Motherboard advice

[Erez]

i was looking into the Asus A8N SLI (yeah 939..).. and i was wondering what else should i look into.. (MSI K8N SLI?...) and maybe get some pros and cons..
thanks in advance :wink:

[DeMoN]

^ thats the one I have. The DELUXE version. AWESOME MOBO. Dont know why you want to look any further. MSI are the next best thing. I've been Asus loyal though.

[Fleischmann]

Asus or Microstar is the way to go, either one of those based on the NFoce4 chipset will be killer both in terms of performance and stability. The only question is do you need the base models or the high end one's with SLI and DDR2 support.

[Jabba]

But wait just a couple of weeks longer, the Conroe is on the doorstep

:wink:

And we know the spi world record has just been broken with the conroe and thats on stock voltage and air cooling LOL.

Its going to rape everything for sure and on a scale that we haven't seen for quite a while. My 4GHZ 1M spi time is about 31 secs and a stock volts conroe does it in about 15 secs, now thats progress and its just as impressive on encoding times, which means quicker TG for everyone on JW :D

[Erez]

i've been a long time asus owner\fan as well.. never had an issue with it..
why i'm asking is cause i'm not thamar.. i could use some advice.. :)

from what i got the only difference between the is the A8N-SLI to the Deluxe version is the Dual RAID and Dual Gigabit LAN & AI NET2, and the price difference here is 31 USD.. from 166USD to 197USD.. price is an issue, i'm building this PC to a certain budget.. (not mine)

The MSI K8N Diamond is 326USD over here.. so thats a bit much..

and sorry for the ignorance but whats a "Conroe" \"AM2"? :oops: :wink: (full name would be nice so i could look it up :) )

@jabba :wink: thats good news :D

[Erez]

so both are processors.. ok :)
is DDRII significantly better\faster then DDR?
and whats your recommendation about the A8N-SLI, which rivals should i look at? i'll post the prices here later, tell me if its worth in your opinion..

and thanks everybody for the input.. :D

[Fleischmann]

I'm curious as well, I'm also buliding a new PC and have a limited budget, so with DDR2 are there any significant changes in performance or is it better to invest the cash in a faster CPU ??

[Erez]

BTW- am I right about the A8N-SLI to the Deluxe difference? and somewere i saw this board is a DDRII and others DDR.. which is true?
thanks again..

[Erez]

yeah thats what i thought..
thank for the AM2 info! very helpful!
if the prices are the same then its well worth to wait i guess.. I noticed the DDR2 are cheaper.. how long do you reckon till they're all out?

[Erez]

:shock: thats good news :D

[crazidude]

I'm curious as well, I'm also buliding a new PC and have a limited budget, so with DDR2 are there any significant changes in performance or is it better to invest the cash in a faster CPU ??
In theory AMD could have quite a benefit from going to ddr2 with the onboard mem controller and what not, but its not very efficient as using up the extra bandwidth it ddr2 offers. I'm not sure how conroe works, but I doubt it uses the bandwidth of ddr2 very efficiently aswell. But its pointless to question whether or not ddr2 or ddr is better because you'll never be able to compare the 2 due the fact that no single processor can use either one, right now.

a stock conroe does it in about 15 secs
I had no clue conroe was so fast. I knew that it destroys the a64 in pretty much everything, but I had no idea the difference was so large...

[Jabba]

I had no clue conroe was so fast. I knew that it destroys the a64 in pretty much everything, but I had no idea the difference was so large...

You better believe it !!

http://www.coolaler.net/conroe/DICE/DI2.gif

[Jabba]

Full thread here inc encoding benchmarks

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=98919

[Jabba]

Nice video showing the complete ownage of a poor FX-60

Conroe vs FX62 - YouTube

[ZfrkS62]

I had no clue conroe was so fast. I knew that it destroys the a64 in pretty much everything, but I had no idea the difference was so large...

You better believe it !!

http://www.coolaler.net/conroe/DICE/DI2.gif

Holy fuzzballs that's alot of info i don't understand!!!!! 0.o

which window is the most important one in making your point, big J?

[Erez]

SuperPI i guess :P ;)
anywho.. :arrow: :arrow: :shock: :shock: hot damn!

[crazidude]

omg 16s... that's like twice as fast as mine :( and I've overclocked a fair bit too... That just makes me feel sad...

What's worse is that the conroe probably won't cost as much as an AM2 when its widely availible.

[Jabba]

which window is the most important one in making your point, big J?

Yep as Erez said its the super pi time as its almost a 50 % performance increase over some of the fastest computers on JW.

For me though its the video encoding times that will make life a bit easier and enable me to get the videos up a bit quicker.

[Erez]

^ yeah i saw that vid you posted.. damn!
how much do you reckon that CPU is going to cost?

[Jabba]

I heard as low as $200 but thats prob the special deal intel gives to Dell and other big name manufacturers, I bet with the initial demand going to be so high you are prob going to be seeing silly ebay prices again. In fact I already saw a test one on there for $1,000.

[Erez]

pfff I dont even want to think about prices here then.. with the FX-60 costing around 1,550 USD.. :lol: i better go out now and look for the nearest bank to rob.. :lol:

[Jabba]

Get a cheap Dell with a conroe and it will still probably be faster than a FX60 :P

[DeMoN]

wow man, INTEL finally did it apparently! Hope this technology is used on PS3 in some way. Anyone know if there is a 3D marks number yet?

[Jabba]

http://www.coolaler.net/conroe/LN2/LN2_11.gif
http://www.coolaler.net/conroe/pc05_1.gif
http://www.coolaler.net/conroe/3D06_1.gif
http://coolaler.kj.idv.tw/conroe/cf3d01_2.gif

[Jabba]

Jabba, that ain't no stock CPU!
Stock speed is 2.13Ghz, this one is clocked beyond 3Ghz with an insane memory bandwith and very high FSB.

My 4GHZ 1M spi time is about 31 secs and a stock volts conroe does it in about 15 secs

And when exactly did I say it was ? (I only said the volts were stock meaning that it can be pushed alot further) :wink:

[DeMoN]

Jabba, what was the name of the progrm you used to overclock? You just use that program or do you biosOverclock aswell?

[Jabba]

Well I use this

http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

to find a stable speed that I can run at then adjust it permanently in the bios yes.

[Erez]

I aint going anywhere near dell :P
and after some stories i've just heard about HP.. i aint going near any big faceless retailer.. 4 people i know (!) had their screens on their mobile comps stop working.. just after the warranty ended.. all with the same reason, the cable just got worn out.. it's like a 5 buck fixup, but HP wont fix it.. or sell it.. for them to fix it they want, and i'm NOT joking 612 EUROs.. which mean you better off getting a new one.. ALL just after the warranty ended.. unfucking believable.. :?

[Jabba]

Yep I hear what you are saying and it sucks that they get the best deals from intel and the chips first. But then thats just good business I guess and tough shit for us the consumer as usual :|

[Erez]

yeah business is business.. i sure get that.. but as a customer.. thats unacceptable,
and the only way to make those policies change is for people to stop taking it up the ass, and understand that they have power, if the customer service sucks, dont give them the the returned business, tell your friend about it.. make them know that customer service is just as important as a good deal.. (if not more..)
..but i guess people cant really be bothered.. :roll:

I just cant believe how companies like that get away with it..

[Erez]

well they do get away.. cause they're still in business :P :lol: :wink: