Hello all! This is a semi hypothetical question as I wont be making this upgrade for at least another 18 months or whenever suitable mobos get hard to find, whichever comes later as my current board is doing quite well. Ok here goes: Im looking for a P45 mobo that can do 400mhz fsb with (DDR 2) memory (on a divider) at 1000mhz with my modules rated 5-5-5-15 timings (Kingston 1066mhz 2x2gb). I'll be looking to get a 2nd identical pair of modules for when I move to 8gb. This is for a Q6700 with the mulitiplier reduced to 9 instead of the standard 10, so aiming for 3.6ghz cpu speed. The board will only use 1 or at a stretch 2 mechanical drives, with any possible 2nd just being a backup/place to stick little used data and not any sort of RAID setup. My machine is a gaming one that also does some word processing and film watching, and the new mobo & 8gb upgrade will simply be the last hurrah of socket 775 for me. Crossfire is not a concern. OS will be Windows 7 64. Any ideas anyone? Many thanks, A. Parsnip
Maximus 2 (tekheads has em), Asus P5Q series, Gigabyte UD3P series. All should do 400 FSB, but research the 8GB issue
Well thanks anyway but im already pretty clued up about the better mobos, just wondered if any of the community had experience with P45 boards and 8gb ram. I mean 400ish fsb shouldnt be a huge problem as Ive seen someone over on the hardocp.com forums with my mobo (an ancient P5-B deluxe with the very crusty 965 chipset) and he squeezed 310mhz fsb with 8gb and a quad core, so with the march of time and all that surely a much more modern chipset in the P45 should be able to do signifigantly better, shouldnt it?! Many thanks, A. Parsnip
some cheaper boards with quirky BIOS react....not nicely to having 4 slots populated. You could try and source 4GB dimm's but they are hard to find and can be pricey. For example, some boards dont let you adjust the tRFC value to above 55, this has proven critical in some P45 designs to allow the population of 4 memory slots. I would try the Asus P5Q Pro, it will do 400FSB+ no problem, however your quad may need to drop a multi, it depends on how good the chip is. I would say that 70% of current P45 boards will do 400FSB and 30% will accomodate 8GB relatively trouble free. Just an estimate from boards i have installed 8GB in. So you could say for your requirements, you will be spending a couple of hours at least in the BIOS and burning in the system. PS - Make note of your full timing set (1st, 2nd and 3rd) of those Kingy C5's, itll come in handy when you setup your new rig
