Advice for buliding a 5 Ghz 24/7 machine

My project this year is to build a Intel based kickass everyday use machine that can run reliably at 5 gig (24/7) and still be able to either let my kid drag it off to his LAN party (very carefully of course) or have a few pals over and crank some screws to push it even further occassionally. I just picked up a new OEM 570J for a few hundred bucks and looking for a rock solid motherboard. ASUS seems the way to go but can't seem to settle on:

P5WD2-E Premium:
PROS:
Good feedback, stable overclocking, 975 based

CONS:
No 8 phase power distribution
ATI Crossfire, won't need that



P5WD2:
PROS:
Good feedback, stable overclock.

CONS
955x chipset past it's prime
No 8 phase power distribution

review:http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2412


P5N32SLI-Deluxe
PROS:
8 phase power distribution

CONS:
DDR2 667/533..not DDR800, but may be overkill anyway



P5WDG2-WS Premium:
PROS:
stable overclocking, 975 based
8 phase power distribution

CONS:
Not an "Enthuast" board, may be "tweek" limited
ATI Crossfire, won't need that

review: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2631



There's some talk about new 975 based motherboards coming out 1Q/2006. Has anyone heard of any new High End boards new coming out of ASUS. ?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks
Phil

definatly not the SLI board, they have a certain amount of FSB they reach and then cant go anywhere after that, and in some cases they blow up once there

id say wait and see how the 975 does, and work from there, and wait for others to come out with 975 chipsets

Hainer36,

Woa, Thanks a lot, I was seriously considering the SLI board because of the stable power.

Those nforce chipsets just don't seem to be working out at high FSB. Definitely get a 975 chipset.

Want 8 phase power? Get the Asus P5WDG2-WS.

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=82&l3=249&model=994&modelmenu=1

Want 5 gig? Phase change cooling.

I looked at the Anandtech review for the WS board a few days ago. It overclocks really as all ASUS boards do and the focus is on high end computing and workstation rather than the "enthusiast". . Not really clear on what the difference in terminology means. They actually benched it with a Presler and ran the FSB up over 300 with no problem Thanks for pointing out that the WS has the 8 Phase power which I'm kinda paranoid about clean power and think it helps a lot on OC stability. I'll check out the specs between the P5WDG2-WS and P5WD2-E very carefully.

Sure wish a review will come out soon on the 'E'. Need to buy within the next 30 days.

thx


The review for the workstation board is here:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2631

looking very good so far!

proth said:

My project this year is to build a Intel based kickass everyday use machine that can run reliably at 5 gig (24/7) and still be able to either let my kid drag it off to his LAN party (very carefully of course) or have a few pals over and crank some screws to push it even further occassionally.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure how portable phase change is..