X38 or wait for X48

[Dorkenstein]

I need to pick up a new motherboard, my previous board was a gigabyte P35. There are no other P35's that seem like a good solution, the IP35-Pro is the best but it doesn't have pci-e lan. So should I get an X38 board or wait a few weeks for an X48? Thanks for any help.

 

[mhouck]

Either way you go, wait until the x48 launch. That way if you do still go with the x38 the prices will have been pushed down and there will be even more reviews and charts to make a price/performance decision.

I personally would go with an x38 since there are models that support both ddr3 and 1600 fsb and to my knowledge that is the major hardware differences.

 

[Heidfirst]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/...ison,review-30367.html

 

[imported_wired247]

buy now... x38 is a great chipset.

prices will always come down if you wait. no news there.

 

[devolutionist]

why is having pci-e lan important? you're not going to get any more throughput unless you're building a server, and then I'd be questioning why you're using P35 or x38 for that task in the first place. hopefully i'm not reading your post correctly and you're looking for a new mobo for a different reason, and pci-e lan is just a factor in your decision criteria.

as far as the question goes, I'd go x38 now, and here's why: x38 BIOSes are just now becoming somewhat mature, and it'll be another six months to a year after x48's come up that they'll be worth buying. so unless you buying window extends into next year, I'd go with the x38.

 

[Arcanedeath]

The Ip35-E does have PCI-E GBE its the plain old IP35 and IP35 pro that have PCI not PCI-e lan check the IP35-E thread.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Cool, thanks. I am considering another P35 board just out of wanting to see all options. Is MSI a decent company? I have never bought one of their boards before.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
The Ip35-E does have PCI-E GBE its the plain old IP35 and IP35 pro that have PCI not PCI-e lan

the standard IP35 has PCI-E LAN too.
The Pro doesn't but has 2x PCI LAN - it's not an issue for 99% of people.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Cool, the IP35-e is a contender then. I am not going to jump on the DDR3 train yet. Can the 35-e use 45nm cpus?

 

[lopri]

Can anyone who has an x38 board please confirm whether the second PCIe x16 works with a single video card? I've been asking this for a month and haven't gotten an answer.

We know the X38 has two PCIe 2.0 X16 slots.

1) Can you use the bottom x16 slot instead of the top one, with a single video card?
2) If so, is there any performance difference between the two slots?
3) Plus, is it possible to use a video card in the bottom x16 slot along with other PCIe add-in card in the top x16 slot?

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[imported_wired247]

I've never tried it yet lopri... but I really don't see what the difference is, they are totally identical on the x38 boards

I need to do some tweaking inside my case, I can give it a shot (assuming I don't forget) and let you know

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Cool, the IP35-e is a contender then. I am not going to jump on the DDR3 train yet. Can the 35-e use 45nm cpus?

yes

 

[Dorkenstein]

Okay, so it's either IP35-e or an X38 board. Any X38 boards come out ahead? I am reading the stickied thread about mobo recommendations but I don't see mention of X38 boards, unless I'm blind. Thank you.

 

[antas]

Are you going for DDR3 or DDR2?

I'm using ABiT IX-38 w/ DDR2, good price, good performance I've been using it for around 3 months now, and nothing to complain. Except small bug for USB keyboard/mouse when installing windows. But other than that, everything working just as I'd expected.

ABiT IX-38 only has DDR2 slots, no DDR3.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i have a thread talkin about the ex38-ds4 on page 1 in this forum.

there are also a few mentions of it on www.xtremesystems.org forums

 

[Dorkenstein]

DDR-2.

How is Gigabyte as a brand, generally?

 

[antas]

Gigabyte IMO is a respectable brand today Currently using Gigabyte on vga I pick ABiT this time since it's cheaper, dunno these days, maybe GA lowering it's pricing? If it's on the same price sampe feature, I would choose Gigabyte. Well, ABiT is good brand as well, but it seems that Gigabyte has more options and slightly better on it's aftersales support.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: lopri
Can anyone who has an x38 board please confirm whether the second PCIe x16 works with a single video card? I've been asking this for a month and haven't gotten an answer.

We know the X38 has two PCIe 2.0 X16 slots.

1) Can you use the bottom x16 slot instead of the top one, with a single video card?
2) If so, is there any performance difference between the two slots?
3) Plus, is it possible to use a video card in the bottom x16 slot along with other PCIe add-in card in the top x16 slot?

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: lopri

Originally posted by: lopri
Can anyone who has an x38 board please confirm whether the second PCIe x16 works with a single video card? I've been asking this for a month and haven't gotten an answer.

We know the X38 has two PCIe 2.0 X16 slots.

1) Can you use the bottom x16 slot instead of the top one, with a single video card?
2) If so, is there any performance difference between the two slots?
3) Plus, is it possible to use a video card in the bottom x16 slot along with other PCIe add-in card in the top x16 slot?

Any input would be appreciated.

1) i would think you can. personally i do not since my two pci cards slots are used and my double slot 8800gts would screw that up

2) both slots are 16x PCI-express. there is no difference in performance

3) you can use your pci-express slots for whatever you want.

 

[lopri]

idiotekniQues: I appreciate your input. I do understand that things should work the way you described in theory, but I would like to confirm with first-hand experiences. It seems like a pretty easy test but no one hasn't answered yet, which makes me more curious about it.

Edit: BTW, on 780i a single GPU only works at the top PCIe x16 slot.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i would post on a more active forum for hardcore tech heads like www.xtremesystems.org to get your answer. or on the hard forums.