GA-G31M-ES2L or GA-G31M-S2L for overclocked HTPC build

Subliminal Aura · 5 Mar 2009 at 11:16

From what I read the GA-G31M-ES2L has replaced the GA-G31M-S2L possibly due to sound problems but both are still available for purchase

I can't see any other difference but since this is for a HTPC the sound issue rang alarm bells.

On the flip side I'll be using this board to overclock an e5200 to around 3.2ghz which has been tried and tested on the older model.

What's confusing is whether I should go for the new version or the old.

Any help please ?

RobK · 5 Mar 2009 at 12:10

Any particular reason you want to overclock it? If your gfx card supports hardware acceleration for video, your CPU won't be doing that much at all.

Subliminal Aura · 5 Mar 2009 at 12:14

RobK said:
Any particular reason you want to overclock it? If your gfx card supports hardware acceleration for video, your CPU won't be doing that much at all.

What graphics card ?

RobK · 5 Mar 2009 at 12:19

I don't know, what were you planning on putting in it?

pieman109 · 5 Mar 2009 at 12:28

I have a ga-G31M-ES2L in the second pc. Its a really good mobo for the price but it appears to be designed to take 1333mhz cpu and faster memory, pc8500. I have an e4300 with pc6400 ram in it atm and it runs fine, but a lot of the options are greyed out as it were. The lowest ram divider is 2.66 iirc, which means with the memory at 400mhz, the cpu is only doing a measly 2.7ghz (its capable of 3.2ghz at least). I reckon its really good for higher fsb cpus and fatser memory because of this. saying that, it does run with the current components installed with no probs at all.

Subliminal Aura · 5 Mar 2009 at 12:30

just a basic htpc - blu-ray drive and a solid overclock before maybe a gfx card if the vga output proves to be really bad

Subliminal Aura · 5 Mar 2009 at 12:51

Gigabit LAN on the GA-G31M-S2L has swung me into it's favour. If the onboard sound is cak I'll get a gfx card.

RobK · 5 Mar 2009 at 13:00

Ah sorry didn't notice it had onboard gfx.