780i is probably a much cheaper solution than the 790i, and as we know, overclocking your CPU much beyond 3.0Ghz does nothing for high resolution gaming. You are going to be strictly GPU limited 99% of the time. DDR3 is also a huge waste of money and if you get entry level DDR3 its going to be slower than much cheaper high performance DDR2. But, again, its purely academic since RAM speeds so close to each other don't matter for gaming either.

If you do not want to use SLI, there are some good X48 DDR2 boards out there that will probably overclock better than the 780i or 790i, especially when going for high FSBs on a quad core.

 

[firas]

Q9450 ($379) + 790i board ($349.99) + 2X2GB DDR3@1333 ($339.00) + 8800GTS G92 SLI ($520)
$1588


Q9450 ($379) + X48 board ($299.99) + 2X2GB DDR2@1066 ($179) + 9800GX2 ($580)
$1438

so with the first option you are paying more to enjoy what? the great performance and OC capabilities and endless life time of the nforce chipsets? or the luxury performance of SLI? maybe the 0 gap between the DDR2 and DDR3 performance!

btw, does the Rampage support Raid 0? I guess it doesn’t support Raid,firewire, and eSATA
I also heard that Gigabyte learned the lesson from the X38 round and corrected it’s situation with its new X48 boards

 

[AthlonXP]

the rampage formula supports Raid, its a great board as I currently own one myself. Now having owned both setups I went with the x48-9800gx2 route and I am totally happy with my decision.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

790i board is great, read review on the front page. by the end of the year hardly anything will be released ddr2. we are going to ddr3, there is no way around it. ddr3 prices are half what they were a few months ago. ive been running vista 64 ult. with sli and games since last summer, abs no prob. v64 media center is great also. like the above guy outlined with the prices, for only an extra $150, you will be able to get a board with lifetime warranty and step up, also have a ddr3 board when a lot of these other guys are trying to stick it out with ddr2.

 

[firas]

the rampage formula supports Raid, its a great board as I currently own one myself. Now having owned both setups I went with the x48-9800gx2 route and I am totally happy with my decision.

thnx for pointing to the RAID thing, btw the option I mentioned is actually my personal plan

I thought about the first option but .....

XFX nForce 790i Ultra Motherboard Preview

Now, as mentioned earlier, we have editors that have killed as many as three 680i motherboards in the last year, but we also have another editor that has used the same 680i motherboard for video card testing all year long handling almost exclusively high-end power hungry graphics cards without a single issue. That editor also uses a 680i in his personal system, without issue. The difference on these two fronts is that the editor that has been killing off 680i motherboards left and right has been overclocking the hell out of them. The editor who has problem free 680i experiences never touches a front side bus speed. We have seen many users post in our forums about very similar experiences. Now we know that overclocking these motherboards technically voids the warranty, but it is without a doubt that the “Ultra” series motherboards from NVIDIA’s partners are sold with high end overclocking in mind. Surely what we see our readers going through makes us wonder if these NVIDIA designed motherboards are engineered well enough to handle long term heavy duty enthusiast abuse? NVIDIA has never come forth and said, “Yeah, those boards kinda suck once you start running them over 500MHz FSB.” But we have to admit that is the feeling we are left with...about the 680i.

I only killed 1 mobo in my life, that was long ago with some cheap Intel board (something around $20) and I couldn’t sleep for like 2 weeks so I just can't pay $350 for a board that could fry if I OCed it

790i board is great, read review on the front page. by the end of the year hardly anything will be released ddr2. we are going to ddr3, there is no way around it. ddr3 prices are half what they were a few months ago. ive been running vista 64 ult. with sli and games since last summer, abs no prob. v64 media center is great also. like the above guy outlined with the prices, for only an extra $150, you will be able to get a board with lifetime warranty and step up, also have a ddr3 board when a lot of these other guys are trying to stick it out with ddr2.

DDR3 prices are better now for sure, I thought about it and ..well…. I can afford it but I didn’t find my $$ under the bed, and I can’t just pay that extra $$ for …. nothing
I’ll get on the DDR3 train next year not now

 

[daemionsos]

Thats crap. I've had no trouble gaming on my crap ass 7800 GTX/Opteron system in Vista x64 for months now. Im tired of seeing this tired shit spewed by people who couldn't figure out how to properly configure their operating system and maintain their drivers. State specific problems or stop spewing FUD out of your ass.

I'll second that. I have been gaming on Vista x64 exclusively (except the odd xbox title) for a year now.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

thnx for pointing to the RAID thing, btw the option I mentioned is actually my personal plan

I thought about the first option but .....



I only killed 1 mobo in my life, that was long ago with some cheap Intel board (something around $20) and I couldn’t sleep for like 2 weeks so I just can't pay $350 for a board that could fry if I OCed it

its your money but i dont see how an anecdote about an editor and 3 680i boards could have anything to do with buying a 790i board. what you are implying is that technology never changes; something that happened a year or 2 ago is absolutely sure to happen today, to you with a completely different board. if you look around i am sure there are some really proven amd boards with sdram for sale.

 

[brian_g]

790i board is great, read review on the front page. by the end of the year hardly anything will be released ddr2. we are going to ddr3, there is no way around it. ddr3 prices are half what they were a few months ago. ive been running vista 64 ult. with sli and games since last summer, abs no prob. v64 media center is great also. like the above guy outlined with the prices, for only an extra $150, you will be able to get a board with lifetime warranty and step up, also have a ddr3 board when a lot of these other guys are trying to stick it out with ddr2.

The step up option is great but there are really no motherboards on the market now that are future proof whether using ddr2 or 3 since a new motherboard will be required at the end of the year or beginning of next year for nehalem. My personal opinion is to wait for that M/B uprade to switch to DDR3, hopefully prices will have dropped and I am sure speeds will have increased.

 

[officermartinez]

thnx for pointing to the RAID thing, btw the option I mentioned is actually my personal plan

I thought about the first option but .....

XFX nForce 790i Ultra Motherboard Preview


I only killed 1 mobo in my life, that was long ago with some cheap Intel board (something around $20) and I couldn’t sleep for like 2 weeks so I just can't pay $350 for a board that could fry if I OCed it


DDR3 prices are better now for sure, I thought about it and ..well…. I can afford it but I didn’t find my $$ under the bed, and I can’t just pay that extra $$ for …. nothing
I’ll get on the DDR3 train next year not now

I've killed (5) 680i's / 680i LT's, of different name brands.. (Abit, EVGA and XFX).

 

[K1tty]

Ok well up until recently creative xfi sound cards were not stable in vista x64. There was a major issue with having to disable and re-enable services. Just google it and you will find masses of people who were facing this issue.
This time around there was a new driver which seemed to fix the audio issues.
You must not play older games to say that there are no issues. Yes, all of my newer games worked fine (crysis, hl2ep 2, tf2, etc). However, try playing cod2, coduo or any other older titles. They are not stable.
This was all on a new install and completely updated legit copy of vista x64. Why the hell do you think I would make this up? Yes I agree that there are some people who will say stuff doesn't work without trying it ... but I have tried this crap many many times and it is just crap for a main os for gaming. But as you can see I still have it and must use it for other things.

Thats crap. I've had no trouble gaming on my crap ass 7800 GTX/Opteron system in Vista x64 for months now. Im tired of seeing this tired shit spewed by people who couldn't figure out how to properly configure their operating system and maintain their drivers. State specific problems or stop spewing FUD out of your ass.

But enough of that, to the OP's concerns...

If you game at 1920x1200 or higher and plan on using SLI, the 780i is probably a much cheaper solution than the 790i, and as we know, overclocking your CPU much beyond 3.0Ghz does nothing for high resolution gaming. You are going to be strictly GPU limited 99% of the time. DDR3 is also a huge waste of money and if you get entry level DDR3 its going to be slower than much cheaper high performance DDR2. But, again, its purely academic since RAM speeds so close to each other don't matter for gaming either.

If you do not want to use SLI, there are some good X48 DDR2 boards out there that will probably overclock better than the 780i or 790i, especially when going for high FSBs on a quad core.

 

[Nasty]

See sig, running WinXP. 18306 3Dmark06

I can get in @ 3.4 but it's not prime stable.

I like the 790i but I'm not in "love" with it. Really thought I'd get 3.5+ stable... still, DDR1600 runs native linked/synced at this speed. Would I do this system again? Yes, but I'd have waited until May for some price drops to happen This setup cost me ~$1.8k

Mabe with a new bios and a MB guide for the 790i I will get 3.4 prime stable, but the same can be said of the X48 when it has a few bios upgrades.

Do you have the P03 bios update?