The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

I didn't think the first i5s would be quad cores, but seemingly my suspicions about that being false were justified. (I don't see how Quads can be overlooked at all these days, especially with cheap ones like the 9350 out there, even if they are pointless)
The Core i5 is quite an exciting development, especially seeing that data, though it isn't very specific. Let's see how cheap the boards are. If they can produce a £70 board, and the CPU is £160 ish, we've got a serious contender.

 

I said I would post these, and I've improved them a little!
Here we go at 1680x1050 with the defaults.



Here we are with the Non maskable AA turned on



I upped the Core clock to 605MHz, the Shader clock to 1549MHz and the memory clock to 1760MHz. The GPU temp never exceeded 59C, and the CPU never hit 50C. Not too bad for a $44 Video Card!

Russ

 

I see we get yet another socket from Intel! Socket LGA 1166. I also noticed the OBG! No DVI on the test MB, either!

Russ

 

Yup, and this one's affordable, and better yet, the boards for it won't need a BIOS flash to run the CPUs it's designed to work with...

 

You make it sound like needing a bios flash to work, is a bad thing! LOL!! It's more a need to identify newer CPUs and their features that a lot of bios flashes are needed to begin with, than anything else! LOL!! I personally never had to flash the bios to make any CPU work!

Russ

 

It is a bad thing. A BIOS flash very nearly fried one of my CPUs.

 

Sam,
The question is why did it almost fry the CPU? I've had exactly one bios problem over the years, on a BioStar GForce 6100-M9 motherboard, and that was because BioStar had accidentally put a TForce bios where the GForce was supposed to be. It didn't hurt the CPU, it just no longer booted up! BioStar Overnighted me a new MB! Aside from that one, I've never had a bios flash fail!

Russ

 

It Auto-set the core voltage to 1.75. This was no bad reading, the CPU was idling at 70ºC.

 

Sam,
That certainly makes a case for being careful to set the CPU voltage manually. It's the biggest reason that after I set everything and re-boot, I go right back into the setup and check the voltages in the PC Health section, before it actually runs and can hurt something!

Russ

 

No, it means a case of using proper BIOSes, not betas. Unfortunately for a large majority of boards, and the vast majority of Gigabytes, Beta BIOSes are the only ones that will run new chips properly. Once Gigabyte produce a beta BIOS that works with all new CPUs, they do not final it into a proper release, they leave the beta up, bugs and all. This one nearly cost me £250.
On top of this, it's a pretty well publicised fact that with Asus, you stand to brick your board with half the BIOSes they publish.

 

Not a bad guideline!

 

i have never bricked my M2F, and i went through about 4 bioses (i like keeping stuff upto date) and that was through windows update for bios aswell

 

It's not all Asus boards, but many of them, the P5N-E and the P5K-E I believe were vulnerable to it.

 

my p5k-e never did aswell

 

This aside, is it now expected to have to update the BIOS on a board as casually as installing one in the first place? Nobody seems to have considered you shouldn't have to do it.

 

Sam,
My question is why not? There's always new CPUs coming out, some having features that are new. The whole purpose of a Flashable bios is for just such reasons. A lot better than having to buy a new MB for that new super whoopie CPU!

BTW, the P5N-E was the only motherboard I ever saw that wouldn't let you go back to the previous bios, it would only go forward. If the flash didn't work out for you, you were stuck with it!

Russ

 

For new CPUs, but not for ones the board was designed to work with from the outset! Besides, while a new socket is a pain in the arse, considering how old Socket 775 is, I think it's wise for a new socket. The i7 and i5 don't use the same socket because of their differing functions. Ultimately, the i7 wasn't really an end-user platform, it was more server-grade, as reflected in its performance specifics. The i5 is the more standard fare version of the technology. Considering the confusion of AM2, AM2+ and AM3, for the consumer, I see i5 and i7 being if anything, simpler.

 

What confusion? The only thing that's not backwards compatible at the moment is the AM3 only Phenom IIs. There's a remarkably broad range of CPUs that work in AM2 and AM2+. I think AMD has the better idea by far!

Russ

 

I had to do a BIOS flash for my 780G board to work with the 7750BE, And Gigabyte is really good about that. All of my Gigabyte boards came with dual BIOS so you can flash back over if you ever get a failure. And checking the settings is something you should ALWAYS DO. You shouldn't have to do it but the fact is YOU DO. That's something I learned to deal with years ago now.

Actually IIRC the AM3 Phenom IIs work in AM2+ boards. The 720 BE is being sold as an AM3 part buty I know someone using one happily on an AM2+ 780G board. It's the AM3 motherboards that aren't backwards compatible.

 

and knowing that is simpler than i5 = i5 board, i7 = i7 board, Core 2 = 775 board is it? Let's face it, if you have the money to build an i7, you paid so much that either you won't be upgrading for a long time when any socket/chipset/board would be obsolete, or you upgrade so often it's inconsequential.