Wanting an Intel board. Looking for advice

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Wazoot

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Mar 30, 2009
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Looking to replace my 680i LT for an Intel board. My current board is fine, just wanting to replace it for a better overclocker. Currently have a q6600 g0, HD4870, 4GB DDR2. Possible upgrade to newer quad and crossfire. Any suggestions appreciated.
 
P45 board is what I'd get for OCing...X48 is you're looking for best crossfire performance.
 
Just noticed those X48 boards are priced well above the P45's. I can't see that much difference to justify the cost. Yes I know the more expensive ones support DDR3. Probably stick with the P45 range if that's the case.
 
Just pick up a Gigagyte UD3P, you'll be very happy that you did. You will never notice the difference between your pci-e at 8x/8x and 16x/16x except for possibly benching.
 
kirbyrj said:
P5Q Pro is just as good...slightly different features.
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Not even close. Some of those have a hard time at a 475 fsb and forget about ocing with 8gb of ram. I' having a bsatard of a time doing it with my deluxe and I'm having better results than most sadly. Just go with a UP3P it's the best P45 out, atm.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
Just pick up a Gigagyte UD3P, you'll be very happy that you did. You will never notice the difference between your pci-e at 8x/8x and 16x/16x except for possibly benching.
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^ +1

The UD3P overclocks great and gives you the crossfire option for around $120. Great value in that board, have mine running an e8500 at 4.1ghz with 8gb RAM right now.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
Not even close. Some of those have a hard time at a 475 fsb and forget about ocing with 8gb of ram. I' having a bsatard of a time doing it with my deluxe and I'm having better results than most sadly. Just go with a UP3P it's the best P45 out, atm.
Click to expand...

With a Q6600, 475fsb is useless. I'm having issues with my P5Q over 450 or so (drops SATA drives). For a Q6600, the P5Q is definitely just as good a board. At that point it comes down to features and price. Gigabyte has slightly better features. P5Q has slightly better price.
 
kirbyrj said:
With a Q6600, 475fsb is useless. I'm having issues with my P5Q over 450 or so (drops SATA drives). For a Q6600, the P5Q is definitely just as good a board. At that point it comes down to features and price. Gigabyte has slightly better features. P5Q has slightly better price.
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Thats the whole problem these boards (P5Qs) are buggy. I've heard of the Deluxe doing the same thing with the SATA drives with 45nm quads too or boards that don't keep bios settings after a reboot. On my board with 8gb with mu FSB at 450x9 I get random freeze ups with no other instability, luckily I may have just found a bios (modded) that seems to have cleared that up so far.

The P5Q pro and UD3P are not even in the same league. I've heard people rave about the UD3P after steping up from a Deluxe, nevermind the Pro. The P5Qs are buggy (period) and there is no argueing that. Look at any thread about the P5Q. There is no good reason to buy a P5Q Dro over a UD3P, the cost difference is very small. How can you honestly reccomend someone a board when yours is dropping SATA drives at over a 450fsb?

You might want to give one of Ket's modded bioses a shot. I'm running one on my Deluxe and it helped me quite a bit with a quad.
 
I can recommend it because you're never going to run 450FSB with a Q6600 :p. When I ran a 65nm quad in my old P5Q Pro, I never had a problem with it. The one I have now is an open box one from Newegg, so I'm not sure if it's an issue with the 450fsb or with the open box nature of the board. I got it for $70, so that's $50 cheaper than a UD3P ;). I would take the Pro over the Deluxe anyway. I have heard far more reports about the Deluxe being buggy compared to the Pro. There is also a new version of the Pro out there (Pro Turbo or something like that).

I'm not denying that the the UD3P is a good board. I know it is. I'm just throwing out another option.

I might look into the modded bios. I'm not sure it'll make a difference, but it'll be something to play with ;).
 
I don't know I hear just as many people if not more complaining about the pro, throw in another 2x2gb kit of ram and you'll see what I mean. Don't get me wrong they are both good boards, it's just that a better P45 is on the market. He said that he will possibly upgrade to a newer quad and you can't go comparing an open box board to a brand new retail board. It all depends on the budget.

As for the modded bios I definetly found more stability and am able to run a higher fsb. But, if the bios your on is working for you stick with it. Hell if it aint broke don't fix it.
 
Yes, I probably won't drop in another 4GB as I'll probably upgrade to i7 before I decide I need more memory.

If it helps with the 450FSB I might give the modded bios a try. I have probably the worst situation going for me...45nm quad with a low, low multiplier on the Q9300 and I can still do 3.3Ghz or so with the P5Q. I wanted to go with the UD3P, but I couldn't justify spending the extra $50, especially since I had a good experience with my old P5Q Pro and Q6600.

I'm not technically sure it's the board's fault yet. I have a different DVD drive I want to test first. It just struck me as strange that the DVD drive would disappear and had heard about some issues with drives disappearing at high FSB.
 
Oh, 8gb of ram was probably a waste but it was just so cheap. It could help you out. I'm just not sure if it will do anything for the dropped drive though. Sucks it's not the first time that I've heard of that happening, too. I'm on a modded 2xxx series bios and it worked wonders for me. Might be worth a shot. I'll look around for results on the pro bios to be sure it wont brick your board. All of the Ket modded bioses prior to the 2xxx I'm sure are safe. Also if you need to flash back to an older bios I have and ES copy of AFUDOS that worked well for me.
 
I appreciate the recommendations as well as the discussions. Yes my setup now is a Q6600 but will be upgraded sometime in the near future. Seems the UD3P might suit me a little better if I am to upgrade my proc. I had already looked into that one. Didn't know what may be comparable to it. Any suggestions also what proc's work well with these boards?
 
They are both good boards and if you are on a budget you really can't go wrong for $70 for the P5Q pro. I think that I was too harsh. I agree with kirbyrj there. Personaly I would go for the UD3P, but $50 is a big price difference. I also don't see the point of upgrading from a Q6600 unless you get a good deal on a Q9550 since those Q6600s seem to sell for insane amounts of money on the forums. Most processors work well on either board.
 
My take on the P5Q Pro open boxes:

I think they are direct from Asus. Mine came in a brown box and seemed like it was packaged for resale. There were no accessories at all...just the board in an anti-static bag with foam to keep it from moving around. The RMA box had a barcode and a serial number.

Normally, open box motherboards from Newegg come in a white box or the original packaging.

For $70, that's a pretty decent motherboard. Asus rebates definitely take their time. I got my original P5Q Pro rebate about 3 months after the fact. I just received the one for a graphics card I bought in January last week. I haven't had a Gigabyte rebate in a long time.
 
I recommend this Gigabyte GA-Ep45C-DS3R
it gets my q6600 G0 to 3.8
SUPPORTS BOTH DDR2 and DDR3!!! :eek:
p45
Awesome BOARD
 
If you're going to upgrade from a Q6600 to another Q9XXX processor AND buy a new motherboard, I'd just go i7.
 
The Gigabyte EP45-UD3P has been my best purchase in recent memory and it cost less than half of most so called high performance boards. It oc's like it loves it and is not-even-funny stable. Its my first Gigabyte and it has left one hell of an impression.
It replaced a maximus formula and things are much better...100 fold better lol. That sob was way too hot. Like over 40c hotter than the P45 and it was not fun to oc at all:(
 
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