New mobo

WOMBATWILSON

WOMBATWILSON

WOMBATWILSON

Associate
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
588
Location
Bristol
Im looking to upgrade my old dfi ultra d and opt 146 to something new. I havent been in the market for ages and am thinking of going for intel but looking at the lga775 boards there seems to be lots of different chipsets. Can anybody please tell me the difference between them all.
Thanks in advance.
 
X58 is the new and very expensive socket 1366 boards for the equally expensive core i7 cpu's. They also need expensive DDR3.

X38/48 is what to go for if you will be using crossfire at some point (2x ATI cards) as they have two full speed 16x pci-e 2.0 slots. They use DDR2 or 3 depending on the board.

P45 is the new mainstream Intel chipset and is a very capable one too. Perfectly fine for a single card setup although it will do crossfire but limited to two 8x pci-e 2.0 slots. Single card runs at 16x pci-e 2.0. They use DDR2 or 3 depending on the board

P43 is the new budget Intel chipset although it is priced a lot higher than the previous gen budget chipset (P31). Most have a single 16x pci-e 2.0 slot. Be careful if you go down this route as some of the boards (Asus especially) have terrible layouts. They use DDR2.

P35 is the last gen mainstream chipset and is best avoided now as the P45 is far superior. They have two pci-e graphics slots although one runs at 16x and the other a pathetic 4x. They are also only pci-e 1.1. Should be avoided if going down the crossfire route. Mainly use DDR2 although there were a couple of DDR3 boards and a couple of combo DDR2 and 3 boards.


P31 is the last gen budget chipset and was amazing value for money. The Gigabyte P31 DS3 and DS3L were amazing budget overclockers. Probably the best bang for buck motherboard for a long time costing only £43. Most only had a single 16x pci-e 1.1 slot but was fine for single card setups. Still available but getting hard to find. Used DDR2.

Nvidia 780/790/750 chipset boards are generally not as good as the Intel chipset boards but are the only way to go if you want to go Sli (2xNvidia cards) at some point. Some of the boards have proven extremely buggy and are just more trouble than they are worth. DDR2 or 3 depending on the board.

Nvidia 680/650 are similar to the above. DDR2.

Via chipset motherboards are best avoided.

There are also different chipsets (G31/33/43/45) for M-atx motherboards. Most are single slot graphics card boards and share similar technologies as the P3*/P4* boards.
 
Last edited:
No point. Buy separately and get 4GB for ~£5-10 more. Also, if you shop around, you can get that bundle cheaper.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Good post and very well put. I would just like say that I don't think the P35 chips should be completely discarded.. They are still a great platform for some fantastic overclocking and are great value for money if you can pick up a bargain. :)
Click to expand...

I actually have a P35 in my second rig. It's a Gigabyte P35 DS3R and has my E5200 running easily at 3.6Ghz. I got mine for a real bargain though. Brand new still sealed for £28 delivered from a retailer on the bay. :D:D:D

That was a rarity though. Mostly they are too closely priced to the P45 boards. The P5K is often more expensive than the newer P5Q series!!
 
Chip is ok. Mobo - I've had my share of Asus' recently and I've moved away from them now. I prefer the Gigabytes but this is subjective. The motherboard is a decent board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom