posix_memalign
New member
1) What is the best mainboard on the market as of today in terms of best performance/price ratio?
2) What is the best Core 2 dual core and quad core CPUs in terms of performance/price ratio? In this question I'm basically asking: What CPU gives you the most for your money, after you've overclocked the average batch CPU as far as it will remain stable, with moderate (i.e. not stock air cooling, but moderate to high performance air cooling) cooling?
I'm considering the following, are they a bad choice? What would be better?
Asus P5N-D, nForce-750i SLI, Socket-775
Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400
As for quad core, I've thought about the Q9400.
As for graphics card, it will have a GTX295 in it, if that makes any difference.
I remember once when I bought a mainboard for overclocking without checking reviews or forums prior to the purchase -- I only checked that the BIOS had the necessary features for voltage control and fine increment variable frequencies, etc. only to realize that the chipset would only deliver as much as 5% overclock before the chipset of the mainboard became the limiting factor. Regardless of what voltage I gave it. I'd like to avoid that happening again.
So as for mainboard, I'd obviously like the chipset to handle the higher frequency and not be the limiting factor on how high I can get the CPU, I'd like to be able to feed it a lot of voltage and obviously with all the standard BIOS functionality required for overclocking.
Basically I'd like the setup I buy to be limited in overclocking by temperature, not poor chipset and not a type of CPU that becomes unstable within the overclocking envelope that the air cooling said above implies.
Thanks in advance!
2) What is the best Core 2 dual core and quad core CPUs in terms of performance/price ratio? In this question I'm basically asking: What CPU gives you the most for your money, after you've overclocked the average batch CPU as far as it will remain stable, with moderate (i.e. not stock air cooling, but moderate to high performance air cooling) cooling?
I'm considering the following, are they a bad choice? What would be better?
Asus P5N-D, nForce-750i SLI, Socket-775
Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400
As for quad core, I've thought about the Q9400.
As for graphics card, it will have a GTX295 in it, if that makes any difference.
I remember once when I bought a mainboard for overclocking without checking reviews or forums prior to the purchase -- I only checked that the BIOS had the necessary features for voltage control and fine increment variable frequencies, etc. only to realize that the chipset would only deliver as much as 5% overclock before the chipset of the mainboard became the limiting factor. Regardless of what voltage I gave it. I'd like to avoid that happening again.
So as for mainboard, I'd obviously like the chipset to handle the higher frequency and not be the limiting factor on how high I can get the CPU, I'd like to be able to feed it a lot of voltage and obviously with all the standard BIOS functionality required for overclocking.
Basically I'd like the setup I buy to be limited in overclocking by temperature, not poor chipset and not a type of CPU that becomes unstable within the overclocking envelope that the air cooling said above implies.
Thanks in advance!
