A little help chosing Motherboards

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Hi, first I'd like to say hi, I've been lurking around these forums a fair bit recently and having found it very useful I have decided to join.

I'm going for a new PC build and having been out of the scene for a few years, I don't quite know where things stand. So far I have chosen a E6400 as my processor, which I plan to overclock a fair amount and a Raidmax Black Sirius case, in which I will buy a good PSU separately. I also may buy a separate cooler if I am required to.

At the moment I'm having trouble deciding on motherboards. I do not really want and SLI or Crossfire board as I'm only a casual gamer, but I would not mind shelling out for one of these if it means better performance and better scope of overclocking.

So far I've narrowed it down to these boards, the most expensive one on this list represents my budget limit (being the EVGA)

Gigabyte GA DS3
Asus P5B Deluxe
EVGA nForce 680
ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe
Intel Bad Axe 2

Also, as I may not be buying immediately, are there any boards nearing their release dates that I should look out for?

If graphics card information is required, I'm eyeing the GeForce 7950 GT and the Radeon X1950 at the moment, but this can change. I'll decide on RAM after the motherboard is decided.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards
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Either the P5B-Deluxe or the DS3 IMO, save the cash towards a decent RAM or graphics card. If you are overclocking anyway have you considered E4300?? It has a higher multi so is easier to overclock, It was just released yesterday so not many poeple have got it yet, but expect to see some OC results around here very soon.
 
I wasn't aware of that release, thanks for pointing that out.

So with the E4300 and the P5B-E I would get relatively the same sort of performance from a 975 board, say the EVGA, and the E6400? (both overclocked to say, 3.2 Ghz)

Though the prices are tempting too, apparently I can get the same clock speed with the 4300 as the 6400 but with cheaper RAM, but I am willing to spend a bit more money if it means I can wait longer till my next upgrade.

However I've read that the frequency of the system bus of the E4300 is 800mhz compared to the 1067mhz of the 6300, would that factor into anything (as well as being out of the scene I'm somewhat of a newbie too ;p)

If I get good RAM and the P5B-E and the 4300, what component would be the limiting FSB? Same question with the E6400 too.

Edit: Apparently the E4300 has an Allendale processor core, whereas the E6400 has a Conroe core, does this change anything?
 
Were I in your position, as I was last week I would not buy a motherboard on the basis of a few enthusiast's recommendations or choices. You'd be wiser to be as clear in your mind as to what you want the motherboard to do and then do your own research. One of the things I always do is to check across a number of forums for reported problems on particular motherboards I may be considering.

You might also take into account your own levels of expertise and patience. If you enjoy finding "fixes" to achieve heroic benchmarks your choices are wider. If not you'll need to find the best compromise between reliability and performance.

Personally I avoid motherboards with too many "features." I also avoid bling. I reached this decision having bought too many fashionable shiny and over featured boards from the likes of Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI etc. The motherboard I'm about to dispose of was a relatively inexpensive Epox which has been fast and reliable for over a year.

I'm about to assemble a Core Duo system. I don't look forward to this task despite the fact that apart from learning a few tweaks, I regard bolting a few parts together as no more complex or rewarding than Lego.

I think that I've chosen the right motherboard for my needs. I'm not going to recommend it to you as I know nothing about you or your computing needs. Should you want it I'd be happy to share a few links with you where you could do your own research and make up your own mind.

One final thought. I'd avoid taking any of the online reviews too seriously other than as illustrated catalogues. 3dgamesman's reviews are useful for their videos in so far as you get moving pictures of the hardware but his "Kickass" awards are frankly laughable. Dear Rodney seems to be a nice enough bloke but I'd find it difficult to live with his judgement or enthusiasm in daily life and having taken taken his recommendations too seriously I've bought some real junk.

Good luck with whatever you buy.
 
very sensible advice from Leporello - buy what you need & not necessarily what you desire.

There are also some newer mobos worth considering e.g. the Asus Commando & the abit AB9 QuadGT.
According to Gary Key at Anandtech the QuadGT is the fastest 965 so far because it will do 500fsb whilst still on the 1067 strap whereas pretty much all the others switch to the looser 1333 strap ~400fsb.
 
I've just taken the plunge myself (7 months after selling my X2 4400+ :rolleyes: ).

I went with the ASUS P5N-E 650i. Cheap, excellent clocking and has pretty much all the features I need. I just can no longer justify buying a board with all the bells and whistles and then not really using it to it's full potential. The P5N-E apparently seems an excellent clocker and will compliment my E6400 nicely. And it didn't blow me out too much.

I'd consider it - have a gander at the P5N-E 650i thread.
 
smids said:
I've just taken the plunge myself (7 months after selling my X2 4400+ :rolleyes: ).

I went with the ASUS P5N-E 650i. Cheap, excellent clocking and has pretty much all the features I need. I just can no longer justify buying a board with all the bells and whistles and then not really using it to it's full potential. The P5N-E apparently seems an excellent clocker and will compliment my E6400 nicely. And it didn't blow me out too much.

I'd consider it - have a gander at the P5N-E 650i thread.
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yes i agree ,i,ve read that there are problems with the Asus Motherboard with Memory ,did you find any problems like this ? :confused:
 
Pretty much the same with all boards really. I haven't built mine yet - I have Team Extreem DDR2-667 3-3-3-8 Micron D9's and I guess I'll just have to see how it goes. Usually though, the problems are SPD related are they not - e.g. recent GeIL's.
 
Rule out the 680i unless you want SLI

Although its a nice mobo I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that no mobo is worth 200 quid.

The same results can be had with the likes of the DS3 and the 650i.

The 6400 has a 8x multi so you will not need really high fsb to get a nice clock of 3.4ghz -3.6ghz

If it were me buying in now I would get a DS3 its price is great considering its stabilty and overclockabilty. :)

The 965 chipset is proved to be a nice combo with the 2mb cache conroes and its stable as a rock and well established with bios revisions.

The E4300 is slower clock for clock than the true conroe 6000 series chips.

You will get better pefromance from a DS3 and 6400 when clocked than you would with a 4300.

I tested a E4300 a few days back and I found it needed a lot of core for 3.5ghz 1.55v it ran hot too.

Although a nice chip at a great price I would only plonk one in a cheapo mobo like an asrock that can only reach 300 FSB.

The 6000 series is better faster has VT and will get you clossr to 3.6ghz
 
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i lot of people buy cheaper and mediacore motherboards because they plan to upgrade again in the near future. you should go for asus p5w-dh deluxe which offers great stabilty and many features and guarantees you it will still be running good 5 years or more down the line
 
sajtion said:
i lot of people buy cheaper and mediacore motherboards because they plan to upgrade again in the near future. you should go for asus p5w-dh deluxe which offers great stabilty and many features and guarantees you it will still be running good 5 years or more down the line
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I have had an Asus P5W DH and it was an awful mobo.

I ditched it

Avoid
 
humax said:
Whats VT
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Intel's virtualization extension for 32-bit and 64-bit x86 architecture is named IVT (short for Intel Virtualization Technology), and is sometimes referred to by the development code name "Vanderpool". The 32-bit or IA-32 IVT extensions are referred to as VT-x Intel has also published specifications for IVT for the IA-64 (Itanium) processors which are referred to as VT-i formerly the IA-64 virtualization was code-named "Silvervale". However, since 2005, new Itanium processors no longer implement the x86 instructions in hardware, so x86 virtualization on IA-64, if implemented, will be via emulation.

Intel VT was officially launched at the Intel Developer Forum Spring 2005. It is available on most Pentium 4 6x2, Pentium D 9x0, Xeon 3xxx/5xxx/7xxx, Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors (excluding the T5200, T5500, E4x00). On some implementations, IVT support may be switched off in the BIOS/EFI.

Documentation on the Intel website have stated that VT requires not only support from the processor, but also support from the chipset, BIOS, and perhaps software.
 
easyrider said:
I have had an Asus P5W DH and it was an awful mobo.

I ditched it

Avoid
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I can concur , mine is unreliable also and not too stable

I am reading this thread to get an idea on what to replace it with when my paycheck finally arrives.

sajtion said:
i'd still rate it as my first choice over the others he has listed
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Any motherboard has to be reliable, usb hubs have failed on mine and sata controllers are starting to have misreads so I personally think its the mobo design or something thats inferior - just my opinion mind
 
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sajtion said:
i lot of people buy cheaper and mediacore motherboards because they plan to upgrade again in the near future. you should go for asus p5w-dh deluxe which offers great stabilty and many features and guarantees you it will still be running good 5 years or more down the line
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Well, I guess it depends a bit on how you define 'near future'. Most enthusiasts do a major system upgrade at least once every couple of years, and while a system may run good 5 years or more down the line, it probably won't be especially quick.

Essentially you could have the best current mobo in the world, but in all likelihood in 3 years time it probably won't be able to take the latest and greatest CPUs. Remember that for the cost of a posh mobo, you can get 2 'cheaper and mediacore(sic)' boards. I.e. one to use now, and one when you upgrade in a couple of years.

While there are obvious advantages from the high end mobos, I don't think they always justify the cost. I mean, lets say you spend £150-200 on a mobo instead of buying one for £80-100. That's the difference between a 8800GTS and a x1950xt, which will make far more difference to gaming performance than the extra couple of FSB you might scrape from a high-end mobo.

It's not as if the cheaper mobos are complete piles of junk, £80 still gets you a good overclocking board from a respected manufacturer with a decent track record.
 
HangTime said:
While there are obvious advantages from the high end mobos, I don't think they always justify the cost. I mean, lets say you spend £150-200 on a mobo instead of buying one for £80-100. That's the difference between a 8800GTS and a x1950xt, which will make far more difference to gaming performance than the extra couple of FSB you might scrape from a high-end mobo.

It's not as if the cheaper mobos are complete piles of junk, £80 still gets you a good overclocking board from a respected manufacturer with a decent track record.
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Fair comment but then if you are only buying the more expensive option JUST for the mhz increase, then I would suspect it could be a mistake - however its usually down to the extras (like more usb / sata ports, raid or HD audio ) that might not be on the cheaper boards , certainly when I chose anyway :D
 
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