Gaming Motherboard Recommendations

[Azaran]

So here?s what?s happening. Buddy wants to build a new gaming system. He?s come to me for help with the motherboard only... it?s been about 5 years since I built a rig. SO I?ve gotten help on these forums before, here?s hoping you guys can help out!

At last count he was planning the following core hardware:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 12MB L2 Cache
OCZ DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) 2GB

The original board (EVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1) he was looking at getting we nixed because of a number of iffy reviews and personal experience by a friend of ours (on his 3rd RMA).

Obviously he wants to go DDR3, and it?s a sticking point for him. So any recommendations?

Thanks guys

 

[ielmox]

I would pick an Intel chipset from Gigabyte or Asus, as Intel logic just works miles better than nVidia. Even then you have to choose from the p35, p45 x38, x48... all have several variants and many support DDR3. In terms of performance I do not believe there are huge differences between models, but the later ones usually come with increased power consumption, PCI Express version 2 etc...

Also I think the p45 and x48 are manufactured exclusively on 65nm, instead of 90.

By the way, moving forward, 2GB RAM is not nearly enough for a gaming system, especially if you plan on using Vista. Be safe and get 4 GB because RAM makes a huge difference when gaming.

 

[DSF]

What's his reasoning for DDR3? In case he's not aware, there's no real performance increase moving from DDR2 to DDR3 for a gaming system. There's even less performance difference between relatively affordable DDR3-1333 and extremely expensive DDR3-2000. All he's really paying for is big numbers.

If he's convinced that DDR3 is a must-have then he'd probably like an X48 motherboard. It's expensive with the biggest number too.

Seriously, he'd get more performance with DDR2 and a Q9550 than he would with DDR3 and a Q9450 for the same price or less.

Tell your friend I recommend that he logs on here and posts the complete specs of his build. I have a feeling he's going to be spending a fair bit of money with little to no performance increase to show for it.

 

[Azaran]

The DDR3 thing is for trying to extend the life of the build as much as possible. Depending on where you go, you'll find benches showing anywhere from 0-15% increase in performance. Its not about whats got the biggest number and price tag. We've been through the discussion and its pretty much settled. A.gain, his build not mine

The initial reasons behind going with the 790i Ultra nvidia chipset is it seemed to out perform the Intel chipsets. However with the reports of data corruption and other issues I was wanting to look in other directions. He's not planning on going SLI right now but is partial to Nvidia cards over ATI. Also looking in to if recent bio's upgrades have fixed the corruption issues.

I"ll post the original build he was planning on. Keep in mind this hasn't been revised since June.

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 12MB L2 Cache
Mobo:
EVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1
RAM:
OCZ - OCZ3N2000SR2GK DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) 2GB (2 x 1GB)
Video Card:
EVGA 01G-P3-N983-AR Geforce 9800GT
PSU:
Rosewill RX950-S-B 950W
Drives:
Western Digital Raptor WD1500AHFD 150GB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB
Case:
Thermaltake ArmorPlus(Armor+) VH6000BWS

 

[nevbie]

Extending life of the build with DDR3? That is pointless, as Socket 775 is dying right now. He would have to upgrade his CPU&mobo together, if such upgrade comes. True, he could then use those DDR3 sticks, but DDR3 is still young and expensive.. if such upgrade would later happen, the currently available DDR3 sticks might seem sucky and a bad purchase, especially because they are just 1GB sticks. But it's his decision.

Q9450 production is stopping, and it's price position is being replaced by Q9550.
I'd get 2x2=4GB DDR2 RAM. Of course it might not be useful for upgrades, just as 775 socket won't be. I never understood upgrading though, so I'm biased.

About motherboard, I'd pick something P45 chipset based.. I'd just read P45 motherboard reviews & check what names I see on forums like these. Picking a motherboard is always a bit difficult as you'll always find mysterious problems.

 

[DSF]

CPU: Fine, but 2-3 cores are likely to be idling most of the time unless he does things like folding.

Motherboard: Don't buy an Nvidia chipset board if you aren't using SLi. If he's not using it now he may as well not be using it. Having an Nvidia motherboard does not improve compatibility with Nvidia graphics cards - any card will work in any motherboard that has the appropriate slot. (There are a few very rare exceptions, but they have nothing to do with brand competition.)

RAM: I've never seen anything suggesting close to 15% in gaming, I'd be interested to see that. DDR3 isn't going to extend the life of his system. No game is going to be unplayable when using DDR2 and magically playable on systems that use DDR3 with the same CPU/video card. He's far better off getting 4GB of DDR2 than 2GB of DDR3. It's his build, but he's deluding himself. The $150 he's overspending on RAM would make more difference as an addition to the video card budget. He doesn't seem to be into ATI, but the GTX260/280 are seductively calling his name.

Video Card: I don't understand skimping here with all the money he's willing to blow on the rest of the system. This is the most important part of a gaming PC and it seems to be an afterthought here.

PSU: There are a couple good models (and maybe this is one, I don't know) but generally speaking Rosewill PSUs are sub par. He doesn't need anywhere near 950W anyway. 550W is plenty for that system, and 650W would be more than fine if he intended to SLi those video cards. Get a PSU from a better manufacturer like Seasonic, Corsair, BFG, Antec or some OCZs that's more appropriately sized for the system.

Drives: The Raptor is outdated. It doesn't have the speed advantage that it used to over older 7200RPM drives. Fast 7200RPM drives like the WD Caviar 640GB, Spinpoint 750GB, and a lot of the new Barracudas and 1TB drives have essentially caught up. If he wants a smaller boot drive that's actually going to be noticeably faster than his storage drive he probably needs to look at the VelociRaptor. There's a 150GB version, but it can be tough to find. The 300GB version is widely available.