Motherboards- What is best?

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 27th, 2007, 11:51

OK, I shall be upgrading my CPU, Motherboard and RAM reasonably soon, but I was browsing in the B grade section of overclockers.co.uk and I found a goldmine of cheap, high quality ASUS motherboards at ridiculously low prices.

Before all of them get eaten up, I want to buy one soon, but I am not going to buy the CPU and RAM for it quite yet. I shall be buying around 2GB of GEiL DDR2 and a Core2Duo E6420.

The shortlist:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=689
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=689
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=689
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=689

Plus a bunch of others, If I've missed anything worthwhile out.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productli ... &subid=689

With the theoretical system, I won't overclock, and I have an Enermax 535W PSU (34A on the 12v rail), I also own a 8800GTS (C*NT{no autocorrect, thanks} ) and my current system is using XP pro x64.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » May 27th, 2007, 13:25

I'd take the P5B probably.

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 27th, 2007, 14:03

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:I'd take the P5B probably.

I'm temped with the P5B Deluxe, but pretty much all the advantages are useless to me, I'd buy it if it had a LCD display on the back panel.

Vanilla P5B it is, Unless somebody protests..

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » May 27th, 2007, 14:51

go for the deluxe then, it's probably worth the extra.

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 27th, 2007, 15:12

Yeah, I will then, I'm genuinely surprised (and pleased) that ASUS have x64 drivers for all the P5B stuff. I think the Deluxe has much more re-sale value (but its more likely to end up in a server than that).

The stuff I'm replacing will most likely go into a server which I'll happily use for 5punk gaming stuff, so with an A64 4000+ and a gig of ram, I'll happily use it as a 5punk only server for whatever the people need, within reason (where reason is my capacity to not drop it down the stairs).

Chickenz · Post by **Chickenz** » May 27th, 2007, 15:24

I have the standard P5B and it's fucking epic win!!

Great clocker and the features and driver support for it are fantastic. THe overclocking facility has helped me get my cpu up to a frightening 3.7GHZ (thats a 1.3GHz overclock).

And it's cheap so you could use the saved cash to get an E6600

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » May 27th, 2007, 16:42

Get the deluxe.

I'm just building a new pc around my recently purchased our second A8N32 - SLI deluxe, after being impressed by my brother's.

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 27th, 2007, 17:17

But its either Deluxe and E6420 or vanilla and E6600.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » May 27th, 2007, 17:20

Deluxe from ocock. and the e6600 from scan

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 27th, 2007, 17:23

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Deluxe from ocock. and the e6600 from scan

Thanks Berk

Post by **FatherJack** » May 27th, 2007, 21:49

I'd have picked the P5N to get the nForce RAID controller, faster FSB, better cooling than a basic P5B and cheaper than the P5B deluxe, plus you may want to do SLi someday. Pretty much ties you in to nVidia graphics, though.

http://www.hothardware.com/articles/Asu ... 50i%5FSLI/

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 27th, 2007, 21:53

SLi mode on that board is 8x8, which won't work with 8800 cupcake cards

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » May 27th, 2007, 21:55

downside is that 6X0i chipsets run hot and that (ISTR) the intel 965/975 memory controllers are a little faster than the nvidia one.

Depends on your use and the price.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » May 27th, 2007, 21:55

MrGreen wrote:SLi mode on that board is 8x8, which won't work with 8800 berk cards

that too

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 28th, 2007, 14:21

Unfortunately, a load of the above have been taken off the shelves, vanilla P5B it is then.

EDIT* Ordered, Hurrah!

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 30th, 2007, 11:33

Bastards! The bloody thing came in a brown box sans accessories, just by its self! I guess they really meant B Grade

Still worth the money though.

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » May 30th, 2007, 11:43

MrGreen wrote:Bastards! The bloody thing came in a brown box sans accessories, just by its self! I guess they really meant B Grade

Still worth the money though.

Didn't you even get an I/O panel?

MrGreen · Post by **MrGreen** » May 30th, 2007, 11:48

Nope, I did get all the RMA numbers and serials, I think this is the kind of box they hand out to mass manufactures, a sort of uber OEM.

Killavodka · Post by **Killavodka** » June 1st, 2007, 11:56

I have just purchased a <a href="http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125281">MSI P6N SLI-FI</a> and apart from a few teething problems related to my own incompetence I would recommend it to anybody else looking for a nice mobo

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » June 1st, 2007, 12:14

Killavodka wrote:I have just purchased a <a href="http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125281">MSI P6N SLI-FI</a> and apart from a few teething problems related to my own incompetence I would recommend it to anybody else looking for a nice mobo

MSI?

After the experience of my current one, and the one I've destroyed, I've vowed not to use them again.