EP45-UD3P Blew Up...Need Suggestions on Possible LGA1156/1336 Upgrade

See this thread for UD3P mofset explosion goodness...

Okay, since I have to buy another major component, I want to weigh all of my options.

Computer Uses (no particular order):

• AutoCAD (I haven't found any concrete info regarding AutoCAD and its multithreading capabilities...)
• Air benching (almost an oxymoron ) (Random, some-what corny thought: The Last Air Bencher would be a sweet title...lol)
• More than typical Excel use.
• A few games, mainly RPGs (Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights 2, Crysis, D3 when it comes out)
• Typical music/pictures/videos/internet use.

The main differences between 1156/1366 seem to just be how well they handle multiple GPUs and RAM type:

LGA1156

• Great in 1-2 GPU setups (typically 16x or 8x/8x).
• Dual Channel RAM

LGA1366

• Best in multi-GPU setups, especially 3+ GPUs (full PCI-E bandwidth).
• Triple Channel RAM

I'd like to just get CPU/Mobo/RAM. I'll be getting a new GPU when Fermi is released, but not necessarily a Fermi card...

I've skimmed through MIA's i3/i5/i7 guide to try and get a handle on what I may need for OCing, but I'm a noob to the new platforms really.

i5 750 or i7 860? Maybe a Clarkdale?
2x2GB DDR3-???? (timings?) RAM
ASUS/Giga/eVGA mobo?

i7 920 (pretty obvious, I'm not dropping $1100 on 980x)
3x2GB DDR3-???? (timings?) RAM
ASUS/Giga/eVGA mobo?

I noticed in MIA's guide he mentioned a 5x RAM multiplier, so 5x200 is DDR3-2000 speeds. Do I need DDR3-2000 for good OCing? What are decent timings for those speeds, 8-8-8-24?

I really have no clue about the mobos. I'd like a really good clocking board, you know, something to have fun with (without the mofsets exploding ).

As for budget, it's hard to say. I definitely have enough money to get whatever PC, but I want to get the most out of my dollar. I think I'd be that way if I was a billionaire...lol. If you guys really need a concrete budget, just say and I'll throw something out there.

I really need to get to buying this thing ASAP.

Thanks in advance.

Im loving my i5 750. No difference to me than my i7 x58 for what I do. Id go with the best deal you can find. Unless you want to utilize HT with foldin gor something, go with i5 750 if you can find it for cheap. If you get a good deal on i7 x58, Id definitely jump on it though.

I just like to run 200mhz bclk for daily overclock (20x200 or 21x200). At that, 1600mhz ram is perfect (2:8 divider). If you want a 2:10 divider, go with some 2000mhz RAM. If you want to run a bclk around 215+, maybe get some 1866mhz RAM and run 2:8.

If you need that Fry's deal, let me know I could help. With tax + shipping, its $255 - $15 MIR = $240.

I'll definitely keep that Fry's deal in mind and any MC deals on CPUs. Either way I'll have to put up a "Pick up x for me" thread in the classies.

Thanks for the RAM info. What are all the available divider options?

I want to say 6,8,10,12 on most boards (multiply the number by the BClock. IE: 6 ram divider @ 200 bclock, 1200mhz. Stock 133mhz x 12 = 1600mhz).

Sorry, I'm a little confused...2:6, 2:8, 2:10, and 2:12 are typical? That would really be 3, 4, 5, and 6 multipliers, but then you have to multiply by another 2 for DDR, that's how you got the 6, 8, 10, and 12 right?

I was looking at RAM prices at NewEgg and I put an * beside the ones that seem to be the best deal. Opinions?

LGA1156
$120 2x2GB DDR3-1600 7-8-7-20*
$110 2x2GB DDR3-1600 8-8-8-24
$150 2x2GB DDR3-2000 9-9-9-24

LGA1366
$160 3x2GB DDR3-1600 8-8-8-24*
$200 3x2GB DDR3-2000 9-9-9-27

I checked out some X58 mobos and these are what I came up with...

$230 P6T
$290 P6T Deluxe V2
$290 P6TD Deluxe
$210 GA-X58A-UD3R
$290 GA-X58A-UD5

Other than price, I don't see a big difference in these boards in the NewEgg specs. Any notable differences (other than USB3/SATA3)? On both of the above Giga boards, the PCI-E x16 slots share bandwidth with the x8 slots, I guess I'll have to be wary of how I install expansion cards to make sure I don't suck bandwidth from a GPU...

For P55 mobos, I got it "narrowed down" (lol) to this so far:

$200 Sabertooth 55i (Never heard of this one...)
$200 P7P55D Deluxe
$250 Maximus III Formula
$230 P7P55D WS SuperComputer w/ NF200 (What is NF200? Something with multi-GPUs?)
$185 GA-P55A-UD4P
$210 GA-P55-UD5
$250 GA-P55A-UD6 (Differences between these Giga boards?)
$190 eVGA P55 SLI
$215 eVGA P55 FTW

I personally recommend the P55A-UD4P

jgv115 said:

I personally recommend the P55A-UD4P

Click to expand...

Thanks, is that just from personal experience? Are any UD5/UD6 features not worth the extra cost?

Just dont think of it as 2:8 ratio. Think of it as Bclock x 8 and youll be fine.

Im sure the UD4P/5/6 are great. My UD3 is an excellent board for the price (if you arent X-fireing, no 2x x16 lanes). It overclocks very well. If you are looking for a solid 4ghz, and dont need to X-Fire, Id look into it if you want to save a few bucks.

Yeah, I haven't checked the combo deals at Fry's or MC, so that may change my decisions. Searching their sites is confusing for some reason...

I did see the i7 920 for $180 deal at MC. Pretty good if you ask me.

I think I'm going to get either G.Skill or Kingston HyperX DDR3-2000 RAM, haven't decided whether (9-9-9-24/27) or (8-8-8-24) timings yet...

A lot of Gigabyte love in here..I tried narrowing the boards down some more, I'd like to have SLI/Xfire just in case:

LGA1156
$200 P7P55D Deluxe
$250 Maximus III Formula
$210 GA-P55-UD5
$215 eVGA P55 FTW

LGA1366
$290 P6T Deluxe V2
$290 P6TD Deluxe
$270 GA-EX58-UD5

So, here's a budget to throw out there for CPU/Mobo/RAM: ~$700

Okay, I've decided to just go ahead and do the whole LGA1366 thing...

Board choices:
$310 Asus P6X58D Premium (SATA3/USB3)
$290 Asus P6TD Deluxe (if this OCs a lot better I'll sacrifice SATA3/USB3)
$270 Gigabyte GA-EX58A-UD5 (SATA3/USB3)

RAM choices:
$180-190 G.Skill Pi or Corsair XMS3 3x2GB DDR3-1600 CAS7
$210 G.Skill Trident 3x2GB DDR3-2000 CAS9

So, I'm gonna spend ~$300 on the board, ~$200 on the RAM, and hopefully get someone to pick up an i7 920 D0 for $180-200 for me at MC. That will eat my ~$700 budget...

I'd like some concrete reasons for a certain board and RAM choice from my list. I don't want to just buy one and regret it later. Thanks.

I'm also currently working on a 1366 build... but I was wondering why you didn't go for 1156? You could get a cpu/motherboard combos (classifieds) for ~$300 to $350 sometimes even less and 4 gb kit DDR3 for ~ $110 to $120.

Really, I guess b/c I have the money to go 1366. I haven't gotten any feedback on 1366, but I usually hear "if you have the money, then go 1366 over 1156" so that's what I decided to do...

I definitely have the money to go "all out" and get the best of the best if I wanted to (EVGA Classified SR-2, 2xGT, sh*t ton of RAM, 2 or 3 GTX480s, etc) but that's kind of overboard.

So, I guess I've partially thrown my usual "best for the buck" out the window...

So far, I'm stuck between these components:

P6TD Deluxe
P6X58D Premium

3x2GB DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20
3x2GB DDR3-2000 8-8-8-24
3x2GB DDR3-2000 7-8-7-24 (EXPENSIVE!)

I'd like the best clocking board and RAM...I just don't know what they are, and I've been searching the internet for ~3 days...

I went with socket 1156 first for the value/performance factor. An overclocked i5 750 is a good performer and overall it has a more reasonable price of entry (cpu/mobo/ram). I still ended up moving to an i7 860 and now I'm working on my i7 920 build. I've been monitoring the "classies" for 1366 motherboards... but I'm also interested in this soon to be released unit:

http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/cpu_mainboard/rampage_iii_extreme_early_look/1

of course high end 1366 motherboard/ram kits are quite $$$.

I'm partial to EVGA boards. Have you researched any of them at all? E758 is similar price range to the P6T Deluxe.
2000mhz CL8 or 1600mhz CL7... pretty much the same thing

PolRoger said:

I went with socket 1156 first for the value/performance factor. An overclocked i5 750 is a good performer and overall it has a more reasonable price of entry (cpu/mobo/ram). I still ended up moving to an i7 860 and now I'm working on my i7 920 build. I've been monitoring the "classies" for 1366 motherboards... but I'm also interested in this soon to be released unit:

http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/cpu_mainboard/rampage_iii_extreme_early_look/1

of course high end 1366 motherboard/ram kits are quite $$$.

Click to expand...

When is that R3E supposed to be released? Will it be worth waiting for?

nzaneb said:

I'm partial to EVGA boards. Have you researched any of them at all? E758 is similar price range to the P6T Deluxe.
2000mhz CL8 or 1600mhz CL7... pretty much the same thing

Click to expand...

I've been looking into Asus, EVGA, and Gigabyte.

I tried looking for stuff on the EVGA boards but most of the reviews are of the Classified series.

The UD7 looks nice, but $50 more than the UD5 just for a massive chipset cooler?

So, typical 1600 CAS7 could clock to 2000 CAS8 if I wanted?

+1 on P6X58D Premium. Or a Rampage II Extreme.
This ram is pretty stable for me http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

MattNo5ss said:

When is that R3E supposed to be released? Will it be worth waiting for?

Click to expand...

I haven't heard of a firm release date yet but I'm hopeful that it will be soon and that linked web site is supposed to put up a review on the "R3E" tomorrow.

OnDborder said:

+1 on P6X58D Premium. Or a Rampage II Extreme.
This ram is pretty stable for me http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

Click to expand...

The only reason I'm not considering the R2E is b/c it's 1" wider than typical ATX (9.6") and it won't fit on the station I'm building unless I mod it. I'll have to look for an easy way to fix the station...

I was looking at Dominators and the GT models, they seem to clock well from various sources but are much more expensive, like those 3x2GB DDR3-2000 7-8-7-24 GTs for $430!
Is there a big difference between the Dominators and the GT models?

PolRoger said:

I haven't heard of a firm release date yet but I'm hopeful that it will be soon and that linked web site is supposed to put up a review on the "R3E" tomorrow.

Click to expand...

I'll definitely read the review and hopefully they'll mention a release date. Thanks for the link.

MattNo5ss said:

So, typical 1600 CAS7 could clock to 2000 CAS8 if I wanted?

Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have been more clear. They would perform similarly at the speed. You might be able to get GOOD 1600 to clock to 2000mhz. The nice thing about 2000 mhz ram is that your options are very abundant. You know they'll do high speed, but you also have the option to slow them down and really dial in some tight timings.

Gotcha. Thanks for your input on the RAM, I really needed it.