The (new) Official PC building thread!

rick5446,
Abuzar1 said:

I agree with Abuzar on that. I would get the GA-X48-DS4 and use the money saved towards a better Video card than you would have gotten otherwise. It has more than enough adjustments in the bios! Very highly rated too, and can do CrossFire!

Russ

 

Well, I went into the BIOS and turned off EIST, and no change....so I guess it's C1E. Now, how do I turn it off?

Also, I'm a little new with prime95 and torture testing and all that. Can you give me some info on it?

 

The Rampage has more BIOS options, and is a more advanced board for overclocking. Also the Rampage formula has better heatsinks, and I would pick it over the DQ6 for overclocking.

I would stil recommend the GA-X48-DS4 over BOTH the Rampage Formula and the DQ6 unless you plan on doing some serious OCing.

 

finally i will be posting on my new machine later today !! lol

Mort I'm going need some info OC(ing)CPU/memory on this baby via PMs

 

MRK, C1E should be in your overclocking options. Also you get Prime95(the newer versions with Quad core support) and start the torture test. Let it run for about 8 hours or so.

 

Deadrum,

that's not bad for you Q9450. 3.48ghz. I prolly won't push mine a whole lot more than that if that and it will be a while before I do any OC'ing at all. 2.66 for for a while. when I do get ready to OC, 3.6ghz will prolly be the highest I shoot for.

rick,

the changes I would make are all just personal preferance. I like asus's bios's much better than gigabytes. I realize you get more usb's with the GB but you will also have 2 usb's on the case that will plug into a header on the mobo. if you still need/want more you can use the included bracket with 2 more usb's that mounts on a card slot on the rear of the case. there are 3 usb headers on the rampage formula. the GB only has 2. the 3 usb headers was a must for me because my case has 4 usb connectors (2 per plug) and I needed the 3rd for my internal card reader.

the GB does have 2 more SATA connectors buth with todays large capacity hdds the 6 on the rampage formula should be plenty. I'm only using 3. most cases will only hold 4 hdds, 5 tops and there is still an IDE connector for two IDE ODD drives. if you absolutely have to have more you can get a SATA card.

two more features I like on the rampage formula that you won't find on the GB is the included supreme II audio card and the LED poster.

the only other item I wouch change is the PSU. you've got the right brand but I prefer the 620HX because it has modular cabling and there will be less clutter and fewer cables to tie up and hide away.

as I said, these are strictly personal preferance and will not effect the quality of the build. BTW, my old pc has the CM mystique case, although mine is all aluminum (no SECC) and I really like it.

 

Also, I edited my post above, in case you dont see it, this is what I added.

I would stil recommend the GA-X48-DS4 over BOTH the Rampage Formula and the DQ6 unless you plan on doing some serious OCing.

There are many other things where that extra 80-90 dollars will boost performance a LOT more than getting the more expensive motherboard. Oh and what GPU are you planning on using right now? You know the boards dont have onboard video, right?

 

And when you get there and beyond, dont be surprised if I try to compare notes.

DDP---I was wondering when someone would give me some cheese for that whine LOL!

 

I don't think anybody pays attention to me! I'm not going to OVERCLOCK anything, I have no need for OVERCLOCKING. All my Useage is Video, Same with Video-card Why do I need a high-end card. I'm not a Gamer, I've used Video cards from 20.00 to a 100.00, And can't really tell the difference in Movies, or my Desktop, or any other programs I use such as VLC, or Media Player Classic. The only need I have is to open 3 or 4 Programs for converting AVI Movies to DVD or DVDs to AVI at the same time

P.S. I'm 62yrs young and their is ONE Game I still enjoy, but alas my wife died 12yrs ago, and at my age its hard to find anybody that wants too play my game. All these Old ladies nowadays only want to sit around and see who can fart the loudest, and the young ones just want to go to Raves.Although I do get to see some TITS every so often. I trade a peek for a DVD

 

WELL, in that case you are better off just getting a GA-EP35-DS3R, and a cheap ass video card lol!

No need to spend so much on a motherboard, or get an X48 chipset board!

I'm serious man, the GA-EP35-DS3R will perform just as well and it's only 90 bucks. BTW it IS a great OCer, a a VERY user friendly one at that. So if you ever want to make your CPU WAY faster with a few small number changes(3gz will take you about 2 mins to do) consider OCing.

P.S. That last part? Kinda unneeded.

 

Rick,

I thought this was for your nephew and you asked which was better/best when you first started comparing mobo's.

 

abuzar1. Now I have to disagree with you. GOOD MOBO, CPU, MEM, PSU, DVDRW,Good Media make all the difference. Bells and Whistles are good for add ons. This little 5000+ 2.6 GHz is worked to death with 3 terabytes of HDD. Right now I'm using 3 External and 3 internal HDD. Thats why I'M LOOKIN AT A BIG Cs, get all 6 inside, Also I never burn less then 2 Discs at a time. Along with all the other crap I've got goin. So I really strain my stuff

And besides I'm loaded, I've got nothing better to do with my Money. I live on a very limited budget of 6,000 a mon., its really hard sometimes, especially when your used too so much more. I Retired from a Video game Business. Just turned it over to my Son and live on my investments

 

I disabled c1e and eist, and my clock speed is back to 2.66. Thanks for the help on that.
Now the only thing is my CPU temp for some reason goes up to 35C (no higher) and stays there, even with both enabled and my clock speed at 2 GHz......and I have the xigmatek installed, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong here...
And, should I run prime95 before or after the OC?

 

Rick, who said that the GA-EP35-DS3R is not a good mobo. It's TERRIFIC, and it will serve you VERY well. It also has AS MANY USB and SATA ports as the DQ6. It will ALSO OC very well(not quite as well as the X48 motherboards obviously) so if you EVER want to get into it you can.

Hell, even if you are loaded, I would save some money now and then upgrade to Nehalem in a year

MRK, what speed are you running your fans at? Also run Prime95 AFTER the OC as it tests whether your OC is stable or not. You can run it before too, to make sure everything is working fine before you start to OC.

 

abuzar1..I didn't say anything was bad ! I'm just paying attention to what everybody here at AD, has suggested
I'll look at that board though

 

well well..we got another burner person here..that's all i do rick is download burn movies transcode ,encode rip and write and have utorrent running all that stuff at the same time with E6750 and only using one of the cores to do that..i don't game on the computer if..i wanna game on it..i go to pogo.com..Cincyrob built his system for the same reason to all same stuff..i don't care about all that hd stuff on a computer simple 512mb pny card will do me just fine..

 

All I'm saying is that the X48 will be outdated in a year or so. When Nehalem comes out you will have to change your mobo and Ram anyway to get a new CPU. That would be my recommendation.

If you really want to get the X48(this chipset is more for gamer anyway because it supports Crossfire) then get the DQ6 because you don't care about the BIOS(no OCing), and the heatsinks. So the extra ports will be more useful for you.