Help deciding on cpu/mobo before I buy...

[OnePanda]

Hey guys, I'm going to order my new setup either tomorrow or friday, but I'm hung up on what cpu/combo to get. Here's what I've narrowed it down to....

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&SubCategory=22

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...SubCategory=343

For the mobo...I'd like to have support for SATAII for the 2x hitachi drives..SLI is not necessary because I plan on upgrading a few months down the road...but I have some questios concerning the raid on these boards.......

The UT nF4 SLI-DR and nF4 SLI-DR have " NV RAID 0/1/0+1 JBOD", whereas the Ultra-D only has "raid 0/1" ..what's the difference in the two? Also, the firs two mobos (ut/nf4 sli-dr) have an additional sata raid and additional raid controller "sli 3114", but the Ultra-D doesn't...will any of this effect the performance of the hitachi sataII hdds in raid 0?

For the cpu...I'm new to overclocking, but I'm willing to take the time to learn/test so I'd like to get it to 2.4ghz or if higher is possible (stable) on stock heatsink/fan or si-120/120mm fan...

Since I'll be upgrading later on I wanted to keep this as close to $1000 as possible or maybe a little over...the rest of the computer is listed in my sig (price for those items is $627) so for the remaining money I'd like to get the best cpu/mobo combo possible...I'm open to other suggestions on the rest of the comp parts too, but I'll primarily use this as a gaming computer (quake4)

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[mailpup]

The links are broken, at least for me. What are they again?

 

[pkroks]

yea they don't work for me either

 

[OnePanda]

haha...oops sorry about the links :dead: ...here you go..

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16813136152,N82E16813136157&SubCategory=22

Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16819103539,N82E16819103533&SubCategory=343

 

[vnf4ultra]

To stay in budget(about $270), you'd have to get a 3000+ and the ultra d.
The 3200+ is also a good deal at only $10 more. Both the 3000+ and 3200+ are supposedly good oc'ers if you get a good revision.
The ultra d doesn't support as many hd's or as many configs but it should handle two drives in raid 0 fine. The other boards can do 0+1 and 5, which require 3-4 drives, so if you won't have that many drives, there's no use buying the option.

 

[OnePanda]

Which revisions of the 3000/3200+ are considered to be good for OCing? and how can I make sure I'm getting one of the better ones. I'm leaning towards the 3200+ since its only $10 more, but they only have 1 kind at newegg...is the one they have in stock a good revision? how can I tell?

**Edit**
The ultra-D can be modded to support sli

 

[vnf4ultra]

You want a venice core revision, but there are several "steppings" and manfacturing dates that can affect the attainable speed. You really can't find out steppings/mfg dates before you buy a cpu, so it's kind of luck to get a good one, but it seems it should do at least 2400mhz. That's what my cpu does, 2400, but mine is the older "winchester" core.

Check this out under "venice".
Both on the 3000+ and 3200+ the lowest oc was about 2400mhz.