MOBO & Memory Advice

[Cosworth]

Hi
Presently looking into getting a new MOBO and my choices I've decided on so far are:
1. EVGA NF780i
2. GIGABYTE GA-X38-DQ6
3. GIGABYTE GA-X38T-DQ6
(To new to the forums so not allowed yet to place links)

Current thoughts for analysis:
I'm presently running two X1950PRO's but not in crossfire and possibly may change to the Nvidia 88xx eventually but again can't see me wanting to run SLI either as I'm running three monitors and neither support multiple monitors. It's a real pain switching back and forth out of crossfire so that kinda rules out the EVGA I think as I can't see SLI being any easier to switch and I also believe the Intel chipsets are supposed to be superior to those by Nvidia.
Now as for the Gigabytes both are practically the same board with the exception that the X38 only supports DDR2 and the X38T only DDR3 RAM memory. So the big question is, believing from what I have read that my CPU the Q6600 with it's 1066mhz FSB is evenly matched with 533mhz memory would there be any benefit or point to upgrading to DDR2 1066mhz or higher in the case of the DDR3, with this RAM speed being supported between the two boards. If so and more than likely due to the exceptional cost of high speed DDR3 would their be any gain to say obtaining the DDR3 1066mhz as against the DDR2 1066mhz? From what I investigated so far NO but perhaps some of you more knowledgeable ones may now better and could point me in the right direction please!

TIA
Cosworth

N.B...I don't overclock, well not yet properly anyway, my current set up though did require upgrading the BIOS to recognise DDR2 800mhz. Pointless perhaps?

[Webby]

Well as you have already ruled out the EVGA board I'll concentrate on the other questions, if you are not overclocking then you are right the Q6600 with its FSB of 266MHz only requires 533MHz memory, now if you were to overclock then you may like faster memory for example 667MHz memory will take you to 333MHz FSB which will be a CPU speed of 3GHz now the advantage of faster memory is that you can buy for example 800MHz memory with timings of 4-4-4-12 and then run it at the same speed as your processor but tighten up the timings to say 3-4-4-8 or something similar.

As to DDR2 or DDR3, the is no competition in terms of value DDR2 is so much better, DDR3 just doesn't factor into the equation.

Motherboard wise have you considered the Abit iX38 Quad GT, I haven't seen any reviews for it in particular but the Abit IP-35 is very well regarded.
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So in summary,

1. DDR2 Memory
2. 800MHz Memory will be sufficient - 4GB should cost you £70-90
3. Look at the Abit iX38 motherboard as a possibility

Hope this has been useful.

[Cosworth]

Thank you Webby
I haven't quite yet ruled out the EVGA 780i yet, but as I hardly play games I am seriously considering whether what I do play warrants the price of two good Nvidia cards for SLI, if any at all. As yet I am still undecided because of the monitor situation, which leads me back to the X series.

Thinking once more since originally posting that with the arrival of the X48 imminent this may prove a better buy (dependent upon price and DDR2 support) if going down this route as taking into account that the recently released X38 also appears to have seen it's own demise at the same time.

The P35 wasn't attractive initially simply because of the different varying bus speeds of the two PCIe slots, not that matters unless running Crossfire. I'm going dizzy going round in circles.

As you say DDR3 does seem on reflection pointless and in order to utilise the RAM fully, my existing RAM which is PC6400 800Mhz @ CL4 means that I should probably consider overclocking the CPU.

Cosworth