Motherboard for either an E8400 or E8500.

Joined
Dec 15, 2008
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5
Hello,

I am just looking at a new build. I have chosen to go with either an E8400 or E8500, I already have a 8800GTX and wondering what motherboard to go for with these 2. I am looking at spending not much more than £100 for it. If I can get a lot better board that doesn`t have the SLi option I might go for that over a low end SLi board if that makes sense. Any help would be great.

Cheers

Rob

P.S. Some reason the thread went in twice.... sorry
 
P5Q Pro gets my vote. Great board allowed me to easily OC my e8400 to 4.0GHz. The Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R is also supposed to be pretty good but I haven't tried it.

I don't like any of the boards with SLI support, they all have some issue or other. Stay away from an nvidia motherboard.
 
I'm using a P5Q Pro also. No problems here. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't OC to 4Ghz if your CPU can get that far.
 
+1 Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R, just got it with the E8500 and it is great and easy to OC.
 
Thanks folks, if I was to think about SLi what motherboard would you say is a safe bet, not overly bothered about OCing just yet?
 
I've got a P5Q Pro on the UPS truck now for another build I'm doing, in fact the very combo mentioned above, appears to be a very nice board.
 
Thanks folks, if I was to think about SLi what motherboard would you say is a safe bet, not overly bothered about OCing just yet?

EVGA 750i FTW will probably be the best bet if you want to keep your 8800gtx SLI'd. You can find one for around US$150-170. It's a good mobo for OC'ing as well. I have a 780i FTW, which is 750i FTW's beefier brother, and currently running GTX280 SLI'd on it with e8600 at 4.4ghz as everyday OC.
 
Typing this from my P5Q Pro w/E8400 right now, simple install and so far rock stable.
 
Okay, I've been at it all day reinstalling Windows and loading apps. I've only half-heartedly tried to OC yet, but 3.4ghz barely moves the temps so there is plenty of headroom. I've played several hours of games at 1920x1200 including Far Cry 2, LOTRO w/Moria, The Witcher, Fallout 3 and Tomb Raider Underworld with no issues. Things are very stable and 2 hours of Prime95 and several loops of 3DMark Vantage worked just dandy as well. I've still got OCing to do, but my off the cuff is this is a great board.

BIOS has more options than I know what to do with. Flashed to latest BIOS (16 something), turned on AHCI, ACPI 2.0, turned off IDE, Serial and Floppy, set RAM timings and that was it. Been doing small FSB bumps but I like to let everything settle in for a couple days before I do more.
 
I noticed your statement about "SLI"... would X-Fire fit the bill as well? If yes, P5Q Pro all the way.

I built my new box using a P5Q Pro... not one problem, currently running an E8400 OC to 3.6Ghz using only 1.10v. I had no clearance issues on the P5Q Pro, even considering I installed an HD4870 and ZeroTherm FZ120 cooler... everything just fits and works.
 
P5Q Pro/P5Q Deluxe/Gigabyte UD3P (if not interested in SLI)

750i FTW (for SLI down the line)

The 750i FTW is certainly not a low end board. I would go that route if you see yourself going SLI in the future, otherwise I'd go with the UD3P.
 
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