New motherboard buying suggestions

My last motherboard got bricked because I was being rash with my decisions and skipping corners, etc, so now I need a new one.

I'm looking at the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4 but I was wondering if anyone has a suggestions for a better board.

The 3 main things I'm looking for are:

1. 2 PCI-E ports (I have 2 4870's in crossfire)
2. Overclocking ability (good FSB, RAM OC speeds, etc)
3. Dual-BIOS *cough*

Price range is slightly flexible but I'm looking at about $100-$200AUD.

I'm planning to buy from either Techbuy or Skycomp as well so if anyone has experience with them I wouldn't mind knowing what they're like with customer support, etc.

EP45-UD3P , you should grab it fast if you able to spot it, since its no longer manucfactured by Gigagbyte.

One the best LGA775 DDR2 mobo imo.

bing said:

EP45-UD3P , you should grab it fast if you able to spot it, since its no longer manucfactured by Gigagbyte.

One the best LGA775 DDR2 mobo imo.

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Just Googled it then, there's only 2 places that sell it, one doesn't ship products "yet" and the other one, whilst they say they do, is a fairly small business and one I wouldn't exactly feel secure with, besides that, they're selling it for $245 w/o shipping.

Any other suggestions though?

Dragon029 said:

Just Googled it then, there's only 2 places that sell it, one doesn't ship products "yet" and the other one, whilst they say they do, is a fairly small business and one I wouldn't exactly feel secure with, besides that, they're selling it for $245 w/o shipping.

Any other suggestions though?

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Dragon,

If you can't find that board, DFI makes as good as any depending on what you want to spend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1307 1070630554&name=Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Duo

My board listed in sig has been just great, have two of them in different builds. That link is for USA of course but it will give you part numbers.

EP45 UD3P @ newegg.com: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358&cm_re=EP45-_-13-128-358-_-Product

EDIT: Sheesh, I should read the thread...sorry.

That DFI board if found will do well clocking quads also.

The only DFI boards I could find online here are P45's like the T2RS which was the one that I bricked.

Well, get the same one and dont "brick" the board this time (assuming brick means you did something to it). The T2RS isnt a poor board in the first place really.

Still, the T2RS isn't a dual-BIOS board, has a RAM limit of 1200 instead of 1333 and the heatsinks, whilst good, aren't as good as the Gigabyte (the DFI is aluminium, painted at areas whilst the Gigabyte is copper, the Gigabyte also looks to have more surface area on its heatsinks).

I don't think I'll ever need to use a normal PCI slot either, TV tuners can be external, I don't need a soundcard and I shouldn't need a separate VGA cooler either.

The Gigabyte also seems to have a few other nidgets of improvements such as the battery placement, the extra space between the PCI-E slots, etc.

+1 for EP45-UD3P if you can get one. Found it here for $180. I think it's an Australian site.