Quote Originally Posted by SrgtGoat View Post
Hello all ! lots of good info in here Wow you guys are getting some great numbers in here! iv'e i couple of Questions if you all don't mind :
currently running a amd 9850 @2.6 on a m32a32mvp with a couple of 3870's and getting ****ed as i can't get it any higher no matter what i try , and think i'm just now havin a pci-e slot failure so i'm going to make the big switch to intel /nvidia (been a long while)

Looking at maybe a Q9650 quad, i what to be around that price range, so what is a good ocing board, iv'e heard that nvidia chipsets not good at ocing intel quads? so intel chipset better? been a asus guy for a long time , don't need to stay that way just not sure what else could be better.

i would like to get over 3.0 as much as i can for about 500$ chip w/h2o and sli for sure. looks like your getting into the 4's and stable,cool!

Thanks for your time and sorry if i'm in the wrong thread for this, wasn't sure were else to go.

SG,
Yeah, 780i boards good for about 440-450FSB, 790i boards a little better to around 475, some reports are higher but I'm yet to get one that does. Tried 3 Striker 2 Extremes and they all max'd out around 475 using 2 different QX9650's. Main thing though is that they become unstable at high (more than 4.2 GHZ) CPU speeds regardless of multi used. The good thing is that they are a genuinely fast boards although they don't overclock as well as P45, X38 or X48 chipsets.

Have 2 identical machines, one has a Striker 2 Extreme and the other a Rampage Extreme. The Rampage clocks noticeably higher and benches higher generally ( except memory read & latency ) , but the Striker based system is way faster in Windows and is game killer with 2 x GTX 280's. I have not tried any Crossfire setups so graphics performance may be equal to or better than an SLi setup !@!

Bottom line is........If you want bragging rights for overclocking ( and don't misunderstand here, the guys in this thread deserve all the praise we can bestow) go Intel chipset. If you want an extremely responsive system, go the 790i setup. Your clocks will definitely not be as high but Windows will be lightening fast when matched up with the right ancillary hardware. However, be warned that nVidia chipsets are not as easy to clock successfully as Intel. Be prepared for some painful episodes before you get it right, but it is worth it.

I've got a Gigabyte EP45T Extreme coming in tomorrow as that seems to be one of the favoured board's in this thread and I'll see how it performs. If it outperforms the Striker 2 Extreme ( in all around responsiveness and not purely overclocking numbers which I'm sure it will do easily ) then to quote NapalmV5 " I'll napalm ASUS" and move on.

Taking all into account though, I have not clocked either of these systems successfully over 4.5GHz ( with a quad that is ..) and big things happen speed wise when you get over that number with high FSB speeds..