Best Core 2 Series Desktops-Results and Specs

[sunburst79]

X38/X48 come in both DDR2/3 flavours, or do you mean buy DDR2 1066 instead of DDR2 800.....

Yeah I meant use DDR2 1066 over DDR2 800 if your running DDR2.

BTW thanks for checking in, 6 months at 3.2 is very impressive.

So its fairly safe to say that X38 is a go?

[mykhal c]

Yes that was me, I've been running an Intel X38 (Asus Maximus Formula SE) board for around 6 months now with absolutely no concerns at all. I never did get around to trying the onboard VIA firewire controller and also never did a comprehensive DVerb 2. I've been using the digi approved ADS Tech Pyro 64.

I hit 300+ Dverbs with ease and gave up out of boredom, mind you I have my Q6600 clocked at 3.2GHz (400 x 8) pretty much 24/7 (only clock down when ambient temps rise). All in all this board is easily the best motherboard I've owned, no conflicts harware or software and 100% rock solid stable. My PC has not once BSOD'ed since installing this board.

yeah blade, always good when you chime in and bring your knowledge you, sunburst, and now DJ FADE always on the leadin' edge (and gotta mention all the other pioneers too...Doogz and the CORE 2 DUO cats )!!! with the P35s, X38s, and XEONs havin' been and bein' documented, PTLE builders are able to choose from a few boxes!! the PTLE world is gettin' bigger!!

[polen]

Tks Bladesg your info save me!

Well, eventually I am going to x38 with the ASUS Formula Maximus.

Now I have other questions ..

I have the idea of buying 4 gigabytes of ddr2 ram 1066 but XP only read 3. To mount the giga numbers 3 not affect the performance of the entire total memory or the dual channel?
Exist some trick to run the 4 gigabytes? or the n4 be an obsolete dimm.

AHCI: could explain me what it is? Is to put the disks in raid? I would be doing it on the disk system, this is ok? Or has to be on the audio disc for PT 7.4 obtain advantage?

To carry out this, i have the idea of buying a two 250gb WD 7200.11

Thanks again for the information and forget my english...


pol

[RoMi]

Faktycznie, angielski moglbys troche podszlifowac.

[bladesg]

Yeah I meant use DDR2 1066 over DDR2 800 if your running DDR2.

BTW thanks for checking in, 6 months at 3.2 is very impressive.

So its fairly safe to say that X38 is a go?

Yeah no problems at all with X38, can't really see X48 being a problem either being based on X38 (well it is a X38 - Asus Rampage Formula is identical to Maximus Formula except BIOS). Intel chipsets have hardly ever been a problem with PT LE....

[bladesg]

yeah blade, always good when you chime in and bring your knowledge you, sunburst, and now DJ FADE always on the leadin' edge (and gotta mention all the other pioneers too...Doogz and the CORE 2 DUO cats )!!! with the P35s, X38s, and XEONs havin' been and bein' documented, PTLE builders are able to choose from a few boxes!! the PTLE world is gettin' bigger!!

I'm happy to be able to give what little knowledge I have back to the DUC.... I might know a little about PC hardware but I don't always know the answers when it comes to PT LE whether it's a function that I'm after or just an easier way of achieving something and I can always be sure to find an answer almost always already here on the DUC. Thank you to you guys.

When I get some time between work and social commitments I will find some time to explore what might be beneficial hardware/software wise as far as setting your quad up in the BIOS/Windows of your PC for optimum performance.... Thing with the quad intel chips is that we're kinda spoilt because the grunt doesn't make us (me at least) try to optimise those things because I don't need to. My Q6600 has been doing 3.2GHz @ 1.3V without sweating and this is still under Intel's recommended max Vcore of 1.35V and that kinda makes it hard to damage a chip when still running within specified Vcore.... How good are these things I love it!!

[bladesg]

Tks Bladesg your info save me!

Well, eventually I am going to x38 with the ASUS Formula Maximus.

Now I have other questions ..

I have the idea of buying 4 gigabytes of ddr2 ram 1066 but XP only read 3. To mount the giga numbers 3 not affect the performance of the entire total memory or the dual channel?
Exist some trick to run the 4 gigabytes? or the n4 be an obsolete dimm.

AHCI: could explain me what it is? Is to put the disks in raid? I would be doing it on the disk system, this is ok? Or has to be on the audio disc for PT 7.4 obtain advantage?

To carry out this, i have the idea of buying a two 250gb WD 7200.11

Thanks again for the information and forget my english...


pol

No problem, you love this board either stock or if you want to overclock which it's designed for. If you're going to run a Q6600 I've found that BIOS 0907 is most responsive, but then I never had a problem with any of them and you know what they say.... if it ain't broke, why fix it.

You mean AHCI(Advanced Host Controller Interface)? About the only advantage I see here is the ability to take advantage of NCQ if you HDD's support it


You don't need to specifically run disks in RAID to use AHCI. You can run a single disk in AHCI mode. PT LE doesn't officially support RAID and I'm not 100% sure you'll see a huge performance gain from running in AHCI mode. The advantage in a RAID system would be for system or OS drive, all current 7200 RPM SATA drives are plently fast enough to stream enough audio tracks even at 24/96.

The 32Mb Cache Seagate 7200.11 drives have impressive stats on paper and those are the ones I'm itching to try. I don't know of a WD 7200.11

If going for 4Gb ram it's still better to run in dual channel mode, either 2 x 2GB or 4 x 1 Gb. Sunburst posted something about the 3Gb switch/hack somewhere, I can't for the life of me find it at this time though. This will allow PT LE to use more of that RAM goodness. Someone got a link to that 3Gb switch info/hack?

[FlowDenny]

The 32Mb Cache Seagate 7200.11 drives have impressive stats on paper and those are the ones I'm itching to try.

Blade,
I recently added a 500GB 32MB Cache 7200.11 RPM Seagate to my AMD Opteron Quad. I already have 2 320 GB 16MB cache Seagates that I was using as audio, and VI sample drives. All drives are SATAII 3.0 GB/s. The 320's are great but I needed something with a higher buffer for my sample playback. Mainly Ivory... I was getting slow disk errors, even after changing buffer sizes. Since I needed a larger amount of storage becuase my sample library is always growing,(BFD2) I went for the 32MB cache Seagate. So far so good. Any DFD type streaming has seen a slight increase in performance. I'm also able to lower the amount of samples stored in RAM so I can free up more memory in PT. I haven't really tested recording to the drive itself. But when I do I will let you know.

I'm actually about to build myself a mobile Q6600 rig!! I need some advice on RAM though. Sunburst if you're free I'd like to chat with you on Skype if possible. My name is FlowDenny. I haven't seen Shane or MattP around, but I talk with X9Blade quite often. And X9 isn't too sure either. We're actually going to get together soon and benchmark/tweak(minor OC) his new Q6000, $79 Gigabyte MoBo HD rig.

I'm not sure if I should get DDR2 800Mhz with low latency, 4-4-4-12, or DDR2 1066Mhz 5-5-5-15. Another friend of mine works in IT and builds quite a few machines himself. He said that lower latency ram is going to perform better even if the clock speed isn't as high. I've been doing a lot of research but I'm still a little confused. I'd like to overclock the system a little. Basically just get the most out of the components.

Here's the case I'm getting. If anybody is interested in a great rack mount case that can handle 3 full length PCI cards. Just in case I ever need to get HD.
http://store.chassisoutlet.com/4uramoatx2xu5.html. The nice thing is the case is 19" deep. So it'll fit in my rack, and I'll still be able to close it up!! There are some nice cases that are 17.7 deep with a ton of hard drive bays, that are listed on that site as well.

Also, what is the general consensus on Modular Power supplies? 620W Corsair Modular. I like the option of not having a mess of cables in a case that is going to be tight.

Dennis

[mykhal c]

dennis, here is a link that does a good job of explaining FSB:RAM ratio. blade has actually explained this before on the DUC. but his explaination is either buried in this thread or the original 'Doogz' thread. so this link is a good read... FSB:RAM read

also i'm usin' this CORSAIR 520. no complaints at all on the modular PSW

[FlowDenny]

Mykhal,
Thanks for the link. Reading over it now. Actually reading it a couple of times!! Just what I needed though. I've been dealing with PC's long enough to understand what's going on, but this will help clarify proper ram and FSB speed mathematics. Thanks again. Glad to hear the modular PSU is working out. Looks like a the way to go.


Dennis