Top recommended motherboards?

[ingeborgdot]

I just got done building two computers using the C2D 6400. I used the Asus P5B-E and was not overly impressed. I hated the bios and its looks. It had a problem with any overclocking at all and some of it's own software messed it up. Anyone care to lead me to another board that you would recommend?

 

[Heidfirst]

at the same sort of price level the Gigabyte 965P-S3/ DS3 if you don't need firewire.
More 650i SLI mobos are starting to show up - current choices from Asus, MSI & abit's is due in stock in a week or so (at least in Europe).

At a higher budget abit AB9 QuadGT, asus P5B deLuxe, Gigabyte 965P-DS4/DS3P/DQ6

 

[Kampfire]

So far I'm very happy with my Biostar Tforce 965PT. Good OCer and decent features. Good price too.

 

[hardcandy2]

"The Biostar TForce 965PT offered excellent overclocking ability for the price and proved to us that there is hope for an "inexpensive" Intel chipset based motherboard that can provide excellent performance and overclocking capability in a single package for the money. The Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 is basically the DS3 sans the 100% use of Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors on the board. With the latest BIOS release we found this board to offer overclocking performance near the Biostar board for about $10 more."
The prize went to the Asus but they have some good takes on different boards in the article. Really, it boils down to which boat you would like to float in. At least Gigabyte is releasing updated bioses?, biosii?, bios's? frequently these days. And the 3.3 rev ups the ante a little bit.
Intel roundup

 

[ingeborgdot]

975XBX2KR 975X 775 ATX Motherboard
Anyone know about this board?

 

[moosey]

Originally posted by: ingeborgdot
975XBX2KR 975X 775 ATX Motherboard
Anyone know about this board?

That's the Intel Bad Axe 2. I have one. It's on the 975X chipset and not the P965. It won't overclock to as high an FSB as P965 boards generally, but it won't switch straps like most P965 boards do. It's very stable and it's also fast. Was the easiest setup I've done.

 

[DaddyRabbit]

Originally posted by: ingeborgdot
975XBX2KR 975X 775 ATX Motherboard
Anyone know about this board?

My only issues are:
- the 3rd PCI-e x16 slot (another PCI slot would've been nice)
- The jumper for BIOS recovery could've been better implemented (like a switch or something )

The things I like:

- Well crap, just about everything else...

I 100% agree with Moosey, it's rock solid stable and the easiest build I've ever done. While it doesn't have a digital PWM voltages seem rock solid (even under load).
While it doesn't have a fancy heat pipe NB/SB cooler the stability and temps seem fine (even under load)
While it doesn't have builtin Wi-Fi and the E-SATA requires purchasing another bracket it has a decent SW bundle and every cable you need for a normal build and there are some tools (e.g. IDCC, Intel Integrators Toolkit) that you can download from Intel for free that let you do what the "bundled" apps with the higher priced boards allow you to do in their bundle.
Oh, and did I mention it's rock solid stable?

My E6600 is running at a 350 FSB (3g) with only dropping the RAM setting to 667 vs. 800 and upping FSB. No voltage increase on anything and the only problem I had was CPU temps due to using the stock cooler with the stock "tape" (I'm not a dedicated overclocker). Bought a Thermaltake Big Typhoon and things are much better.

I would recommend this board all day, although I think an E6600 would be a better CPU vs. the 6300/6400 for overclocking as the BX2 doesn't get the insane FSB overclocks that 965/680i get and the lower multiplier can get in the way, but if the 6400 was the only thing in the budget I still would not hesitate to buy this board again (and I'm not really an Intel MB fan).

 

[ingeborgdot]

Where did you get your intel board? I found a great price at microcenter.com
What do you know about this place? Anyone care to let me know? Thanks.

 

[moosey]

Originally posted by: ingeborgdot
Where did you get your intel board? I found a great price at microcenter.com
What do you know about this place? Anyone care to let me know? Thanks.

Microcenter
I got mine from TigerDirect, I think MWave has some good prices as well.

 

[Beelziboss]

I heard Microcenter has been slow to deliver on their BX2's..i bought mine from the egg. It was $240, (higher than MicroCenter $179 i think) but it got here fast with no messing around.

I will start building tonight or in the morning assuming we dont get tornado's in OKC tonight.

 

[Tom33]

MWave.com

 

[Keitero]

I got my BX2 from MC and other than the long ship times, it is a solid board. I have my e6300 at 2.8GHz on a Tuniq Tower. Going to push it a bit more when I get some more fans to blow across the NB/RAM.

 

[DaddyRabbit]

Got mine @ Tiger, 199.99 and shipped very fast (almost as fast as the Egg).

 

[ingeborgdot]

I have narrowed it down to the gigabyte DQ6 or the Abit AW9D-Max. Any info that you know about either of these boards would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[moosey]

The DQ6 seems like a good board. With the Abit I think you only get 1 PCI slot so if you need more think about that. Also, I've seen some mixed review with the o/c and BIOS on the Abit.

edit: did you look at the Asus P5W-DH?

 

[ingeborgdot]

This is the setup that I think after much searching I will go with unless I change my mind again. It seems the p5b deluxe has been tried and tested for a long period. I believe I will go with the asus p5b deluxe with the 6600. Anyone that owns the asus could you please tell me what 800 memory works the best with this board. I don't want to spend more than 200 for 2gb if possible. I will be using 4gb of ram because I will be running vista ultimate and hopefully doing raid 1 if vista will permit it. Anyone care to take some of their precious time and help me out with the memory part. Thanks.

 

[AstroDogg]

@ingeborgdot

Seems you dont listen to anyone but yourself anyway. I'd suggest taking a day off and come back and make your decision then. I'd never buy an Intel board they dont want people that can't overclock running around saying thier boards are unstable. Hell you never used to be able to overclock an Intel board at all and they made sure you couldn't. Now they have to let them clock a little bit because people dont care about stability as much as power/performance and thier sales were way down. Makes no sense to me you started out this thread complaining about hating the Asus board, and now your going to buy the same brand and series board. Do you really think the Bios is going to be any more to your liking. Unless the real reason you didn't like the bios was not mentioned by you. Gigabyte does seem to be the company most wanting customer satifaction currently. That means bios updates and products that work. I'd buy the company that cares about you, or cares about you saying you care about them. "Even if it's a second rate product: Support and service can make it the best choice". Don't matter what bios a company puts in thier board if it's full of extra crap you never use or utilities that dont work. All the Flash, Hype and Advertisement that wouldn't fit into a '52 tractor trailer is worthless if the company dont care if the product works just enough not to get them sued.
Why do you care so much about a first rate motherboard if your going to put the cheapest memory in it you can find. Everyone knows the secret to over clocking is the best memory you can get ahold of. You would have higher speeds buying the cheapest overclocking board the smallest processor in the family and the fastest most over clockable memory you can then afford. I'm not saying go build your system like that just pointing out that it doesn't sound like your building a budget based system. If you have unlimited funds then give me 6k and I'll build you a system that will blow-away every gamer online. If you have a budget then manage it by building an equal system, not waste it all on one or two parts of it. If your drive, video, psu, airflow and memory are not able to take advantage. then how did spending so much on a proc and mobo become worth it. Buy whats in you budget and the performance level of the rest of the system. It's like taking a '78 Pinto rigging a 1200cfm Dominator and sidepipes to it, adding 3 subwoofers on a mustang 320watt 10band equalizer and saying I got a hotrod. I'd rather tell the people of this form I have a gamebox thats 3 years old and kick thier butt up and down the battlefield. Than say I spent way to much for this and this and not mention I was el'cheapo here here and here. You catchin' my drift yet? I'd up that $200 limit for 2Gb of DDR2 PC800 to atleast $558 for 4GB and at least that much on a video card $169 on a PSU and 2 37GB raptor ran in raid0 and 2 WD 320GB sata2 ran in raid1 for storage, for the system your making out. If you just got in over your head good thing you haven't orderd yet. Maybe a P6n-sli-fi from Newegg would suit you better. seems like a very fine board to me.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...Description=p6n&Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all
Thats exactly how I'd build this board and I just might. Gave me wood just typing it.
Aww bummer they went up even higher another 40 since lastnight and 75 two days before that but here they are anyway otherwise check out the same brand at newegg they have 800Mhz not the mos chips tho.
http://www.shopatbuffalotech.com/cart/p...t.php?productid=16422&cat=0&bestseller

 

[ingeborgdot]

I didn't like the p5b-e is what I said. I didn't say I didn't like asus. I have seen many reports now after looking where they didn't like the p5b-e but like the deluxe.
As for memory I didn't say I wanted the cheapest memory out there. I have read many reports of people having great luck with some not as expensive and telling me you don't have to break the bank to get great memory.
I have no limit but I was talking around the $200 range for 2gb if there was that option but I am looking for 4gb so it will be around the 400 buck range if possible. Apparently you don't think so but others that have had great success do. I am going with the corsair 620 psu. I have never seen a bad report on this psu and it has the best warranty on the market.

 

[bpatters69]

If you want a nice 975 board, check out the Asus P5W DH Deluxe\Wi Fi. Very stable so far and very few problems on installation. The only minor problem was the motherboard incorrectly recongizing the Kingston Memory. A quick change in the BIOS took care of everything.

 

[ingeborgdot]

That looks like a nice board also but I think I will stick with the asus p5b deluxe and not be so wishy washy. Anyway now that the decision is made it looks like the ram recommended to me is around the 240 range per 2gb. Not the most expensive but not the cheapest either. Also I am going to use vista ultimate. Anyone know how good this board works with this? And I will be raiding with two seagate 320 es sata drives. Is there a raid problem with this board and vista or is it ok?

 

[ingeborgdot]

Would this be a good memory for the asus deluxe? Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB Kit DDR2-800 XMS2-6400 Xtreme Performance Memory Retail

 

[AstroDogg]

Personally I would take the Firestix I recomended to you over the latest twinX memory. I have nothing against Corsair. I own twinxddr32001024LL-2 and twinx550pro2048-2(or whatever the models are).
http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/Buffalo_FireStix_PC26400/index.shtml

http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/Buffalo_FireStix_PC2-9200/index.shtml

I'll update when I find the article I'm really looking for.