Clinic

Alright. Well, as usual, my motherboard woes continue. About a week ago my GA_EX38_DQ6 bit the dust. I was starting to have problems with the PCI-E X16 lanes and when I pulled the motherboard out...a solid state capacity fell off (and I mean literally fell, I didn't break it off and cause it to go flying or anything)... So, with my next paycheck, I've decided I'm going to get a new motherboard and have been looking at a couple that interest me and would like some input from the community.

I am going to be running crossfire, so an X38/X48 board is pretty much required. And I want full X16/X16 support, so P35/P45 is out of the question (otherwise I'd be grabbing the Maximus II Formula). I also want to do some overclocking of my Q6600. I don't necessarily need crazy overclocking, but with my watercooling setup I would still like to go above 3.6Ghz.

A quick concern is whether or not it is worth shelling out the extra cash for the new X48 chipset over the old X38 chipset?

I've come up with these couple of boards:

X38:

Asus Maximus Formula

X48:

Asus Rampage Formula

DFI LP LT X48-T2R

DFI LP DK X48-T2RS



I'm not really interested in any Gigabyte boards right now. My experiences with my X38_DQ6 weren't amazing. It was a good board, and it did the job of overclocking, but by god was it easily tweaked into unstableness. However, in the hands of someone else I think it could have been a great board...had it not exploded.

Oh well, post your pros/cons/suggestions please! Help appreciated! It will be going with my sig rig and I'd like raid!

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jNSK

Without a doubt, a DFI board. The dearest you can afford

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Exidous

I love mine. However, compared to a asus board the OCing is confusing. I have had zero problems with mine. I love the idea that it has no cooler preinstalled on the NB allowing watercooling easily. The VRM already have heatsinks installed. Crossfire works fine and its really stable. Great board for about 170.00US.

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Wahkee

only DDR2-800 speeds

We Gone

Well I have a DFI DK X48 and a Rampage X48 ....They are both good MBs, but I do like the bios on the Rampage better.

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ß₤ứə Çřёώ
Q6600 @ 4.0

3Dmark06 21058 CF

Clinic

I'm kind of leaning towards the Rampage over the DFI boards, because I don't have a masters in quantumphysics and I'm thinking that the DFI boards might require a little more than I've got to give.

And its been a while since I've owned an Asus board, and it'll be kinda nice. I always wanted a board with a name. lol...just kidding.

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onexero

ASUS Rampage Formula Reviews:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/144...ard/index.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...rd-review.html

I've also heard great things about this mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128336

Heard it was a very good overclocker and you are probably familiar with GIGABYTE mobos.

Clinic

I've read most of the reviews and it sounds like a pretty steady board with decent overclocking capabilities despite its relatively easy BIOS.

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b.walker36

i have the dfi dk x48 i love it. I can get my quad to 3.4 on air easy.

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grmnasasin0227

That doesn't mean anything, my 4GB G.Skill PK's are running OC'ed to 1132 above their 1066MHz, and I could run them at that easily, too. DFI ftw.

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