I can't decide which NB to go with for a E8500. I haven't been up to date on whats new for the past few months, but I've been reading around tonight trying to compare x48/p45 technologies. What would yield the best performance/overclock?
depends on what you plan to do... if you want CF then X48 it is if you want CF but on a limited funds the P45. as p45 will still do CF but at res's higher then 1920x1200(or was it s 1600). you take more of a hit on p45 then x48 in fps. both are pretty much a match the only real difference in the second pcie lane width.
I can't decide which NB to go with for a E8500. I haven't been up to date on whats new for the past few months, but I've been reading around tonight trying to compare x48/p45 technologies. What would yield the best performance/overclock?
This is almost the perfect example thread of the kind that appear in huge numbers lately. This question is asked probably more than any other on this forum. The answer is not easy to give, and the decision is not easy to make. But one thing can be sure, without a doubt: Go with what you can afford, because the differences are extremely negligable, and it is highly unlikely that you can make a "wrong" choice. Info that is needed to properly respond to a question like this would be budget, GPU's chosen, type and speed of memory, and general building purpose. With all of that in mind, here are a few things to consider:
1)Budget. If you are on a tighter budget, than a P45 would likely be your best option, as the X38 and X48 Boards are more expensive. This is NOT to say that they are better.
2)Purpose. If you are planning on maximum gaming performance, remember two things: SLI will only work on an Nvidia board and the Skulltrail, so if it is dual cards you want then it will have to be ATI. Secondly, the X48 offers 2 full speed PCIEx16 slots, where as the P45 only offers 8x in crossfire mode. While this may only result in a negligable impact in most scenerios, it may be a factor in the future and should be kept in mind.
3)Maturity. The X38 and X48 boards have been out for a very long time, relatively speaking, and have had their BIOS tuned quite effectively. The P45 boards are the new kid on the block and may still have some issues to work out for a little while longer.
4)Overclocking Potential. This is important. Ready? THEY ARE ABOUT THE SAME. It has been reported that the P45 can reach higher FSB than the X48, but this is of little consequence when your MAX OC is probably going to be at a higher multiplier and you will not reach the maximum FSB limits of the board. To make a long story short, either will work fine for overclocking.
Here are the results from some testing I did a while back in a thread here reviewing the P5Q Deluxe so that you may compare for yourself.
All in all, you can see, it really depends on what motherboard YOU like, and what your budget is. There are no major differences between the two that will make you say, "Man, I should have gotten the other one..." later on down the road.
I hope I didn't come across short, my goal is to help...I just want people to understand the nature of this question that is ever-growing in popularity
The answer is not easy to give, and the decision is not easy to make. But one thing can be sure, without a doubt: [...] the differences are extremely negligable, and it is highly unlikely that you can make a "wrong" choice.
QFT. It's easy to read too much or too little and be unsure of your decision but you have to just go for something.
I have 2 P45s. They were $150-170 and I have gotten my q9450 up to 3.9ghz with them, 490-494 fsb. I don't think I could do better with x48 but if anyone wants to send me theirs I'll test it.
When it's between P45 and X48 it mainly comes down to budget and 16x crossfire. That's about it.
Thanks for the replies, thats good to hear. I don't plan on doing crossfire, or sli even if it was available. Thats why I was immediately turned off by the 790i with the 3 pcie16 slots. I'm sorry, but overkill? Not for me to say the least. But knowing they are very similiar in their overclocks, I might just go with whatever is cheaper. No sense in spending more money for options I won't even use anyways. Thanks for the help!
Running tri-fire I went from barely 13FPS on high detail on Crysis on single card (HD 3870) to around 50+FPS with tri-fire...thats not overkill...thats making a very intense system game into very a playable and enoyable game...
+1 for the biostar. i just got my board in and seems to be great so far. i havent been able to oc it yet because im still waiting on parts but everyhing else is great. flash is easy, software is accuarte, and no problems what so ever so far.
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