OMG MOTHERBOARD MELTDOWN. not bad kind..lol

1366 confusion overload.

I'm building a 1366. Been looking at newegg, forums etc and there are so many models that I'm in overload. I first just assumed that the Gigabyte X58USB3 but looking at sooo many bad reviews I'm not sure. Then asus, there are just too many boards to choose from.
What I can tell you all is that I will be running a i7950, MSI5870 single but will be buying another for crossfire and want at least 2 x16 slots. New sata6 sounds good and my 2tb WD drives support it. USB3.0 is a must. I'll be using a corsair H50 to start but will overclock and if temps are a problem will watercool with swiftech block so a northbridge setup for optional water would be nice but not completely necessary.

Back in the day, everyone loved the Asus P5Q's and it was pretty easy to pick which one you bought. Now-a-days asus isn't the only game in town and even MSI's big bang I'm hearing good things, just not good things about it's raid controller.

I'm a huge gigabyte fan but the x58usb3 scares me. Maybe they fixed whatever was causing all the problems?

Anyone with thoughts of how you found the best board out there? I'd like to keep the price under $300 but would pay if it seemed worth it.

So, the computer will game, fold and encode video. It will also serve as a customer demo machine to show prospective customers.

I've considered going 2600k and 1155 but just don't understand it enough and feel more comfortable at this point going 1366 i7 as I've built several, just never oc'd them as they were for customers. I absolutly will never again buy anything from BIOSTAR due to tooo many mb issues.

Thanks for looking.

Chaiyz

ASUS P6X58D Premium or Gigabyte X58-UD3R?

Guess the asus has 6gb sata but won't do it in raid. Anyone doing raid on this board with a pair of ssd's or 1tb wd blacks? Curious.

Well, since people are looking but mums the word, I'll add this:

I spent the night reading about the 1155 and the 2500k,2600k. These seem absolutly
amazing and from what I've read, I havn't found anybody really unhappy with it, unless they were using the sata3 lol

I just want something that flys and represents new tech. Only thing I'm not seeing on SB is triple channel ram.
I also can only find 5 motherboards on newegg that are 1155. Anyone know when they are going to be reintroducing the fixed 1155's? Also, lots of conflicting info on the 2011's. Some say September, some say April. If it was April, I think I could wait.

Thanks for looking.

Chaiyz

yeah I was going to say... why not Sandybridge?

SB is not triple channel so you wont find it.

Yes, they will be reintroducing the B3 stepping motherboards...THIS MONTH into APRIL.

Im curious, and dont take this the wrong way, but you are a builder/ own your own shop, how did/do you not know what to buy or that sandybridge even existed?

SB's dual-channel will beat 1366's triple-channel if you run each to it's limits. You can run RAM a lot faster in SB, the latency is lower, and the cache in SB is faster, so overall bandwidth can be better in SB despite it's lack of triple-channel.

All the mobos you're seeing should be the fixed boards as they are starting to trickle in now. To be sure look for "B3" somewhere on the box or in the description.


Edit: Even when only looking at the 1366 socket and dual vs triple channel there is only a slight increase in bandwidth w/ a significant hit to latency when going from dual to triple. http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Mem...el-vs.-Triple-Channel-Memory-Mode/Page-2.html

Yes, I've been on Asus' site and keep seeing the B3 revisions.

Oh, and yes, I'm a builder. Yes I own a brick and mortar shop and yes, I've seen alot about SB but guess I was on another planet last month because it missed me. Most of my customers are very happy with i3's H55 chipsets.

And yes, I'm just a little behind on SB and p67. The more I hear, the more I realize I should wait and get a 2600k and a P67 motherboard.

The more I think about it, I'm realizing that I'd confused the term sandybridge with "non performance and onboard video", so I just havn't been paying attention.

I will say that if these little i3's are any reflection at all on the way the architecture is headed, I'm all for it. 4ghz easily on crappy H55 motherboards..

So, just to make sure everyone is on the same page, I'm thinking I should just wait for the B3 motherboards and find a good price on a 2600k.

Sound good?

Chaiyz

sounds like a smart move, and i gotta say i have a SB (see sig ) and even though the UD4's turned out to be VERY hit and miss on be'n good boards for clocking.. (14 page thread on XS about the woes of UD4's) even at 4.4 this thing is retarded fast i can play BFBC2 full maxxed while folding and still keep up 36-38K ppd