Best Quad Core OCing Motherboard

[antonwalker]

I'm gunna get a q6600 when intel drops prices and was wondering what is the best OC motherboard for quads. I would also like it to be under $300, and I don't need SLI. The only thing I would want is good onboard sound.


Hear is the futures I want in order from needed to just a nice thing to add.

OCing, nice accesories that come in the case(cables and stuff), save money, onboard sound, easy use, well reviewed, SLI.

Thank you for reading!!!!! :lol:

 

[antonwalker]

nobody really likes to talk about mobos i guess...

 

[aevm]

P5N32-E SLI Plus (650i) springs to mind.

I also like these, but they're probably more than you want to pay:

P5N32-E SLI (680i)
Asus Striker Extreme
Gigabyte N680SLI-DQ6

 

[bydesign]

I don't think the MB will be the issue as it's not going to OC like a e6600. Cooling is likely to be more important. I have the same plans and all my research is on building a custom water cooling solution.

I'm interested in what others say though.

 

[antonwalker]

would those mobos be better than the evga 680i A1 SLI that I was origionally getting. I probably would not go for the striker, but how about the other 2?

 

[aevm]

The eVGA A1 is great too. Haven't tried it myself but lots of people in forums have it and love it.

The P5N32-E mobos are very similar to the Striker, they just lack some frills and have less ambitious cooling.

The Gigabyte N680i-DQ6 is excellent but very expensive. You pay for quality I guess. It has all solid capacitors, eSATA ports, etc. - the richest set of features of all 680i mobos according to an Anandtech review.

If you care about sound quality you should get an X-Fi card, not rely on onboard. Just make sure you have a PCI slot for it. It adds a few fps in some games too, apparently.

 

[antonwalker]

how about the ASUS P5K deluxe v.s. the EVGA A1 SLI. They are about the same price so I was wondering what would be a better mobo.

 

[aevm]

The Asus P5K is great, if you don't need SLI. So is the Gigabyte P35-DS4.

Read this:

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=644

They got a E6700 to 3.80 GHz using P5K 8O

Avoid P5K3, you don't want something that requires DDR3.

 

[dannyboy1981]

trust me i got my BFG N force 680i SLI i think u can get for under $250
runs up to DDR 800 8 gigs max duel channel and socket 775,

This baby rocks for Ocing can unlink the memory and FSb got my duo 2 core from 2.4 to 3.0 GHz (still keeping my ram at 666 MHz) Easy and thats with stock cooling got lovely voltage controls can raise the FSb to massive amounts cant remeber how high but its massive,

6 sata's built in RAIDs 0,1,5 set ups , comes with new link boost tech from n vidia that boosts the power to ya board to PCI-E giving right out of the box 25% performance boost to your G cards

built in HD ##audio##

duel gigabit ethernet with new tech from n vidia first packet and duel net
basicly u can link to connections together for one super powerful internet connection ! even get a fan for ya board to keep it cool .

best board i ever had an i meen ever , alot better then my last asus i had

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=0&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=124173

see more info of this like where a guy says how toms hardware recomend thsi board

 

[antonwalker]

whats a p5k3

 

[antonwalker]

So the p5k only supports DDR2!?!?

 

[dannyboy1981]

i wouldnt worrie about DDR 3 for a while yet i really wouldnt DDR2 is fast enuff for the moment

 

[antonwalker]

Ok so then what other features does the P35 have over 680i other than the awsome OC.

 

[Arctucas]

RE: Striker Extreme
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=Striker+Extreme&SLanguage=en-us

 

[aevm]

A P5K3 is "Asus P5K3 Deluxe", a mobo that supports DDR3 and not DDR2. Avoid it because DDR3 is not a good investment this year. Maybe a year from now.

Asus P5K supports only DDR2 and it's good.

That BFG board sounds good, I'd better research it. Thanks dannyboy! The problem with all 680i boards is they seem to have a bug when all RAM slots are in use. It's in the chipset, not BFG's fault. I'm still trying to figure out if it has been fixed by now.

P35 is not that good compared to 680i. Support for DDR3 is the only interesting advantage of P35. On the other hand, P35 does not support SLI or LinkBoost, while 680i does.

 

[dannyboy1981]

well the only and i meen only reason i said about the BFG board is that i use it and i have had no bugs with it at all no problems yet to report and no problems with ram

i heard that the first batch of BFGs had a load of problems but this was down to nvidia duel to fact they make all of the new boards and just BFG or other companys put there own touchs on them BFG have the far best BIOS out on these boards this is why i think its a great overclocking board

 

[bydesign]

Aside from SLi support why do you think that it's not a good chipset? A number of sites have posted their highest overclocks with this chipset. I also believe that power draw is much better than the nforce which would help offset the greater consumption of the quad.

 

[dannyboy1981]

well my n force board can go well over FSb of 1333 which is same as P35 so over all i thik n force board is alot better in fact i read some where that it ca go up to 2000 but dont hold me to that since i havent checked

 

[antonwalker]

So 680i boards can get a better OC than the p35 boards??!!?!? I thought the P35 beat the 680i. Like I said I dont care for SLI, I just want a nice board with good OC abilities and the 1333 FSB. I guess DDR3 sucks now and stuff.

 

[BUFF]

P35 is currently the best chipset for oc quads (X38 may be better again, who knows).

 

[speed4life]

For the Q6600 I would go with the EVGA mother board. It is pretty good. Also maybe the new P35 Asus boards.

 

[Doctahg]

I have the Evga NF68 A1 as well...no complaints. My QX6700 ran to 3.6, allbeit with too much heat for air..so it's gone and my E6600 runs 3.68 on air at very good temps.I probably could go higher. It's great for overclocking and Evga is GREAT fr support and replacements.

 

[dannyboy1981]

can you unlink the memory from the cpu on the p35 boards cos if u cant then the 680i is far better over clocking board

 

[antonwalker]

I think i am gunna go P35.

So can you guys recommend the best P35 board, strickly for gaming and OCing.

I was looking at the recent THG article and it said the ASUS deluxe has the best gaming performance, but the OC wasn't the best. So what would be a happy medium?

 

[antonwalker]

BUMP
<('_'<)


KIRBY!!!!