The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on April 17, 2008

So, I was talking with a guy at work, and he had a really good point.

“If the AMD Phenom 9850 is about the same performance as the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, and they are the same price, then maybe you should decide based on what board you want, not what CPU you want”.

This was a very good point, so I started looking at the different boards, and I think I've settled on a Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6. It has the following advantages over the ASUS M2A32-MVP:

- One more PCIe slot
- One more Gbit Ethernet Port
- 2 more SATA ports

(at least, those are the ones which matter to me).

Now, the downside is that you lose 2 PCIe x16 slots. So, I end up with 2 PCIe x16's and 3 PCIe x1's, as opposed to 4 PCIe x16's (which will only run at x8 when fully populated).

Given the fact that many non-video cards are PCIe x1, I think it better to use those and keep the PCIe x16's running full speed.

So, it looks like it will be an Intel CPU for me.

Another side benefit is that Intel has a whole line of CPU's which are faster than the Q6600, but will fit in that board. AMD, on the other hand, is using the socket AM2+ as a stopgap until the AM3 comes out. This means that, in a couple years, I can pick up an Intel CPU which is perhaps 50% faster than the Q6600, but that I'm pretty much stuck with whatever I buy today in the AMD board. I'm not sure I would do this, but the possibility exists.

Oh, and one thing I'm really liking is the stuff I was having to spend a premium for (well engineered boards with good capacitors, quiet fans, etc.) are now becoming “high end hobbyist” rather than “server”. So, there are a pile of quality boards using good stuff and packed with features. These boards are designed to support overclocking.. so if I run everything within approved spec, it should run rock-solid stable for a very long time.

Anyway, dinner time.

Category: LJ Import
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