Little help, board for 6600

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reapers_dirge

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Jan 25, 2006
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ah, the [H]ard forums, always there when i need someone to turn to. :)
anyway i am out to get a 6600, i am not to sure about intel boards and need a little help. i think i need a X38 just to keep it ddr2 i dont know a lot a bout this standard, will it support sli? budget is not really an issue, just want as much sata ports, esata ports and usb ports as pos, that will o/c a 6600. ok thanks all and fire away!
 
Which 6600 are you talking about? The Q6600 or the E6600?

Also, if you have don't need SLI, don't bother with an SLI motherboard. Nvidia motherboard chipsets for Intel CPUs aren't as as stable or cooler running as Intel motherboard chipsets. Nvidia chipsets however are the only ones that officially support SLI. So if you go with an Intel chipset, like the X38 or P35, you cannot use SLI but can use Crossfire, ATI's version of SLI.

So I highly recommend sticking with an Intel motherboard chipset. If you want Crossfire, go with a X38 chipset mobo. If not, go with a P35 motherboard. Here are some recommendations for P35 motherboards:
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L Intel P35 Motherboard - $90
MSI P35 Neo2-FR Intel P35 Motherboard - $110
DFI BloodIron P35-T2RL Intel P35 Motherboard - $110
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R Intel P35 Motherboard - $120
DFI LanParty DK P35-T2RS Intel P35 Motherboard - $130
Asus P5K-E Intel P35 Motherboard - $140
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P Intel P35 Motherboard - $150
Asus P5K-E/Wifi-AP Intel P35 Motherboard - $150
Abit IP35 Pro Intel P35 Motherboard - $170
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 Intel P35 Motherboard - $170
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 Intel X38 Motherboard - $207

Just to help you out: If you don't need RAID, more than 4 SATA ports and only need semi-decent overclocking, check out the DS3L. If you need 5 SATA ports, 2 eSATA ports, slightly better overclocking, and a second PCI-E x16 port, then get the Neo2-Fr. If you want heavy overclocking options and six SATA ports, check out the Blood Iron. If you like the BloodIron but want significantly better overclock stability and options, go for the LanParty. If you want 8 SATA ports, RAID, legacy ports and high overclocks and optional eSATA, than the DS3R is a good choice. If you want the DS3R but need Firewire and a second PCI-E x16 port, then go for the DS3P. If you like the DS3P but need 3 PCI slots instead of the DS3P's 2 PCI slots and like having non-optional eSATA, go for the Asus P5K-E. If you like the P5K-E but need wifi, then go for the P5K-E/Wifi-AP. If you want something that can overclock pretty damn high along with RAID, eSATA ports and firewire connections, than the IP35 Pro. If you like the DS3P but want better cooling for overclocking, then go for the DS4. Do note that the Asus website can be slow sometimes.
 
Thank you for the quick synopsis.

Which board is the best for overclocking? The last two Gigabyte boards on the list were considerations for me, though I was not certain what advantage the 38 had over the 35 (save for the 2 16x pci-e slots and the fewer sata ports).
 
No real advantage going with X38 over P35 besides PCI-E 2.0 support and CrossfireX. All PCI-E 2.0 video cards are backwards compatible with PCI-E 1.1 (which the P35 has) and by the time PCI-E 2.0 cards fully saturate the PCI-E 1.1 and 2.0, it'll be time for a new mobo anyway.

For overclocking, go with either the DFI Lanparty, Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R, or Abit IP35 Pro. All three of those motherboards are good overclockers. Really hard for me to say which one is the best for overclocking.

But again, which 6600 are you talking about? Q or E?
 
oops bit of an ommission on my part, looking at the the q6600, may go higher if i can find a reason to buy it, but looking to settle with a quad
 
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