Mobo upgrade advice please.

cavemanoc · 1 May 2008 at 10:50

I'm finally upgrading my trusty Opti 165 (retiring to pass it's days as a quiet media machine!) and need a little advice, mostly on motherboard choice. So far I'm going for:

OCZ 8GB (4x2GB) PC2-6400C5 (£117)
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 (£87)
With an XFX 8800GTX, Seasonic 620W.

But I'm a little stumped on motherboard.

I would like to get a P35. I need 6 sata (ICH9R sb) and gigabit ethernet, and obviously a good clocker capable of dealing with all that ram! (I don't need wifi) I'd like to spend around £80 unless anyone can convince me that I need to spend more (looking to get the Wolfdale to about 3.6)

cavemanoc · 1 May 2008 at 16:52

I was thinking about the following:

MSI P35 Neo2-FR Intel P35 (my front runner ATM)
Asus P5K Pro Intel P35
Asus P5K3 Deluxe WiFi Intel P35 (Don't need the Wifi - but only £3 more?)
OcUK Value IP35 Pro Intel P35 (no idea what they're like)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
(I'm also really tempted by the DFI P35-T2R, but it is considerably more expensive.)

Really just after some info from people who have P35 boards and their experiences. I need good raid performance and good overclocking on a P35 platform. So what is the current 'best' P35 board?

cavemanoc · 1 May 2008 at 17:24

Thanks for that, what's the difference between the:

Asus P5K3 Deluxe WiFi Intel P35
and
Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP Intel P35?

Apart from £40 obv.

cavemanoc · 1 May 2008 at 21:03

Thanks for that - was swayed by what ManCuBus said here - doing very well on his MSI with the 7200 I'm planning to get, and he also has the Abit to compare it to.

That's the problem I guess - always very subjective! And with the P45s due out in the next month or 2 I have to say I'm tempted to wait - 10 sata ports... oooooooo :eek:

cavemanoc · 1 May 2008 at 23:45

I do love DFI and the layout on that board is superb, if I can find it at £100 I might be tempted, still not sure I won't regret it when the P45 comes out though, think I might just have to hang on (even though I never wait for 'the next big thing' generally - I just can't resist the though of 10 Sata ports!) If the DFI LP UT P45-T3R comes out in a DDR2 version I think it will be my next board!

In fact - the LANParty DK P45-T2R looks like the one for me!