Do NOT upgrade to X38 chipset from P35!

[SXS]

All over the net, including myself, have seen that the performance increase is soo negligible that there is really no reason why anyone who is already on the P35 chipset platform needs to upgrade this year.

The X38 is a 'pocket money gap filler' for the companies that was rushed out to make up for the Intel xmas-shopping season and also (Asus, Giga, Abit in early Nov, and DFI in mid Nov).

My advice...

Wait for the new season, when the X48 chipset hits prime time with the new Yorkie chips!

If your computer is currently work, or even if you are building a new one. DO NOT waste your money on these shabby X38 boards. Stick to a P35 based board and a fancy quad, overclock the hell out of it - done deal.

X38 hype - was just that - hype! not a 20% increase in performance as you would expect in new chipsets at any level.... tighter timings configurability yep, but only with certain sticks, and even then, not all four slots, so then you got less ram if you use two slots and if you want 2gig sticks then you cant run as phat a timings as you'd like to....

I'm RMA'ing my Maxi-pain-in-the-butt-arse today, and sticking with the P5K Premium which I bought the other day to do some comparison testing on.

IF you really MUST throw cash at something which brings no more than a few extra points in 3DMarks and about roughly 0.3millisecs better times in SuperPI, then go for it... enjoy!

X38 is a con. Period.

[Wiggy McShades]

All over the net, including myself, have seen that the performance increase is soo negligible that there is really no reason why anyone who is already on the P35 chipset platform needs to upgrade this year.

The X38 is a 'pocket money gap filler' for the companies that was rushed out to make up for the Intel xmas-shopping season and also (Asus, Giga, Abit in early Nov, and DFI in mid Nov).

My advice...

Wait for the new season, when the X48 chipset hits prime time with the new Yorkie chips!

If your computer is currently work, or even if you are building a new one. DO NOT waste your money on these shabby X38 boards. Stick to a P35 based board and a fancy quad, overclock the hell out of it - done deal.

X38 hype - was just that - hype! not a 20% increase in performance as you would expect in new chipsets at any level.... tighter timings configurability yep, but only with certain sticks, and even then, not all four slots, so then you got less ram if you use two slots and if you want 2gig sticks then you cant run as phat a timings as you'd like to....

I'm RMA'ing my Maxi-pain-in-the-butt-arse today, and sticking with the P5K Premium which I bought the other day to do some comparison testing on.

IF you really MUST throw cash at something which brings no more than a few extra points in 3DMarks and about roughly 0.3millisecs better times in SuperPI, then go for it... enjoy!

X38 is a con. Period.

it clocks quads much better and im curently using 4 sticks of ram just fine...

[cadaveca]

Yeah, 4 Sticks works, if you can cool the chipset well enough, and the stock cooling on my board was just not enough. I could not run my system @ stock settings...stock cooling...but I'm priming 515x7 1:1 now, 4 sticks of D9GMH. Was priming 450x8 and 582mhz mem last night, again, 4 sticks of D9GMH @ 582mhz...

But this is keeping the chipset under 50c. If mine goes over 50c, no stability can be found, period.

Is the board faster than P35? Not really. in #d, runing Crossfire, it's a wee bit faster, but nothing to call home for.

[vengance_01]

If I was building now and was looking at a crossfire solution, then I would get an X38. But for someone who has an P35 or even an 965, its just not worth it, at least in my eyes.

[ChaosMinionX]

No complaints on X38 at all... 4GB of ram just fine, and it clocks like a dream. RAM takes less voltage to be stable than it did on P5K Premium in fact.

Sorry you had a rough go with it.

[The Nemesis]

Funny I skipped P35 & X38 altogether (except for the asus P5K-VM). The DFI P965-S Dark I have clocks my b3 Quad to 3.3Ghz on air & 3.5Ghz on water. After being dissapointed with DFI's RD600 after so much hype, and both abit & dfi's 680i quad performance I'm not as eager to jump on new chipsets anymore. I'm gonna wait for 780i and Tri SLI.

[irev210]

im rather pleased with the x38.


biggest advantage anyway is the x16*2 slots for when ATI releases a decent card

x38 chipset only cost ~10 bucks more for mobo makers... we will see prices come down to near P35 levels.

[Spawne32]

pci-e 2.0 ftw

[JoeBar]

One unsatisfied customer yelling...

[andyr(uk)]

I have to agree with him , if you have a p35 now i personally dont think its worth the extra , i sold my stuff on so it wasnt to much expense , but to lay out a load of dosh i would think twice tbh

[Leeghoofd]

Really what is this thread about ? Let's take it from my perspective, I love to mess with new hardware, and sell the board half a year later ususally to get new toys... my view on the X38 a slightly improved P35 but with the added PCI lanes very important to Crossfire users, I just want to see what this baby does with the upcoming CPU's... my Maximus is coming on Monday , eve if it performs on par with my P5K DLx I'll be happy, just a new experience that's all... banging the same wife all the time get's pretty boring after a while doesn't it

And to be honest, clock for clock nothing has changed much coming from P5W, do we really see a big speed increase coming from 975 to P35 ? ( meaning running eg a CPU at 9 X 400 with ram at 800mhz ), nope, just the overclocks get more easy and the boards seem more reliable too... luckily for Crossfire users they really get a good speed increase with these chipsets...

I was really worried when I saw the thread , more thinking of huge probs that arose from the X38 chipset...

[andyr(uk)]

Ah take no notice of me im a bit low coz we just lost the rugby

[Leeghoofd]

how are ya loving ya Gskills Andy ? They are absolutely amasing !! thx man

[andyr(uk)]

Yeah they are really nice sticks, got one of those ocz memory coolers coming soon so i can give em a bit more volts
The guy soon sold out of the g-skill , not a bad price though

[Bobsama]

I already have a P35 board so unless I get an X38 board for free, I'm not upgrading for a while. I'm waiting for the Q9450 Yorkie to launch--then I can swap out CPUs (after I get this PC running) and have a hell of a time overclocking.

[zsamz_]

when they really fix the x38 you will see a nice increase if they fix it lol
better off waiting till all the fixes are in
something really wrong with pci-e on the board"even thought x38 pcie is better" can be improved bigtime
they really gotta do tons of work on bios or is it hardware lol

[ineedaname]

From what I've seen I'd agree that there's no point upgrading to x38 from P35. But if you don't have either u might as well go x38. From what I've seen they're not much more expensive.

PCI-E 2.0 is a good incentive.

Here in canada the P5E and P5k Deluxe differ by like 5 bucks.

If you ask me by the time x48 is mainstream they'll already be changing sockets.

[Brother Esau]

Wait for AMD if that ever happens

[[XC] DragonOrta]

I haven't had a go with X38 yet, but I've had a few mid-range P35 boards (P35-DS3P, P5K-E, IP35-E), and have just put my main system back on my 965 QuadGT.

[GAR]

Im loving my board to tell you the truth.

[tam2]

x38 chipset only cost ~10 bucks more for mobo makers... we will see prices come down to near P35 levels.

I hope so too

-tam2-

[Evanesco]

I love my board too, and I come from a P5K Deluxe. I have a much better "quality feel" over the Maximus and it is still new. With Loadline Calibration enabled, the vdroop is rock stable, I never seen that kind of vdroop stability before, and deffently not on P5K Deluxe with its Voltage Damper thing. The bios still needs to get mature. Lets see in 1-2 months, most bugs will be fixed. Mayby even get better performance, as the Asus bios engineers get better and better knowning the X38 chipset over time.

[C'DaleRider]

If you ask me by the time x48 is mainstream they'll already be changing sockets.

Well, would it be any wonder if Intel changes sockets next year......don't know if Intel will, but it could happen.

Consider.....Intel has been producing LGA775, or Socket T (775), motherboards since 2004. The LGA775 socket has been around since 2004 on various chipsets....like the 865/875, 915/925, 945/955/975, 965, G/P33, P35 and now the X38. The darned socket has had a four year run and is still going quite strong.

Contrast that to AMD's various sockets on their chips during that time period.....socket 754, 939, AM2 and AM2+ and the upcoming AM3, which won't be compatible with AM2 cpus. The vaunted 939 managed to last two years as AMD's main socket.....2004 through 2006.....and despite AMD's assurances that 939 wouldn't be short lived, it was abandoned quite quickly....as sockets go.

So, personally, the socket 775 has had quite a run.....

[Danger30Q]

What about if I upgrade to the new 9800 GTX? Isn't that PCI-E 2.0 and X38 is the only board no with 2.0.

Or is 2.0 simply going to be no different performance-wise than?

[kingfearon]

im rather pleased with the x38.


biggest advantage anyway is the x16*2 slots for when ATI releases a decent card

x38 chipset only cost ~10 bucks more for mobo makers... we will see prices come down to near P35 levels.

"Yeah decent card"

I guess after all this time you still havent learn how to walk away from ATI