NEW BUSINESS/GAMING CPU... NEEDS MAXIMUM BANDWITH AND PROCESSING POWER!!!

**Legolas** · 09-04-08, 12:00 AM

D-Link DWA-556 PCI Express Xtreme Desktop Adapter - Retail

GIGABYTE GV-R487X2-2GH-B Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800 (PC3 14400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1800C8DF - Retail

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1600EB4GK - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-X48T-DQ6 LGA 775 DDR3 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

ASUS Rampage Extreme LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550 - Retail

POF: The q9550 has been oc'd to 3.8GHz stable on air by many people... That means a 475 FSB on air; I'm too lazy to keep up with a water cooling sytem... So, my question to you: "Which Motherboard and Ram set would you pick knowing that the x48 will be the last chipset of it's kind... The X58 will take its place in the future and will double it's bandwidth... Also, if this processor will max out at 3.8GHz, then how well will an underclocked DDR3 2000 4GB set suite me over a DDR3 1800 running just above clock speeds!!! (which ram would you pick

) Please also comment on the video card... I've seen multiple reviews that prove (I would list them, but I didn't save the page ip. It is pretty obvious though...) that it is better to get the 4870 x2 rather than going crossfire with two 4870's or anything else for that matter... Will the pci 2.0 e hold out or will crossfire be able to handle 4 GPU's in the future

Serious questions that NEED a serious answer... I would also appreciate any leads towards sweet ass air cooled cases and low noise fans...

Thanks for the help!!!

(Old balls and all!!!)
Lego

**jason_jinx** · 09-04-08, 12:17 AM

If you are going all out then yes.

Q9550, Rampage Extreme, 4870x2, and ddr3 2000

**Legolas** · 09-04-08, 12:21 AM

Jason,
I couldn't imagine a better time to pick the latest and greatest hardware... Prices have dropped severely and the x48 chipset seems like it will be the last chipset revealed before the x58 which puts it at the top of its class for mid to high end chipsets... I've seen reviews on intel's 8 core skulltail and it seems that no applications make it worth the money (plus, you will basically have to buy a new system from the ground up... Intel seems to be "borrowing" AMD's multi-core designs... Today, it seems that the latest hardware surpassed pretty much all software by an extreme margin... IMHO, hardware has peaked until the next generation x58 chipsets become readily available and usefull... What do you guys think

**Legolas** · 09-04-08, 12:24 AM

To me... I don't understand why one would get ddr3 2000 if you can't oc your cpu enough to do a 1:1 ratio... Would you rather "underclock" a 2000 or overclock an 1800

<--- good question.... anyone got an answer

**kamakazi7640** · 09-04-08, 12:28 AM

so confusing.

**SapiensErus** · 09-04-08, 12:31 AM

You may be able to drive it up in the future.

Also, with an intel processor, (for now, they just changed this) the memory speed is not relative to the FSB speed.

You can clock the RAM up as high as it can take and the CPU up as high it can take.  Although there is a balancing act between, it is not nearly as pronounced as with an AMD CPU which has an integrated memory controller.

What prevents you from turning up your RAM?  FSB not equal to RAM.

**Legolas** · 09-04-08, 06:35 PM

Soy,
I wasn't aware that one would see large performance increases when your ram runs at a higher frequency than your FSB... The last rig I built was a 478 socket P4... I always thought that your rig would run better when you had it set to a 1:1 ratio... I never saw an improvement when using a 5:4 (cpu/ram) split or anything else... I guess I'm just getting old...

When did they change the fsb/ram correlation

Can you point me to a link that sums some of this up

**SapiensErus** · 09-04-08, 07:51 PM

I was simply saying, they have different clocks, you can run them at independent speeds because FSB not equal to RAM bus. But you will not see increased performance when your RAM bus is higher than your FSB. When running at greater than 1:1 ratio of RAM to FSB you wind up with data piling up, waiting to get through the FSB; it is ineffeicent. But you knew that, I apologize for assuming you are an idiot (no, it was not THAT bad... but I often have to explain things to people

).

Here is an interesting article about DDR3 at high speeds and the new motherboards designed to support them.
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...4805&Itemid=23
He claims that the X48 chipset mobos are designed to allow you to push that RAM up despite not having a matching FSB. However, he also discovered that beyond 1800 it became unstable.

**Latinman** · 09-10-08, 12:06 AM

Nice Rig just built one same motherboard processor and ram just yesterday for a friend of mine.. antec 750 watt powersupply along with some other small details are the only things that differ.. Solid rig for overclocking just get a tunia heatsink & fan and your set.

on another note later this year intel will release the newest chipset x58 I7 Nehalem

**Legolas** · 09-14-08, 01:03 AM

Well, this poll turned in an extremely definitive answer!!!

HardOCP provided a nice review of the ASUS http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?...50aHVzaWFzdA== and the Gigabyte http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?...50aHVzaWFzdA== mb's... They both seem to be extremely sound and I probably couldn't go wrong with either one of them, but since 1 broke the world record for ram frequency, the decision becomes a little easier...

Now I have to figure out how to keep this bad boy cool so I can see how far I can push the ram... I want to hit a 500+ FSB (~4.2 GHz OC) with the quad core q9550, but I'm pretty sure that I can't do it with 8 gigs of ram and I will probably have to water cool this rig since I plan to run it under full cpu and ram load for extended periods of time (~10 hour bursts)...

Now, I need to research ram (most likely the corsair dominator 4gig set), power supply, and hard-drives so that I can get quality products that will help me achieve my goals...

Hell, by the time I'm done with my research the x58 chipset

will be out and it will be time to start all over again!!!

Originally Posted by Latinman

Nice Rig just built one same motherboard processor and ram just yesterday for a friend of mine.. antec 750 watt powersupply along with some other small details are the only things that differ.. Solid rig for overclocking just get a tunia heatsink & fan and your set.

on another note later this year intel will release the newest chipset x58 I7 Nehalem

Which did you choose

Thanks for the advice fellas!!!

With a special thx to Jason, Soy, Tony and bigdog...

Lego