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Workstation options?

B

Blue Fox

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
11,813
Due to buying a new RAID card (Areca 1130ML), I'm having to replace my current motherboard with something a little more expensive. My current motherboard, while good enough for now, lacks PCI-X, so I need to find a motherboard that does (along with PCI-E and Core 2 Duo support). I've found a few options and I can't decide on which one I should buy. Options are as follows:

ASUS P5M2:
Only real problem I have with this board is that it lacks any real expansion capabilities. I can't use the second PCI-X slot for anything but another PCI-X card or else the whole bus will end up slowing down to PCI speed (not something I want). It also only appears to have two USB ports with no motherboard headers.

TYAN S5197G2NR:
More expansion possibilities with this board (as it has a PCI-E 4x slot, but I see myself getting seldom use out of that). It needs a EPS12V power supply, so I would have to upgrade my current one as it only supports ATX. Otherwise the board seems fine.

ASUS P5NT:
I like this one as it has a plethora of features present. Plenty of expansion possibilities, but only one PCI slot (though I doubt that will be a problem with all the PCI-E slots it has). Only problem that I can think of is whether or not the heatpipes will work upside-down as I plan on putting it in a Lian Li V2100 (I plan on using all those 3.5" bays with the RAID controller).

ASUS P5WDG2:
This board like the previous Asus one offers lots of features/expansion capabilities, but the heatpipe problem arises yet again (see the third review from the top on this page). Another issue is that according to the manual and product reviews is that it doesn't support RAM with 128Mb memory chips or "double sided x16 memory modules" (I doubt my RAM has 128Mb chips, but I'm not certain about the second point).

Anyone have any particular thoughts as to which one of these I should choose (or another board not listed) and the reasons as to why?
 
I am also interested in workstation boards, but am new to building and so can't offer advice through experience. I am looking closely at the P5NT, and hoping to see some other options released soon in a full-featured workstation board that supports SLI. The tried and true Asus P5W64 WS Pro is also a solid choice. Some of the new Gigabyte boards look promising too.
 
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