Best Motherboard for long term Quad Core overclocking

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Ghostwind

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Dec 15, 2006
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Hello,

I am new to these forums.
I am getting back into building my own custom PCs after losing my mind for a few years and going with vendor computers :/


Now that I am learning Photoshop and Maya and do play a few MMOs so my goal is to eventually have a Quad Core system.

I am still undecided whether to spend the 1000+ now for Kentsfield QX6700
or go with a E6600/E6400 for my initial build and then upgrade to Quad Core in few months.

Either way, I want the motherboard best suited for Quad Core overclock performance.
So far my short includes:


Asus P5W DH
Asus P5B DLX
eVGA 680i SLI
Intel D975XBX2
Gigabyte P965 chipset series (added)

I am awaiting more results on the
Asus Commando
DFI 680i
Abit 9QuadGt

I am currently reading through some of the test threads but would like to hear any other opinions on this topic in particular.

Thank you for your help.

I am glad I found these forums.
 
I had an MSI 975X Platinum for about a week and I returned it for the ASUS P5W.

Long story short, the MSI board is plagued with issues, and a long list of beta Bioses are the only savior. Without getting into an in-depth review of the board I cannot recommend it at all.

My other two choices after returning it were the ASUS P5W and the Intel BadAxe 2, honestly, I really wanted the BadAxe 2, but due to the overwhelming popularity of the Asus, along with the huge number of extremely positive reviews I have seen for it; coupled with the lack of reviews for the BadAxe 2, I went with the Asus.

I have to say, the Asus has been an absolute pleasure to use, everything just works, as advertized.

I highly recommend it.

Edit: One thing to consider is your graphics options, I went with ATI so the 975X chipset was the obvious choice, but if you ever plan to go SLi, or if you are going to go nVidia in general it might be worthwhile to weigh your 680i options, which I have no room to comment on.
 
if you are not going to consider 680 boards, go for one of the asus p5w series. the ws quad and dh deluxe are great boards. but i swapped my p5w-dh out for the evga and have never looked back. dfi claims (they do this every month) their rs600, 680i and 965 lanparty boards will be out this month. you may want to give it a couple weeks before deciding.
 
@ werkrew, thanx for the tip, i will avoid the MSI, after reading some less than stellar reviews and now hearing your personal experience, I will stay away from that now.
Since the first component I have purchased is an eVGA 8800 GTX, my first preference in chipset is the SLI ready 680i.

@vanilla_guerilla,
I am waiting for the DFI boards come out before finally deciding.
Originally I wanted a 680i for sure but reading here and other forum on the troubles with them, I am waiting to see how things sort out before making final choice.
It is good to hear that you have not had problems on your eVGA board, that was near top of my list...
 
The BadAxe2 now out clocks the P5W DH when it comes to overclocking. It has one major drawback though IMO. Each time you overclock and it fails you have go and reset the switches on the mobo. The P5W DH doesnt require this. When it fails an overclock it'll boot back to the default stock settings.

Supposedly however you can save a known good overclock setting on the BadAxe2. Say, 333fsb for example and it will fall back to that saved setting. At least thats what I have heard. Might want to check to make sure on that. Read about it over on XtremeSystems. They have a good BadAxe2 thread there that talks about everything the mobo can do and any known problems.

As far as the quadcore goes I dont know which of the two mobos it runs better on. I'm guessing there is no difference but again I'd double check that.I know both mobos support quadcore.
 
whats wrong with the P5B-DLX board? alot of people are using this board for their QX6700 setups, and are hitting crazy high OC's with it.
 
At this point, there is no way to know what will handle the lower end quad core CPU's best. They aren't readily available enough for the masses and the plethora of mobos out there already.

The way I'm operating is that if the board clocks well with the C2D's, it will clock well enough with the C2Q's.
 
we all pretty much know that the 975x-g's and 965p's can handle the job . and that the rd'-600s are around the corner .

the asus p5n-e-sli so far looks pretty good . over at XS they are overclocking them to as high as 503x7 and 470x8 which ain't bad for the first attempts with a brand new MB with a brand new chipset and a # 1.0 bios -- it has a few issues like loopy v-droop (common on asus) some odd ram settings and other new-mb/chipset quirks . but it looks like the 412 fsb --issue wasn't an issue at all --the mb has the same fsb as the 680i strikers .

i can't personally vouch for the MB as i don't have one yet--but for $129 it should be worth a shot though . :cool: we all know the 965p's from gigabyte and asus can do the job --but this p5n-e-sli might do the job too and give a good oc with sli-- so at least consider it . :cool:
 
I'd like to find more information on OC'ing with the D975XBX2KR.

I haven't been able to find any solid reviews or tests based on post-production hardware, specifically using BIOS version 2330 (Nov 16, 2006) which includes "expanded overclocking functionality."
 
You wont find much info as far as professional reviews go. Most reviewers are still stuck on the 965 and 570 mobos and the BadAxe2 has gotten lost/forgotten in all the 680i hoopla(its basically a improved 2nd revision of the BadAxe original). In any event the enthusiasts are giving the best info regarding this mobos. You can find their thread over at XtremeSystems.Alot of good info there including latest BIOS updates and how its working out.
 
I wouldn't have found those threads on my own... Some good xbx2 threads over there. Thanks, Skott!
 
whats wrong with the P5B-DLX board? alot of people are using this board for their QX6700 setups, and are hitting crazy high OC's with it.
Click to expand...
3.8Ghz on my P5B-Deluxe board :D
 
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