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[Mr Skrunts]

[size=12]Am ready to upgrade.

Current system is a Gigabtyte GA-8N-SLI F4 Board with a 3.0 Ghz chip.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2173&ProductName=GA-8N-SLI

Have been happy with the board with no major issues, but have suffered a couple of problems that need to be overcome on the next purchase.

I like the Nforce chipset, and have found over the years that the Bios is to a large degree the key to a fast computer.  I do a lot of gaming and a lot of file transfer / network transfer operations and this is where I have found the difference from computer to computer bios with using the same hard ware. So the Nforce is ok there.  

I spend a lot of time using Skype/VOIP which the Gigabyte board had issues with, but that may not have been the board as the onboard sound is disabled as I have an Soundblaster card in its place.

I have tried several ram upgrades to 4 x 1gb (kept cutting out due to heat from the ram) and 2 x 2GB which I cant use in the board as I cannot use the ram as I cannot overclock the voltage.

I have been looking to replace the board for an Asus Striker II.

I like the Nforce chip as mentioned, and it seems they have added enhanced VOIP capabilities inti the chip.  Seems the onboard sound on all motherboards has improved recently, and it is reckoned that the Asus Striker is an overclocers dream, so that should deal with the memory upgrade.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140150

Will be setting the board up with:-
8800GTX 768Mb
4 GB ram
250 GB Boot drive and 500 GB Backup and a pair of DVD/RW Drives.

I have a 3.4 Ghz Chip that I will set the new board up with, then next month will upgrade to a E8400/8500

Any thought on the board anyone.

Any other recomendations welcomed.

Would like Dual Lan if Possible.

TIA  



[/size]

[Lazydocker]

I'd love to make a recommendation but... I'm still trying to work out what  all that ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ means!!!  

[Marks DTM Calib]

Well skype will have break all to do with the mother board.....

[Marks DTM Calib]

Some other little snippets.

Having designed fast processor based architectures I do knwo that the timing gets tighter the faster you egta dn some of these modern devics are right on the limit of failing so I suspect that you might not be able to overclock them as much as you could, certainly the setup and hold violations will catch you out and cause stability problems with the periperals!

Ow yes, on the sub-micron silicon, raising the voltage does not actually help much to speed the devices up!

[Mr Skrunts]

Some other little snippets.

Having designed fast processor based architectures I do knwo that the timing gets tighter the faster you egta dn some of these modern devics are right on the limit of failing so I suspect that you might not be able to overclock them as much as you could, certainly the setup and hold violations will catch you out and cause stability problems with the periperals!

Ow yes, on the sub-micron silicon, raising the voltage does not actually help much to speed the devices up!

Raising the voltage wasnt for speed gains, from what I read about the ram I bought, no one could get it to run at 1.8V and when they tweaked the boards they ran 2.1 volts and all ran well.

I have no real interest in overclocking, my interest if any would be in the cooling side.  

[Brian T]

I can't directly answer your question, but I can comment on Asus Motherboards.
I currently have an Asus P5W DH Deluxe, and I can't find anything to complain about it or them at all. The It has dual gb network ports as well as wifi connection. THe support on the website is very good with updates on a fairly regular basis. I'm running 64bit Vista and was running XP prior to that, and no what I would call motherboard related problems at all.

Not quite what you asked but just my humble opinion on Asus.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Some other little snippets.

Having designed fast processor based architectures I do knwo that the timing gets tighter the faster you egta dn some of these modern devics are right on the limit of failing so I suspect that you might not be able to overclock them as much as you could, certainly the setup and hold violations will catch you out and cause stability problems with the periperals!

Ow yes, on the sub-micron silicon, raising the voltage does not actually help much to speed the devices up!

Raising the voltage wasnt for speed gains, from what I read about the ram I bought, no one could get it to run at 1.8V and when they tweaked the boards they ran 2.1 volts and all ran well.

I have no real interest in overclocking, my interest if any would be in the cooling side.  

Something wrong there then, sounds like cheap ram thats not in spec (not uncommon!)

In theory, raising the voltage gives a faster rise time (it doesn;t actually, the rise time is the same but the peek 1's level is higher so the threshold is achieved slightly faster).

 

[Mr Skrunts]

Some other little snippets.

Having designed fast processor based architectures I do knwo that the timing gets tighter the faster you egta dn some of these modern devics are right on the limit of failing so I suspect that you might not be able to overclock them as much as you could, certainly the setup and hold violations will catch you out and cause stability problems with the periperals!

Ow yes, on the sub-micron silicon, raising the voltage does not actually help much to speed the devices up!

Raising the voltage wasnt for speed gains, from what I read about the ram I bought, no one could get it to run at 1.8V and when they tweaked the boards they ran 2.1 volts and all ran well.

I have no real interest in overclocking, my interest if any would be in the cooling side.  

Something wrong there then, sounds like cheap ram thats not in spec (not uncommon!)

In theory, raising the voltage gives a faster rise time (it doesn;t actually, the rise time is the same but the peek 1's level is higher so the threshold is achieved slightly faster).

 

Probably right there Mark.

The machine came about as a guy had come to me to build him a machine as DDR2 was just coming available.  Well the whole deal was a nightmare.  

I built the machine on a Asus board in the end, bought the best of everything a the time, but could not get the thing to run right, So through all the testing I bought a gigabyte board (mine) ram, etc etc.

2 Problems came about, 1st was a dodgy stick of ram (wouldnt tun in hyper mode) and the other, which I have never known before, was a dodgy panel switch on the case.  The whole system in the end ran effortlely out of the case, but hung when refitted.

My system ended up as a result of all the parts left over as I had bought duplicate items swapping to test the 64bit build.

Cheap ram I think was the problem in the 1st place, the stuff I bought for my upgrade is OZ  with the timing on for the ram.  But as you say, I think in the end it is still low end compared to some of the ram on the market.

Thats the other reason for the overclockable board, ram timings.  I get there in the end, sorry.  

[Marks DTM Calib]

You never skimp on RAM......look for the real deal, crucial, real samsung or infineon......the cheap pattern items tend to buy the cheaper edge of spec parts rejected by the main stream guys....or buy the lower speed grade chips and try to run them a bit quicker!

[Mr Skrunts]

You never skimp on RAM......look for the real deal, crucial, real samsung or infineon......the cheap pattern items tend to buy the cheaper edge of spec parts rejected by the main stream guys....or buy the lower speed grade chips and try to run them a bit quicker!

I agree there, Never really had issues with ram before, but the build in question the ram was nfineon, I got the shop to change it no probs.

[Marks DTM Calib]

You never skimp on RAM......look for the real deal, crucial, real samsung or infineon......the cheap pattern items tend to buy the cheaper edge of spec parts rejected by the main stream guys....or buy the lower speed grade chips and try to run them a bit quicker!

I agree there, Never really had issues with ram before, but the build in question the ram was nfineon, I got the shop to change it no probs.

Were the chips Infineon or the Stick Infineon.....

[Mr Skrunts]

You never skimp on RAM......look for the real deal, crucial, real samsung or infineon......the cheap pattern items tend to buy the cheaper edge of spec parts rejected by the main stream guys....or buy the lower speed grade chips and try to run them a bit quicker!

I agree there, Never really had issues with ram before, but the build in question the ram was nfineon, I got the shop to change it no probs.

Were the chips Infineon or the Stick Infineon.....

The chips defineately, but didnt pay attention to the sticks, long time ago now.

[Mr Skrunts]

Funny enough I have 2 stix of 1GB DDR2 next to me, 1 is Elixir and the other is Infinion chips but both sticks are the same pcb layout with slightly different green colouring to the board.

[Marks DTM Calib]

This is where it gos wrong.....Infineon (ex siemens semi) make the chips......they grade the devices in wafer form and then package them.

They often sell the borderline chips on the market to 'others' as slightly sub-speed items.

They fit the good parts to thier own sticks and sell as infneon sticks....

So, you can egt Infineon chips (or Samsung) on a third party stick which is actually full of dvices with border line timing!

[Mr Skrunts]

This is where it gos wrong.....Infineon (ex siemens semi) make the chips......they grade the devices in wafer form and then package them.

They often sell the borderline chips on the market to 'others' as slightly sub-speed items.

They fit the good parts to thier own sticks and sell as infneon sticks....

So, you can egt Infineon chips (or Samsung) on a third party stick which is actually full of dvices with border line timing!

Is there a way to identify there own sticks.?