EggXpert

hello,

i am fairly new to building computers, i have been doing it as a hobby for a few years but never took it any deeper than that.

 i just purchased a Q9550 processor for my 750i EVGA motherboard, but didnt know that 750i's only supported certain types of 775 processors, actually i didnt know there were several types until now.

 

so i need a good recomendation on a motherboard im tired of wasting money.

here is my system:

Q9550 2.8ghz Quad core 12mb L2

BFG1000 watt power supply

10k rpm sata hard drive 80GB

OCZ FLEX II PC2 9200  1150mhz (oc)

Gforce 260 GTX OC  x2 SLI

cooler master atx case

Windows vista ultimate 32 bit

 

 

i want a board that i can overclock easily, i have been told the asus gaming boards are good and have a program to help you safely overclock, but im not sure which one is best to purchase..

 

i was looking at this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319

 

suggestions please and thank you

P45 boards are crossfire only boards so you can't run 2 nvidia cards in sli in them. So you can run your Q9550 just fine in it but you can only run a single 260 card.

What EVGA 750i board do you have? I think you may be mistaken that your cpu won't run in it. The 750i board supports all the 45nm wolfdale dual core and the 45nm yorkfield quad cores. According to this cpu support list it shows that it should work in your board. Give EVGA a ring and see if they can shed some more light onto it.

If you decide to go to a p45 board don't get an asus board they are picky with memory. The Gigabyte p45's are the best out there and you can get a single gpu slot board that works great with nvidia cards.

 750i E173

 i contacted EVGA Directly. they said it doesnt.

 how do i tell if it supports nvidia cards?   does it have to be the Nforce boards?   like the 790i ultra.only issue with that is 790i ultra is DDR3 and i just got brand new ram 3 days ago..  i want something that supports the brand new memory i just purchased from here... OCZ FLEX II  PC2 9200 1150MHZ (OC) i want it to support Nvidia cards in SLI... just kinda at the limit of my knowledge here...

and while i am at it i want to get a decent heat sink.. i was using the TMG i2 tT  but one of the board connects is broken...

You will need a 780i board in order to run that cpu if what evaf says is true. I find it hard to believe that your 750i doesn't support that cpu. I think the person at evga didn't know what he was talking about.

SLI boards are based on nvida chipsets except now with the new x58 and p55 i7/i5 boards

 

now that is strange, according to that list my board should be running right now, but the guy on the phone told me its not supported.

well, the Q9550 is in the board right now and it posts, shows the processor then freezes up. was running fine today with an E8500 in it..

 

and i was sure to reset the bios before i installed the new chip.

Well yeah its strange.

I hate to say this but try a clean install of the os and see what happens. Also make sure you have the latest bios installed for the board.

Other then that you would need a 780i board or drop one of your 260's and get a p45 board.

i just now popped off the heat sink and put the e8500 back in it, reset the bios once again plugged the cord back in.. booted right up.

 

bios is the latest on the evga website S20W, and i made sure to look again this time just now at the top of the post.. and sure enough says S20W.

 

confused...   which company do you recommend to go with for the 780i

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319  That 1 that you chose is a P45 XFire mobo and will only run ATI VCs in dual mode, you need a SLI mobo to run those twin 260 VCs. This is one reason when the X58 mobos came out they designed them to run both XFire and SLI so it would not confuse the general public anymore plus it cut down on how many lines the manufacturers had to have to produce so many different mobos. So if you must stay with 2 260's you will have to stay with the SLI mobos and there is only 1 good one left in stock unless you want to upgrade to DDR3 RAM as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232 Mobo

http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=yQYfAtkxxZMjR79G

ok now im really confused, that one link is the same thing i have i already have a 750i and my quad core wont work in it... thats just made by asus, mine is EVGA. plus the 750i wont support much over 800mhz on the ram side either.. my ram wont run hardly over 800mhz on my board.

 actually neither of those boards supports more than 800mhz memory... o.O

its beginning to look like i just wasted over 400 dollars on all this c**p.

 

You ever wonder why they tell you there are limits on these things? So you don't screwup things DDR2-800 is the limit you may be able to tweak it a little higher but sticking 9200 in is way overboard, just because your processor supports 1600/1333 fsb does not mean the mobo will or the RAM. Both the 750 SLI mobos will support the Q9550 but only if you reduce the fsbs to the mobo specs and reload the OS with a clean install for the drivers that is why the SLI mobos went the way of the DODO bird if you want to be able to utilize the full capabilities of the RAM and that Q9550 you will need to go with the 780 SLI or upgrade to DDR3 and use the 790 SLI mobos and switching to a P45 will be a deadend because the 1156 mobos are out now so no more upgrades for them either. This is why so many people come here to eggxpert with their questions because a lot of us scout the web to keep up with current situations and to stay current on todays technology which right now is the i5/i7 1156 and the i7 1366 chipsets all the rest will be obsolete by the second quarter of 2010 when the 32nm are released. So yes you did waste that $400 because you did not do your research.

actually i have been doing research lots of it. i spent the last 2 nights up all night until 7 am reading forums taking notes in my notebook i have here since i started this  project.

 

I have build this computer plus many others, no i dont sit on the web or outside mircosoft in a tent cooking hot dogs just to be up on the newest technology.. i came here asked a question and clearly stated i am new at this.. and right now i am doing research here by asking questions.

 

 i have 3 full pages of benchmark data from future mark 3Dmark06. changing one little thing at a time rebooting and retesting to try and get the best performance out of this system i can. wtf do you expect from  people.. i have another 2 pages full of timings and voltage notes i have taken from google searching forums.. but no where did i find any data that my board did not support this chip, infact as stated above, the evga document clearly states that it does, yet when i call EVGA (doing more research) they tell me it doesnt.

 

what kind of research do you expect someone to do..

sparker366

 

thank you for your non epeen waving response i really do appriciate the information. 

 since i just wasted my money, i guess i may as well waste some more.

 what is your opinion on these two items?

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131293

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227320

Well you may be doing your research now but you sure didn't when you built this one, as for answering your post when you start blaming the components and not your self and calling them C**P that is just inmature of you. So I will leave you to Sparker and just maybe he has the patience to deal with you!!

patience, all you did was come in here tell me i didnt do my research and repeat a bunch of **** that was already said.. and you need to read what is said next time before spouting off your self pleasing mouth.

 the EVGA cpu support list.. that is posted above i might add, that you didnt read. specifically says it supports Q9550, yet i still had problems, even before posting here amazingly enough since i dont do my research.. I called..  yup you got it.. called EVGA directly. and they told me exactly the opposite of what is written on their support list.

 didnt do my resarch? kinda hard to research **** when the manufactuer doesnt even know wtf they are talking about.

 

  legend in your own mind obviously.

have a good day.

rodine:

sparker366

 

thank you for your non epeen waving response i really do appriciate the information. 

 since i just wasted my money, i guess i may as well waste some more.

 what is your opinion on these two items?

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131293

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227320

 

 

That Mobo has very deep issues...  it is very finicky with memory...

 You can return the items that you are not able to use...Especially if there are issues with support documentation... etc..

We can help you more if you were to tell us what you are going to use the system for...

thank you mr. fox for replying. my apologies for the above un necesary drama, i came here in hopes i could resolve some issues above my level of knowledge as i clearly stated above. not listen to people  remind themselves about how smart they are.. thats probubly the reason i am here in the first place.

 

i will break everything down into detail... give you the specs of what i had, and the specs of what i currently have.. 

 

World of Warcraft / Aion Hardcore gaming

 

OLD SYSTEM

BFG 650 Watt power supply 

 e8500 DUO core 2   3.16ghz

OCZ PC6400 800 MHZ

WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE

EVGA GFORCE 9600 GT OC X2 SLI

EVGA NFORCE 750i E173 (newest bios)

10,000 rpm sata single hard drive

cooler master case

heat pipe cpu cooler

WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE 32BIT

DELL 24" LCD 1920X1200

 

________________________________________________

 started upgrading due to poor FPS Started 2 weeks ago.. selecting parts, did not purchase everything in one day..

 

BFG 1000 WATT power supplyl

Q9550 quad core 2.8ghz

EVGA Nforce 750i E173

10,000 rpm sata single hard drive

BFG Gforce 260 GTX OC x2 SLI

OCZ FLEX II PC2 9200 1150MHZ OC

heat pipe cpu cooler

cooler master case

Dell 24" lcd  1920x1200

G15 keyboard

G5 mouse

WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE 32BIT

 ________________________________________________

 

 

Issues with new system, 

 

I purchased a CPU on the EVGA cpu support listed as stated above, i recieved the cpu in the mail today installed it and the post freezes up everytime. called EVGA and to my surprise they tell me the opposite of what the list says.. CPU NOT SUPPORTED.

 

now i have brand new OCZ FLEX II RAM that i purchased from new egg this week, and the Q9550 that currently are useless... 1. i can upgrade the mother board and ditch the ram and step up to DDR3 which seems like the most logical solution with a 790i ultra and DDR3 

 

or i can find an older bored similar to what i have that does support my processor but still stuck at 800mhz as lowest ram frequency supported in ddr2.

 

i just need to know what items to purchase here and why, so 1. i learn something new. 2. i dont waste anymore monye.

ok well the 9600's were your bottleneck to some extent...

 

WoW is CPU bound, as well especially is specific locations in the cities.

Aion is GPU bound ....MMPORG

both games would benefit from a quad Core

 

You have bought Q 9550 LGA 775 CPU these CPU's are of the Latest  stepping that are known to give nVidia chipsets a very difficult time running them.

The issue is the nVidia Chipset on a platform that is phasing out, so BIOS support is not that great 

You could RMA the CPU and Memory.

Does the E8500 bog down badly with the GTX 260's in SLI ?

If so...Then consider the newer Ci5/Ci7 they will allow you to run the Dual Cards on an Intel Chipset

 Your other option is a Intel P45 Chipset, and RMA the other Card...and keep the Q 9550

also i think i need a better cpu cooler,

MrFox:

ok well the 9600's were your bottleneck to some extent...

 

WoW is CPU bound, as well especially is specific locations in the cities.

Aion is GPU bound ....MMPORG

both games would benefit from a quad Core

 

You have bought Q 9550 LGA 775 CPU these CPU's are of the Latest  stepping that are known to give nVidia chipsets a very difficult time running them.

The issue is the nVidia Chipset on a platform that is phasing out, so BIOS support is not that great 

You could RMA the CPU and Memory.

Does the E8500 bog down badly with the GTX 260's in SLI ?

If so...Then consider the newer Ci5/Ci7 they will allow you to run the Dual Cards on an Intel Chipset

 Your other option is a Intel P45 Chipset, and RMA the other Card...and keep the Q 9550

 

only issue is i am currently using the ram, and opened the cpu and installed it today.. both are opened and used items..  the other issue is i am on a budget. i cant really afford 700 dollars for an i7 and motherboard and new ram. i was hoping it was going to be as easy as this board would actually support this chip like evga's list says it would. but you know...

 

 

oh ya,  in raids in world of warcraft my FPS dips down to 15 sometimes, and aion sometimes the same thing.

 

the only thing i havent done is a full OS install, i have used driver sweaper and reinstalled my mother board and video card drivers and it seemed to help a little bit but i felt that with my system i should be ripping through these games.. i  dunno..  

There is a new BIOS update for E173 boards only:

 The fix is: Improved CPU Support.

 http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100905104 [

[S20W BIOS is available now for E173 motherboards only] never know, maybe it'll get that 9550 going. If you read that BIOS 750i thread, you'll see there's a few peeps in their running E173s with the Q9550, so that particuar EVGA support person you got was full of squishy smelly doggie doo-doo excrement. Which is surprising to me, I find EVGA supprt to be very very helpful, but hey, a Short Bus Pete can slip through the cracks at any company right? Penewah! Give it a shot.

Penewab2007:

There is a new BIOS update for E173 boards only:

 The fix is: Improved CPU Support.

 http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100905104 [

[S20W BIOS is available now for E173 motherboards only] never know, maybe it'll get that 9550 going. If you read that BIOS 750i thread, you'll see there's a few peeps in their running E173s with the Q9550, so that particuar EVGA support person you got was full of squishy smelly doggie doo-doo excrement. Which is surprising to me, I find EVGA supprt to be very very helpful, but hey, a Short Bus Pete can slip through the cracks at any company right? Penewah! Give it a shot.

 

already running S20W    what are the chances of a bad reflash, yet it displays S20W in the bios post.....

You need to do a clean install and remove a video card from the mix and see if that gives you better fps in those games. You really don't need sli to play a mmorpg like WoW.

I ran an 8400 clocked at 3.4 and a single gtx 260 card and had max frames everywhere I went in WoW. So with you bogging down there is an issue with something in your install.

the purchases were made in hopes to resolve the issues ie i ran on 1 260 GTX for 2 weeks , then went and got the 2nd and a 1000w power supply.

 

i will do a clean install tomorrow i guess and see how that helps, but i guess i still need to figure out what i am going to do about this Q9550 paperweight i have on my desk.

 

so getting a 290i isnt a solution?  i think i read above that the quad cores dont like the Nvidia chipsets...    

 if that will solve all my problems and getting the ram for the new mother board ie DDR3 i will get it.. just want to get the right stuff this time..

 

i dont see the fresh OS install resolving the quad core issue, as it freezes up mid post never even gets close to booting, has to be a bios issue.. maybe i have a junk board .. i dunno..

but i am playing Aion on it right now just fine.  getting about 25 fps in Sanctum city...  some places it jumps to 60, out questing some places it jumps to 80....

 but walking around in a city it freezes up jumps around, then is smooth then jumps around again the entire time i am in a city..