Anybody running on Bearlake yet?

[Fivestar Crashtest]

I seem to remember someone saying they ordered an Asus P35 board but I can't find that post now.  I went with Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R because Asus got rid of one of the PS2 ports and that wouldn't fit into my KVM set up.  My board ran one day and then stopped posting.  Switching out the RAM didn't work, pulling the CMOS battery didn't work, so I RMA'd it and am anxiously awaiting replacement.   

I bought a SATA DVD drive and used the Gigabyte SATA ports and got Ubuntu 7.04 installed on the first try.  I was pretty impressed with the performance until it quit.

[Gecko_R7]

I just got a P5K Deluxe and made the earlier post, but removed it because it came across like an ad.
Just got my memory sticks yesterday (2x512 mushkin xp2-6400 kit) and have a few more parts to procure before I build it.
BTW, newegg has promo for the 2x512 kit for 107.00 less 50.00 MIB ($57.00) for purchase through today.

[Simon]

Hi folks,

while it may not be an Asus board, this one looks pretty promising as far as Bear Lake boards go:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40381 DFI LanParty P35-T2R

I mean, 2.5 GHz FSB? Whoa...digital PWM power converter circuits really seem to be the way to go in the future. No way you're gonna get close to that with analog ones.

When you look at the picture, note the area above (as the board lies) the CPU socket. Notice the lack of tons of large condensators, and the general flat and heatsink-less area? Ever put a thermometer on your analog PWM?

Not sure what price that DFI board is going to be, but it may be worth it coupled with a 6420 or a new Q6600 vs. another board with a higher-specced chip.

Regards,
Simon.

[Gecko_R7]

Hi folks,

while it may not be an Asus board, this one looks pretty promising as far as Bear Lake boards go:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40381 DFI LanParty P35-T2R

I mean, 2.5 GHz FSB? Whoa...digital PWM power converter circuits really seem to be the way to go in the future. No way you're gonna get close to that with analog ones.

When you look at the picture, note the area above (as the board lies) the CPU socket. Notice the lack of tons of large condensators, and the general flat and heatsink-less area? Ever put a thermometer on your analog PWM?

Not sure what price that DFI board is going to be, but it may be worth it coupled with a 6420 or a new Q6600 vs. another board with a higher-specced chip.

Regards,
Simon.

Drooollllll........
By the time Penryn arrives, there should be a few bios updates and wider/lower latency DDR3 available.
This board should be huge grins and giggles!

[Vyper]

I happen to be a happy owner of a P5K Deluxe too, but unfortunately my Kingston HyperX modules that i ordered with them broke and got a constant biterror in any speed .. Otherwise i was really happy with DDR1200 speeds  ..

//Vyper

[Simon]

BTW,

I recently stumbled across the Noctua NH-U12F CPU HSF (and some reviews). Would make a nice combination with the above board and CPU for a low-cost, high-OC rig. TT Big Typhoon is good, this is quite a bit better.

Apart from the fact that it's made in Austria (where I'm from), it's consistently outperformed other air-cooling solutions. In fact, it can cool a mid-range Core 2 chip without a fan and still be cooler than the stock heatsink/fan that comes with the CPU.

That said, it has a 16 dbA fan (next to inaudible), which obviously can be replaced by something more potent.

So anyway, check it out for your next air-OC'd rigs

Regards,
Simon.

[msattler]

I just switched my quaddy from a Commando to the P5K-Deluxe WIFI.  Can't say I gained much, my max OC seems to be limited by my CPU.
The P35 chipset can suffer from the same RAM related no-boot lockup problems that the 965/975s do.
I will admit that the P35 is capable of higher FSB settings, depending on your CPU and RAM.  I was able to get my quaddy to run at 470 x 8, but it would not stay stable.  The P5W, P5B, and Commando would never even try to boot at that FSB speed.
Right now I am running 420 x 9, the Commando had trouble with that, and I had to settle for 378 x 10.  We'll see if I can keep it stable at 420 x 9, the new chipset and new batch of bios setting has had me screwing up a few days worth of crunching.

[Azzitude]

Ijust got the Abit AB9 QuadGT and I'm very impressed with it for the C2D .... as it happened I thought I fried my aw9d Max so I ordered this board and found that my corsiar ram bit the dust ... anyway I moved my C2D 6600 to it and it flies ...OC'ing is a breeze and I have not even updated the bios yet ... thinking about a Q6600 for this as it was designed for the Quads.