workstation board, -intel only solution?

[baijxz]

I need a mobo for a workstation running 3dsmax and adobe cs2.
It needs to be stable, as I just cant stand losing work, or being interrupted by instability.

I've had my eye on the intel boards, as my experience with them has been very good in older days, say BX chipset

In this forum the asus boards are quite revered, but recently I've had so much trouble with asus boards I don't really see them as a valid option.
Granted those were nvidia chipset based but anyhow.

I'd really like to have a decent performer, and maybe a slight oc, as you guys said time and time again that the c2d oc so easily that one would be crazy not to do it.

Moreover how are the oc options on the badaxe? and the thing about no support for 800mhz ram, I can't make heads or tail of it.

Bottom line is if the badaxe is the way to go or should I risk my skin with the taiwanese boards like asus or gigabyte?

I need a board with passive cooling, maximum stability and as few extra features as possible, - less to go wrong.

 

[JSF35rhino]

maybe a $99 foxconn 965p would fit the bill ?

i've built a number of intel 975xbx 's rev-304's--there good MB's and they overclock from 30% and up pretty good. bad news is that you have to "mod" the MB to get much higher--although it's a very simple 'conductive ink/pencil " type mod .

if you just need a good MB and fewer internal intergrated junk is better ----

i would say get the foxconn 965p or a biostar t-force 965pt or a gigabyte s-3 . they can overclock a bunch if needed or just a little .

even some 945p chips can overclock to 350-380 fsb --but there only a little less than the 965's so i don't see the point of saving $20 or less to get a 945 over a 965.

if you wern't overclocking at all i would add a intel 965p mb as well .

the bad ax-975 xbx is a very good MB and fits the bill well--but there are other mb's that could do the job ad well for much less--$$$ to me a $99 MB that can do the job is a better deal than a $250+ mb that has alot of gold plated stuff that you either hardly ever need or never need--lol

as far as the 975's being less troublesom than the 965's--well i can't say thats the case in my experience. my DFI 975x had some problems with the PSU's and ram of some brands. but the intel 975 didn't seem to have these problems . the 965's need good ram to overclock high in some cases you may need a stick of 1.8v to boot so you can change the v-dimm and other ram settings . aside from the gigabyte s-3 being a little picky about ram--it's been rock stable so far . and overclocks to the moon. i think what is going on is the MB makers are spending alot more time working on their bios for their 965p mb's and are not polishing their 975's bios like they should and arn't fixing the north bridge straps .

i think the 965p is the more developed mb/chipset if you get a brand of MB that has worked out the bios properly. unless you need 2 or more 16x-pci-e's -

 

[baijxz]

hey and thanks for the reply

an inkpen mod is manageable I should think

foxconn with c2d support isn't available in these parts afaik, would be interesting to know if they apply the same set of qualitystandards as intel.
But that aside I've learned not to go cheap with the mobo, so I don't think I'll be investing in something for this segment of the market.

Your thoughts on bios development sounds intriguing, though I have a hard time believing that adding features on end equals better stability.
Which in your opinion would be the mobo with the best bios currently?

I have roughly 1700$ to spend on mobo, 2gigs of ram, a hefty gfxcard, enclosure, hd and dvdwriter. So I should be able to cope with the rather steep price for the intel board.

so far my list looks like this
E6400
PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHz CAS 4-4-4-12 2gig kit
XFX GeForce 7950 GT ExTreme Edition
Samsung SH-S183A DVDR
Samsung SpinPoint P120 SP2504C 250 GB
Antec Sonata II
(I plan on using my old adaptec scsi card and a maxtor atlas 10k as system disk.)

 

[JSF35rhino]

i have a open box asrock 775 dual vista i got from the egg for $26.99 shipped . it's overclocked on old ddr 400 with a core 2 6400 to 305 fsb. it's been very stable and hasn't had any booting problems . as long as you don't go overboard and think it's an overclocking MB and push it beyond it's limits --it works fine . i wouldn't consider it in the same boat as the giga s-3's 965p's--but it is right up with it clock for clock. i origionally bought it to just boot test cpu's and ram --but it's made a fast stable system even though it on an somewhat antique chipset .

a much higher price is not allways an indication of quality --it is often more of a cushy profit than anything else.


my favorite as far as price , speed and durability is the gigabyte DS-3 . it has solid caps and overclocks near the top of the 965 's and is priced right @ $145 and it supports quads if you intend to go there later .

the intel xbx mb won't need a mod under a 30% oc normally.

as with any intel build--make sure you have some quality ddr 2-800