X38 Mobo's

[HC1Gunner]

What the heck is taking all these other motherboard companies so long to get their X38 chipset boards to retail. So far Asus & GigaByte are the only one that have boards for sale now. Some of the other companies like Abit, Biostar, Foxconn, and MSI had their boards reviews almost two months ago, yet they have nothing to market. About half the boards were beta, and the other half were actual Rev 1.0 retail boards.

Sitting here waiting to build a new system, have bought all hardware, and am now waiting on just the mobo. Asus and Gigabyte both have top notch boards, but I'm more interested in the Foxconn and MSI as they support both DDR2 & DDR3.

 

[Gary Key]

Foxconn should start shipping late next week with MSI to follow shortly. MSI did a last minute design change and will not do a combo board at this time. We just received their DDR3 board and have it in testing. abit looks to be shipping on or around 11/16 with their DDR2 board and Intel will be right after that. The problem with the late deliveries is due to design changes, BIOS problems, design changes, and more BIOS problems. Not to mention, DDR2 performance is just now up to P35 levels and probably will not get any better. The Foxconn board has tested well and we just received their production release BIOS last night. We will have a roundup on 11/12 with five boards, maybe six if the abit board is up to speed by then.

 

[HC1Gunner]

What's your take on a X38 board, do you play it safe and buy less expensive DDR2, or pay the rip-off DDR3 prices Gary. Anything I've seen so far, DDR3 benchmarks aren't that much faster, and as soon as you try to OC DDR3 one small bit, its latencys go thru the roof.

 

[Raja1]

Initial perception is that P35 is the wise choice for single graphics card systems. The X38 does not hold any advantage over current DDR2 implementations of the P35. Personally, I have not managed to approach P35 memory latency and bandwidth figures, using the boards as they would be setup for 24/7 use. For dual cards, well the X38 has to be the only choice While the above findings may paint a slightly grim picture, overall performance of the X38 is still solid enough for all modern software. The limited divider performance is still a bummer, you have to either run the board around ddr 1200, or use tight timings 1:1 for reasonable synthetic performance. Both approaches need good ddr2. unless we overcome the stigma of synthetic figures. I think the Gigabyte board is the lab favorite at this time. Asus Maximus Formula SE review should be up in a few days...


regards
Raja

 

[Heidfirst]

abit UK supposedly have received stock of the IX38 QuadGT & it should be in retail here this week.

 

[aehmkei]

What about the DFI X38?

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: aehmkei
What about the DFI X38?

They were always scheduled for late November, knowing DFI, it could get pushed out again. :frown:

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: HC1Gunner
What's your take on a X38 board, do you play it safe and buy less expensive DDR2, or pay the rip-off DDR3 prices Gary. Anything I've seen so far, DDR3 benchmarks aren't that much faster, and as soon as you try to OC DDR3 one small bit, its latencys go thru the roof.

At this point, unless you have to run CF with a 1333FSB CPU, stick with P35 until the BIOS matures on the X38 boards.

 

[aehmkei]

Originally posted by: Gary Key


They were always scheduled for late November, knowing DFI, it could get pushed out again. :frown:

I still hope for the mid november release date, given by motherboardpro.com

http://www.motherboardpro.com/...ossfire-ATX-p-376.html

 

[HC1Gunner]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: HC1Gunner
What's your take on a X38 board, do you play it safe and buy less expensive DDR2, or pay the rip-off DDR3 prices Gary. Anything I've seen so far, DDR3 benchmarks aren't that much faster, and as soon as you try to OC DDR3 one small bit, its latencys go thru the roof.

At this point, unless you have to run CF with a 1333FSB CPU, stick with P35 until the BIOS matures on the X38 boards.

Whats one of the better P35 boards you have reviewed?

 

[Heidfirst]

abit's IX38 QuadGT mobo is out now both in HK & the UK (komplett.co.uk).

 

[teclis1023]

I suspect that a lot of informed consumers are going to keep their money tucked away until Q1 2008 and buy the X48 motherboards when they arrive.

 

[HC1Gunner]

Originally posted by: teclis1023
I suspect that a lot of informed consumers are going to keep their money tucked away until Q1 2008 and buy the X48 motherboards when they arrive.

Not much use for X48 if it wont let you use the whole 1600 FSB, as Intel is going to limit its support to PC3 12800, and the X48 sells for another $30, so if your thought X38 boards are pricey, expect X48 mobo's to cost even more.


According to confidential documents seen by X-bit labs, Intel has removed support for PC3-12800 (DDR3 1600MHz) memory from the X48 platform and let mainboard makers to decide whether to support it or not. It is not completely clear why Intel decided to scrap ?official? support for 1600MHz memory, a speed-bin ratified by JEDEC, but one of the reasons may be an intention to exclude possibilities when mainboard makers, system builders or others declare support for considerably higher DDR3 speed-bins on X48-based products.

 

[regpfj]

Is there much difference in CrossFire performance on 975x and x38 boards? Has Gary Key changed his tune since comments like these:

Asus p5e3 deluxe x38, page 8, 18sep07

we will revisit these same games and provide CrossFire results against the P35 and 975X equipped boards. However, the preliminary CrossFire results show minimal gains for the X38 over the 975X when comparing percentage increases between single and dual card configurations.

asus maximus x38 review, page 6, 09nov07

We will have CrossFire performance results utilizing the HD 2900XT card in the roundup but at this time the X38 chipset performs anywhere from 3% to 18% better than the P35.

Give us a few tidbits, Mr. Key, regarding HD 2900XT CrossFire performance at resolutions near 1280x720 and 1920x1200 (projector and monitor res, respectively) for Crysis and Company of Heroes. Please please! Even on the low-res projector, Crysis is a dog with my single XT. Would a second 2900 XT help Company of Heroes and/or Crysis in DX10 at these resolutions? I can't find any crossfire results in these games with this card.