great overclocking mobo, recomend?

[AsphyxiA]

processor--> Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
videocard --> 3870 x2

dont need two pcie slots, and would prefer a micro atx board
how about this?

 

[Fitseries3]

looks ok to me. i DONT suggest you put an x2 in a matx case though. you need a case with GOOD airflow. my X2 runs PRETTY hot. you'll love it though. and the e8400 is great as well.

 

[PaulieG]

Yeah, if you put that 3870 X2 in a micro ATX case, you're asking for heat problems.

 

[AsphyxiA]

im not going to, at least not like a "fragbox" or anything. im thinking of constructing my own case. the design i have was ment for airflow plus i plan on water cooling! possibly a TEC on the cpu, but probably not cause they scare me a little.

 

[Fitseries3]

i have a swiftech TEC/waterblock for sale. it's the MCW6500-t. it's a very good TEC block and can be plugged directly into your power supply. it WON'T burn down your house either.
i don't use it because i change setups TOO OFTEN and it would be a hassle to install and uninstall twice a week. the temps a great though.

 

[erocker]

Asus Maximus Formula if you want DDR2, or Asus Maximus Extreme if you want DDR3 and water cooling to boot!

 

[Fitseries3]

someone was bitching about the asus x38 the other day. they said the asus boards suck when compared to DFI x38's. anyone know about this?
i DO know that ALL MB companies have stopped making x38 boards due to the launch of x48 in 2 weeks.

 

[erocker]

The guy who said that doesn't know what he's talking about. The DFI board might be a little better, though it's not really documented nor can you even find a x38 DFI board. There are DFI people and there are Asus people. I love em both!

 

[Fitseries3]

i plan on getting a asus rampage extreme. i've already got 4gig's of G.Skill 1600mhz ddr3.9(i know, i said i didn't want to go ddr3)

 

[Wile E]

The guy who said that doesn't know what he's talking about. The DFI board might be a little better, though it's not really documented nor can you even find a x38 DFI board. There are DFI people and there are Asus people. I love em both!

+1. My Maximus is treating me very well. You wouldn't believe how high it can clock DDR2. FSB of 475 is no problem with the quad either. Now if I could only get this Q6600 to do what I want. lol.

 

[Fitseries3]

+1. My Maximus is treating me very well. You wouldn't believe how high it can clock DDR2. FSB of 475 is no problem with the quad either. Now if I could only get this Q6600 to do what I want. lol.

im liking mine so far. this is my second one. (the first one worked fine. i just sold it to someone who really wanted it) i too wish my q6600 would cooperate. it cant seem to boot past 3.9ghz.

 

[Wile E]

im liking mine so far. this is my second one. (the first one worked fine. i just sold it to someone who really wanted it) i too wish my q6600 would cooperate. it cant seem to boot past 3.9ghz.

I can boot at 4GHz, just can't get it stable. Restarts under load.

 

[Fitseries3]

have you tried setting the GTL REF down? my chips a L737A823

 

[Wile E]

Don't know what my chip is, all I know is it's SLACR (G0). Didn't try GTL Ref. From what I understood that's mostly for droop, but I don't have any droop at all.

 

[Fitseries3]

no... not for droop. it's for correcting a miscalculated reference value. the dual die of the quads has a different reference value than a single die on a dual core. you need to lower the GTL REF to raise/correct the misconfigured VTT(vcore). this is used in quad core(dual die) chips when setting the VTT(vcore) higher may lead to damaging the CPU itself.

 

[Wile E]

Thanks fit. Reboot time. lol.

 

[AsphyxiA]

i mean the maximus really seems like it has a lot of potential but, i didn't pay 250.00 for my DFI board and it probably has a little more room for tweakability. granted when i got it the CFX series was really the last ATI DDR A64 horah! idk, what are the x48 boards looking like for performance?

 

[Wile E]

i mean the maximus really seems like it has a lot of potential but, i didn't pay 250.00 for my DFI board and it probably has a little more room for tweakability. granted when i got it the CFX series was really the last ATI DDR A64 horah! idk, what are the x48 boards looking like for performance?

The Maximus has plenty of tweakability. X48 is a slightly improved X38. It's gonna command a huge price tag. Maybe look at P35 boards if you have an eye on budget.

@fit - Changing GTL didn't work on the same settings that got me into windows at 4GHz. Any setting off of Auto results in a reset at the loading screen. What effect does it have exactly? Does it effect vCore at all, or any other voltages, for that matter?

 

[Fitseries3]

it's supposed to correct the vcore reference readings. you may try setting it a few different ways. i know it does help in extreme OC's. i don't know exactly how much it helps @ 4ghz though.

 

[AsphyxiA]

well i keep looking at the maximus, it speaks to me, it says buy me, NOW! god cant though not till i get paid next. er are likely to come down once the new tech comes out anyway

 

[Wile E]

it's supposed to correct the vcore reference readings. you may try setting it a few different ways. i know it does help in extreme OC's. i don't know exactly how much it helps @ 4ghz though.

I tried every setting for it. So, by affecting my ref readings, will it change the amount of voltage that actually gets to the cpu? I'm having a tough time trying to figure out how exactly changing the Reference readings effects the system.