Best socket 775 for ocing?

Currently im stuck with an old Asrock ConRoe945G-DVI board and I can't overclock my chip past 2.9, what do you guys recommend as a good MB for overclocking my chip?

This is the last upgrade ill be doing on this machine before getting a new MB and processor but that will be a while away and I just want the best out of my system before I do a full upgrade.

Anyhelp is more than welcome.

A P45 based board, but which one specifically depends on how much you want to spend.

Im prepared to spend around £80 to a £100 British pounds for a board that I can overclock a good bit.

I was looking at this Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR Intel P45 what do you think?

Oh is it ok to link to online venders?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-172-GI

Gigabyte EP45-UD3p & Biostar i45 TPower. Two of the best I know of, both pretty cheap, both capable of +500 fsb in most cases.

IMO the best socket 775 motherboards are those featuring the P45 chipset. P45 is a bit overkill for a 65nm dual-core, you should be able to get a healthy overclock out of that chip with a good solid P35 board. If you had a quad-core or a 45nm chip (especially a 45nm quad-core) then the P45 would be a better choice.

I think Gigabyte makes some excellent P35 and P45 board, particularly the P35 boards should be available used for cheaply these days, try craigslist or eBay, or this forum's classifieds once you get access. The one catch you'll want to look for with Gigabyte motherboards is if you are interested in pad mods, Gigabyte boards do not like those mods and will refuse to boot if one is applied.

I don't think you'll have an issue getting a decent overclock from that chip with a P35 board. Even if you manage to reach 4 GHz from the chip you wouldn't be pushing the FSB more then 400/1600 MHz at that point, a P35 won't have trouble reaching that bus speed with a 65nm chip.

Thanx lads there is good info and reading here, the reason for getting a P45 board is I might have the chance if getting a quad core cheap from a friend but it might not be for a while.

I think Gigabyte makes some excellent P35 and P45 board, particularly the P35 boards should be available used for cheaply these days, try craigslist or eBay, or this forum's classifieds once you get access

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Ive been looking at older P35 Gigabyte boards on Ebay out of all these boards which one/ones would you recommend? Its a bit confusing what with all the different MB's on there plus its been over 3 years since I built my system and bought a MB.

Well thanx for the advice guys, Ive went ahead and bought the Gigabyte P45 board that I linked in one of my posts.

Do I need to reformat my HD after installing a new MB?

Thanx AAA.

Yeah, you'll most likely have to start fresh with a clean OS install. So, make sure you back everything up.

The only time I didn't have to do a fresh OS install is when I went from one P45 board to another P45 board.

Right cheers man, I can't be bothered doing another clean install of XP but buggar it I guess it'll need to be done.

Whats the procedure after I have the new board installed will it boot into windows or will it just get to the start up?

It won't boot to Windows, you'll probably get a "boot disk failure" message or something if you try to boot from your HDD, and you'll have to restart.

You'll have to go into the BIOS and set the boot priority so it tries to boot from CD/DVD first. Then, insert the XP CD and restart the computer. As it's booting you'll get the "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD..." message; press a key and continue to install the OS.

aaathreat said:

Im prepared to spend around £80 to a £100 British pounds for a board that I can overclock a good bit.

I was looking at this Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR Intel P45 what do you think?

Oh is it ok to link to online venders?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-172-GI

Click to expand...

I have the same Gigabyte board - this thing is a beast, got to 4.0Ghz on the first try with everything at "AUTO" except the DRAM Voltage.

Definitely sticking with Gigabyte for the foreseeable future.

Sounds sweet, I can't wait to get it back from the RMA I sent it away to get tested because I thought it was faulty but it was just my case shorting out the MB . Good news it should be back tomorrow and then I can OC my E6700 I can't wait.

aaathreat said:

Right cheers man, I can't be bothered doing another clean install of XP but buggar it I guess it'll need to be done.

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The perfect time to upgrade to Windows 7.

I'm partial to the Asus P5Q-E Find them used for $75 or so...

I loved my old Rampage Formula, I was able to take my e8600 to 600fsb My ram didnt like it too much tho And I was able to take my old q6600 to 491fsb, comparable to my P5K-D wifi in that regard. I did have a P5Q p45 board, I hated it

I will say the biggest piece of crap P45 I've had thus far was the MSI P45 Platinum I bought by mistake - god that board wouldn't take ANY RAM I threw at it, wasn't even stable at stock settings