Hey everybody,
I'm about to build a new computer, and in a recent PM with Dan, he said that recent Biostar T-Force series of motherboards have been "badass overclockers". While searching through ClubIT.com, I found a Biostar T-Force P35 board. (here's the link to the ClubIT page, and here's the link to the Biostar page) Now, I'm no motherboard guru, but this looks like a good deal.... Does anybody else have any opinions on this board, or previous Biostar T-Force boards?
'Da board:


Also is there any other cheap alternative P35 boards that will overclock well? (less than $130 - Crossfire is not a necessity) I've got my eye on This Gigabyte.... Isn't Abit suppose to come out with a P35 board soon?

I'll be pairing this board with 2gig's of Crucial Ballistix Tracer 1000mhz, and a e4300 (will overclock!)

Thanks for all the help!

-Snowy


ps... why do some motherboards have an 8pin CPU connector, and others have a 4?

Starting at the top

abit has 3 P35 mobo's 1 of them is already out and it's the top end version priced around $185, they will also have 2 others coming out pretty soon but I can't even begin to price guess, although they WILL be cheaper.

$140 GIGABYTE GA-P35, seems to be a great board. Gigabyte has been known to OC quite well. All solid caps, but sort of lacking the accessory kit, but who really cares. You're not buying a mobo for it's junk in the trunk are you?...no I didn't so.

$140 Check out the Foxconn P35 board over at Newegg, it looks like a great board with PWM cooling, and has all solid caps. Again I don't know about the OC potential but it looks like a great bang for the buck board.(fun to say>bang for the buck board)

$115 BIOSTAR TForce, Seems pretty decent to me, not 100% solid caps but at least it has some. The only thing I could really gripe about is the 24pin placement. Although if the board performs well enough at this price who cares.

MSI has the P35-Neo-F, and I don't know how it OC's but I know it's only $100, doesn't have solid caps but it might be a decent board given the price/performance competition. I'm guessing it would be similar to the Gigabyte S3, the one with the non-solid caps. It OC's pretty close to the DS version with the solid caps. I'm pretty curious in this MSI board myself, because of it's price. They will also make a combo DDR2+DDR3 version, but I dunno about the price of that one.

I'm no fan of anyones but I think waiting to see the abit boards will probably be the way to go, if the abit boards suck I'd probably put my money on anyone of these boards I mentioned. The Foxconn and Gigabyte seem to be the most promising as long as the bios doesn't blow.

As for me there is a slight chance that I might just pass over the Penryn stuff and get one of the 650i SLI boards, because they aren't expensive, OC well, I already have an 8800GTS so another one wouldn't be a bad idea in a year, and they support 8x8x. If I don't got SLI I'd for sure go P35 because of the OC potential, DDR3, and 45nm support. It all depends on how often you upgrade.