Ready to enter the Dual Core scene

[thisTHEstory]

What motherboard, dual core (thinking 3800 or 4400) setup would be best for me:
*price is not much of an issue
*Sli support is not something I need (especially since i have a x800xl pci-e)
*looking for something that will be stable
*give me the best performance now and in the future
*has overclocking features that will be accessible down the road
*these are the parts that are already along for the ride:

antec 550 truecontrol
x800xl pxi-e
(x2) 160gb seagates (SATA, ncq)
2005fpw
(x2) 512mb OCZ value

basically, i want hardware which will be reasonably future proof along with performance that is top of the line yet not overkill

 

[Hacp]

Either Epox Ultra Nforce 4 or DFI Ultra Nforce 4 or wait for the New ATI Sapphire board that Anandtech reviewed....

 

[suicidalpigeon]

quad x2 opterons and a tyan is the way to go if money isnt an issue. anyways, back to reality. the x2 3800 should be able to oc to 2.6ghz on stock cooling, so buy that and save some money for something else. dfi ultra-d should work just fine with this for the big oc'ings. epox 9npa should do well, too, but wont go as far as dfi can. all is well if they come with the x2 bios, otherwise, it shouldnt be a hassle updating it yourself.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: wafflesandsyrup
quad x2 opterons and a tyan is the way to go if money isnt an issue. anyways, back to reality. the x2 3800 should be able to oc to 2.6ghz on stock cooling, so buy that and save some money for something else. dfi ultra-d should work just fine with this for the big oc'ings. epox 9npa should do well, too, but wont go as far as dfi can. all is well if they come with the x2 bios, otherwise, it shouldnt be a hassle updating it yourself.

OK lets be honest here,...i have seen quite a few X2's and not many of them have been above 2.6ghz with stock cooling.....I would say the average OC I have seen for the non-extreme (which would be ppl using stock Hsf) is 2.5ghz or less.....

2.6ghz is in above average range IMO with better air cooling like ther XP-90's....

 

[thisTHEstory]

would you say performance wise that the 3800 and the 4400 are fairly comparable at stock speeds even with the 1mb cache on the 4400?

with regard to ocing, they should both reach a similar 2.4?

 

[Duvie]

NO.....The 3800 is only 2ghz versus 2.2ghz and 1mb more of cache....

so looking at iit in a linear fashion that represents a 10% performance increase and the cache can add anywhere form 2-7% depending on the app....

I think 2.4ghz is a very safe expectation...I think saying they (3800+) will do 2.6ghz is absurd because these very well may be (notice why only a 512kb option so far) chips that didn't cut it to be 4400's or 4800's because of perhaps lower yields of 2 good cores or that some of the cache was bad....too early to tell...

We got ppl excited last time about 3000+ winnies getting 2.6ghz and venices being better and ofcourse that was not true and the average was more like 2.4-2.5ghz for winnies and 2.5-2.6ghz for venice chips....

Never count on OCing...it is still luck of the draw....I thik 2.4ghz is a reasonable expectation....

 

[thisTHEstory]

thanks duvie for clearing that up

anyway, paying 250ish more dollars for a 4400 when there is roughly only a 15% increase seems to be steering me toward the 3800. Will the 4400 with the additional 1mb cache prove to provide considerabley more performance in the near future?

 

[Hacp]

Actually, I think all the 3800+ X2s are manchester chips. At least thats what anand said in his article. The Toledo chips that didn't cut it should all be going towards the 4200+ and 4600+. 200 extra GHZ will add the performance of 5%, and the extra cache will add around 2-7% as Duvie said, so realistically, were looking at a performance advantage of around 5-10% for the Toledo 4400+ compared to the 3800+, leaning more towards the 10 part. This might not seem like alot, but 8 or 9% makes a huge difference. I agree with Duvie that overclocking is not something to be expected. You should aim for about 2.5 GHZ, because from what I've seen in the 3800+ articles, the people were able to get that amount of overclock.

So to sum it all up, if your paying for a 3800+, expect an overclock around 2.5 GHZ, which should match the 4800+ X2 in performance.

 

[Bona Fide]

Get the 4400+ X2. 2400MHz will be an easy reach, and will put you in 4800+ territory. From there, anything higher is just icing on the cake.

 

[thisTHEstory]

Thanks for the responses. I think that I am going to nab the 4400+ mainly due to the fact that I want the speed off the bat without the need to overclock right away (even tho it is somewhat likely that i may).


My second question is with regards to motherboards. Right now I am mostly interested in:

DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D
Epox 9NPA+ Ultra
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum

What do you guys think would be the best at handling the 4400+ for someone such as myself who is building a computer that will be as future resilient as is reasonable with a focus on gaming and general multi-tasking?

 

[d2arcturus]

The DFI or Epox, whichever you can find for cheaper. In Canada they are the same price... pfft.

 

[Bona Fide]

Originally posted by: d2arcturus
The DFI or Epox, whichever you can find for cheaper. In Canada they are the same price... pfft.

qft

If I may suggest another, look at the Abit AN8 Ultra. Passive NB cooling = no noisy NB fans problems.