Another of those 'which mainboard' posts

unclebobuk · 6 Feb 2007 at 20:34

Hi,
I'm looking to put together a new rig based around an 8800 nvidia gts, Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 and around 2gb of dual channel DDR2 pc-800+ memory. I was going to plump for a 680i based board but having read about the issues and experienced them myself (bought a pre-built mesh computers system based around the Asus P5N32-E SLI mainboard which I returned) I'm somewhat put off.

I'd certainly like the option of SLI later so do I go 680i and if so which board? I was looking at the EVGA which appears to have had many issues fixed via bios updates (unlike the Asus).

Anyone offer any alternatives which arent 680i based but will put me in the same ballpark performance wise with some overclocking potential? Or put my mind at rest that the 680i is stabilising...

thanks.
Bob.

Jay_t · 7 Feb 2007 at 10:50

I'm of the opinion that the 680i chipset will not be perfect until it is revised. I doubt all the issues can be resolved by bios.

I'd look at a badaxe 2 and abit aw9d-max for your E6600. Both should easily do the 400 Mhz fsb which would pretty much max out your E6600. I particulary like the Uguru software on the Abit board. I use 9x400 for gaming and 9x266 for normal use. The uguru software adjusts the fan speeds, voltages, clockgen settings etc in seconds & all within windows.

I'm put off the 965 based boards by the need to have a jmicron controller for my ide dvd writers. However anything with an intel chipset is likely to be stable and fit for purpose.

jbloggs · 7 Feb 2007 at 11:19

unclebobuk:

You could also have a look at the Asus P5WDG2 WS Pro and Asus P5W64-WS Pro motherboards.

james32 · 7 Feb 2007 at 11:36

jbloggs said:
unclebobuk:

You could also have a look at the Asus P5WDG2 WS Pro and Asus P5W64-WS Pro motherboards.

i would take badaxe 2 over those 2 asus motherboards anyday
since i got both P5W64-WS and badaxe2

unclebobuk · 7 Feb 2007 at 16:00

thanks guys. I was erring towards the Intel BadAxe already, despite that no-one seems to have put any comments against it on the OC website. I'd rather have stability over BSOD any day. As long as I can still do raid, have a decent number of SATA ports (no e-sata which is a shame) and hopefully firewire and gigabit I'll be happy.

Cant see any detailed reviews of the spec on this board such as RAID and sound support. From the looks of it adding a X-Fi card for sound may be a good idea (I'm building this primarily as a gaming rig)...

Any recommendations for memory on this board....(seen a few mentions for team extreme and geil modules).... ?

What about GPU? I was originally going to plump for an 8800 GTS if I'd gone for a 680i board. Will it be ok on this one? Obviously the Axe is a crossfire board rather than SLI with a 16x and 8x rather than 2x16 PCI-X slots. I'm no expert on this whole area but assume I will still get good performance from an Nvidia card on this board.

Noted that no-one seems to interested in the ATI based board (RD600). Interest in these seemed keen laterly last year. Are they not as great as people had hoped.?

Any comments on these Gigabyte DS3/4 boards? Seem to be seeing they are pretty good (and feature rich) with the correct memory?

some many choices!?!?!?!? And 1300 quid burning in my pocket.

Bob.

Jay_t · 7 Feb 2007 at 16:03

jbloggs said:
unclebobuk:

You could also have a look at the Asus P5WDG2 WS Pro and Asus P5W64-WS Pro motherboards.

Both of those are stable boards but have the following issues:

cold restart bug on restart or bios save, slow boot (especially when loads of usb devices are connected, issues with onboard sound.

They are not cheap either. Badaxe 2 for the win. The whole package reeks of quality from the moment you open the box.

Noted that no-one seems to interested in the ATI based board (RD600). Interest in these seemed keen laterly last year. Are they not as great as people had hoped.?

The DFI lanparty is the only one and whilst there is nothing much wrong with it, it doesn't really bring anything new to the party.

The intel 975 chipset is quite mature and yet clock for clock, it the fastest chipset out there. I'm pretty new to intel, but I'm a fast learner. If you want a pleasant experience with an intel CPU, go for an intel chipset. If you want the most stable of all experiences, go for an intel CPU on an Intel board featuring an intel chipset.