oscaryu1

P35 - PCI-E x16, needs CMOS flash for 45nm, thus a bit less stable, and some (DS3L) do not support DDR3

X38 - PCI-E 2.0, native support for 45nm, thus a bit more stable, DDR3

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ride3k

nailed it on the head, if you are going budget p35 will do you good if you have an older intel to do the bios flash, if you dont the x38 is the way to go. If you could wait the x48 is supposed to be nice plus when it comes out it might drop the x38 price a bit to make it slightly more budget friendly

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Laptop/------------/Desktop
/------------------/Gigabyte X38-DS4
1.8ghz/------------/E8400 3.0ghz
7900GS go/--------/8800GTS 512mb
2gb RAM/----------/2gb DDR2 800 CL4
DVD +RW/---------/DVD +RW
160gb x2 in RAID0/-/320gb hdd
17" 1440x900/-----/19" Samsung 906BW
/-----------------/550w Active PFC psu
/-----------------/AC Freezer Pro 7

lucky7

How do i do a bios flash and cmos update?

[-0MEGA-]

Just because the P35 may need a BIOS flash doesn't make it any less stable with 45nm processors. Also, not all X38's use DDR3, some use DDR2.

You forgot to mention a few things, such as the X38 supports full PCI-E 2.0 x16 speeds on both slots, vs the P35 which has one slot running at x16 and the other ones at 4x. Also, the X38's support 1600MHz/1333MHz bus speeds.

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Desktop // Laptop
Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 4.0GHz // Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz
Asus Rampage Formula X48 // Intel PM45
ATI 4870X2 2GB GDDR5 // 512MB GDDR3 9800M GTS
4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2 940 // 4GB DDR3 800
750GB SATAII w/32MB // 200GB SATAII 7200RPM
Creative SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
SilverStone 750W +12V@60A
3DMark06: 21391 // 9179

paratwa

I am not saying this to be mean or a dick. But if you do not know how to flash a bio's, then you would be better off with the x38. Flashing a bios can be the most dangerous thing you can do to a computer. It's not a hard thing to do (its very easy actually) but if you mess it up, then your motherboard is dead.

Most newer motherboards come with utility's to flash a bios, directly from Windows, so that you do not have to use DOS to do it. They will even down load the file you need. But you have to be very careful that it is the correct file before flashing. Also you need to make sure you back up the old Bios just encase the new one fails to work, you can flash with the old one.

lucky7

Hmm that does sound pretty tough to do but if i dont flash the bios wat will happen? Will there be any negative results for my computer?

paratwa

If the p35 needs to have the bios flashed to run the newer 45nm chips, then you would need to flash it to run the new cpu's.

[-0MEGA-]

Not necessarily, many of the newer P35 motherboards already are shipped with a newer BIOS revision. Flashing the BIOS is very easy to do, with the P35 all you need to do is save the new BIOS file onto a flash drive or other media, go into the BIOS and enter the flash utility, and then upgrade. However if something happens such as you restart the computer during the process, it could brick the motherboard. However a few motherboards have dual-BIOS's, so that wouldn't be a problem there.

__________________
Desktop // Laptop
Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 4.0GHz // Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz
Asus Rampage Formula X48 // Intel PM45
ATI 4870X2 2GB GDDR5 // 512MB GDDR3 9800M GTS
4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2 940 // 4GB DDR3 800
750GB SATAII w/32MB // 200GB SATAII 7200RPM
Creative SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
SilverStone 750W +12V@60A
3DMark06: 21391 // 9179

paratwa

I did say IF it needs to be flashed. I realize some come capable of running 45nm chips from the factory. And yes I know it's easy to flash the bios. But things do happen.

And Gigabyte boards are the most abundant when it comes to dual bio's.

lucky7

i wont need to flash this board. I read some reviews and someone said he runs it with the e8400 flawlessly