Maytridy

Hey,

I'm thinking of buying the open box Maximus Extreme on Newegg for $250. This will be perfect for my new water cooled rig. However, I have to get DDR3 memory (I know DDR3 isn't really worth it, but I have no choice with this mobo).

I will probably be running XP at first, but I want to upgrade to Vista soon. I've heard that for Vista you really need 4Gb of DDR2. Will I need 4Gb of DDR3, or will the faster memory allow me to run smoothly with 2Gb?

Can you guys suggest some certain types of RAM?

I'm looking for something in the $0-$200 range.

Acoma_Andy

What is the motive behind buying this board? There are other good boards with DDR2 support. P45 is also a nice chipset and doesnt cost so much, plus DDR2 support.

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Maytridy

1.) I need either X38/X48 for my new build since I will be going crossfire (I want to run x16/x16).

2.) My rig will be water cooled, so I find the water block to be very attractive.

3.) I need a firewire port (this rules out some of the popular DFI boards that I had originally planned to get).

4.) At $250, this board is priced the same as what I would normally buy anyways.

5.) I've been given a free $2,500 grant to buy a computer, so my budget is fairly large (especially since I will be keeping my Q6600).

Do you still think it's a bad choice?

Thanks man.

tupamaro16

Remember nehalem... well yes I do think that it´s a bad choice to spend 2.5k so soon.

Specially since that X48 won´t run nehalem, and the DDR3 can´t be recicled (X58 uses Triple Channel or something like it), you´re gonna be spending $400+ on things that can´t be recicled for newer rigs.

But if there´s such a desire, there are plenty of MOBO´s that run DDR2 that still support Xfire 2.0.

Or if you find my suggestion to be useful, why don´t you just get a 4870x2 and wait out till next gen. (you´d only spend like $500, and still get hell of a performance without needing CF)

Sorry for no links I´m just lazy.

thunder_2008

Firstly, I would not buy the open box Maximus Extreme. I have had " 5 " of these boards, and they are very delicate. Open box items usually mean that they are used/returned/rma'd.

If you plan on getting Maxi Extreme unless you are getting the board with all of the accessories...thus it would be new as Asus when rma'ing a board that is faulty will replace it with a brand new box set if unable to repair.

Or, in the case of rma'd mbs that are fixed will be bare bones.

In any case DDR3 is very sensitive as well compared to DDR2 memory. Also, DDR3 is much more affordable now then it was just in April when I paid $ 500 for 2GB of Ocz Flex 1600.

This board is very fast when right...just I would be very cautious in getting an open boxed item...specially as new you can get it for an additional $ 100 or less.

It will cost you the same amount of money to get the accessories and shipping for rma, once you discover it is not working properly for the highest oc.

As for whether or not the memory is fast enough for vista with 2gb...the answer is YES DDR3 memory is 8x-times faster than ddr2.

In vista in the control panel...system mantenance...windows experience index...you will get the top score for memory with DDR3 for the lowest rated DDR3 speeds.

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Maytridy

The only thing is that this grant must be spent before this spring and I won't really be able to put it together at college.

When will Nehalem be hitting the market?

whe3ls

q4 and q 1 or 2

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low strife

If you plan on doing a high-end computer, wait for the Nehalem. That's my only advice. You will regret buying now once you see the gains.

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ericeod

The Maximus Extreme is a challenge to work with. I love my board and ram, but I think I would be better off with a Rampage Formula or Maximus Formula (bios flashed to Rampage).

Take it from someone who has owned an ASUS P5E flashed with the Rampage Formula board, the Rampage is a much better choice. Besides, with the ram tweaks in the Rampage bios, you can match DDR3 performance!

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Pagoda_Man

Here's my advice, buy whatever you can that you think will have the highest resell value. Then sell it all and wait for Nehalem, x58, etc. at the end of the year.