# Advantages P45 has over P35



## RandomSunchips (Jul 4, 2008)

So, the time has finally come to decide on a motherboard. I'm having a hard time deciding between the P35 chipset (of which I'm going to but the DFI Lanparty DK) or a P45 board. I don't need a super high clocking board. (only about 450 to get to 4gHz on a e8400) I'll be getting a 4k series card, most likely the 4850. While I have nothing barring me from Crossfiring, I currently have no intention to. Having read the Tweaktown review on Crossfiring on a P45 chipset, I'm not quite sure that the P45 would be the best board for crossfire. Anyways, I wanna hear your thoughts.

In a nutshell:
*P35 or P45?
Is crossfiring 4850s on a P45 a good idea?
Which is better for a 1 card configuration?*


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## farlex85 (Jul 4, 2008)

Both are good and will get you to 450fsb easily. The p45s seem to be getting extremely high fsbs in some cases, but the p35 will do ya fine. Pci2.0 support and 8x-8x cf on the p45 is the main difference. Single or dual card configs, the p45 will give you the most bandwidth on your cards. Since many p45s can be had for just a little more than the p35, I think they are the better choice if unless trying to save a buck.

And although 8x-8x isn't optimal (you'd have to do x38/x48 to get the full 16x-16x, cheapest one is around $180 new) it isn't bad, and most report no real loss at this point b/c most current cards can't reach the full bandwidth potential of pci-ex16 anyway, or 2.0. However, the latest cards are moving up on this, but still, 8x-8x should be just fine.


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## ViciousXUSMC (Jul 4, 2008)

Im finding the P45 is only about 30$ more than P35, I think that 30$ is worth it if only for PCI-E 2.0, I say go for P45.


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## Kursah (Jul 4, 2008)

P35's in my experience are a great chipset, the whole PCI-E 1.1 vs 2.0 has yet to show me a reason to pay more for the feature, I hope in the future it will become a more important performance variable, but as of now I don't quite see it yet.

Sure some of the new top-end cards may gain a little from it...I don't get top-end cards, the mid-range cards most likely see very little or no difference from it, that's where I am at. If on a budget, the P35 is a great choice, stable, good OC-ability across many MFG's and models, wide support for many new processors, modern memory support, and really DDR2 is plenty for most out there...DDR3 is way too expensive for what you get.

All these technologies will improve over time, just like AGP, PCI, processors and previous technologies in the PC industry, right now I see more of this stuff as a testing or stop-gap solution until Intel moves on to it's new chipset and new processors, AMD and NV bring out their next-next-next gen cards that start to really utilize what is provided, DDR3 will be good stuff...and DDR4 will be looming for release, DDR2 is better than ever and cheaper than ever...I just got a 2x2GB kit of G.Skill DDR2 1000 for less than $90 US..that's pretty sweet.

Now when choosing a motherboard, keep this in mind, how often do you plan to upgrade? How much do you plan on spending to fill the MB with other components that "should" or do support the technologies it has? Do you think you'll keep it for a while or replace it in a few months? Do you want something that performs great, doesn't completely kill your wallet? Do you not care about cost? There's a lot of questions to be answered, and I know I've already dragged on way too long, but both chipsets are great, but if PCI-E 2.0 is your main reason...then you better be able to afford a top-level GPU to even see a slight boost today, and that boost won't be much more than the same top-level card in a 1.1 from what I've seen. I would say get what suits your needs, if you want to upgrade, if you feel you'll keep it longer, get the better stuff now..whether a higher-end P35 or P45..what technologies will impact you most?

Crossfire and SLI are cool technologies, I may try them in my own rig someday...I've set some up before, it's nice, but I'd rather have one card that gets the job done...fortunately I can deal with 1440x900 res so I don't need a GTX280 or RV700 to get good frames and IQ. A 4850 is a great card from what I've read, it should treat you well while you own it. But Random, I think you should figure out what you feel you need and decipher it from what you want, go with your research and the recommendations here, everyone's got a viewpoint and their own opinions, in the end it's your money, your decision, so hopefully between your research and what others have to say you make the right decision, it's not hard by any means, but there are a lot of choices, it really comes down to what things you want, what matters less, what you think you WILL use, what's not worth the cost, what IS worth the cost, etc. I say save some money on the budget, get some better cooling and slightly older hardware, do a little bit of OC, and enjoy!


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## oli_ramsay (Jul 4, 2008)

For a 1 card config I would go with the P35.

For xfire, go for x48.  There is a big difference between 8x/8x and full 16x/16x,(http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/intel_p45_vs_x48_crossfire_performance/index.html) 






If you plan to overclock the I would go for the P45 as they've been known to get crazy FSBs.


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