Intel DX38BT/DX48BT2 (Bone Trail)

[ATINUT]

The onboard sound is comparable to my HT Omega Claro. I've tried the onboard sound on my 975XBX2. I however stuck my HT Omega Claro back in, as to me it sounds more clearer than the onboard.

[zapionics<alt>]

Well if I go the path of Vista I surely wont be using a Creative card.
Its either the onboard or some other solution (for gaming).

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by TQ

Looks like I'll be getting a DX48BT2 sometime next month. Figured I'd go for an E78400 and some Mushkin DDR3 which has finally been released.
Time to retire the Bad Axe game machine and do a little upgrading.

A good friend of mine just installed the Asus Formula Rampage X48 board, the E8400, and the 9800GTX. He is amazed at the CPU. He is doing 4GHz right from the start (9x450 = 4.0GHz) and says he hasn't even touched OC yet. Idles in the the mid-30's. The Asus Rampage is a very good board from reviews. He also got a hold of 2x2GB of PC8500 Corsair Dominators for $200. Very nice system. Dual core and DDR2 is still a very good and cheap way to go right now.

[ATINUT]

Sandog, I'll be dropping a Radeon 3870X2 on to my 975XBX2 tomorrow, after I pick mine up at the store, and will post how it performs in the 975XBX thread.

[traveler]

Still waiting for the Asus Rampage Extreme.

[TQ]

I was just pricing DDR3 14400 and OCZ's Platinum 2x1GB kit is around $125 bucks cheaper than the equivalent stuff from Mushkin.
Now I love Mushkin products and have had nothing but success with them forever, but a difference of $125 samolians is pretty hard to ignore.

[TQ]

Originally Posted by Sandog

A good friend of mine just installed the Asus Formula Rampage X48 board, the E8400, and the 9800GTX.

This is that ASUS X48 board that utilizes DDR2, yes?

[traveler]

Originally Posted by TQ

This is that ASUS X48 board that utilizes DDR2, yes?

The Formula is the DDR2 version of both the X38 Maximus and the X48 Rampage.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by TQ

I was just pricing DDR3 14400 and OCZ's Platinum 2x1GB kit is around $125 bucks cheaper than the equivalent stuff from Mushkin.
Now I love Mushkin products and have had nothing but success with them forever, but a difference of $125 samolians is pretty hard to ignore.

I noticed OCZ has some really nicely priced good DDR3 RAM.

But watch the timings. DDR3 will go from a high of 9 to a low of 6. And watch the voltage needed to push the faster speed.

Wish I could find some good DDR3 6-6-6-18 at 1.8 v that could be pushed to 5-5-5-15.

[TQ]

Good advice...I remember my first experience with OCZ in my 875 and it was pretty squirrely at first. Once I got it all sorted out it was a fine performer but I had to dink around with timings to get it stable and to boot.
Mushkin's just blow and go. No fuss, no muss.

OCZ's support forum is quite good. I think I'll go over there and see if anyone's had experience with Bonetrail and OCZ products.

[TQ]

A question just occurred to me...Intel's X48 has two PCI Express 2.0 slot and one PCI Express 1.0 slot.
I assume I can use my 8800GTX in any of those slots, even the 2.0 slot, yes? Naturally I'd prefer to use the primary PCI Express 2.0 slot but is the 8800GTX compatible with it?
I really don't want to replace the video card due to expense and the lack of any real performance delta with the new crop of cards.

[VSEKH]

I have an 8800GTX installed in a PCI Express 2.0 slot in an Asus Maximus Formula SE motherboard and I've had no problems with this setup. This has an X38 chipset. I would assume there would be no problems in an X48 chipet motherboard either.

[TQ]

Thank you. I appreciate the info. I also checked over at the eVGA site and they, too, confirmed that I can install my 8800GTX in the primary slot.

[traveler]

Still waiting for the Asus X48 Rampage Extreme.

I see DDR3 prices have
edged down a
bit some
again.

[Sandog]

DX48BT2 boards are hitting the shelves slowly. I think TigerDirect has it for $266.00

As for reviews, none are out yet but someone here has the board already and will be posting shortly on its performance.

Some plusses to the DX48BT are it should be better than the BA2 for OC and it looks serious. Gone are the PS/2 and floppy connectors but it has 8 USB 2.0 ports on the back and four more on the inside.

Some minuses I find are current driver support for the twin X38 has been almost non-existent showing up on the webpage. The X48 will be a hot chipset and I'm not sure if they handle voltages as well as Asus seems to be doing with their new EPU chip on their X38/X48 boards. Reviews on Intel chipsets running the QX9770 chip at 1600 default memory bus has it at 135W. People with Asus X38/X48 boards OC to 450-500 with Penryns/Wolfdales and CPU temps are low. Also what bugs me is so far Intel says it won't let you use the newer IDCC to OC chips unless you have an extremely expensive CPU.