With prices now reduced at my local retailer for Q6600's (but no supply till Tues) I thought it best to to a bit more mobo research for what will be best to house them for a dedicated folding rig.
I had bought a p5k a couple of weeks ago without much research to replace a dead p5b-d that was running a 6400. It oc'ed fairly well running the 6400 at 470x7 and balistix 6400 mem at 1128.
But i thought before i buy another one, some research was in order. I limited my research to a few manufacturers' p35 mobo's that are on my shortlist having both experience with them and good reputations for ability to OC and reliability.
So the ones i have focused research on so far are asus p5k family, gigabyte and a litttle on abit. Since my farm is all asus and gigibyte atm split almost 50/50 they are my incumbents. I used abit 478 and some as8 775 mobos but my primary mobo retailer dropped them after I bought my last as8 due to their takeover etc. And abit seems to have only recently started getting back to their old 478 levels recently with c2d.
One thing that spurred me to research more was the p5k's lack of a ps2 mouse port. Maybe not a big deal for some unless all you have is kvm's that support ps/2 which is my case. Yeah, there are adpaters but i saw some evidence of use mouse problems with linux, and usb interfaces are not nearly as built in as ps/2 to virtually every bios and mobo. I try to avoid unnecessary complications especially on folding rigs.
I read a few threads yesterday that lead me to think about the p5k-se and p5k vm as cheaper alternatives to the base p5k after reading one thread that the p5k-vm appears to oc at least into the high 400's fsb, although not tested with integrated video enabled. I couldn't find any results on the p5k-se on oc'ing but it looked like the main difference was prolly all the pwm and chips heatinks/heatpipes are missing - not sure it is worth paying $10-20 less for it..
But then today I read this article which shows ~ 30 Watts higher power consumption at load
on the asus p5k (deluxe)!
http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/p35-mobos/index.x?pg=16
If this holds at OC, that is a serious consideration for 724 folding rigs if all else is equal!
Looking at a few of the reviews, it looked like all the the asus p5k, giga ds3r and abit ip35 hit close to 500 fsb by several reviewers and their test cpu's appeared to be the limiters. Since i don't expect (m)any of us energy/heat conscious folders are going to be running fsb>500 for 724 folding, they all appear to meet the oc'ing requirement.
so i looked back at my retailers' mobo pricing/availability and my list is now shortened a bunch since they don't carry the abit ip35, in fact it isn't listed at any of the 3 retailers i use regularly.
So my list is narrowed to to either one of the p5k's or the giga GA-P35-DS3R.
The ds3r is actually cheaper, yet has raid capability with the ich9R vs the ich9 in the p5k's non-deluxes under consideration. While most dedicated folding rigs aren't likely to be running raid, I do run 1 wxp folding rig as a backup to my main rig and so i like to have a small raid 1 on it. The ds3R also has a ps/2 mouse port.
Linux considerations next ... I already have 1 p5k and it loaded ubuntu 7.04 fine. and has been folding fine over a week. The only issue i have had with it is the kernel reported that it 'lost' and disabled the usb mouse once.
I have a bunch of giga ds3 rev 3.3's that have a hard time running the onboard marvel nic in 7.04. 6.10 couldn't even use the newer marvel lan chips on them at all. Out of 6 mobo's only 1 seems to run it at all, and even it's lan connection seems to come and go regularly. For the other 5, I put old pci nics in since they wouldn't even keep the lan active long enough to setup folding etc over the lan. This is a linux driver/kernel problem since the nics all work fine in wxp.
... Fortunately the p35-ds3r has a realtek onboard nic so i am hopeful.
The only other unknown for me with the ds3R will be if it has any issues loading 7.04 with the ich9r. I will not be trying to run raid in linux so hopefully that will not be an issue.
That is where i am at so far ... ds3r will be my next folding mobo. I will also validate that power consumption test using my ups to measure it. Hopefully no linux issues.
If the power consumption test confirm that review i linked, then i will not bother testing a p5k-vm. It still has some appeal, especially if the mobo will oc with the integrated video enabled. Not sure if i would want to pay a 40% power premium to replace a $10-20 pci video card even with the added bonus cleaner caseless setup with NO expansion cards required (assuming it oc's well with integrated video enabled). The p5k-vm might still be interesting to some since it is cheaper than the ds3r if the to-be-confirmed higher power consumption is not an issue. If it oc's with integrated video enabled, that would just be a bonus.
I would not say i have done exhaustive research, so please feel free to comment
I can see myself buying 1 or 2 of the winner in the next few months before the p38's come out. It is soundiing like the luxury version of the p35 so unless the preformance is substantially better, i expect the p35 will be the new folding rig base for a while. Of course there is also the nvidia 650/680 chipset mobo's, but other than the ability to run the memory speeds decoupled from the fsb speed, I haven't read much that would make me want to seriously try them out for my folding farm.
/update ... the P35-DSR3 testing is underway with a q6600 SLACR G0 stepping. The cpu is very nice hitting 350 fsb limited testing stale with only 1.275 V. However, this mobo has huge vdoop so I though i would post this as a warning till I complete my oc'ing of it.
It also seems to take a lot of MCH V to oc the memory much ... and this increase in MCH (aka MB) V is very noticable in power draw under load.
Also, the ds3r, as with my other ds3's will not post with 2 sticks of some older ballistix 6400 ram I have ... but this appears to be a problem only with my older ballistix 6400 ... the new stuff shows up on giga's QVL list should should work fine. All testing so far with OCZ 8500 platinum.
The P5K vanilla seems to suffer high vdroop as well, and my preliminary conclusion is the i will buy more ds3r's before i will buy a nother p5k vanilla.
P5k deluxe may be ok since it is not supposed to have the vdroop issue. but for a stipped down folding only rig it is too expensive to include in my comparison. I am sure others will get the deluxe so we can include their results here if they want.
I had bought a p5k a couple of weeks ago without much research to replace a dead p5b-d that was running a 6400. It oc'ed fairly well running the 6400 at 470x7 and balistix 6400 mem at 1128.
But i thought before i buy another one, some research was in order. I limited my research to a few manufacturers' p35 mobo's that are on my shortlist having both experience with them and good reputations for ability to OC and reliability.
So the ones i have focused research on so far are asus p5k family, gigabyte and a litttle on abit. Since my farm is all asus and gigibyte atm split almost 50/50 they are my incumbents. I used abit 478 and some as8 775 mobos but my primary mobo retailer dropped them after I bought my last as8 due to their takeover etc. And abit seems to have only recently started getting back to their old 478 levels recently with c2d.
One thing that spurred me to research more was the p5k's lack of a ps2 mouse port. Maybe not a big deal for some unless all you have is kvm's that support ps/2 which is my case. Yeah, there are adpaters but i saw some evidence of use mouse problems with linux, and usb interfaces are not nearly as built in as ps/2 to virtually every bios and mobo. I try to avoid unnecessary complications especially on folding rigs.
I read a few threads yesterday that lead me to think about the p5k-se and p5k vm as cheaper alternatives to the base p5k after reading one thread that the p5k-vm appears to oc at least into the high 400's fsb, although not tested with integrated video enabled. I couldn't find any results on the p5k-se on oc'ing but it looked like the main difference was prolly all the pwm and chips heatinks/heatpipes are missing - not sure it is worth paying $10-20 less for it..
But then today I read this article which shows ~ 30 Watts higher power consumption at load
on the asus p5k (deluxe)! http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/p35-mobos/index.x?pg=16
If this holds at OC, that is a serious consideration for 724 folding rigs if all else is equal!
Looking at a few of the reviews, it looked like all the the asus p5k, giga ds3r and abit ip35 hit close to 500 fsb by several reviewers and their test cpu's appeared to be the limiters. Since i don't expect (m)any of us energy/heat conscious folders are going to be running fsb>500 for 724 folding, they all appear to meet the oc'ing requirement.
so i looked back at my retailers' mobo pricing/availability and my list is now shortened a bunch since they don't carry the abit ip35, in fact it isn't listed at any of the 3 retailers i use regularly.
So my list is narrowed to to either one of the p5k's or the giga GA-P35-DS3R.
The ds3r is actually cheaper, yet has raid capability with the ich9R vs the ich9 in the p5k's non-deluxes under consideration. While most dedicated folding rigs aren't likely to be running raid, I do run 1 wxp folding rig as a backup to my main rig and so i like to have a small raid 1 on it. The ds3R also has a ps/2 mouse port.
Linux considerations next ... I already have 1 p5k and it loaded ubuntu 7.04 fine. and has been folding fine over a week. The only issue i have had with it is the kernel reported that it 'lost' and disabled the usb mouse once.
I have a bunch of giga ds3 rev 3.3's that have a hard time running the onboard marvel nic in 7.04. 6.10 couldn't even use the newer marvel lan chips on them at all. Out of 6 mobo's only 1 seems to run it at all, and even it's lan connection seems to come and go regularly. For the other 5, I put old pci nics in since they wouldn't even keep the lan active long enough to setup folding etc over the lan. This is a linux driver/kernel problem since the nics all work fine in wxp.
... Fortunately the p35-ds3r has a realtek onboard nic so i am hopeful.
The only other unknown for me with the ds3R will be if it has any issues loading 7.04 with the ich9r. I will not be trying to run raid in linux so hopefully that will not be an issue.
That is where i am at so far ... ds3r will be my next folding mobo. I will also validate that power consumption test using my ups to measure it. Hopefully no linux issues.
If the power consumption test confirm that review i linked, then i will not bother testing a p5k-vm. It still has some appeal, especially if the mobo will oc with the integrated video enabled. Not sure if i would want to pay a 40% power premium to replace a $10-20 pci video card even with the added bonus cleaner caseless setup with NO expansion cards required (assuming it oc's well with integrated video enabled). The p5k-vm might still be interesting to some since it is cheaper than the ds3r if the to-be-confirmed higher power consumption is not an issue. If it oc's with integrated video enabled, that would just be a bonus.
I would not say i have done exhaustive research, so please feel free to comment
I can see myself buying 1 or 2 of the winner in the next few months before the p38's come out. It is soundiing like the luxury version of the p35 so unless the preformance is substantially better, i expect the p35 will be the new folding rig base for a while. Of course there is also the nvidia 650/680 chipset mobo's, but other than the ability to run the memory speeds decoupled from the fsb speed, I haven't read much that would make me want to seriously try them out for my folding farm.
/update ... the P35-DSR3 testing is underway with a q6600 SLACR G0 stepping. The cpu is very nice hitting 350 fsb limited testing stale with only 1.275 V. However, this mobo has huge vdoop
so I though i would post this as a warning till I complete my oc'ing of it. It also seems to take a lot of MCH V to oc the memory much ... and this increase in MCH (aka MB) V is very noticable in power draw under load.
Also, the ds3r, as with my other ds3's will not post with 2 sticks of some older ballistix 6400 ram I have ... but this appears to be a problem only with my older ballistix 6400 ... the new stuff shows up on giga's QVL list should should work fine. All testing so far with OCZ 8500 platinum.
The P5K vanilla seems to suffer high vdroop as well, and my preliminary conclusion is the i will buy more ds3r's before i will buy a nother p5k vanilla.
P5k deluxe may be ok since it is not supposed to have the vdroop issue. but for a stipped down folding only rig it is too expensive to include in my comparison. I am sure others will get the deluxe so we can include their results here if they want.
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... but that makes me feel better about the ds3r and 7.04 since I am going to pick one up today.
can't you just give me a break and let me have my seat a bit longer? 
