Which board for a midrange Core 2 Duo system?

[Denis54]

I want to build a new midrange system with a Core 2 Duo E6300 or E6400 CPU, a X1950 Pro video card and an ASUS motherboard. I have had good success with ASUS in the past and would like to stick with them.

There are so many ASUS boards that I am lost as to which one to get. Which ones should I look at?

Overclocking is not a priority but I might overclock if the system is still very stable.

 

[rwpritchett]

Price range? ATX or micro-ATX needed? Do you need RAID?

Just to put up a suggestion, how about the P5B-E?

 

[Denis54]

ATX board.

RAID not necessary. No need for Firewire either.

Price is not irrelevant but not a major factor. I will pay what it takes to get a good stable board. Overclocking is not a priority but would be a plus.

 

[rwpritchett]

If you're dead-set on ASUS and you're looking for an mid-level motherboard, then again I recommend the P5B's:

ASUS P5B motherboard comparison

I would stay away from the plain P5B, but the P5B-E would probably be sufficient for what you want. If you can afford either of the P5B-Deluxes, then that's the better choice.

 

[Denis54]

What are the advantages of the Deluxe over the P5B-E?

 

[rwpritchett]

The Deluxe has heat-pipe (better) cooling for the chipset, optional onboard WiFi, dual gigabit ethernet ports, better overclocking options in the BIOS, a PCI Express x4 slot, and 8-phase power. The package also contains more connectors and a special array microphone.

There are also some aesthetic differences such as black PCB and a glowing “ASUS” logo to show the motherboard power state which you might care about if you have a side window on your case.

There are probably more things that I missed.