What would be the best motherboard for what I'm looking to do?

I'm planning on building a new computer soon and will most likely be going with a C2D E6400, with the hopes of overclocking it.

Now, I only really want to OC the thing to 400Mhz FSB (assuming that that is a reasonable goal with the E6400, but from what I've read it should be *more* than do-able), that way I don't have to fiddle with the RAM or anything, I run both 1:1 and I'm happy.

The only problem I've been having is deciding on which motherboard I should go for. Obviously I don't need the most expensive, best, top of the line board, as I'm not going to be pushing its' FSB capabilities to their limits.

I was considering the following boards:

P5B-E - Not sure on this one, seems to be mixed opinions on its overclocking capabilities.
P5B-Deluxe - More expensive than the -E version, but good OC'ing abilities. The only problem? I don't care about all the extra features it has over the -E, such as Firewire, more SATA connections and Matrix RAID (only 1 hard-drive = no RAID )
GA-965P-S3 - From what I've read this board has decent OC'ing abilities, and is priced the same, if not lower, than the P5B-E. Am I missing something here? Is this board not so good? (I don't care about Solid State Capacitors, so I wouldn't go for the DS3)

So, to sum up what I am looking for in a motherboard:

• Board can handle 400FSB with ease
• Not too terribly expensive
• Good Chipset cooling
• Onboard sound (I'll be buying a sound card eventually, but not right away)

I don't care about RAID, Firewire, more than 4 SATA connections, or onboard Wifi.

Any comments on those 3 boards, or suggestions on other boards would be greatly appreciated! Also, OCZ RAM is so damn cheap right now, but I'm worried about it not working right away with any of the 965 motherboards...buying another stick of budget RAM just to manually set the vDimm to 2.0/2.1 is not something I want to do. Should I just forget about buying OCZ ram?

Also, just for reference, here's my plan for the system so far:

CPU: E6400
Heatsink: Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.2 (Unless an Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro will be enough for the OC I want to do)
Motherboard: That's what this topic is about
RAM: Either OCZ (Gold or Platinum, whichever is priced better) or Mushkin (with at least 5-5-5-12 timings) PC6400
Case: P180 (Black)
PSU: Undecided. OCZ GameXStream, Seasonic or Enermax are options being considered.
Video Card: Whatever is ~$450 - $500 (CDN) when I buy (ie: The 8800GTS right now)
Monitor: Either the Samsung 225/226BW or a Viewsonic VX2035 (debating whether or not to go 20.1" or spend the extra for a 22")

Any of those boards would be fine for what you plan on doing. The p5b-e is usually not recommended because it only has 2.1 vdimm which isn't enough voltage to push ram with. I am pretty certain it can reach 400 fsb without issue however. It sounds like you have already ruled out the p5b-deluxe so I won't comment on it except to say it is a great, solid board that can definitely do what you want and then some. Finally, I am not too sure about the s3 but have read decent things about it. I'm sure another member here can comment on it further.

And I am genuinely curious, where do people hear or read that ocz ram doesn't work in these boards? If you did get some ocz ram it should be fine in the p5b deluxe at least and I'm saying that from personal experience. I originally had 2gbs of ocz plat rev2 in my pc that posted fine on the first start up.

Otherwise it sounds like you have it mostly sorted out, good luck to you and enjoy your c2d build!

"where do people hear or read that ocz ram doesn't work in these boards?"

Sometimes the motherboard can't detect the default voltage when its not 1.8 so it won't post. Its not that they are not compatible, just need to be adjusted manually in the bios. Might not even be much of an issue any more with updated bios revisions on the first 965 boards and such.

im about to build 2-3 Core2 systems and i was recommended to the Intel BadAxe2 board.

At $175, its wayyyy cheaper than most of the other stuff out there. Seriously...$200+ for a mobo nowadays is insane.

http://www.microcenter.com/byos/byos_single_product_results.phtml?product_id=251723

Thanks for the comments!

As for the OCZ RAM not working in motherboards, I basically picked that up all over the place. Product reviews from different sites, message boards, etc. I'm hoping that the boards would come with the newer BIOS revisions, which should fix the issue, but I'm not certain if I want to bet $50 on something that isn't for sure (If they didn't work I'd have to go out and buy some cheap budget RAM just to get the system to post).

Regarding the Intel BadAxe 2 board...I don't think I'll be going near that one. I live in Canada and thus can't buy from places like Microcenter or Newegg...and all the Canadian online stores want $250+ for the board. The P5B-E and 965P-S3 boards are only $140 - 170 and the P5B-Deluxe is a little over $200.

The Badaxe2 will perform best for the $

Abit AB9 (non-pro) would get the job done and have extra Vdimm.

Hmmm, I haven't done any research into Abit's stuff. Are they building better products than (I think) they were in the past?

Also, I'm sure the BadAxe 2 is a a great performer, but I can't justify the extra $70 - 80, especially since I'm not likely to be FSB limited by the motherboard.

Im using the S3 and OCZ ram and havent had any problems booting overclocking

Thanks, that's great to know! I do notice, however, that you have the Platinum XTC RAM. I was looking at the OCZ Gold RAM. I believe they both have the same stock vDimm though...hopefully there won't be any problems.

How hard was it, BTW, to get your E6400 up to 425? Did you have to do a lot of fiddling, or did it hit that fairly easily?

425 was pretty easy to get to. I just upped the vdimm to what its rated at...2.2v, and upped all the other voltages up by .1 or .2 and everything went great.

You however are going with the OCZ gold which has lower rated timings of 5-5-5-15 as opposed to my 4-5-4-15. I still think you can hit 425 easily. The problems comes after 425. Anything above that with an 8 multiplier boots but fails orthos after a few seconds.

I should also add that i did boot and run orthos with the ram running at 480mhz!!!! with a multiplier of 7.

The problem is that I cant get orthos stable past 3.4ghz and i was looking to hit 4ghz. Im still not sure what the problem is. Im started to think its the cpu. but it could also be the board. Should have gone with a p5b dlx.....

But all in all im happy with the S3. For the overclock your looking to achieve the S3 would be a great choice.

Holy SH#$#@$#@$@TTTTT Im a genius!!!!!!!!!! This board and ram are actually pretty good after all. I got orthos stable for a few minutes at 3.472ghz. The problem the whole time is that the cpu just needed a bit more voltage. Right now its up to 1.43 and temps dont get hotter then 44c under load.

Thanks again for the comments!

I am actually going with the OCZ Platinum XTC Rev.2 RAM now, since it's dropped in price below the price of OCZ Gold

Now the last thing I'm worried about is my cooler + mobo combination. I'll most likely be going with the 965P-S3 since it seems to have the best bang for the buck.

I will, however, be buying a Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.2...I've read that on some of the boards there is a problem regarding the 775 clips hitting the capacitors and having to shave down the clip in order to fit in on properly.

wasnt a problem on my old ds3 with that cooler.

Why are you messing around with gigbyte? Get a p5b-dlx. Its stable at faster speeds. Changing to asus later on like I did only costs you extra in restock fees and shipping. Just trying to save you a headache.

I would go with the p5b-dlx.

If you are worried about price, then just get an open box from Newegg. You can get those for 140, which is hard to beat. If it does not clock well then you have 15 days to return it for a refund. You may not get all the cables and such, but that's really not that important.

I dunno. I've really been debating between the 965P-S3 and the P5B-Deluxe.

I'm only planning on going to 400FSB and no further, so I wouldn't think I would have to be worried about stability between the two.

I also live in Canada, so Newegg is not an option. From the online stores that I can purchase from the P5B-Deluxe is about $60 - $70 CDN more than the S3, which is why I'm hesitant to buy it.

Have you considered the BIOSTAR TForce965PT?
It's a simple, inexpensive board that will definately do what you want.
The P5N-E SLI would also be a good bet.
Don't listen to the P5B-deluxe folks... It's a good board, but it's more than you need.