Which is the best motherboard for this experiment?

Hi!

I am a member of a research group. We are now starting a series of experiments on a topic we've never studied before, and since I stumbled upon this forum, I think that help from any of you could be really invaluable.

We are going to perform some test on an Intel processor; long story short, we need a motherboard with this features:
1) it should let us set processor voltage within a range as wide as possible; we are expecially interested in low voltage values, so the lower it can go, the better.
2) it would be very helpful if the motherboard could be configured not only via the BIOS, but also by the means of a "configuration file" (e.g. a file that can be uploaded in some way in the motherboard), since we are planning to test a lot of different configurations, that could be generated automatically. I don't even know if this is possible but as I said, we have just begun researching this topic.

If you believe that you can help us in any way, feel free to reply to this topic. Thank you for your time!

Are you looking for a DDR2 or DDR3 motherboard or does it matter?

glock19owner said:

Are you looking for a DDR2 or DDR3 motherboard or does it matter?

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Firstofall, thanks for your reply!

We have not decided yet; our main interest is finding a motherboard which can be externally configurable, I think that we can use even a DDR2 for our purpose.

AFAIK the lowest any mobo will go is 0.8V as defined by EIST.

komaa said:

AFAIK the lowest any mobo will go is 0.8V as defined by EIST.

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This is a really useful information! Thank you for your help
By the way, do you happen to know any motherboard that is configurable from a setup file (or by any other method than accessing the BIOS)?

Are you runing mutiple GPUs? Eg. 2 4870X2 or 3 GTX280.

Btw, if you get your DDR3 at 1600mhz with 7-7-7-18, it would be ideal. If you do go to that path of DDR3, then the RAMPAGE extreme would be your best bet.

Blazing fire said:

Are you runing mutiple GPUs? Eg. 2 4870X2 or 3 GTX280.

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I think we'll use one GPU.

Btw, if you get your DDR3 at 1600mhz with 7-7-7-18, it would be ideal. If you do go to that path of DDR3, then the RAMPAGE extreme would be your best bet.

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Thank you for your help The Rampage Extreme looks really promising, I think we could exploit its "Tweak It" controls.

Sorry to sound offensive but most likely, the GPU will be the bottleneck at higher resolutions, say 1920X1200 or 2560X1600. I'm assuming you have a 30" 2560X1600 monitor so it's best to invest more in GPUs than motherboard/CPU.

For example, 2 4870X2 with E8400 on a p5k dulex will be better than 4870X2 with QX9770 with Rampage Extreme with Corsair's 2ghz DDR3.

I may be wrong.

Blazing fire said:

Sorry to sound offensive but most likely, the GPU will be the bottleneck at higher resolutions, say 1920X1200 or 2560X1600. I'm assuming you have a 30" 2560X1600 monitor so it's best to invest more in GPUs than motherboard/CPU.

For example, 2 4870X2 with E8400 on a p5k dulex will be better than 4870X2 with QX9770 with Rampage Extreme with Corsair's 2ghz DDR3.

I may be wrong.

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I think you're right, but our main aim is to perform a series of tests on the CPU; this is a workstation we'll assemble only for these experiments, so an high-performing GPU is less important than a externally configurable motherboard.

I'm not sure about this but you might take a look at the DFI mobos. From what I know and what I've heard it sounds like they might be right up your alley. Like I said I'm not totally for sure. If I'm wrong then would someone please correct me?

for externally setting bios, why not get a board with a bios eprom that can be swapped out.. the chips are relatively inexpensive, and you can program each chip for your desired settings.. If this is a bench system, then you don't have to worry about opening the case, just pop the chip and replace..