p67 vs x58...for a new build

Hi Guys,

I'm a newby to Overclockers forums. I'm looking for a new system build..primarily for gaming. Budget of about $1200-$1500.

The question I had was, since the P67 Mobos are being recalled, what is the next best option. Should I look into x58 mobos or wait till the P67's are release with the fix? I don't really want to wait till April/May when those boards will be in full circulation.

I was looking into the Asus Rampage III line of Mobos. Anyone here have any experience w/these or do you guys have any specific recommendations?

This is my premilary components list:

2xAmd 6950s crossfire
1000-1200 watt psu
corsair h70 cpu cooling
I7 950 (any recomendations will be appreciaited)
2tb Hd (for Movies/Bluerays)
64gb or 128gb SSD
24gb Ram...so 3x G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
Windows 7 o/s
Nzxt Phantom Case (Black)

Some O/c will be done..but I'm looking to keep this system for a while so I dont plan on o/c to the full limits on a 24/7 basis. Any feedback/Opinion will certainly be appreciated. Thank you for your help.

I've used both, and I prefer the P67 for higher overclockability and lower heat and power consumption.

Do you have any specific recommendations for Ram or Video Card particularly?

The P67 platform definately out performs X58 in every area except for encoding when using the hex core X58 CPU's, but they are out of your budget anyway.

Sandybridge is definately the way to go price/performance wise.

As for the recall, as of today I think you could still get the parts through Amazon. If you can find what you want in stock I would get it. Otherwise whether or not you want to wait is up to you. An i7 950 is a nice processor, there is certainly nothing wrong with getting one now. Bang for buck wise sandybridge would be better, but maybe not waiting a couple months for?

Personally I waited about 4 months for Sandybridge, and I'm glad I did.


Also, Welcome to the forums!

hybridfan4life said:

Do you have any specific recommendations for Ram or Video Card particularly?

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Unless you are doing some serious photoshop work with a professional high megapixel camera or running lots of virtual machines I seriously doubt you need 24GB of ram. I would scale back to 6(3x2GB) or 8(2x4GB) depending on if you go X58 or P67. DDR3-1600 is a good speed, you maybe want to look for some better timings at that speed, but you certainly don't need to.

And for video cards... What resolutions do you typically play games at? What resolution is your monitor(s)?

DaveHCYJ..Thanks for your kind response.

This will be played at 1080p via hdmi out to my 42inch flat screen tv =)
..True, you did bring up a great point, that is lotta ram/Performance wise. So, your best bet would be to stick either to the 6g/8gb depending on the mobo I go for. I see you have the Gskill ddr-1600...do you have any good/bad results w/those?

I was just looking at the crossfire/sli reviews and it seems that the 6950s in crossfire outperform the 560gtx in sli. Granted that the 6950s are a lil more expensive, so not a true apples to apples comparision...but what is ur take just wondering?

I've liked it so far. Notice my timings are lower than what you quoted though 7-8-7-24 vs 9-9-9-24, but it probably doesn't make a huge difference, not like CPU and graphics card do.

Honestly at the 1080p resolution unless your TV is 3D you don't even need sli/crossfire. All current games will play just fine with a single GTX560 or 6950 or 6870. I'd say just pick one of those, get a single card, and if in a couple years games out pace the card upgrade to sli/crossfire then for dirt cheap or just to a single current generation card.

Sli/crossfire is more for people running really high resolutions or multiple monitors or 3D.

For the price of the dual 5850s, buy a GTX 470 and when the price drops, get another one for SLI.

I like your strategy DaveHCYJ... if I get the x58 mobos from asus...the rampage III extreme..I won't lose much when compared to sandybridge will I??

Basically what I'm asking is..."Is it worth it for me to wait till Aprilish to get the sandybridge pc's" or I should be happy w/getting an x58 chipset mobo from asus.

P.S. What CPU do you recommend specifically...a good value/performance.

@Volumetrik...thanks for the reply. How would you rate your performance/results w/the p6x58 mobo?

I personally would build the x58/950 build as these rigs are so fast its really a mute point comparing it to SB..the difference in speed doing tasks is not very much..you can get a great deal on x58 stuff now and its hard for me to believe how someone would be unhappy with the performance of an x58 system...

hybridfan4life said:

I like your strategy DaveHCYJ... if I get the x58 mobos from asus...the rampage III extreme..I won't lose much when compared to sandybridge will I??

Basically what I'm asking is..."Is it worth it for me to wait till Aprilish to get the sandybridge pc's" or I should be happy w/getting an x58 chipset mobo from asus.

P.S. What CPU do you recommend specifically...a good value/performance.

@Volumetrik...thanks for the reply. How would you rate your performance/results w/the p6x58 mobo?

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Its hard to say if its worth it to you. I found it worth it to wait, but thats really a personal patience/prefference kind of thing.

wesleys_dad said:

I personally would build the x58/950 build as these rigs are so fast its really a mute point comparing it to SB..the difference in speed doing tasks is not very much..you can get a great deal on x58 stuff now and its hard for me to believe how someone would be unhappy with the performance of an x58 system...

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As Wesleys_dad mentions you certainly won't be unhappy with x58. The P67s are 10-20% faster clock for clock and tend to overclock a bit higher, but x58 is still pretty darn good.

I saw a chart somewhere that clock for clock, the new Sandybridge CPU come close to 980x performance but for a lot less. Also some of the early indication when you get the X series CPU, overclocking almost to 5GHz is possible.

However there are no P67 or H67 mobo around due to flawed chip. So it comes down to:
if you need the PC now, go with x58. If you can wait a couple months, wait for P67 and go Sandybridge.

@hybridfan4life The P6X58D premium is a really nice mobo, full of features and has more handy fan connectors than my EVGA X58 FTW3. It has very nice heat sinks IMO.

You can still get P67 boards on Amazon.com, but the supply is drying up fast. I just ordered the last Gigabyte UD3 board they had listed there. They still have some UD7 boards (I think) a couple of Asus boards and a Biostar board left.

muddocktor said:

You can still get P67 boards on Amazon.com, but the supply is drying up fast. I just ordered the last Gigabyte UD3 board they had listed there. They still have some UD7 boards (I think) a couple of Asus boards and a Biostar board left.

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hybridfan4life this^^ might be the way you want to go, if Amazon also has the 2500k or 2600k in stock (or if you can find them elsewhere).

wesleys_dad said:

I personally would build the x58/950 build as these rigs are so fast its really a mute point comparing it to SB..the difference in speed doing tasks is not very much..you can get a great deal on x58 stuff now and its hard for me to believe how someone would be unhappy with the performance of an x58 system...

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I know this is a tough question but I like your advice and thinkings. However in a few years down the road wouldn't you regret not waiting for SB? For one I'd imagine that 5GB HDD's will be $100 in a few years, wouldn't that suck that you can't buy one cause you have an X58? To me this is the biggest reason to wait out the P67 issue. Would you agree?

Now in the X58 favor is the PCI, I don't trust the emulated PCI slots on the P67, haven't tried but I suspect issues with complex PCI soundcards, just don't know the answer, but I for one would hate to have to spend $150 just for a replacement ASIO PCI-E soundcard when I have the same model in PCI that works good.

Anyway these are the practical two issues I see in this P67 vs X58 decision. And I agree with you that the CPU speed is not a huge factor in the decision.

another thought is if you have to wait for SB ,I for one would wait to see amd's bulldozer..it appears to be a very competitive option for those wanting an amd solution to intels lineup..I am waiting to see what its all about and on my next upgrade if it turns out bulldozer is close or surpasses intel then ill probubly go bulldozer..i have a feeling socket 2011 is going to to to expensive for most folks...
with this roaring economy alot of people are going to squeeze more life out of their rigs..i for 1 would be ok with x58 for 3 more years if i had to make do...it would be a very acceptable system to have to live with..i know building my x58 system i really had to stretch my budget to go from my amd system to this top of the line intel system but in the end it was worth it...an x58 system with a 950 is a system that will be very competitive for at least 3 more years..anothe thing is i really enjoy tinkering with o/clocks on the x58 systems...on p67 just go in and raise multiplyer and volts = your done..any idiot can do that...tinker with x58 and you feel you have done something special..yea you have to read and study a bit but not any idiot can do it..i like the challange..after owning 3 different x58 boards i can say each board was a little different in getting the o/clock stable where i wanted it....my dfi board won out as the best for o/clocking in my situation.....

I dont know if i would go as far as saying "any" idiot can oc SB, at least not to it's full potential.. takes more tweaking of the sub voltages to ge the most out of it. but yes it is easier to get a higher OC on avg than x58