Another Which Motherboard?

[tony32 0]

Hi,I am looking at two boards and hope someone can help as to which one might be the better choice:Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R ATX LGA775Asus P5W Dh Deluxe Atx LGA775 975X I guess the chipsets are different,but i know i am done with anything that has nvidia or nforce on it,my current set up is:c2d E6600Evga 680i board (soon to be gone)2gb corsair dominator 8500c5dBFG 8800gts 640mbAudigy xtreme gamerocz 700w power supplyantec nine hundred caseI am going to use all my current gear with the new board,hope someone can help.Thanks,Tony.

[jackcnd 0]

The Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R uses the new P35 chipset, a MB with that is probably your best bet, as they allow upgrades to the soon to be out 45nm Penyrn chips.The Asus you mentioned is a older board. Asus has a newer P5K Deluxe that is similar to the Gigabyte and uses the p35 chipset. Whats wrong with your 680i?

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi, just some general thoughts on mainboard features. If an Intel chipped board, I would recommend getting one with an ICHx-R southbridge. Without the 'R' suffix you won't be able to do AHCI (AFAIK). Intel's Matrix Storage Manager is also out of bounds without the R. You're using a soundcard, but if you would use onboard, I would recommend staying away from boards with ADI soundchips. IMHO, it's important to have access to regular driver support now. Realtek provides regular driver updates for example. Certain coolers don't fit on GAs due to the heatpipe construction. Arctic's Freezer for example. Well, not without a saw! :-) Hope this adds to thoughts and kind regards Jaap

[tony32 0]

Hi guys,Well, my 680i is the last thing i can think of as a problem,i have so much video stuttering that i just cannot solve,fs wins the battle and i am defeated.I have tried every driver,bios,updates,winxp 32&64 bit and it is always the same,video stutters when atc talks,takeoff and landing and it doen not matter where the sliders are or if i use addons.I have tested ram etc so the board is the last.But thanks for the advise guys,it really helps me narrow it down.all the best,Tony.

[Guest D17S]

If you can keep your powder dry for another 2-3 weeks, we will have our first look at the new X38 chipset. http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/13052It will be nothing special, but it will support the new PCIe-2.0 Vcard standard. Nvidia's upcoming G92 -AKA 9800GT(X?) - will be here in November and will be the first PCIe 2.0 card. Not to worry though, it will be fully compatible with the current PCIe 1.1 standard. MSI is already shopping their X38 around. http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=9630If you remember the P35 release, vendors were selling P35s well before the NDA came off. Expect these to be for sale in the 1st-2nd week of September. The Forums will have the first reviews.

[Guest baksteen33]

@ Tony, frankly, I'm not too surprised it stutters. Whoever told you 2GB is enough for hi-end simming might be wrong? Unlike the good old AGP-Aperture with which we were able to reserve a defined amount of system memory for VGA, PCI-e maps all the GPU-RAM (AFAIK). To keep things simple and safeguard a little bit of extendability, I would recommend getting 2x2GB on new FSX boxes. Even if a 32-bit OS can't see or use all of it. Since you already have a hi-end chipset, my guess is changing the 'controller' won't help much with regard to the prob. Good you mentioned the reason for bringing up this topic. ;-) @ Sam, maybe you know, when are Intel's CPUs with inbuilt memory controllers coming? I think we've only seen 'Intel's Comeback Part 1'. :-) Cheers and kind regards Jaap

[Guest Pilot533]

Wahh?? 2GB isnt enough? :-eek I had always thought it was just fine for fsx?

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi Mike, 2GB seems to be on the edge. If you can temper for hunger for RAM by not cranking everything up, a nice experience can be achieved with 2GB as well (XP only?). With 3GB, XP and FSX easily seem to reach 1.9GB over time. If we would have had 2GB, we would have moved into 'remapping territory' at this point. So, Windows/FSX will use more than 2 if it's there. Vista seems a totally different ballgame, Vista32 & FSX plus 3GB leaves nothing available. Zero. :-) MemStatus v.2.50 is a nifty little tool. Pls note it 'only' measures a single VGA output. Don't know whether it works in Vista? http://nuclearplayground.com/NuclearPlayground/Cheers and kind regards Jaap

[tony32 0]

Hi again,I should have mentioned earlier that i am using fs9,i have yet to try fsx.Tony.