ASUS P5KC - or is there better.

[adrianxw]

I am looking to buy a new Mobo this week. I am looking at an ASUS P5KC. Reason for posting is that sometimes I overlook options and I like to see them all. There are criteria below, if I say "must support" or similar, then something that doesn't is not an option.

1. Must be available this week, something that is being released next Monday is a non-starter.
2. Must support an Intel Q6600 as I already have the chip.
3. Must support DDR2 800MHz as I want to use my existing memory until I can afford better.
4. Must have Penryn upgrade possibility, (P35 or similar).
5. Must have DDR3 upgrade possibility when budget allows.
6. Windows XP.
7. Efficient cooling, will be running all cores 100%, (BOINC)
8. Is replacing an ASUS P4P800S-X so similar hardware, (I know the graphics card will need changing).

Downside, I saw that under 32bit Windows, it can only use 3MB of RAM.

Open's the floor...

 

[Maziar]

ASUS P5KC and GIGABYTE P35C DS3R are the only boards which support both DDR2 and DDR3, but i recommend P5K-E and P35 DS3R instead of them , why ?

1_P35 DS3R and P5K-E OC better than P5KC and P35C DS3R
2_P35C DS3R and P5KC DDR3 option is limited to 4GB but the DDR2 option is limited to 8GB, so i dont think DDR3 will become useful

P35C DS3R REVIEW:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35c-ds3r.html

But if u insist on having DDR3 option ,then go for P5KC or P35C DS3R

 

[chookman]

I agree with Maziar... With the price of DDR3 atm the moment and the current speed at which the CPU can use the RAM a good set of DDR2 would be all you need. DDR3 will not become evident till we see the next gen of CPU's (IMO).

As Maziar said OCing is better and RAM amount is not so limited on the DDR2 only boards.

 

[aevm]

Another vote for the same thing - forget DDR3, it's 3 or 4 times more expensive than DDR2 and only negligible performance advantages. I used to think like you and I have a GA-P35C-DS3R, but I gave up on switching to DDR3. Why would I throw out 4 GB of perfectly good DDR2 and buy 4 GB of expensive DDR3 instead (can't use both at the same time!). It's smarter to add 4 more GB of DDR2-800 when I need it.

 

[dragonsprayer]

get the deluxe or the e

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131196

the e has the "r" south bridge for raid


i have beening building systems with the deluxe, same as the e -- at 3.4-3.6ghz this mobo rocks!

i am not sure about the c

 

[dragonsprayer]

skip the gigybyte mobo the bios sucks - its a real pain - the settings are idiot style

voltage is plus or minus in .1v settings not acutal voltages - this added a 5 min bios setting 3 hours