E4300 system upgrade mobo suggestion?

[Muhadib]

Ok, it?s official. Supreme Commander is my daddy and I must have a computer that runs 8 player games. This is what I plan to upgrade to so far.

$169.00 Intel Core 2 Duo E4300
$239.99 GeIL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 3-3-3-8 PC2 6400
$145.99 ASUS P5B-E
~$60.00 Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (Can not find a seller)

$ 614.98

Anybody stuffed a Ultra-120 in a Super LANBOY case? I know the lanboy is pretty wide so hopefully it fits.

I plan on overclocking the piss out of this CPU so is there a better motherboard choice?

 

[vailr]

I'd suggest looking at the Abit IP35 series (IP35-Pro, IP35, & IP35-E), using the Intel P35 "Bearlake" and ICH9 southbridge.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38276
Or the Gigabyte version: GA-P35-DS3
http://translate.google.com/translate?h...2BICH9%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

 

[yacoub]

vailr - those boards aren't even out or reviewed yet though.



Read NewEgg owner reviews before getting anything. About the only board right now that doesn't look like a hectic turd is the 650i MSI board Anandtech reviewed last week. Most of the stuff you'd expect to be good (Asus boards for example, and Gigabyte) have some pretty horrible reviews about DOA and flakey boards.

 

[Muhadib]

It sounds like you both are suggesting that there is some reason to wait till something better comes along? Explain...

What the best overclocker for E4300 right now?

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: yacoubRead NewEgg owner reviews before getting anything. About the only board right now that doesn't look like a hectic turd is the 650i MSI board Anandtech reviewed last week. Most of the stuff you'd expect to be good (Asus boards for example, and Gigabyte) have some pretty horrible reviews about DOA and flakey boards.

a lot of Newegg reviews are just a joke.

Muhadib, what features are must haves e.g. do you need Firewire, RAID, SLI etc. etc.
& yes, Bearlake chipsets mobos should be here shortly along with the 1333fsb CPUs

 

[Muhadib]

As mentioned before all I need is a good overclocker. SLI, RAID and firewire are not important.

 

[brencat]

Muhadib, I suggest you wait 3 weeks for the Intel price drops. You'll be able to pick up a new E6420 for just a few dollars more than that E4300 costs now, plus more and more mobos are slated for release soon. I'll second yacoub's suggestion about the MSI P6N Platinum and the Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus just reviewed yesterday - both are on my short list. The 650i chipset seems to have a lot less demons than the P965-based boards, plus you can run 1T command rates and have greater OC flexibility on your RAM. Only thing is they don't seem to OC quad-cores as well, nor go beyond 490 FSB super-stable. Still early however and bios releases are likely to fix these. P35 coming soon too...

Silly question maybe but why does a guy with an overclocked Opteron 148 and a 7900GT need a new PC just to play SupCom?

 

[Muhadib]

Originally posted by: brencat
Silly question maybe but why does a guy with an overclocked Opteron 148 and a 7900GT need a new PC just to play SupCom?

SupCom is playable on 4 player games 500 unit limit. On a 4 player game 1000 unit limit it slows to a crawl in late game, maybe ~5Fps, even with every single graphic option turned off. SupCom is the first game to use dual core fully to make it more playable at larger game sizes. I want to play 8 player games and thats not possible without a dual core CPU.

From what you folks are saying I may just buy a $100 AMD dual core till this Intel platform solidifys a bit more.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

nope, wait until april 22 and buy a e4300 then, and get calue ram ddr2 800 for about 120-150$. memory prices are at the bottom right now. this is good time to upgrade ram. instead of the p5b-e go for a gigabyte ds3 or ds4 for better passive cooling. scythe andy would be my aftermarket heatsink of choice.

 

[Muhadib]

Originally posted by: BlingBlingArsch
nope, wait until april 22 and buy a e4300 then, and get calue ram ddr2 800 for about 120-150$. memory prices are at the bottom right now. this is good time to upgrade ram. instead of the p5b-e go for a gigabyte ds3 or ds4 for better passive cooling. scythe andy would be my aftermarket heatsink of choice.

Price breaks on april 22?

Are there issues with the p5b-e and the north and south bridge cooling solutions?

It seems the RAM market expected more people to purchase Vista and need an upgrade. Because of this mistake, I expect the ram prices to stay low for a while.

The Ultra-120 Extreme outperforms the scythe hands down, thanks for the opinion though.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

yep, intel announced to lower prices for nearly ervery model then.

the fiscal year ends in april for many (OEM) companies so they didnt want to buy much new Ram within the last 2-3 months and thus prices went down...and will rise in May again...my 2cts.

sure the Ultra is better but also twice as expensive.

 

[Muhadib]

Originally posted by: BlingBlingArsch
sure the Ultra is better but also twice as expensive.

Scythe INFINITY $58 US
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/024/scinf1000.html

VS

Thermalright ULTRA-120 Extreme $55.69 US ($64.50 CAD )
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?...A-120-EXTREME&manufacture=THERMALRIGHT

Where did you find the Scythe INFINITY for ~$28?

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

where did i say infinity...i was talkin bout the Scythe Andy..which as i see on newegg is still too expensive. its bout 30Euros here.

 

[Muhadib]

The Andy does perform close to the old non-extreme 120 ultra. Not to shabby for $40 US.

My plan is to run overclocked and have speed fan adjust my fan voltage based on CPU temprature. I like my computer as quiet and overclocked as I can get away with, so I don't mind spending $15 more to buy the absolute best heatsink. I also like how the horizontal air flow of the ultra works with my current case layout.