Intel D975XBX2 vs. the ASUS P5B deluxe….P965 vs. 975X

[Babrbarossa]

Again, I would recommend the Gigabyte 965p ds3 - this motherboard is good quality and stable with solid state capacitors-- you can get a slightly cheaper version that's very good as well called the Gigabyte 965p s3 (the difference is that this one doesn't have solid state capacitors-- still good though- both are affordable - no bells and whistles, and is capable of a decent overclock when you're good and ready. I'm not sure if this is too much money, but from what you described, I'd say it's exactly what you want- there are several reviews where it is described as the best value board and it isn't loaded with stuff you don't need-- you're paying for quality and stability.

If you do find that cs2 does handle more than 2GB and you'd eventually like to use 4 gigs with it-- you'll need Vista 64 bit-- the 32 bit version does (like you said) cut you off at about 3gb depending on your system configuration. (just learned this last week :-))

[Deathspawner]

I'll just chime in to say that the XBX2 is not an ideal overclocking board as far as I'm concerned. It's definitely one of the most stable boards I've ever seen, but very finicky as far as OC'ing goes. I've hit great OCs with it, only to reset back to stock and then be unable to go back to that same overclock.

Very, very odd.

Personally I feel the Bad Axe 2 is the best motherboard available right now. It's feature rich, not overly expensive, and it just plain works. That's more than can be said about most other boards on the market right now.

[Babrbarossa]

He doesn't want any features though (and he's not overly concerned with overclocking), so don't you think he could save a hundred bucks by buying a cheaper board?

I don't think you can put a price on the kind of stability that the Bad Axe offers. Many other boards out there won't even run stably with 4 dimms of memory in my experience, and that's a feature that anyone can use. Besides, there are OEM Bad Axe 2 boards available for quite a bit less than retail.

[philmar]

Thanks everyone - this forum is great. I went with the Badaxe2 - I was seriously considering the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3. It is a great mobo with great reviews. But I just decided to keep Intel with Intel and get a wonderfully stable board. I am forunate that spending another $150 wasn't going to break me...I'm not a student. So I went with the best. Who can predict the future - maybe as I learn more about computers I'll want to do more with them and the Badaxe2 will have the features I may need (though SLI won't be one of them). Maybe I'll start expanding my computer's ability as a home stereo (I bought good cable to plug it in to the stereo through the AUX IN).

So I walked in to Canada Computers and ordered everything for what I hope will be a computer that will serve my Canon 30D digital needs for a long long while. 3 HDs are the way to go and I have more than enough drive space now. The 320 GB drive were the best bang per buck. over a terabyte of memory - overkill maybe.

They will build the new rig for a paltry $30. They will have to order some of the components so it will take 7-10 days, so I can always swap a part here or there in the meantime.

This is what I went with
Intel Core2 Duo Desktop Processor E6600 Conroe
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Intel Desktop Board D975XBX2 ATX motherboard
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3 x Seagate 320GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB
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BFG e-GeForce 7600GT nVidia GeForce 256 MB PCI-E
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4 x 1.0 gb Corsair 667 RAM
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1 LG GSA-H22N DVD RW 18x
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Microsoft Basic Keyboard & Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical Black
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Antec P180 case
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Antec TruePower Trio 550W PSU
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Zalman NPS-9500-Cu-LED CPU cooler
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Vantec Stealth 120 mm fan
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Windows XP Pro Edition


They didn't have the Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX CPU cooler I wanted so I went with the Zalan. I saw what the Centurian case looked like but decided to look at the Antec which was recommended by someone here - THANKS. I fell in love with it and who cares if it is more expensive - overkill was the order of the day. I liked the front side air vent and will put the Vantec there with the 3 HDs to keep them cool.
So I took heed of your advice and went with a better PSU.

:help:So if anyone can think of a better value fan, PSU, vid card, RAM or hard drive please let me know - I may have 3 days before they start building it.
THANKS!

[philmar]

so now that you helped me with the components I have a few more noob questions.

A) Is there anything special I can do with the install of Windows XP Pro that will help me? Don't some people create a small partition in their startup drive for the programs? Does this prevent the OS and programs from being severly defragmented thus saving boot and program startup times? If so, what size partition should I use - keep in mind that with Photoshop one can download lots of plug-ins to help with the workflow.

B) I have a 975x board. I bought DDR2 667 RAM. Is there anything I should do that is required for this type of RAM to be utilised to it's fullest?

[Babrbarossa]

Did you actually buy 4X 1GB sticks of ram?

You know.....as long as you ask questions about performance...I'm going to keep trying to convince you to overclock .... (don't hit me!)

But actually the only way to maximize your ram performance is to overclock it and make sure that you have a minimum of background applications running on your computer- and the best way to do that is avoid norton antivirus. I won't try to convince you to overclock the ram though as it's not as simple as the cpu.

Here's a couple of partitioning links:

http://partition.radified.com/partitioning_2.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...partition.mspx

I know partition magic is a good and easy tool to use for partitioning, but it's not free-- and I think it's owned by norton now-- someone else might be able to recommend a free program, but otherwise- here is a good thread on partitioning software-- the thread title is about removing partitions, but there is alot of discussion about software:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7813_102...sageID=1916417

[philmar]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

Did you actually buy 4X 1GB sticks of ram?

You know.....as long as you ask questions about performance...I'm going to keep trying to convince you to overclock .... (don't hit me!)

But actually the only way to maximize your ram performance is to overclock it and make sure that you have a minimum of background applications running on your computer- and the best way to do that is avoid norton antivirus. I won't try to convince you to overclock the ram though as it's not as simple as the cpu.

Why do you ask about the 4 x 1GB sticks? Would 2 x 2 GB have been better? I intend to go to Vista 64 bits when it's first rerelease comes out, thus the future need for more RAM - plus Photoshop is one of the few programs around able to take advantage of the XP Pro's /3 gb switch. I ONLY will use this rig for Photoshop and maybe audiophile. Photoshop is a very memory intensive program. I do mass batch processing of hundreds of RAW files. RAW files are about 8 KBs each - I convert them to compressed jpegs. I need RAM - not a super fast CPU. CPU cache size is important though. What we need for Photoshop use is largely the opposite of what the market is pushing right now -- the games throw out a lot of short, simple instructions down the system bus, directed at changing the video buffer modes at an extremely rapid pace, forcing the graphics card manufacturers to build bigger buffers and faster GPUs (graphics processors).
Photoshop does more or less the opposite -- performs lengthy floating point calculations based on the numeric information in the image buffer, using complex proprietary algorithms and taxing the system's RAM and I/O (since the very bulky application code doesn't fit in system RAM limited by the highly inefficient Windows paging memory management, together with the multi-megabyte image data from our digital cameras).
This is a digital photography rig - not a gamer rig or 3D architect's rig.

Anyway I COMPLETELY agree with your point about oc'ing. With this mobo I'd be nuts NOT to get something for nothing with it. For that very reason I asked about what to do to take advantage of the 667 RAM. I just want to take 'baby steps' at first. No point in frying the machine quite yet- better wait until the warrantee runs out before I kill it due to oc'ing. When I learn more, THEN I'll try oc'ing the CPU. But I highly doubt that is needed at this time. It is the RAM that i need to fine tune first. that is where the bottleneck for me will be. And when I am more confident I'll learn about I/O and figure out the safest best way to set up a RAID and quick foolsafe backup that won't risk losing ALL my digital 'pride and joy's.

There WILL be a minimum of operations running in the background. My old PC is quite fine for the internet and it will continue to do so. I'll use the new one ONLY for digital photography - it won't be on the net and wont need AV or firewall. I'll even learn more about Windows to find out what things to disable in it.

[philmar]

oh - thanks for the links!!