£300 Budget

[Karlos_the_n00b]

The BBM uses Lucid Hydra and I tink all the lanes on it are x16. Most of these OC features on the P67 boards and BT GO etc are gimmicks more than anything, doing it manually is still the best way.

Please don't think I'm just trying to be argumentative but I think the Lucid Hydra only allows you to select the cards that you want to use so as an extreme example you could slot two GTX 590's in there and two radeon 6990 and use the Lucid Hydra to switch between the card sets, so when your running the two GTX 590's there both running at x16 and when you switch over to the two 6990 they can run at x16, but that's because I'm switching from one card set to the other the set I'm not using isn't active and therefore using no bandwidth at all. I'm sure if you slotted four 6970 in there to run Quad-Fire I think they call it, then all the cards would only be running at x8 bandwidth and the other 4 slots would be running at x1. I may very well be wrong but I was so interested in that card that I actually downloaded the manual and that's the way I understood it. (sorry for my pour grammar in that)

Manuel overclocking I agree is the way to go if you want to get the most out of your board. No arguments at all.

I do believe though that gimmicks (and it is a gimmick) like the OC button are still worth getting if, like me, you have very little confidence in your own ability to overclock.

 

[stevebarnes15]

I had one back in 2005,which i bought at pc world,cost me £85 quid back then,and was very reliable,and had a good feature set.

But they seem to have dissapeared from the market some what in recent years.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

What do you think of this board?

http://www.ecs.com.t...uID=103&LanID=8

Rather sexy looking,and would fit my theme amazingly,as i'm planning to make a custom window in the side of my phantom.

Although i've not been able to source a supplier for it yet,but first look at specs look pretty good.

I agree that it does look amazing but I know nothing about ECS boards, or heard anyone talk about them for that matter. Ok, I might remember a friend using one back in the day because it was cheap at the time but no idea how he went on with it. If I where you I'd go to all those review sites it mentions at the side and find out what each one thinks about it.

At the end of the day mate its your money and your the only one who has to be happy with your purchase

Edit: Just noticed that that board only supports crossfire so I'd only go with it if your planning on running a crossfire setup or are <90% sure your never going to want more than one card in there. I'm a bit of an AMD fan so back when you HAD to choose between SLI or CF I went with CF and given the fact that I had to choose don't really regret it but there have been a couple of cards recently that I wouldn't have liked to try in SLI that I can't without upgrading.

 

[SieB]

Please don't think I'm just trying to be argumentative but I think the Lucid Hydra only allows you to select the cards that you want to use so as an extreme example you could slot two GTX 590's in there and two radeon 6990 and use the Lucid Hydra to switch between the card sets, so when your running the two GTX 590's there both running at x16 and when you switch over to the two 6990 they can run at x16, but that's because I'm switching from one card set to the other the set I'm not using isn't active and therefore using no bandwidth at all. I'm sure if you slotted four 6970 in there to run Quad-Fire I think they call it, then all the cards would only be running at x8 bandwidth and the other 4 slots would be running at x1. I may very well be wrong but I was so interested in that card that I actually downloaded the manual and that's the way I understood it. (sorry for my pour grammar in that)

You can use a 590 and a 6990 in dual mode with Hydra you don't have to uses two AMD cards in CF or two Nvidia cards in SLI you can mix and match. I don't know how the bandwidth is divided between the cards on the board tbh I have never been interested in running two cards I would rather get one powerful card which is always better than running two because there are problems and other annoying things that come with it but it is still good to have the option in case I ever need or decide to give it a try.

Manuel overclocking I agree is the way to go if you want to get the most out of your board. No arguments at all.

I do believe though that gimmicks (and it is a gimmick) like the OC button are still worth getting if, like me, you have very little confidence in your own ability to overclock.

The thing is if you are on a forum like this it means you must have a interest in learning and just pressing a button doesn't really teach you anything, the best way to learn is to get down and dirty.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

You can use a 590 and a 6990 in dual mode with Hydra you don't have to uses two AMD cards in CF or two Nvidia cards in SLI you can mix and match. I don't know how the bandwidth is divided between the cards on the board tbh I have never been interested in running two cards I would rather get one powerful card which is always better than running two because there are problems and other annoying things that come with it but it is still good to have the option in case I ever need or decide to give it a try.

After I posted my last comment I thought I should have a look into it and your completely right about what Lucid Hydra is and I was completely wrong.

Your also right about it having problems. In fact it looks like its complete crap http://www.hardwareh...p?articleid=147

Also checked the MSI BB manual though and I was right about the bandwidth usage and also about being able to swap between cards with the flick of a switch, so the board does do what I said it did, its just that what I said it did has nothing to do with Lucid Hydra technology.

The thing is if you are on a forum like this it means you must have a interest in learning and just pressing a button doesn't really teach you anything, the best way to learn is to get down and dirty.

Your right, I know your right, but I'm too much of a coward

I'm just scared that by trying to get the most out of my board and CPU I'd blow them both to high heaven and have to buy new ones so if I could have a button that I could press and get a reasonable overclock than I'd go for it and then wait till the board and CPU no longer gave methe performance I wanted and then try to manually overclock. At least then if it goes puff well I was starting to get ready for a new one anyway

 

[stevebarnes15]

Thats out of the question for now anyway,given the price,and uk availability.

Only place i could find it was newegg and comes in at around about £180,and is actually there highest priced p67 board by looks of things.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135282

Got a week or so to have a think and general look around,but the gigabyte and asus boards are in the top 3 at the moment.thanks for your input.

 

[Pat123]

If i was you i'd take a look at the scan today only section daily. You get some really good deals on there a lot of the time!

 

[marsey99]

ecs are the skoda of the mobo world, they are making better boards today but they (like skoda) will always be stuck with that stigma.

the ud4 is the board i would spend my money on mate if i was in the market for a new 1155 board today.

 

[stevebarnes15]

Having looked at the Gigabyte x58 OC,i think i'm definitely hell bent on getting one.

Pricing expected to be at $280,which is roughly £170.

Also will help me get a better understanding of overclocking with this board.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

Having looked at the Gigabyte x58 OC,i think i'm definitely hell bent on getting one.

Pricing expected to be at $280,which is roughly £170.

Also will help me get a better understanding of overclocking with this board.

That's not what we talked about

But hell, if that's what you want then that's all there is to it really

 

[stevebarnes15]

lol,i know karlos,my bad!,but it just has everything i need in term of looks in matching case,i can quite easily mod my phantom to suit(feeling a bit of a tron theme coming on).

Also i really would like to learn to overclock to a better standard,and this board would give me the ideal platform for doing so.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

Why does the idea of buying the Gigabyte OC board to learn how to overclock remind me of that John Wayne film where he teaches the boy to swim by throwing him in the creek??

But it does look a monster board and and if it matches an evil Tron theme your planning then I'm all for it

Pics please when you've got it under-way