p35, 680i, 780i, x38, and x48 differences

[WhiteFireDragon]

these are generally the better NB chips to OC with. i need to decide which one to get so can someone organize a chart for similarities/differences and features of each one? if i cant decide, then i'll just get a P35-DS3L for the best price vs performance. any other chipsets i should consider besides those listed?

 

[royalmarine]

750i

 

[ThatGuy16]

Well, the best are the X38 and X48. It depends on if you want SLI or Crossfire. I would never recommend a nvidia chipset board unless someone absolutely has to have SLI over crossfire or a single card solution. The P35 are great budget boards and only have one PCIe slot, or two with the second running at only x4 mode.

 

[Cleric7x9]

why wouldnt you recommend an nVidia chipset?

 

[ThatGuy16]

They're no were near as good overclockers, and none of them use all solid capacitors.

 

[Cleric7x9]

They're no were near as good overclockers, and none of them use all solid capacitors.

except for the solid capacitors (which depends on manufacturer not chipset anyway), i disagree wiht you, the nvidia chipsets were designed for OCing

 

[Geoff]

Cleric, no need to post twice.

Both the 790i and X48 are great chipsets, however it really depends if you are set on SLI or CF. The only downside to the 790i series is that they only support DDR3.

 

[fortyways]

Mine has solid state capacitors for the CPU and RAM and runs my E2160 at 3GHz without issues.

It cost me $50.

 

[ThatGuy16]

Cleric, no need to post twice.

Both the 780i and X48 are great chipsets, however it really depends if you are set on SLI or CF. The only downside to the 780i series is that they only support DDR3.

the 780i is DDR2, the 790i is DDR3.

Cleric, I'm not saying the nvidia based chipset motherboards are horrible. They just aren't as good as a X38 or X48 based motherboard, quality and in overclocking potential. IMO they are over priced.

 

[StrangleHold]

What are you talking about, most 750i and 780i boards do have solid capacitors. Nvidia has always been know as good overclocking chips. Intel boards really only starting letting you overclock just a few years ago. Intel was notorious for going to all means to stop you from overclocking. But Intel has come out of the overclocking closet, but that doesnt mean Nvidia chips are bad or dont overclock good.

 

[ThatGuy16]

Your right, most do, the EVGA and XFX boards don't though. But they aren't known as good overclockers. From everything i have seen, and the AMD 590SLI board i have here, its not the greatest overclocker. It uses the same MCH as the 680i i believe. And don't like all four ram slots populated. The newer 780i has improved, but they still are not in comparison as good as a X38 or X48 chipset will get you.

 

[royalmarine]

750i

Three PCI Express x16 slots
Supports FSB 1333/1066/800/533MHz.
every single capacitor is a high-quality Japanese solid state capacitor - this is a total plus for stability and longevity, props to MSI.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/cpu_mainboard/msi_p7n_sli_platinum_750i_based_motherboard/1

 

[Geoff]

the 780i is DDR2, the 790i is DDR3.

Cleric, I'm not saying the nvidia based chipset motherboards are horrible. They just aren't as good as a X38 or X48 based motherboard, quality and in overclocking potential. IMO they are over priced.

Just goes to show that you can't always go by what you hear, you need to do research yourself I guess

 

[StrangleHold]

Your right, most do, the EVGA and XFX boards don't though. But they aren't known as good overclockers. From everything i have seen, and the AMD 590SLI board i have here, its not the greatest overclocker.

The 590 chipset is not what was limiting you, it was the processor. Its got alot to do with the quality of the board too. Thats why some boards with the same chipset will overclock better than others.

And the XFX and EVGA are both Foxconn boards. The EVGA 750 has solid caps but the 780s dont, kinda odd. But I would not recomend thoses anyway.

 

[Cleric7x9]

Cleric, no need to post twice.

Both the 790i and X48 are great chipsets, however it really depends if you are set on SLI or CF. The only downside to the 790i series is that they only support DDR3.

in case you hadnt noticed, the two posts were one minute apart, clearly it was a mistake, but thanks for reminding me not to post twice, i guess i couldnt have known not to do that in my mere 1,000 posts, but i hope that one day when i have as many as you i will know not to post twice.

 

[ThatGuy16]

The 590 chipset is not what was limiting you, it was the processor. Its got alot to do with the quality of the board too. Thats why some boards with the same chipset will overclock better than others.

And the XFX and EVGA are both Foxconn boards. The EVGA 750 has solid caps but the 780s dont, kinda odd. But I would not recomend thoses anyway.

It wasn't the processor. As soon as i popped in 4 sticks of ram from two. My overclock went from 3.3Ghz stable, down to 3.0Ghz. They don't like all four slots populated at all. I would have had to give the NB alot more voltage to get it back up to 3.3

 

[WhiteFireDragon]

ok so from all this here is what i get from this discussion and please correct me if i'm wrong:

p31, p35, x38, x48 - intel
610i, 680i, 750i, 780i, 790i - nvidia

p31, p35 - single gfx
x38, x48 - xfire
610i, 680i, 750i, 780i, 790i - sli

1) all of them support ddr2 memory except 790i, which uses ddr3. is the 790i backwards compatible to use ddr2?

2) what is specific the differences in the 600i series and the 700i series other than release dates?

3) what is the specific differences in the x38 and x48 series? other than release dates?

4) most important question, which of these are generally better OCers?

 

[ThatGuy16]

Yeah, pretty much right. The X48 is a little better than the X38. And do overclock better than the 780i. But it mostly boils down to crossfire or SLI.

 

[StrangleHold]

It wasn't the processor. As soon as i popped in 4 sticks of ram from two. My overclock went from 3.3Ghz stable, down to 3.0Ghz. They don't like all four slots populated at all. I would have had to give the NB alot more voltage to get it back up to 3.3

You do know the memory controller on a AMD system is on the procesor not the Northbridge. The Athlons memory controller bypasses the Northbridge. I,ve ran nForce 4-570 and 590s and its never made any difference if I had 2 or 4 sticks. There were some older 939 Athlons if you ran 4 sticks of ram the memory controller would bump it back down from 400 to 333. That being said the Athlon has a onboard memory controller its not in the northbridge. The Northbridge doesnt control memory. On a 754-939 and AM2 you have to bump up the CPU voltage to raise the Memory controller voltage, they were tied together.

 

[WhiteFireDragon]

if i dont do crossfire on x38 or x48 boards, can i still use nvidia GPUs? and vise versa, can i use ATI GPUs on nvidia chipsets if it's just a single card?