Hello Everyone.....

I want to upgrade my PC and was looking at the X48 chipset. I am particularly fond of Intel and Asus motherboards and want to get one from them but I am thoroughly confused about certain things......

First off, I am a gamer and like to play games at max. settings and I also want a motherboard that's fast and stable.

I am particularly interested in Asus P5E64 WS Evolution but I don't know whether it supports DDR2 RAM or not and whether it would be a good buy.

I am even more confused since the P45 and X38 motherboards offer almost the same features and they are less costly. Adding to this, there's the new X58 Nehalem-based chipset coming up with the LGA 1366 socket that outperforms every single CPU in the market.

I want something that will last at least 5 years or so. Should I go for P45 or X48 or X38. I cannot wait for the nehalems.

Thanks.........

the X48 gets higher ratings for crossfire than the P45 or the X38 boards. I'd stick with DDR2 RAM since the DDR3 is only marginally faster and much more expensive.
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=761

p45 does crossfire on x8/x8 vs. x16/x16 on the x48 board. higher end cards are going to be more effected by this difference. although some say the highend cards only show a 5% difference and as you move down in card it is less. i haven't seen the studies so can't confirm. it sounds like you like things maxed out and the best performance you can get. if you have the $$ then x48 is probably the way to go.

But I really don't think that I will ever use crossfire......really, I'd rather buy a single GPU like GTX 260 or Radeon 4870........Using crossfire means I have to use a 1.2 or 1.5 kW PSU which I will definitely not be able to afford!!!!!

And lets face it, by the time I begin to get irritated by a GTX 260 or Radeon 4870, I seriously doubt whether these cards will remain alive in the market, the rate in which technology is progressing. So a crossfire is out of question.........

What I need is a powerful board.......stable..........and lasting.

What do you say? X48 still???

lol at the psu requirements.

you do not need that much of a psu for crossfire, hell a good 600W one would suffice.

however, a board i am getting is the gigabyte x48 DS4, seems to look good but we shall see.

why not just look at the specs of some boards, see if there are any features you want/need and just decide from there

of course you could just drudge through all the many, many threads dealing with the same subject as this and just read instead of making another thread.

jut a though you know.

plan on saving up...cpu alone is going to be around 1000, motherboards on first release will be around 600, gigabytes atleast

I really cannot wait for newer releases at this moment. I think I will take a Corsair 750W and the P5E64 WS Evolution. Will this do as a good board with two ATI cards???

Does this motherboard support DDR2 RAM???

http://in.asus.com/products.aspx?l [...] odelmenu=1

I have 8GB of DDR2 and I don't wanna throw them......

All our advice is gleaned from what we hope are reliable sources. I'm especially drawn to those who have the time and resources to actually test item-against-item for real apple-to-apple comparisons. Motherboards and PSU's are hard to evaluate accurately for comparisons. (The Tom's Hardware cpu cooler test is the best I have ever seen and deserving of kudos.) I chose the Intel DX48BT2 motherboard and now my head is spinning with all the problems I'm having. And the money I'm spending. Just one example from among the many:

I am having my local computer shop rebuild my gaming rig based on an Intel Q9550 cpu and an Intel DX48BT2 motherboard. I went about this process all wrong. I'd recommend buy your processor and motherboard as one unit. Make absolutely sure the two are compatible. Do some real research and investigate the issues using several different sources. I might have done better going with another motherboard. If you have investigated the matter and feel good about the Asus board, go with it. After a certain point, the pros and cons are not as important as how it works out for you. I went with Intel because Intel/Microsoft will be here for a while and will probably work out their problems better than most.

But Intel is no sure bet to be trouble-free. I got a call from the computer shop yesterday telling me the DX48BT2 motherboard has a brand new RAM requirement. The DX48BT2 requires DDR3 RAM (and only DDR3) of no less than 1333 speed; they used to say it would run the DDR2 also. Also that motherboard will only take 2-Gig RAM sticks and then, on top of that, only a total of 4 Gigs, not the 8 Gigs I had on my old motherboard. There was a big yellow sticker on the motherboard informing the installer of all this info; the sticker specifically stated 1600 RAM was suggested. My computer shop folks believe a BIOS may be coming out to fix this little quirk; perhaps, they said, there was an exisiting problem about this board this change was supposed to fix. So I'm into it now for 4 Gigs of new 1600 RAM. So you see, I can't recommend the DX48BT2 Intel motherboard. But who knows what problems you'll run into with the Asus board? Yous pays your money and takes yous chance.

As far as waiting for the newer generation of processors coming along, I'm a little uneasy about believing all the announcements and such about huge improvements. The higher-end present processors have plenty of power to run your rig well. I don't think there will be massive increases in performance until the basic design concepts are changed. Notice that the major problem with high-end rigs now is heat. That means the design concept has been tweaked out to the max already. That's why the Larrabee design of 8, 48 or more smaller cores running in parallel is so interesting. Even the quads now are overkill, though. There aren't 5 PC games out there that take advantage of all that horsepower. It will be years before the Larrabee systems have software to run even after 2010.

Go with a good motherboard/cpu combo, get a good graphics card, overload it with fans and it will be at least 2 or 3 years before software requirements will seriously tempt you for another rig overhaul.

considering you want it now. and your opinions on crossfire. go with a p45 board. (p5q is a good one). I don't know your resolution or budget but get a 4870 or even 4870x2 if you have the bank and high end monitor (1920x1200 or better, anything lower then the x2 is overkill). by the time games require more than that then there will probably be a better card out there. and if it isn't that much better the prices on a second 4870 or x2 will be much cheaper and you can crossfire on x8/x8 until something better comes along.

speedey4u, the Asus motherboard that you want is DDR3 only. It says so on the link that you provided.

check out the asus p5e deluxe. it's an x48 so it gives you the option to crossfire if you want to. you can also flash the rampage bios onto it which is awesome for oc'ing. you don't have to break the bank for it either

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131317

+1 to SwampThug

P5E Deluxe or If you want the cool LCD Poster and the onboard buttons get the Rampage Formula.

1Haplo

i have the gigabyte X48 DS4 note the 4 as there is a very expensive 5 that is no differnt but the board is great and i would effeminately recommend it.

as for the Asus board the main differnence is the DDR3 and the problem is it is pretty expensive and won't do much more for you.

i hope this helps

Well, it looks to me that its a battle between P45 and X48 with either one's advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I have begun favoring the X48 despite its cost. Thank you guys, helped me a lot......

i have put this on about 5 threads now but i think it is important. do take this with a grain of salt as the test was only done between a gigabyte p45 and x48 not multiple brands and versions of each. but someone in another thread posted an article that compared crossfire on x8/x8 with the p45 vs x16/x16 with the x48. the big factor in performance seemed to be screen resolution. 2560x1600 was hugely impacted by x8/x8 so if doing 30" and going to crossfire then worth the money for sure. 24" (1920x1200) had some impact but not a whole lot and lower resolution than that had very little impact at all. I'm not sure if you already posted your resolution but that may impact your decision.