Motherboard recommendation

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janitor53

Weaksauce
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May 23, 2005
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blew up my badaxe2 motherboard during a power surge and need something new. It would need to be ddr2 compatible so I don't have to buy new memory but I'm fine with getting a new CPU because I'd love one of those e8400. Anyway, looking for a motherboard recommendation. It seems ASUS is struggling in the long-lasting department. I'm pretty much open to anything, these Gigabyte Ultra boards seem well built but would love to hear some suggesions.
thanks.
 
I go with a p35 borad like the gigabyte p35-DS3L or a blood iron. The blood iron has raid capability.
 
The DFI BloodIron (P35-TR2L) is a nice board but it's overpriced and it uses fewer PWM phases and weaker cooling than the LanParty P35 Dark (P35-TR2S) which may mean a lower OC. I strongly recommend the P35-TR2S, as it's a great OCer with every BIOS option you care to think of (and just as many you have never seen before with any other board, likely) with a lot of other nice features as well.

Gigabyte, the P35-DS3L/DS3R/DS4/DQ6, depending on your needs with regard to SATA ports, RAID, firewire, cooling, etc. Check the different features and if you get one, buy what you want/need. They all OC about the same, but don't have as fully featured a BIOS as the DFI boards.

Abit is kind of... blah. They seem to be having trouble with producing a properly working BIOS for the 45nm chips.

Going in to less often visited territory, the Foxconn MARS (P35) board is a beast, pure and simple. Also, the MSI P35 Neo-2FR is a steal at ~$100 AR -- basically a P35 Diamond with some less often used features removed (it even has the P35 Diamond silkscreen under the P35 Neo2-FR sticker ;)).

ASUS is the devil.
 
I recommend the ASUS P5N-D w/ a q6600. Whole package for less than $400 on newegg. This thing screams and you'll get pci-e 2.0 so that you can get all the new video cards.

I'm a bit partial though...
 
silent-circuit said:
Abit is kind of... blah. They seem to be having trouble with producing a properly working BIOS for the 45nm chips.
Click to expand...
The abit P35 boards are very good & very good vfm.
Everybody (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI etc.) is having BIOS problems with 45nm chips because some of them appear to have sensor problems.
The boards run them fine but some of the CPUs return wacky temp & voltage readings - if you can remove & replace 1 45nm CPU with another nominally the same & the reported values are totally different (i.e. normal) do you blame the board, the BIOS or the CPU ;)?
 
I've run my own company (Digital Frontiers Ltd.) for a decade and a half, built many hundreds of PCs from scratch in that time. I'd suggest that you pick up one of Intel's boards as I have only ever seen one come back dead - ever. That, and they offer frequent, quick and easy to install BIOS updates - more so than perhaps any other Mfgr I've seen,

Andrew D.
www.cdnav.com
 
janitor53 said:
Thanks for the tips everyone. So no recommendations for the x38/48 boards?
Click to expand...

LGA775 is dead in a year. PCIe 2.0 isn't necessary yet and likely won't be for a while. DDR3 is useless in its current form, and insanely expensive to boot. Unless you want CrossfireX support there is zero reason to consider the X series boards. Period.
 
I've considered getting a new CPU since I need a new motherboard anyway....can the new e8400 run in a p35 board?
 
Yes, P35s will run the 45nm CPUs no problem, though you'll need to update the BIOS on many boards (with another compatible CPU) before they will work.
 
I have a new build with a DS3L(rev 2.0) and a E8400. No BIOS flash out of the box.
Go with a quality power supply and new memory DDR 800, this may limit your potential for problems. I went this route with no problems at all. the E8400 is a great CPU...if you can find one..
 
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