choosing between P5Q Pro and EP45-UD3P

B

Bakku

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 3, 2004
Messages
317
okay, i started looking for a good LGA775 board couple weeks ago. now it has came down to 2 boards i need to choose from. which one do you guys think is better? these 2 boards are actually selling for the same price at where i am located, so i just want to get some good recommendation from you guys to pick up the better one.

i'll be pairing the mobo with:
- Q6600
- 2x2GB DDR2 (should i go 800 or 1066?)
- HD4850
- will OC
 
I was in same boat. They are both good boards though I eventually went with Asus P5Q-E. One good advantage to UD3P now is that there are many good threads about them documenting and discussing every nook and cranny of the board. I didn't like placement of sata connectors on the pro so I would get the UD3P if I had to chose between those 2 boards you list. I like DDR2 800 since the other is just DDR2 800 overclocked - and for not much difference.
 
Down to personal preference, really. The boards are about equal quality. The ASUS has more features and a better BIOS (IMO), but the Gigabyte has slightly better chipset cooling and possibly some more overclocking headroom, although in practice the difference would probably be negligible.
 
Ya, I'm going to be ordering the P5Q pro so it's good to know it has good BIOS. Possibly might OC on mine. Also, boards never seems to be a huge influence on your performance but is good to have compatibility to newer hardware or am I wrong?
 
gamerx11 said:
Also, boards never seems to be a huge influence on your performance but is good to have compatibility to newer hardware or am I wrong?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that. Obviously no LGA775 boards will be compatible with the new i7 CPUs, and most don't support DDR3. Those boards won't be compatible with the new hardware, although they'll support whatever they're designed to support.
 
I have a thread going right now that has the same choice. I finally picked the Gigabyte board and it's been perfect so far. An easy rebuild with no hiccups. I had my Q6600 on an MSI P6N and it wouldn't clock at all. I replaced it with the UD3P and it's been running solid at 3Ghz since I booted it, with no voltage increases. I have not pushed it higher yet but I will be soon. I run Corsair XMS Dominators at 1066 with no problems. I had to manually set the timings to their best settings in the bios, but I haven't seen a board yet that sets them perfectly right off the bat. The cooling is very nice and it has more room around the cpu socket than my P6N too. This board is actually pretty loaded with features for a $100ish board. Dual LAN, tons of USB ports, esata bracket...etc. It's definately worth a look, and I've had good luck with Gigabyte boards so far. But opinions will vary... good luck!
 
They are both similar. I went with the P5Q, but if I bought again, I wouldn't have a problem with the Gigabyte board instead. Features are similar. Only thing I wish the P5Q had is eSATA port on the back, but I just used a PCI bracket on a SATA header.
 
though the Asus 939 board i am using now is reliable and running smoothly, i'd like to try the Gigabyte board this time round. since i've heard many good things about the EP45-UD3P, i'll go for it with confidence :)
 
Well, the P5Q-E is $45 more than the Pro was when I bought it. For $50, I'll just use the bracket :).
 
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