Gigabyte X38-DQ6

[wuyanxu]

looking at other UK etailers, they've got theirs on pre-order. and a predicted date of 14th.

is there any news form Novatech? when will it be available? and what is the predicted price for it?

what about Asus's offering? the P5E3 is DDR3 version, so i suspect the P5E is the cheaper DDR2 version, any news on availability and price for P5E?

also, there's the Asus Maximus, a ROG board just like Striker Extreme. what are the ETA and pricing for the Maximus Fomula (DDR2 version)?

what X38 is special is that it's got PCI-e2.0 and 1600FSB. (don't plan on changing mobo for 3 or 4 years, so those are essential)

[Jonny2Bad]

Dont buy a high spec asus board for at least a month after release if at all, the bios will be updated about twice in the 1st month and even then you'll be lucky if it works lol. Wait and check the feedback on the asus website before you buy. Thats my advice from a high end asus board owner (not a happy 1 at that)

[wuyanxu]

okay, good advice and advice taken.

i'll be buying the Gigabyte X38-DQ6 then, Gigabyte always had good reviews and according to overclocker's forums, rock solid Intel motherboards.

any ETA on Novatech's part for the Gigabyte motherboard in question?

[wuyanxu]

please, Novatech. any news at all for the GA X38-DQ6?

it's the only hardware missing, as soon as they are out on Novatech, my computer will be built

[wuyanxu]

okay, it's 11th now, Intel's X38 chipset release date is 9th.

so any news on any of the x38 motherboards? when will you be getting them?

[Nox]

*cough* high end asus boards with nvidia chipsets? :D My P5W64 worked wonderfully...

Nox

[Jonny2Bad]

Cheers nox just us striker owners then lol!!! I know my sons asus is spot on also

[djgandy]

*cough* high end asus boards with nvidia chipsets? :D My P5W64 worked wonderfully...

Nox

Isn't that a 975 board?

[Nox]

yeah its great, apart from i blew the bios chip (i think!) and am waiting on a replacement to arrive - its covered by a 3 year warranty if its something else anyway :)

I don't think there are significant improvements with the next gen over the conroes to warrant me upgrading at the moment - doesn't mean i'd necessarily buy one now tho!

Nox

[wuyanxu]

the 975 are famous for bad overclocks compared to 965, where 965 comes out first.

so it would make more sense to go for X38 over P35 seeing X38 is comming out first, and with full 2 x16 support for crossfire.

however, the feature im most looking forward to is PCIe2.0, as i can't be bothered to change motherboard in the next 3 years, so PCIe2.0 is quite important for me.
(also, IF i change motherboard in the next 3 years, i WILL need to change memory to DDR3, so that's more money spent on upgrades)

so WHEN will X38's arrive, Novatech?

[Nox]

My E6600 tops out way before my mobo/ram so its not an issue :) but still had my mobo up to 450/460 and it seemed fine. (Asus P5W64) - only annoyance is on a reboot - it switches itself off for about 5 secs before starting up again.

But today, If I was going to get a mobo it would probably be a X38 - seems little point in getting anything older.

Nox

[djgandy]

the 975 are famous for bad overclocks compared to 965, where 965 comes out first.

so it would make more sense to go for X38 over P35 seeing X38 is comming out first, and with full 2 x16 support for crossfire.

however, the feature im most looking forward to is PCIe2.0, as i can't be bothered to change motherboard in the next 3 years, so PCIe2.0 is quite important for me.
(also, IF i change motherboard in the next 3 years, i WILL need to change memory to DDR3, so that's more money spent on upgrades)

so WHEN will X38's arrive, Novatech?

P35 is out first. Saying the one that comes out first is best based on what happened in a previous gen is a pretty poor comparison. P35's have already proven they overclock.

PCI-e 2.0 :\ I doubt anything will use it in 3 years, unless you have some 100GBit network card. Nvidia releasing 8xxx on AGP. Think that says it all doesn't it? ;-)



My E6600 tops out way before my mobo/ram so its not an issue :) but still had my mobo up to 450/460 and it seemed fine. (Asus P5W64) - only annoyance is on a reboot - it switches itself off for about 5 secs before starting up again.

But today, If I was going to get a mobo it would probably be a X38 - seems little point in getting anything older.

Nox

Yeah lol. Bad at overclock = under LN2.

[wuyanxu]

okay, which Novatech P35 motherboard will be better? i want something for my q6600 G0, 8800GTS and 2gig OCZ RAM.

only requirement is that it overclocks the quad best, and it's DDR2.

[djgandy]

okay, which Novatech P35 motherboard will be better? i want something for my q6600 G0, 8800GTS and 2gig OCZ RAM.

only requirement is that it overclocks the quad best, and it's DDR2.

Well my mate has the p35-DQ6 and runs osx with it too. He's overclocked his quad on it.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?GIG-35DQ6 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GIG-35DQ6)


That's probably overkill though...
http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/Products/Mot ... ,2543,2532 (http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/Products/Motherboard/Products_ComparisonSheet.aspx?ProductID=2624,2543, 2532)
If you look there is not a lot of difference between the 3 models novatech sell.

Gigabyte have a lot of model numbers though so watch out.
From what I can see it works like this...

P35 = DDR2
P35C = DDR2 and DDR3
P35T = DDR3

P35C-DS3R seems to support both DDR2 and DDR3. http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... GIG-5CDS3R (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GIG-5CDS3R)

As a quick rundown the differences i found on the Gigabyte site are...

PCI-Express X16 ( X8 )
DS3R: 2
DS4: 2
DQ6: 1

PCI 3 2 2
DS3R: 3
DS4: 2
DQ6: 2


USB 2.0
DS3R: 12 (8 by cable)
DS4: 12 (4 by cable)
DQ6: 12 (8 by cable)

DualBIOS
DS3R: (Virtual DualBIOS)
DS4: (DualBIOS Plus)
DQ6: (Quad BIOS)

IEEE 1394 0 3 3
DS3R: 0
DS4: 3
DQ6: 3

eSATAII
DS3R: 0
DS4: 2 (by cable)
DQ6: 4 (by cable)

Then higher end boards have more cooling features. There is also the S3 which is the same as the DS3R but with only 6 SATA ports and less RAID support.

At the end of the day they are all pretty much the same board but without a few little extras. This is why I never understand why people pay for these super expensive boards. Most of the cost is to cover things like bluetooth wireless and firewire which probably never get used.

[wuyanxu]

many thanks for this. very helpful.

i will wait until next week, because just found another etailer website, they say the X38-DQ6 will be out this Friday.

if it's not out. i will buy the P35-DS4, seems to be similar to DQ6 yet cheaper for some unknown reason :shock:

[djgandy]

many thanks for this. very helpful.

i will wait until next week, because just found another etailer website, they say the X38-DQ6 will be out this Friday.

if it's not out. i will buy the P35-DS4, seems to be similar to DQ6 yet cheaper for some unknown reason :shock:


Good choice. The DQ6 has better chip cooling I think and a few other little bits. Plus it has quadbios whatever that does.

X38 should be out soon. It might bring the prices of P35 down a bit too so probably a good idea to wait. A Basic X38 model might be a decent price too and worth getting. I really wouldn't bother with a top end though.