Hi guys, im plannin on building a new computer within the next few weeks. i've been wanting to really bad and things are finnaly starting to look up and hopefully ill have enough money to buy a fairly nice system. i was thinkin a q6600 w/ 4 gigs ram dual 8800gts a nice mobo and 500 gigs or so of hdd space. but i was wondering what kind of motherboard chipset i should look at getting? i know nvidia just released they're 780i chipset, and honestly i don't know a whole bunch about chipsets. but i've read on a couple places around that the 780i is really crappy and is bad of nvidia to force customers to get it to run 3 way sli and other things like that. so i was wondering if this was true? is the 780i a bad chipset? and if so (or even if not) what would be a better chipset to consider? ill be using this mainly for gaming. thanx for your help guys!
Motherboard chipset?
- Thread starter Kalgatha
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worshipme
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First off, if you're going to do SLI, then you'll need an Nvidia chipset. The 780i is basically a 680i with 3-way SLI and PCI-E 2.0. support (which no graphics card needs ATM) It is true that if you are not going to do SLI, then the Intel P35 and X38 chipsets are better as they can reach higher FSB speeds so are better for overclocking. I recommend the 680i as they are going for quite cheap at the moment. This is a good one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188012
Also, if this PC is for gaming and you're not going to be doing much video editing etc then a Wolfdale 45nm dual core would suit you better and will give better performance as games aren't threaded for quads: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
Here are some benchmarks if you still need convincing: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_9.html#sect0
Don't pay attention to the 3DMark results as they do not show real-life performance. BTW the E8400 overclocks just as high as the E8500 so you will get the same performance. As you can see, the Wolfdale dual core beats the quad cores in almost all of the gaming benchmarks.
Also, if this PC is for gaming and you're not going to be doing much video editing etc then a Wolfdale 45nm dual core would suit you better and will give better performance as games aren't threaded for quads: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
Here are some benchmarks if you still need convincing: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_9.html#sect0
Don't pay attention to the 3DMark results as they do not show real-life performance. BTW the E8400 overclocks just as high as the E8500 so you will get the same performance. As you can see, the Wolfdale dual core beats the quad cores in almost all of the gaming benchmarks.
alright, well im at school right now and the blocker won't let me look at the benchies, ill check em out when i get home. but you think i should go w/ the 680 in stead of the 780? how come? price is not a big issue so if ill get better performance at all out of the 780 then i'd rather do that.
worshipme
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You won't get better performance out of the 780i, it's really only a 680i with 3-way SLI and and PCI-E 2.0. support so it will not improve your rig's overclockability. Please don't waste your money on the 780i. If you want to, there's also the option of the 750i. It can run SLI with 16 lanes for each card and has PCI-E 2.0. support so it could be considered to be a better choice than the 680i. I'll link to one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130159
worshipme
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Wow, two of the most powerful card available, that would seriously pwn. If you are going to do Crossfire, make sure you get an X38 board as with the P35, the two cards do not get the full 16 lanes each (PCI-Ex16) If you're going to overclocck, then an X38 is better than an Nvidia chipset.
worshipme
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It performs better than the 8800 ULTRA which costs around $700. The 3870X2 costs $450.
Not true at all. Ask an ATI graphics card owner. The catalyst team work their asses off to put out good drivers. Nvidia is often the manufacturer lacking in the driver department as I've found out.
esa193
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where do you get your info from?
the 780i is just as good if not better then overclocking then a x38 mb
plus evga covers any damages done to the board from overclocking
also i would not recommended and ati card as of right now
ati merged with amd and there products since then have gone down the tube imo
if i was you i would get a 780i m/b and if you want to do dual gpus
do dual evga 8800 gts
and if that isnt enough power you can always throw in a 3rd card for full pci x 2.0 performance in 3 lanes
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