Motherboard Advice Needed

What are the best options to support a pci-e x16 graphics card and a pci-e x8 RAID controller? eSATA would be nice, but not mandatory.

This mobo is going to be for my media server / HTPC. Eventually, I plan to separate these functions into two boxes, but not for about 6 months. Ideally, whatever mobo I get now will remain in one of the boxes (HTPC or server).

Thanks

why not the Abit IP35-pro or the the new P5Q pro or deluxe board...

Evilsizer said:

why not the Abit IP35-pro or the the new P5Q pro or deluxe board...

Click to expand...

the abit IP35 pro is the way i'm leaning now. I'll use the x16 slot for the RAID controller and the x4 slot for a vga card. Someone at another forum suggested that, and someone from yet another forum said it would work.

plus, this way I can upgrade my main rig (in sig)

that Asus Maximus II Formula is calling

hehe, i think though for the price the Asus P5Q-pro may be better.... as the second PCIE slot is PCIE2.0 and 8x not 4x like P35.
$149
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299
or you could spend roughly 10-20 more then the IP35-pro for the P5Q DLX with 3 pcie slots and 16phase pwm.
$199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131297

yeah, except I already own the IP35 pro, so cost is done. i guess i could sell the abit and get one of those you mentioned. idk, might not be worth the hassle.. lol

either way, i definitely want to get a new mobo for the rig in my sig, and the maximus 2 is top of the list right now. some of the x48 look good too, but dayum the maximus 2 looks sick! so, that means i'll either need to find a home for abit or sell it. using it in the media server sounds like it's going to work well


here is the media server build as of today:
------media server/HTPC------
Q6600 G0 || asus P5E VM HDMI || 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800
640GB WD6400AAKS (Win Server 2008) || 3 x 1TB Samsung F1 HD103UJ RAID 5 || Areca Arc-1231ML
Thermal Right Ultra 120 Extreme || PCP&C 1KW-SR || Rocketfish

I'm going to shift some of the parts between systems and upgrade other parts in the process. probably going to swap PSUs & cases between rigs. And the P5E HDMI is going back to the store since I think the abit IP35 is going to work better

ah ok, i thought you were talking about buying a new one.