Mobo Recommendation?

ShiversDan · 2 Feb 2009 at 22:02

Hey Speccing a new PC and wondered what motherboard you guys reccomend? Im buying an E8500 and would like to hit about 4ghz with a tuniq tower 120 if possible, any suggestions? Also looking for 4GB ram so suggestions on that would be great also thanks.

Forgot to mention running an 9800gt, so no real need for crossfire.

simbady · 3 Feb 2009 at 12:18

Budget?

ShiversDan · 3 Feb 2009 at 16:18

about 120

Big.Wayne · 3 Feb 2009 at 17:39

Asus P5Q-E (Intel® P45 Express Chipset)

£120.74 inc

Biostar TPower I45 (Intel® P45 Express Chipset)

£114.99 inc

Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 (Intel® P43 Express Chipset)

£86.24 inc

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2

£55.19 inc

ShiversDan · 3 Feb 2009 at 21:20

Cheers, Im undecided between Asus P5K-E and P5K Deluxe, whats the difference between the two? is it worth the extra for the deluxe?

Big.Wayne · 3 Feb 2009 at 21:31

Asus P5K-E and P5K Deluxe? or do you mean P5Q-E and P5Q-Deluxe?

The former uses the Intel® P35 Express Chipset and the latter uses the Intel® P45 Express Chipset

I'm guessing you mixed up P5K for P5Q? but anyway if buying a new LGA775 motherboard these days I would personally not want to spend much more than £100 so the P5Q-Deluxe is off the menu (brilliant board bit not worth £150+).

If your not intending to use Crossfire then the Intel® P43 Express Chipset is deffo worth a look!

ShiversDan · 3 Feb 2009 at 21:37

Big.Wayne said:
Asus P5K-E and P5K Deluxe? or do you mean P5Q-E and P5Q-Deluxe?

The former uses the Intel® P35 Express Chipset and the latter uses the Intel® P45 Express Chipset

I'm guessing you mixed up P5K for P5Q? but anyway if buying a new LGA775 motherboard these days I would personally not want to spend much more than £100 so the P5Q-Deluxe is off the menu (brilliant board bit not worth £150+).

If your not intending to use Crossfire then the Intel® P43 Express Chipset is deffo worth a look!

Hi, yeah i got the names mixed up...are you sure its a p35 board? I was comparing the p5q deluxe with this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-281-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1155 but it says its p45 and not p35?

Big.Wayne · 3 Feb 2009 at 21:39

No I was saying both the Asus P5K-E and P5K Deluxe use the Intel® P35!

All the ASUS P5Q Series use the newer Intel® P45 :cool:

ShiversDan · 3 Feb 2009 at 21:41

Big.Wayne said:
No I was saying both the Asus P5K-E and P5K Deluxe use the Intel® P35!

All the ASUS P5Q Series use the newer Intel® P45

Ahh ok my mistake, so whats the difference between the P5Q-E and the P5Q Deluxe? I want to hit 4GHZ on my 8500 with the ram you linked, which should i buy?

Big.Wayne · 3 Feb 2009 at 22:35

ShiversDan said:
so whats the difference between the P5Q-E and the P5Q Deluxe?

ShiversDan said:
I want to hit 4GHZ on my 8500 with the ram you linked, which should i buy?

You will be able to get 4GHZ from an 8500 (421x9.5) on any of those motherboards I listed above . . .

From what you have described you really ain't needing to spend £150 on a LGA775 mobo alone . . . considering you could get that Gigabyte Intel® P43 mobo and 4GB(2x2GB) of blazing fast PC2-8500 for £141.43 combined!

Tom|Nbk · 3 Feb 2009 at 22:46

Thanks Wayne that post was helpful to me as I'm considering a P5Q as the P5B Deluxe has put the last nail in it's coffin by not allowing me to get the full speed out of my new 8500 with an OC of 4Ghz

ShiversDan · 3 Feb 2009 at 22:49

Thanks for help, getting P5Q-E

Big.Wayne · 3 Feb 2009 at 23:56

Tom|Nbk said:
I'm considering a P5Q as the P5B Deluxe has put the last nail in it's coffin

Oh I would have thought the P5B Deluxe would be fine with an overclocked Intel® Core™2 E8500? what's the problem then?

regarding picking up a newer Intel® P45 Express Chipset see if you can get your mits on a (used?) P5Q-Pro for cheap! ££ as I think it's the spiritual successor to your P5B-Deluxe (sans WIFI, but identical layout and heatsinks!

)

Having said that I see nothing wrong with the vanilla/gold P5Q, it's got a quirky 24-pin ATX location but apart from that seems a decent choice! :cool:

Tom|Nbk · 4 Feb 2009 at 01:47

The P5B Deluxe was not built with 1066 high speed 8500 in mind, it lacks memory tweaking features. They are very basic and thus it's difficult to get any 4GB 2x2048 configuration stable above 900MHZ.

"P5B board was designed when 266 FSB cpu's and 800Mhz ram with potential 1066mhz support, now allowing 333Mhz FSB cpu's, but when using these cpu's 1066Mhz becomes very hard to achieve"

So to summarise. My system will run fine at 4GHZ with a 900MHZ divider but this is the maximum I can achieve.

Besides I could do with a change, multiple compatibility issues have cropped up the past few months with this board which screams to me "please put me to rest"

Shocky-FM · 4 Feb 2009 at 09:18

P45 really isnt all that good, from my experience they don't overclock anymore then my older P35 chipset, if you want to save some money get a cheaper P35 based mobo.

The only good reason for buying one is if you want to use crossfire, otherwise don't bother.

I updated to a P45 (Asus P5Q-E) and really wish I didnt bother, the PCI arrangement is rubbish too.