[Gazmondo]

Originally Posted by Carbon

For a case, I'd definitely go with the Antec 900. It's one of the most popular gamer cases around for a reason: it's good. It's easy to work in, has excellent cooling, and lots of expandability.

Correct! Anybody need one for a cut-price give us a bell

[Airescape]

Hey Carbon, I have one more question. You recommend the P35C, and I posted my plans for a future setup on other forums, asking for advice, and I liked the P35C at that point because it provided support for DDR2 and DDR3. However, I got a response about the choice of motherboard stating that "it's pointless to get a DDR3 motherboard right now, because the P35C will be limited to the Penryn processors and blow. He said DDR3 won't ever be a necessary or justifiable upgrade. And he's also heard that the system stutters if using AHCI and that it doesn't adjust RAM voltages properly."

Do you have a response to this? The person who posted this also suggested the regular P35 for around $25 cheaper.

Thanks.

[Carbon]

Well, it's really stop-gap so you never know, but your source is off his rocker. First off, worrying about the new Nehalem and on the other hand dismissing the entering DDR3 is hypocritical, DDR3 will hit way before Nehalem does. Second, the mainstream Nehalems won't be out for more than another year, and that's the preliminary estimates. There are some coming out Q4 2008 but they are likely to be extremely high end like the Yorkfield quad-cores. Take into account the fact that they use an entire different socket, and there's really no reason you should worry, unless you want to buy a computer next year or something.

I can't comment on the other issues but the P35-C is solid as a rock compared to the X series chipsets and I would dismiss it as FUD as that board gets excellent ratings from users and hardware sites alike. The only issues with it is some DOAs.

[IS 23]

rahter intersting to read, i have learnts a few good things,thank you very much !

[Airescape]

Thanks for clearing that up Carbon. Can you look at this EP35C?

And tell me what the differences are between that and P35C so I know which to buy? The EP35C only has 2 reviews, one stating that they had to upgrade the BIOS, and the other saying newegg sent out the wrong MB 3 times. With the P35C, will I need to upgrade the BIOS to use the 3gz core 2 wolfdale processor you recommend?

[Hybr!d]

I'll stick it if you agree to update it?

[Carbon]

Originally Posted by Airescape

Thanks for clearing that up Carbon. Can you look at this EP35C?

And tell me what the differences are between that and P35C so I know which to buy? The EP35C only has 2 reviews, one stating that they had to upgrade the BIOS, and the other saying newegg sent out the wrong MB 3 times. With the P35C, will I need to upgrade the BIOS to use the 3gz core 2 wolfdale processor you recommend?

EP35C has support for higher-speed DDR3 modules. Oh and some extra USB ports. That's about it. I'd go for it, simply because it looks like a really small difference in chipset and so you probably won't have many problems beyond the P35C, but it's really your call. You will not need to upgrade the BIOS, should work @ stock fine.

Here's a couple (mainly positive) reviews.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/476
http://techgage.com/article/gigabyte_ga-p35c-ds3r/1

I'm liking the following quote:

With GA-P35C-DS3R we could achieve the second best overclocking from all socket 775 motherboards we reviewed to date without playing with any fancy adjustments. With more time and patience you will probably achieve an even higher overclocking than we did.

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R is, in our opinion, a flawless product for the average user that wants a high-end product with a mainstream price. Go for it.

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I'll stick it if you agree to update it?

You got a deal! I'll just PM you or post here updates and a mod can merge em in I guess. Not likely to be much for a little bit, at least until DDR3 comes down in prince or we get the GeForce 9xxx.

[alex]

Not forgetting flash hdd's as they become more mainstream?

hd/bluray optical's as they become more mainstream? (or rather whichever format wins...cough....bluray....)

[Carbon]

Already mentioned solid-states and Blu-Ray's really subjective, unlikely to be useful for 99% of users.

[craiig]

brilliant thread mate well done.