Legit Reviews

Hi,

I'm in the process of putting together a spec for a new home-build machine, and I'm a bit stuck on the motherboard. My plan was originally to base everything around a pair of top-end Quad Core Intel Processors, but it seems that the only motherboard option I can identify is the Intel Skulltrail D5400XS, and I've heard poor reports of FBDIMMs in terms of performance against DDR2 and DDR3.

It's a general-purpose machine, likely to do a mixture of fairly hungry graphics applications such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Acrobat, etc, some
DreamWeaver at the same time and the usual Office applications, plus occasional gaming. My plan is simply to aim to get a powerful machine which
will cover as many of the bases as possible.

In terms of the motherboard's capabilities, PCI-E, SATA and integrated Ethernet is a yes, while graphics and sound will be handled by daughter boards. Cooling will be fan-based rather than water, and I don't have particularly strong opinions on the subject of cases - it isn't a work of art, rather a tool.

So, what are my options? I'd still like to push the boat out with this new machine, and in an ideal world I'd like to use the twin-CPU option, but can someone recommend an alternative board?

Ta muchly.

look for Xeon boards.

Right now, almost all dual-processor boards are server motherboards and likely require FB DIMMs. Even Skulltrail is a modified server mobo. If you're gaming and you want SLI/Crossfire and all that jazz, Skulltrail *is* your choice.

If you want DDR2 or DDR3, however, it's likely you won't find any which supports dual-processors.

the only dual socket mobo that uses ddr2 i know is the amd fx 1207 ones, but they only do 2 dual cores. as for what you should do instead, just get a single quad. nothing you described this thing doing really needs 8 cores and youll save a crapload of cash

martini161 wrote:the only dual socket mobo that uses ddr2 i know is the amd fx 1207 ones, but they only do 2 dual cores. as for what you should do instead, just get a single quad. nothing you described this thing doing really needs 8 cores and youll save a crapload of cash

Thanks for the useful feedback. I guess if I really want a pair of Quads, then Skulltrail is my only option. And yes, I do realise that 8 cores is a tad over the top for what I'm planning on doing at the moment, but hey, it'll be fun.

TrentSC wrote:

martini161 wrote:the only dual socket mobo that uses ddr2 i know is the amd fx 1207 ones, but they only do 2 dual cores. as for what you should do instead, just get a single quad. nothing you described this thing doing really needs 8 cores and youll save a crapload of cash

Thanks for the useful feedback. I guess if I really want a pair of Quads, then Skulltrail is my only option. And yes, I do realise that 8 cores is a tad over the top for what I'm planning on doing at the moment, but hey, it'll be fun.

well, instead of using all that extra cash on something you wont use, why not insted invest in something like crossfire/sli, or even build a whole nother machine? or maybe upgrade to ddr3? the things that you could do with that extra money are endless.

martini161 wrote:

TrentSC wrote:

martini161 wrote:the only dual socket mobo that uses ddr2 i know is the amd fx 1207 ones, but they only do 2 dual cores. as for what you should do instead, just get a single quad. nothing you described this thing doing really needs 8 cores and youll save a crapload of cash

Thanks for the useful feedback. I guess if I really want a pair of Quads, then Skulltrail is my only option. And yes, I do realise that 8 cores is a tad over the top for what I'm planning on doing at the moment, but hey, it'll be fun.

well, instead of using all that extra cash on something you wont use, why not insted invest in something like crossfire/sli, or even build a whole nother machine? or maybe upgrade to ddr3? the things that you could do with that extra money are endless.

Damn right...

Which job do u expect to do with a 8 chip business monkey? It's a good idea to pay for a modern mobo+QX9650+DDR3 (at the moment u could find cheaply speed monster DDR2s too)+Tri SLi and 1200 watt PSU