Motherboard / Memory Selection

[Uber-Noober]

About the tri-annual time of year where I get a new system and sell my old one to my bro......Main concern is the Motheboard. I have read as much as possible on this but I'd appreciate your expert advice on the components below. I plan on pulling the trigger on this soon. You dont need to rationalize your recommendations, you all have much more experience than I do here.

 

Rock solid purchases (no advice requested)

Corsair 620w Power Supply (trusting Angry on this one)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817139002

 

e4300 C2C Allendale (heard its a breeze to OC - I'm not a pro like you guys)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819115013

Cooled with Thermalright ULtra 120

 

2 x WD 250gb 16mb cache RAID 0 drives

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822144701

 

7900GTO (none left to URL....glad I pulled the trigger when I did)

 

Anyway

Main Concern:

Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813128323

 

OR

 

DFI Infinity 775

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813136168

 

I'm leaning towards the Gigabyte because of its passive NB / SB system that looks far more effective than the DFI. However, its appears the Infinity has more 'tolerance' for memory and well, is DFI. And I'll have to do some aftermarket NB work to the DFI making the price relatively the same. Don't care about SLI, by the time I notice a single card just doesn't cut it a superior singel new model is out anyway.:mad:

 

Secondary concern (MEMORY very important with MB selection)

OCZ CZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 OCZ2A8002GK

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820227169

 

OR

 

OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820227139

 

Is there a difference between the above two. I am really leaning towards OCZ because of previous success with them and the fact their support is top notch. However, on Gigabytes QVL it doesn't list OCZ at all :mad: Does anybody know if either of these have the Micron D9 chips? OCZ website does not specify.

 

Basically, with this sys I want to get to 3GHz on air with ultra 120, nothing more. Sadly, the Venice in my sig just couldn't do it. I know nothing is guaranteed with OC'ing, but you can certainly increase your odds by getting the best quality / most compatible equipment.

 

Also, money is no object here as I only upgrade like this once every few years. (G.Skill ? Corsair? Xeon 3050 (heard this one is the champ for OC'ing at 3.5GHz+ at low temps?)

 

To recap, I want a air cooled system that can finally break 3 GHz without noisy chipset fans (the Lanparty in my sig sounded like a Dremel).

 

Anyway, a very sincere and humble thanks for steering this noob in the right general direction. A simple Mainboard / CPU / Memory recommendation would be great.....

 

Aside: Angry, did you catch the Sens / Sabres game the other day? Thought of you....

[Coors]

Either mobo should easily get you to 3 ghz. I'm at 3060mhz right now with just a slight bump in voltage. On stock volts I was able to hit 3006 mhz. And this is on stock cooling. So if all you want to do is hit 3 ghz then you don't even really need an aftermarket cooler. And as far as the ram I almost bought those OCZ rev. 2's but decided to pay a little more for the g.skill just because I've always had good success with them. (man ddr2 prices have been dropping...right after I built my rig too lol) those rev. 2's used to be like $240. When I bought these g.skill they were like $290 and they went down in price too.

[Syngensmyth]

Just curious why you would spend the extra money on the DQ6 over the DS3 or 6? I am considering the same question but had talked myself into the "S" model.

 

The E4300 may drop in price 2nd qtr of 07 if you are a procrastinator like me.

[Kingfisher]

My chip for whatever reason likes voltage, I needed 1.4625 v to hit 3.0.

Like Raider, I am at 3.06ghz on air cooling with 1.475v and still under testing.

 

I'd recommend Asus P5B series boards, they seem to be more stable than those Gigabytes. Open box can be a gamble, but they may or may not come with all the goodies. Check the shipping wieght, if it is more than 6 pounds you are going to get all the acessories. If not, you can get all the downloads from Asus support site. You can also contact Asus and they will send you a manual and motherboard support CD free.

 

My OCZ rev. 2 plats can go into the 1000 mhz area, I really enjoy this RAM so far.

 

Compared to your venice, your new PC will smoke that old one.

Have fun and good luck.

[Uber-Noober]

To Raiderfan; I figured if I can make it to 3.0ghz I might as well spend the 50 bucks for a good aftermarket cooler if I can push it more. I leave my computer on all the time so silence is golden; dunno if the stock cooler is quiet or not but I've heard great things about the Ultra 120. Maybe if God likes me, I can get to 3.2Ghz? Dare I say 3.3Ghz?

 

To sygensmyth; I want the dq6 because of its superior quality nb/sb/capacitor cooling system. It appears beefier than the ds3. Worth the $70 imho. Again silence is golden; I HATED the stock nb heatsink on the Lanparty right now and the VC-RE is still the loudest fan in my system. Don't care about the SLI option but maybe I might use it......

 

Right now I'm looking at the Giga / OCZ ATI. But I'm also leaning towards the g.Skill because they are confirmed Micron D9s......

 

As for the 4300 price drop, I can only wait until the end of this week because my brother leaves town and I have to give him my current computer. With my luck, the price drop will cancel out any savings by increased memory / cpu / power supply prices. (remember: ddr500 2Gb sticks......)

[Syngensmyth]

...(remember: ddr500 2Gb sticks......)...

Yes, and a painful memory it is.

 

Didn't know about the better cooling on the DQ6. Good point.

 

As to coolers ... Cooler Master's new GeminII is due out March. 2 more fans yes, but those big 120's can be quiet.

 

Edit: You probably have seen this but here is a good review of the Ultra. Gotta love the rubber bands:)

[Uber-Noober]

please don't quote me on the better cooling of the DQ6; its just pure speculation on my part. The way I see it, if I take off the infinity NB cooler, I'm going to have to put a vc-re or similar on there anyway, back to where I'm at right now. I have heard great reviews on the DQ6 as well and Angry recommended it.

 

Plus with the ultra 120 on there, with my Corsair 120mm power supply fan AND my 120mm exhaust fan there will be excellent airflow around the DQ6 northbridge.

 

BTW: Here is a great review of the ddr2 modules out there. Apparently, there is no difference between the OCZ crossfire and PLat Rev2. I'm thinking of going with the G.Skills afterall; the results here speak plainly about the benefit of going with Micron D9.

[Uber-Noober]

http://www.hardware.info/en-US/articles/am...DR2800_review/4

[Branjo]

Im in the same boat as you at the moment bro, heres some info I picked up.

 

The DQ6 limits the kind of coolers you can use, most with a back plate will either need to be modded to fit, or the crazy cool heatsink will need to be totally removed, there are bound to be a few that fit great also, Just a word of warning dude. Another point is the second PCIe slot for the Graphics card will not run at x16, I believe with two cards x8 is its max. It started out just to provide a 4 monitor setup and through BIOS updates and later revisions has turned into SLI.

 

The E4300 is what I am also gonna go for too, common sense prevails here.

With the later revisions of the Gigabyte DQ6,DS3 they apparently have better compatibility with lots more RAM, in clubit.com you can choose your revision while newegg you could get any revision.

 

All said the DQ6 is one of the nicest looking boards with a ton of features but just going by reviews and customer ratings it will probably get the same overclock as the DS3. As kingfisher has said the ASUS P5 board look equally as awesome and has the same kind of cooling and in benchmark reviews against the DQ6 it comes out on top but not by much. good luck bro

[Big Jim]

I received my DS3 last Thur. 2-22 and it wes rev. 3.3 and it was from NewEgg

[Branjo]

I received my DS3 last Thur. 2-22 and it wes rev. 3.3 and it was from NewEgg

 

Nice one, I hope thats what everyone will get, although rev 2.0 is said to be ok too.

[Coors]

Don't know if you guys have seen this review or not:

 

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1048/1/pa...tion/index.html

 

Note: there is a discrepancy in this review saying that earlier versions of the DQ6 were made with electrolyte capacitors which is obviously wrong. All DS3's and DQ6's have all solid capacitors.

 

@Branjo: I remember you asking about the differences between the rev. 2.0 and 3.3 and I wasn't 100% certain but according to this review the only difference is that the 3.3 natively supports 1333 mhz cpu's. And updating the bios on a 1.0 or 2.0 will essentially give you a 3.3 mobo. Oh and I think they added a couple more memory dividers.