Forced to go Quad - help with parts 4 newPC

Hello People...

My trusty DFI SLI-DR mobo is dying a slow death:-(

I was waiting for the 45m intel or amd barca cpu's but I am so not waiting anymore.

I will be buying most if not all the parts from Scan.co.uk as I like there service and if u call them they actually answer - which is always nice.

I want to base my system on the QX6800 Quad.

The thing is I am looking for a mobo that:
a. supports 1333fsb for pyrn or whatever its called.
b. Can OC ver well but is totally rock stable and built to last
c. Give me a few PCI slots spare for sound card, etc

RAM:
Will be going for 8GBs worth. Any recommendations?

I have set the budget for the rig at £3000 but would go to £3500 if the parts are that damn good.

I know what I want for the rest of the PC...just need help with this...I think £3000 is enough for just the PC case but no GPU's or HDDs...waiting for 2k-xtx/8800ultra scores before deciding what one I want.

I had my list ready and was leaning to towards the mobo Stiker but dont think its stable enough for me.

So people...recap...mobo...ram...whats the best parts to get the most of my cpu?

There must be people with Quadies and really awesome setup on top....help me please...pretty please...

Tks...thank u very much for helping me out.

I have an Asus commando board with my QX6700 it is currently folding at 4.09ghz this board is rock solid for me. The memory i have is some early DDR2 OCZ platinum which did not run properly with my Abit board but this one is not so fussy. The board is available at scan.

Until we see what actually comes out next week from DAMMIT it is SO hard to tell.

If we go the Nvida route maybe this motherboard would be a good choice:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=491417

Some of the members here have that board and report good success (aaronjb really seems to like it).

If ATI wins the race then the water is much murkier. The 2900XTX will be launched in Q3. I don't think that the 2900XT will be enough for you. If you do want to go ATI the best motherboad (IMHO) would be the Asus P5W DH.
The 975x chipset is faster than the 680i and Intel Raid is suppose to be much better than Nvida's. It won't O/C as well as a 680i board but with the QX6800 that shouldn't be an issuse. The PCI Express x16 only run at x8 in crossfire. IIRC the penalty is only 5%.

Dudley...I was looking at the evga a1 rev mobo as well. Seems solid and has SLi. Going nvidia for sure now...

The thing with intel mobo's it that while they have great RAID they only have xfire which is not for me...why cant they make a mobo that does intel raid and sli? That would be perfect...right? Think I will go down the nvidia mobo route and hit the evga A1 rev mobo. All the other nvidia mobo seem to have some sort of problem. Even ega did but there A1 rev is meant to pretty stable and OCs really well and is 1333fsb ready...

Ventol...I am not saying the commando is not a good mobo but as with any mobo...u could always get a dud one right? Evga seem to be on the pretty well and there A1 rev mobo seems to be really nice. Shame it has not intel raid but had what I am looking or most of it at least.

Tks...oh and decided against the silverstone TJ07 case and prefer the stacker 01 as it is totally HUGE and will probably last me until I die...or the cpu does...

Hey Jen,

Your not really considering the 8800ultras are you? I'd go 8900 or a 8800GTX and OC the heck out of it. One 8900 might be ok with your 30" 3007 Dell. I'm sure that one would be plenty for my 2407.

Cheers!

8900's will be out in june, the ultra is just a more oced GTX. if you dont want sli look at the Abit Quad GT over the commando for 2/47 use over 400mhz fsb. if you going sli then make sure you do get the Evga A1 680i mobo. the A1 allows for higher clocks on the Quad core cpus. while the 1333fsb ready is there once you hit that 1333fsb strap you loose performance over 1066 strap. say you oc to 425mhz fsb the board then forces the 133fsb strap. where with the abit quad gt you can choose and it doesnt force it at 425mhz. irc the difference was about 5% maybe 10% at the same clock speed with 2 different straps. it has been a while so im prolly off on the % difference.

Holy crap, 8900's will be out next month!!! Hell yes, just in time for my new uber build.

Is there an inquirer artcle about the 8900's??

no but with past timelines with nv the die shrink happens the same time every year.. around summer time... so with the talk of 8900's this would fall in line when they did the 7800's to 7900's.

JenBell said:

why cant they make a mobo that does intel raid and sli? That would be perfect...right?

Click to expand...

Because Nvidia won't share. They refuse to allow any other chipset manufacturer use the SLI technology. ATI (AMD?) at least released their XFire schematics to other chipset manufacturers, which is why you can get the awesome Intel RAID + XFire. Until Nvidia decides to share you will never see Intel RAID + SLI.

This is one good reason to NOT buy SLI in my opinion. Maybe if they see that Intel based boards are drastically outselling their boards then they might want to share and you can get what you want...Intel RAID + SLI.

Jen, if you really want or need SLI, then get the eVGA 680i chipset. But, you might want to read about some of the problems a few of the folks are having when they try overclocking them. The 680i chipset is fussy, especially at higher FSB. That might not be a problem with a Q6700 or Q6800 because you won't need high FSB. Be prepared to do a lot of tweaking with a 680i chipset. Anyway, if you can live without SLI, I would highly recommend an Intel chipset instead.

OK so does anyone know where I can get a Coolermaster stacker...cant find it anywhere?

As for mobo...changed my mind. Had no idea about the 8900....think I'll go for a intel mobo. I've been looking at the P5B deluxe / prem mobos.

Ok...so for Intel mobo's what one rules...and please dont say all of them.

Oh and want some or at least 2 PCI slots if possible.

Spent sooooo long looking at the striker extreme...it looks so awesome and has so many lights...

So what mobo gives me everything if I go intel? BadAxe2 or P5B or something else.

Thank u everyone for helping me so far...got my credit all ready....plan to order the parts on Monday/Tuesday and start building it on Friday...parts list currently stands at:

qx6800, 'mobo', Stacker case, Enermax 1Kw PSU, Swift cpu kit, G.Skill 4Gb RAM and will butcher my existing pc for the gpu and the HDDs are so coming with me.

People...please help me with the mobo...pretty please.

Abit QuadGT

I'm going that route with a 8800/8900 or 2900XT (if the 2900XT is decent).

Jen - Have you looked at the Gigabyte Aurora 3D 570? I have one but have nothing to put in it yet.

JenBell said:

OK so does anyone know where I can get a Coolermaster stacker...cant find it anywhere?

As for mobo...changed my mind. Had no idea about the 8900....think I'll go for a intel mobo. I've been looking at the P5B deluxe / prem mobos.

Ok...so for Intel mobo's what one rules...and please dont say all of them.

Oh and want some or at least 2 PCI slots if possible.

Spent sooooo long looking at the striker extreme...it looks so awesome and has so many lights...

So what mobo gives me everything if I go intel? BadAxe2 or P5B or something else.

Thank u everyone for helping me so far...got my credit all ready....plan to order the parts on Monday/Tuesday and start building it on Friday...parts list currently stands at:

qx6800, 'mobo', Stacker case, Enermax 1Kw PSU, Swift cpu kit, G.Skill 4Gb RAM and will butcher my existing pc for the gpu and the HDDs are so coming with me.

People...please help me with the mobo...pretty please.

Click to expand...

You mean the normal Stacker or the Stacker 830?? you try Newegg??

AC - She's in the UK.

Had no idea, didn't notice her location tab. Sorry.

Jen, the Asus P5B-Deluxe is an excellent choice.

I'm a big Abit fan, but I don't know enough about the Quad GT to say yea or nay. I think it replaces the AB9 in the mid range position. I'd probably stay with the P5B-Deluxe, which is a proven winner.

Dudley...the byte is nice but I dont like the way u secure the pci/gpu in...want screws for that part...side holes for WCing is nice but there is simply not enough space...I will be initially putting in 2x150 Raptors, 2x1Tb's Hitachi's and 2x500 Maxtors and will most likely add another 2x1TB's before end of the year...also when the 8900 (heart set on it now) comes out I want to run another WCing loop just for the GPU...but still...think the case looks nice.

I looked at scan, overclockers and some other sites based in the UK...NO-ONE has the old original 11 bay stacker with space for 2 PSUs. I am really going to need the space at the top and bottom of the case plus I want a case that is almost impossible to max out...plus it has the crossflow fan which will add more cooling for the mobo - which is always nice....did I mention the 11 bays...so 2 for DVD drives, 3+3 for space for 8 HDDs and space left at the bottom for WCing res/pump and also I am going to need a toolkit/dremel stuff because...wait...need a drill as well....damn...feel so lost...I am going to have to punch some holes in to fit the 120mm x 2 rad to the top of the case but I am thinking maybe it would be easier to just use the rad box and stick it outside and drill some holes...that way when I add the GPU WCing in later on I can just put the single 120mm rad/fan at the top of the case.

Also...found a site that sells FluidXP with some funky colours...oh...need tygon cabling as well....damn...this is so exciting. I really scared about putting in WCing stuff put last weekend I put in a swiftech ultra full kit including vga and NB cooler and it was like so kool...having to fluidxp stuff really made things easy for me...plus it only took me 5 hours (I watched heroe's 20 inbetween ok...did u see Sylar...oooo...that was so kool...I dont care...I totally like sylar...he is so geekily sweet and damn right nasty and his smile...sic) but I also had to install vista 64 (my first time on 64bit and it was no fun....crappy drivers and all).

So initially I need to find the case...oh...wait...mobo...Intel people...what mobo would u use for a QUAD? Plus what company ram would be best...I am still thinking of getting a P5B Del/Prem or a BadAxe2 with 4GB Gskill...prefer mushkin as I think they totally rock.

Sry for the long msg...its 4:03am and think I need a few hours sleep before I hit the gym...then read some emails...shower...food shopping...got to get my neighbour a BD present (yay...got a party to go to 2night) and then watch heroes 21...party...come back...sit infront of my PC and hope someone has answered my post here with info I want.

See u later people...have a nice day/night...I'll try but as usual I will fail...always do...I think looking forward to something is more enjoyable than actually doing the thing u were looking forward to...if that makes any sense.

Er...the end.

Abit QuadGT or Asus Commando are very stable overclockers. The Abit has the advantage of locking down the 1066 strap past 400MHz fsb in the BIOS for better performance 24/7. I have the Commando and an E6600 that I've just begun the learning process with. I hope to jump over to a Q6600 later this summer. That second PCIe 16x (4x signal) slot should be great for a Areca RAID card.

OK I have placed my order for everything apart from GPU - need to do a wiretransfer for that:

Oh and before any has a go at me...decided to get the EVGA 680i mobo...need SLI (^-^) :

1 x Coolermaster Stacker Windowed Side Panel
2 x Coolermaster Cross Flow Fan
2 x Coolermaster 4-in-3 Device Module
1 x CoolerMaster Stacker STC-T01 - SILVER Trim
4 x Fluid XP+ EXTreme 1 Litre - UV Phantom Black
1 x Swiftech H20 APEX "Ultra Plus" CPU Liquid Cooling Kit (H20-220 APEX ULTRA PLUS)
1 x Tie Wraps Coloured Blue (pack of 100)
4 x NoiseBlocker BlackSilentFan XL1 120mm 16dB/A Fan
1x Corsair Memory Cooler (Dominator Fan)
1x Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator DHX PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB)
1x Enermax Galaxy 1Kw
1x EVGA NF680i SLI

Ok so that's most if not all of bar the QX6800 CPU.

For RAM I went with 4GB Corsair kit which is 2x2GB and not 4x1GB modules.

I am gonna head to the WCing section and try and see how people went about sorting the mobo chipset cooling out because I am getting the WCing part from swiftech so I might as well use it and if I mess up then at least the xp liquid will make sure my parts dont die.

Really happy so far with what I have chosen. I cried my eyes out before getting the evga mobo...so wanted to get the striker and then the abit quad and...oooo....feel so low at the moment...but I blame asus for not making the striker uberAwesome.

Anyways...hoping to get the cpu ordered in the morning and then wait...the stacker case is not in stock so I am having to wait for a few days...hopefully I will get everything for this coming weekend and make the PC rig.

Let me know what u think people - and no...not about the mobo....I am so not going to talk about it...its ordered and that's it but if u wanna tell how to wc the mobo then its all good.

Thank you everyone for ur help - really appreciate it.

Once I have everything done I will be sure to post up some pic's in a new thread...

EDIT: Ordered two HL-05's after reading anubis' thread on the evga cooling. Should be nice...