Best budget P45 board?

krooton · 12 Aug 2008 at 14:25

I saw the MSI Neo-F P45, and thought it looked like a logical chipset move for me.

I assumed it would perform on par to my Neo-FR, but give me proper crossfire options in the future for my 4850, but I can't find any reviews, and the onboard cooling isn't as good as my P35.

So my question is, which <£90 board gives the best bang for buck?

Would be pairing it with an E7200, with hopes of hitting 3.5Ghz+

Cob · 12 Aug 2008 at 14:41

ASUS P5Q Pro.

roadie · 12 Aug 2008 at 14:41

Biostar TPower I45. Available if you search very hard for under £80, and has set FSB world records.

krooton · 13 Aug 2008 at 17:07

Cob said:
ASUS P5Q Pro.

Good reviews, coupling this with an E7200 should see me flyinging right?

Cob · 13 Aug 2008 at 17:08

Right

krooton · 14 Aug 2008 at 16:50

Cob said:
ASUS P5Q Pro.

Did the price just shoot up £8?

Grrrrr!

What are the differences between the P5Q and P5Q Pro?

Jiffy · 14 Aug 2008 at 18:06

krooton said:
Did the price just shoot up £8?

Grrrrr!

What are the differences between the P5Q and P5Q Pro?

Aye, the prices on the P5Q boards have gone up.

Here's a chart showing the differences:
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=548&pgno=0

bru · 14 Aug 2008 at 19:12

krooton said:
Did the price just shoot up £8?

Grrrrr!

What are the differences between the P5Q and P5Q Pro?

well apart from the price £11.75 currantly i believe, the only other differnce is the number and type of expansion slots each board has.

P5Q
- 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16
- 2 x PCIe x1
- 3 x PCI

P5Q pro
- 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16, support ATI CrossFireX™ technology dual at x 8 speed(blue)
- 3 x PCIe x1
- 2 x PCI

Topitoff · 14 Aug 2008 at 19:15

krooton said:
What are the differences between the P5Q and P5Q Pro?

For one thing, where the 24pin power connector is; much better position on the pro.

krooton · 14 Aug 2008 at 20:04

And I can't Xfire on the vanilla

Looks like I will have to shop around then, meh

Jiffy · 14 Aug 2008 at 21:54

bru said:
well apart from the price £11.75 currantly i believe, the only other differnce is the number and type of expansion slots each board has.

The only other difference I can see is that the plain P5Q has some yucky looking wing heatsinks whereas the Pro has the snazzier ones.

JimAroo · 14 Aug 2008 at 22:04

Maybe on the Standard P5Q you can't monitor NB, SB temps.. i know it was like that with the Asus P5K.

jennidc · 15 Aug 2008 at 22:45

p5q-pro

Surely X-fire option alone is worth an extra tenner - not to mention the better heatsinks - the only reason I could see for buying the p5q is if you were dead set on DDR3 as it supports it an DDR2 but the p5q-pro doesn't
(according to the descriptions onsite anyway).

P5q-pro for the win! - Hope to get mine next week (just need to decide which CPU - do I make my wife happy and spend £112 on a 3Ghz Wolfdale or do I make myself happy and broke and go for an e8600 e0 stepping 3.3ghz beast)

I was looking at running the board with:
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-9200C5 1150MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR11502GK)

1150MHz RAM Speed, CAS 5-5-5-18 Timings, 2.3-2.4v VDIMM, Lifetime Warranty with OCZ.
OCZ 10+ in stock £51.99
(£61.09)

Are there any known incompatabilities with this memory and the board (seems like a bargain at the mo)

Cob · 15 Aug 2008 at 22:52

62 quid for 2gb is anything but a bargain. Go for the 4gb of OCZ PC2-8500 Platinum for the same price.

jennidc · 15 Aug 2008 at 23:10

4gb

Sorry that will teach me to skim read - thought it was 4gb!

Shaolin Chicken · 15 Aug 2008 at 23:18

You will not find a better budget board than the Biostar Tpower I45,

that is if you can find it.

mitch212k · 16 Aug 2008 at 07:17

jennidc said:
Surely X-fire option alone is worth an extra tenner - not to mention the better heatsinks - the only reason I could see for buying the p5q is if you were dead set on DDR3 as it supports it an DDR2 but the p5q-pro doesn't
(according to the descriptions onsite anyway).

P5q-pro for the win! - Hope to get mine next week (just need to decide which CPU - do I make my wife happy and spend £112 on a 3Ghz Wolfdale or do I make myself happy and broke and go for an e8600 e0 stepping 3.3ghz beast)

I was looking at running the board with:
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-9200C5 1150MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR11502GK)

1150MHz RAM Speed, CAS 5-5-5-18 Timings, 2.3-2.4v VDIMM, Lifetime Warranty with OCZ.
OCZ 10+ in stock £51.99
(£61.09)

Are there any known incompatabilities with this memory and the board (seems like a bargain at the mo)

I got my ocz stuff for £33 delivered

krooton · 16 Aug 2008 at 10:51

Shaolin Chicken said:
You will not find a better budget board than the Biostar Tpower I45,

that is if you can find it.

I have managed to, at a very good price as well, is it really all that?

One review gives it a 7/10, another 9/10, so I guess a 8/10 aggregate aint bad

I have to hold out for Payday though, hehe

Shaolin Chicken · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:37

krooton said:
I have managed to, at a very good price as well, is it really all that?

One review gives it a 7/10, another 9/10, so I guess a 8/10 aggregate aint bad

I have to hold out for Payday though, hehe

I believe so.
I will also give it 9/10, as nothing in this world is perfect.

I don't think you will be disappointed if you were to purchase it, especially at the price I have seen it at.

I paid over £50 more and I am still pleased with my purchase.

I don't think i'll be importing again, but at the time I ordered, I couldn't find it anywhere in the uk and it didn't look to be anywhere on the horizon.
I have had it installed in my pc for over a 6 weeks now and it has only just started appearing.