Mobo for Q9450?

[DeathSniper]

Hey all,

I'm getting a Q9450 (with a Thermalright ULTIMA-90) & I've got 4GB DDR2 PC8500 OCZ Reaper as well as I have a 3870X2 on it's way over. Any motherboard suggestions? It will be primarily used for gaming and I will be overclocking to most likely 3-3.4Ghz area. SLI/Xfire is not a concern of mine at all. I've gotten these as suggestions - DFI LT X38-T2R, Asus Maximus Formula X38, Asus P5E (vanilla, or -VM) and they all seem to be great mobos; however I'm wondering if there might be something else out there that better suits my purposes. I'm also leaning more towards Intel chipsets rather than the nvidia ones, and I'd prefer to spend less than $250 CDN if possible (I'm in Toronto, so I use mostly canadacomputers, directcanada, and ncix), and I do have a E6600 in my current rig that I can use to re-flash with if necessary. Any mobo suggestions would be appreciated!


Needs:

Clearance for Thermalright ULTIMA-90
5+ SATA ports (4HDD + 1 DVDRW)
DDR2 mem slots
Stable voltage (Will be on 24/7)

Thanks a ton!

 

[DeathSniper]

Leaning towards the Asus Maximus Formula; however anyone have any other suggestions or opinions/experience? Much appreciated, thanks!

 

[Snakexor]

I would highly recommend the DFI x38 T2R, especially if you are looking to o/c a quad. Check out the threads over at xtremesystems.org and see the great results they are getting there!

 

[Skraeling]

I got a P5E and my q9450 is coming in on wed. if you wanna wait to see what i think of it.

 

[runawayprisoner]

If you can wait until Friday, I'll tell you what happens with P5E-VM HDMI as well. I got a X3350 to 3.80GHz with this board. Now to see if Q9450 would do the same thing...

 

[DeathSniper]

Sure - I'd love your results . I'll probably wait until next Sun to make the mobo purchase

 

[DeathSniper]

Well, about to head out to purchase mobo in the next hour. Any thoughts anyone?


Rest of my config:

Q9450 w/ Thermalright Ultima 90
ATI Radeon 3870 X2
2x2GB DDR28500 OCZ Reaper
2x WD 74GB Raptor
1x WD 150GB Raptor
1x WD 640GB
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Corsair HX620 P/S
LG GGC-H20L HDDVD/BD combo



Needs:
Clearance for Thermalright ULTIMA-90
5+ SATA ports (4HDD + 1 DVDRW)
DDR2 mem slots
Stable voltage (Will be on 24/7)

 

[Skraeling]

Sorry took so long to reply, my P5E died after the first post on the second power on atempt. So im RMAing atm. Hoping it was just shoddy luck.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Either get an ASUS Striker II Extreme or ASUS P5E-VM HDMI board. All other boards (including Rampage Formula and Maximus Formula) have FSB walls with this chip.
Validation of P5E-VM HDMI:

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=345603

And you can read more about this weird wall here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=184565

 

[Skraeling]

Im not worried about a fsb wall as any OCing in personally will do (not speaking for sniper here) will be mild or non existant at best. That and im just trying to get something that will freaking post past the send try right now

 

[aigomorla]

Want the best overclocking board?
Hands down DFI X48-T2R. How good is it? If your a noob ocer, avoid it.

Want the next board below, with fairly easy tweeking?
ASUS MAXIMUS boards would be your next fair bet. Also the Gigabyte X48-DQ6 isnt that bad either.

Boards to avoid.
stay far far far far far away from nvidia boards. They absolutely suck crap compared to the intel boards. The 790i requires DDR3, so its a no go. The 750i im willing to bet thats crap as well. eVGA, XFX, Asus Striker Series.


These would be the top tier boards. If your looking for something cheaper, grab a P35.

Originally posted by: runawayprisoner
Either get an ASUS Striker II Extreme or ASUS P5E-VM HDMI board. All other boards (including Rampage Formula and Maximus Formula) have FSB walls with this chip.
Validation of P5E-VM HDMI:

Please read the op's request. DDR3 wasnt one of them which that striker has. Also the striker bows down to the all mighty DFI's X38 and x48. Its not really a competition here.

The 780i isnt bells and whistles too ya know. Check sig.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Okay... my bad on that one call. I take it back. Now just get any board... at all! It's just been reported that the FSB wall was caused by strap control on X38/X48 boards, and at least it's been confirmed on ASUS boards. This should mean that any board would work just fine.

 

[Ipreferspam]

Runaway,

Can you please explain to me what this strap control issue means for my new Rampage Formula?

Does it mean that I should not attempt to use a FSB around 440-450 but instead go for 451 to hit a new strap?

OP:
Tomorrow my Rampage Formula will arrive for my Q9450. I'll post my initial OC results for you, if you are interested.

 

[Xpoc]

@runawayprisoner,
I have a X38 P5E. Can u link where it says that the FSB wall was caused by strap control on X38/X48 boards, and at least it's been confirmed on ASUS boards., or explain more?
Thanks

EDIT: Nevermind I found the info use the 266mhz strap, and then try more than 450 fsb.
Now I just need my Ultra 120 to arrive.

 

[runawayprisoner]

There we go. For easy overclocking, ASUS P5E-VM HDMI is still recommended, though. And it doesn't look like you can get pretty far even with the Strap Control issue gone?

 

[Xpoc]

I don't think my ram likes the 266 strap. I can run the same ram at 500mhz with my e8400, but at 440mhz using 266 strap causes blue screen.

 

[DeathSniper]

Hehe, thanks for the responses

I ended up going with the Asus Maximus Formula and I'm sitting at 3.2 right now (8x400). Haven't really had much time as I've been freaking busy reinstalling everything haha; I may just keep it at 3.2.

 

[TGressus]

Originally posted by: Ipreferspam
Runaway,

Can you please explain to me what this strap control issue means for my new Rampage Formula?

Does it mean that I should not attempt to use a FSB around 440-450 but instead go for 451 to hit a new strap?

OP:
Tomorrow my Rampage Formula will arrive for my Q9450. I'll post my initial OC results for you, if you are interested.

Pardon the bump. How's the Rampage Formula? I may recommend the same system to a relative and just tell them to fully digest the advice Kris Boughton gives on balance of fsb and tRD.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3208&p=9

 

[DeathSniper]

Glarg...my MF is being RMA'd and I'm going for a P5E-VM HDMI after work today. We'll see how it goes!

 

[Winterpool]

What happened?

 

[DeathSniper]

I think there may be a circuiting problem with my board? I had it running fine for several days and then it went 'kaput'. BSODs and now it's gotten to the point where it will keep cycling booting up (ie it will power on and fans will spin then power off for a few sec, then repeat...endlessly). I've tried all my parts on another P5K (that I installed into another comp this past weekend) and Foxconn board and it was all fine. I tested the MF with just the P/S and CPU and it booted. I put on the backplate - booted. When I tightened the heatsink on - it would do the boot cycle. I've tried several variants here (with JUST the cpu, mobo, and P/S) and I've made 100% sure that nothing is touching - I just don't get it :\ So yeah - that's about it. I spoke to someone else who had a MF as well and theirs did the exact same thing. RMA time

 

[PascalT]

I had the same dilemma you had about the mobo and I decided on the DFI Blood Iron (or the DK version if it wasn't $30 more expensive). I have actually read a lot of people having their ASUS boards die on them... Then again that might just be the very small minority being more vocals than others. I've always loved DFI's boards so it was a good choice for me.

Good luck with the RMAing!

 

[DeathSniper]

Dammit. Won't have a chance to get a new board until Thurs or Fri so I keep thinking to myself if I want to get some other board than the P5E-VM HDMI. Mlarg! (I'm planning on getting that since it has all the features I need and I've heard good things about the o/c from several people first-hand)

 

[DeathSniper]

Glarg...P5E-VM HDMI or GA-P35-DS4...

Anyone have thoughts? Going to be heading out after work and hopefully should have the system back up and running tomorrow

 

[PascalT]

What did you go with?

I'm really liking the DFI Blood Iron so far. Standard DFI top quality design and build. The only thing that annoys me is they don't have a fan connector on the right of the board, so if you have a front case fan like I do you need to get a cable extension.

If you're still deciding I'd take a long look at the DFI Dk P35 mobo. DFI has made the best boards i've ever used (so far).