Planning some upgrades and need some opinions.

kuroikenshi · Aug 7, 2008, 10:50 PM

Hiya all,

Well as the title says, I am going into the planning stages of upgrading my stuff and one of the first things on the list is Motherboard's. I'm mostly a gamer with a smidgen of Photoshop and a bit of Premier video editing but gaming mostly and would like to focus on those portions.

I am thinking about getting an ASUS P5Q Pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131299 which I would then upload the custom bios that are posted here on the forums. I was also debating getting an X48 chipset board, ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail, because I had read that anything below that would have a bottleneck for the HD 4000 series GPU's.

My question is, would that bottleneck be noticeable between the two boards? Should I spend that extra bit of money which is close to a 100 dollars between the two boards?

I planning on getting two HD 4870's or waiting for Spartan. I also intend to pick up a Q6600 CPU as well since I have heard some really nice things with them and they are under 200 bucks now. So with all that info how should I go about it?

boogah · Aug 7, 2008, 11:24 PM

ASUS P5E deluxe X48 is essentially the same as the rampage formula... well it's the same PCB.. if you take off the lil sticker that says P5E off from the board it has the Rampage formula name right under. Saves like 40-50 bucks only big differences i see is the rampage has 2 lan and some extra onboard connectors. Chipset heatsinks are alil diffrent buh yah... If you really want the extra settings in the bios you can flash the rampage bios on it to get more voltage settings etc..

If you don't care about crossfire get the cheaper P5Q if you want to get the most out of crossfire get the P5E deluxe X48/Rampage board.

WhiteLotus · Aug 7, 2008, 11:40 PM

What kind of games do you play?

I don't think crossfire would be worth it, the 4870 handles most games you chuck at it happily, and im sure the Spartan will be even better.

kuroikenshi · Aug 8, 2008, 12:40 AM

Oh a little of everything... WoW, City of Heroes/Villains, Soon to be Warhammer:Age of Reckoning, The Witcher, etc...

I suppose it will come down to how much Spartan costs compared to two 4870's. I would imagine if its a single card the P5Q pro may be the way to go or something that is just a single PCI 2.0 x16 slot. I appreciate both of your opinions!

EDIT: Found this real quick on Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138122 89.99 Biostar board.

From what I have found, these boards OC pretty good but since this is a P43 board, is it the P45 boards that OC the best out of the two?

Aug 7, 2008, 10:50 PM	#1
kuroikenshi Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Japan Posts: 290 (0.16/day) Thanks: 42 Thanked 51 Times in 46 Posts System Specs	Planning some upgrades and need some opinions. Hiya all, Well as the title says, I am going into the planning stages of upgrading my stuff and one of the first things on the list is Motherboard's. I'm mostly a gamer with a smidgen of Photoshop and a bit of Premier video editing but gaming mostly and would like to focus on those portions. I am thinking about getting an ASUS P5Q Pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131299 which I would then upload the custom bios that are posted here on the forums. I was also debating getting an X48 chipset board, ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail, because I had read that anything below that would have a bottleneck for the HD 4000 series GPU's. My question is, would that bottleneck be noticeable between the two boards? Should I spend that extra bit of money which is close to a 100 dollars between the two boards? I planning on getting two HD 4870's or waiting for Spartan. I also intend to pick up a Q6600 CPU as well since I have heard some really nice things with them and they are under 200 bucks now. So with all that info how should I go about it? __________________ Being a ganker is like being a photographer, you have to wait for the right moment. Rift Miza - level 50: Ranger/Assasin/Marksman Haruna - level 32: Sentinal/Warden/Purifier Gankiskhan - level 22: Revear/Beastmaster/Paladin Briarcliff (Brocliff) server - 420 Shake Weights everyday!

System Name:	Main
Processor:	e7200 Wolfdale 2.5Ghz OC @ 3.0
Motherboard:	BioStar TP43D2-A7 ATX Board
Cooling:	ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm
Memory:	4G's G.Skill PC 6400 800 Mhz
Video Card:	ATI Sapphire HD 4870 10.6 drivers
Hard Disk:	WD 80GB/WD 160GB SATA 3.0 Drive / WD 1TB
Case:	COOLER MASTER Centurion
Sound Card:	Onboard
PSU:	Japanese Brand 550w
Software:	Windows 7 64 Ultimate
Benchmarks:	3DMark06 10712- Old score 3DMark06 10955- New Comp

System Name:	Core i7 WS
Processor:	i7 920 D0 @ 4.2 GHz
Motherboard:	ASUS P6T WS Professional
Cooling:	Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme RT1366
Memory:	6gb 3x2gb Crucial DDR3
Video Card:	Firepro V8700
Hard Disk:	Velociraptor 300gb in raid0
Optical Drive:	22x Liteon DVD/RW
CRT/LCD Model:	2x Dell Ultrasharp 24"
Case:	Antec Twelve Hundred
Sound Card:	onboard sound
PSU:	Corsair HX1000
Software:	Windows 7 64-bit

Aug 7, 2008, 11:40 PM	#3
WhiteLotus Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 4,809 (2.26/day) Thanks: 531 Thanked 856 Times in 682 Posts System Specs	What kind of games do you play? I don't think crossfire would be worth it, the 4870 handles most games you chuck at it happily, and im sure the Spartan will be even better. __________________ “Sorry but I cannot respond now, I am running a full virus scan on the internet.” -brandonwh64

System Name:	Vintage
Processor:	i3 530 at Stock
Motherboard:	Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H
Cooling:	Scythe Zipang II
Memory:	2x4GB Crucial DDR3
Video Card:	6850 something
Hard Disk:	WD 6401AALS 640GB// WD 10EACS 1TB// M4 124GB SSD
Optical Drive:	some LG thing
CRT/LCD Model:	Samsung SM223BW 21.6"
Case:	Generic
PSU:	Corsair HX 520W
Software:	Windows 7

Aug 7, 2008, 11:24 PM	#2
boogah Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Houston Posts: 865 (0.48/day) Thanks: 22 Thanked 146 Times in 140 Posts System Specs	ASUS P5E deluxe X48 is essentially the same as the rampage formula... well it's the same PCB.. if you take off the lil sticker that says P5E off from the board it has the Rampage formula name right under. Saves like 40-50 bucks only big differences i see is the rampage has 2 lan and some extra onboard connectors. Chipset heatsinks are alil diffrent buh yah... If you really want the extra settings in the bios you can flash the rampage bios on it to get more voltage settings etc.. If you don't care about crossfire get the cheaper P5Q if you want to get the most out of crossfire get the P5E deluxe X48/Rampage board.

Aug 8, 2008, 12:40 AM	#4
kuroikenshi Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Japan Posts: 290 (0.16/day) Thanks: 42 Thanked 51 Times in 46 Posts System Specs	Oh a little of everything... WoW, City of Heroes/Villains, Soon to be Warhammer:Age of Reckoning, The Witcher, etc... I suppose it will come down to how much Spartan costs compared to two 4870's. I would imagine if its a single card the P5Q pro may be the way to go or something that is just a single PCI 2.0 x16 slot. I appreciate both of your opinions! EDIT: Found this real quick on Newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138122 89.99 Biostar board. From what I have found, these boards OC pretty good but since this is a P43 board, is it the P45 boards that OC the best out of the two? __________________ Being a ganker is like being a photographer, you have to wait for the right moment. Rift Miza - level 50: Ranger/Assasin/Marksman Haruna - level 32: Sentinal/Warden/Purifier Gankiskhan - level 22: Revear/Beastmaster/Paladin Briarcliff (Brocliff) server - 420 Shake Weights everyday! Last edited by kuroikenshi; Aug 8, 2008 at 12:51 AM.

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