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Mobo recommendations?

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Amtrak

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2008
My knowledge of motherboards is fairly weak at the moment, so I come here seeking the divine knowledge of experienced techies.

I need a motherboard that fits the following:
- Excellent overclocking capabilities (both cpu and ram)
- Good chip cooling (something like that of the Gigabyte EP45T Extreme would be nice just for the hell of it, but I would just like to have decent cooling without having to refit heatsinks or add extra fans all over)
- DDR2 memory
- At least enough slots for one graphics card, a wireless lan card, and a sound card.

I will be using either an E8500 or E8600 C2D (not sure if some mobos do better with certain cpus than others, but just in case...). This will also be a gaming rig.
 
CF or SLI?

first thought if your just sticking with a single GPU, Asus P5Q or if going CF P5Q-Pro or P5Q-E. there are some others like the Biostar TP45HP, the Gigabyte EP43-DS3L,GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L. the latter 3 are under $100
 
I don't think he wants either, he was clear about what he wants ;)

One thing is not clear to me - what do we mean by "excellent overclocking capabilities"? For me it's 500fsb min, while for others 400fsb is quite enough... As for memory, P5Qs across the whole line a very finicky.
 
I don't plan on going CF or SLI anytime in the near future, so it's not a requirement to have it on the board.

As for "excellent overclocking capabilities," I'd say at least 450-500fsb stable.

How are the P5Qs "finicky" with memory?
 
im sure he is reffering to the fact that many people have had problems with certain types of ram on asus boards lately. i havent heard any big complaints on the p5q's yet but im sure the problems still exist to some degree. as far as the op's question. i put my hat in for the biostar i45. i have this board an i love it. it oc's effortlessly and has some decent chipset cooling on it as well. hope this helps and keep us posted as to what you end up doing.
 
i build barebone systems as a side gig.. just basic home comps, nothing special. i mainly use ASUS boards for their stability (at stock settings) and their household name. it's always the know-it-all customers that mess around with the settings, so from their mistakes (and their failed attempts at trying to blame it on me), i find ASUS boards tend to have some adjustment issues when it comes to ram. and from what i gather, it seems to be caused by what preset timings the ram has. so unless you're intimately familiar with ASUS and their quirks, i'd go with any of Evilsizer's recommendations: they're all stable boards with superb adjustability and great prices.
 
Oh, I've been reading the P5Q deluxe thread over on xtremesystems.org, and there were a lot of complaints with memory compatibility. Ket over there even modded bios to resolve this issue, so I suggest to read that thread once that forum comes back online (should be today, as it shows signs of getting ready to up and running again)
 
I'll be using a 9800 GTX+ in the build, so a CF board is not necessary. Also forgot to mention in my original post that I'll be overclocking the video card, as well. I'd like to near or reach 4ghz if I go with the E8500 C0, or get 4.1+ghz if I get the E8600 E0.

Other than negating the CF, does this change any of the current recommendations or add any new ones? Which of these might I be most likely to achieve my goal with?

BTW, I'm loving all the help so far! Here, I was prepared to fork over $250+ for a nice mobo... :-/
 
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No memory issues for me with default BIOS 0605, 0704, 0803, 1103, 1201, or 1306. Not sure if it's a particular model, but mine have run anywhere from 920 - 1080MHz, varied timings, no issues. I love Mooshkin :) Definitely have to recommend the P5Q Deluxe. You'll enjoy it. I'm still waiting to find the magic post of settings that will allow me to overclock my Q9550 on this board to 4+GHz, on air :-/ 3.9 is just NOT good enough :p
 
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