C2D Motherboard Question: Biostar TForce965PT

[ikjadoon]

Hey, what's up, guys? I'm helping a friend build a cheap C2D build. A quick summary of his parts:

C2D E6400
eVGA 7600GT
pqi TURBO 1GB

I'm an AMD guy, you know, so I'm not sure exactly which motherboard to recommend. A few things to note: He will be overclocking. He is getting water-cooling for Christmas.

He doesn't want to spend too much money, $100 is a maximum. I want to make sure he doesn't waste the potential of his WC with a crappy motherboard that won't do 300FSB.

I thought about the ECS 570 SLi, but it overclocks very poorly, per the reviews I've read. So I wanted to go for a P965 chipset and the Biostar TForce965PT looks like the best choice. The pqi TURBO needs 2.0V, that shouldn't be a problem, right?

Anyone have any experience with this board? All the reviews of it see that it OC's very highly. I suspect with Water-Cooling, he'll get at least 3GHz..

Finally, are there any other C2D boards that I might have missed? How about that Foxconn? I checked out THG's Shootout of P965 and they believe the Foxconn was "business-oriented"? Any thoughts?

Thanks again!

~Ibrahim~

 

[Crashman]

Foxconn works fine stock. I recently tried an ECS P965T-A which was OK, but only had one "overclocking" bus speed: 333.

It has CPU core voltage adjustment up to "+0.15V" which should be enough to get the E6400 to 333, 2.66GHz.

 

[ikjadoon]

Eh, I'm kind of going for one that will OC well, at least at 350FSB. If he was on air, I'd go for the ECS in a heartbeat, but he is getting water-cooling and 2.66GHz on a C2D w/ WC seems like an insult, no? How about the Biostar?

~Ibrahim~

 

[Crashman]

I'd go with the Abit AB9 Pro, simply because it boots at speeds beyond what the CPU will run stable at. If you go a little too far, it will crash, but I'd rather have that happen than a blackscreen.

A bunch of the boards I've tried will blackscreen if you go too far, then reset BIOS and make you start your overclock attempts from the beginning again. Some will reset these for you rather than force you to use the jumper, but you're still starting from the beginning.

 

[ikjadoon]

I'm sorry, but I have to reject that offer, too. It is too much for what he can pay for, he'll pay a max of around $100.

~Ibrahim~

 

[WR2]

$100 is a maximum. I want to make sure he doesn't waste the potential of his WC with a crappy motherboard that won't do 300FSB.

He looks doomed to having a watercooled 333 FSB E6400 if that motherboard budget is indeed fixed. MSI P965 Neo-F Motherboard $93
The Biostar is over his budget limit.

 

[ikjadoon]

Yeah, 333FSB is nothing on a water-cooled system. The MSI looks nice, but it seems to be aimed towards a budget user, d'ya know what I mean? The Biostar looks nicer and has a review, well a half-one from THG.

~Ibrahim~

 

[CPSC]

hey check out this review. i'm sure you'll find it helpful for that board. i'm thinking of a similar setup myself. newegg has the tforce965pt for 104.99 plus shipping right now.

tforce965pt
here's the review
overclocking section!!

hope this helps!!

 

[ikjadoon]

CPSC, for two posts, you are rocking. It helped me loads, that review! Thanks a lot, man!

~Ibrahim~

 

[skyguy]

Does anyone have any firsthand experience using this mobo, but specifically its OC'ing ability?? Is it a worthy competitor to the S3/DS3??

 

[ikjadoon]

Does anyone have any firsthand experience using this mobo, but specifically its OC'ing ability?? Is it a worthy competitor to the S3/DS3??

Can the Gigabyte boards hit 504FSB? This board can.

Check out CPSC's review..

~Ibrahim~

 

[skyguy]

Ya I saw that. NICE.

I just get a little nervous when I see boards that can hit 500FSB and only cost $100........makes me wonder what's wrong with it or where they cut corners

 

[ak47is1337]

Yes, the Biostar would be my choice if I got a Core 2 motherboard. Keep in mind that it has no RAID, 1 IDE port, and needs better northbridge cooling.

 

[skyguy]

Yes, I am well aware of its rankings, and I delved through the article quite thoroughly.

However:

1) I'm not about to buy a board or recommend it heavily simply because of one review, whether positive or negative

2) I question the performance and quality for the price. A $100 C2D board that OC's to 500 FSB sounds a bit fishy for quality. I'm not denying the ability, I'm simply being an intelligent consumer, and I also feel that recommending this board to newbies seeking advice places some responsibility on all of us to offer sound suggestions.

Consequently, I repeat my question:

Does anyone here have this board or firsthand knowledge of its quality, performance, and OC'ing ability :?:

I think it's a responsible question, no offense.

 

[ak47is1337]

Well, Biostar does release fairly good motherboards for cheap. My 939 board can hit 300 and sells for $70. Anandtech also had good things to say about the Biostar board as well.
http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2860&p=11

 

[skyguy]

Yes, it seems like a GREAT deal, no question. Kinda poor layout on some board components and no RAID, but for people that don't mind, I must admit it's a helluva deal. Hard to find here in Canuckland though

We may have a new entry-level winner here that puts some higher-end boards to shame.....and at half the price too

 

[ak47is1337]

Yes, it seems like a GREAT deal, no question. Kinda poor layout on some board components and no RAID, but for people that don't mind, I must admit it's a helluva deal. Hard to find here in Canuckland though

We may have a new entry-level winner here that puts some higher-end boards to shame.....and at half the price too

a third the price of the ultra-high end boards...
anyway, I've heard that if you get better cooling on all the components you can get 540 fsb