Why no Intel MOBOs?

[SirMoby]

I'm starting to research a new build and after a week or so of reading I have a question for people smarter then me and that's, "Why there's not much here about Intel MOBOs"?

I need 8 SATA drives and most MOBOs support 4 to 6 while Intel has a few boards that do.

My current system is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200/ASUS A8N-SLI Premium sitting inside an Antec P180. I've sworn off gaming for a few years as I become addicted easily but video editing is something that I do. I may not do it for a month or two but when It's time I'll chop and process dozens of hours of HD. Often I'll run batches that take 4 or 5 days to complete.

My current thoughts are getting a Q6600 and 8G of DDR2 RAM although I'm not done researching.

Why don't people talk about Intel MOBOs much? I know there are a few boards that offer 8 SATA ports on them but they're hard to find.

Thanks for listening.

 

[akhilles]

Actually, that's a good question. I don't know. A few times I've heard members mention it here. My opinion is that Intel boards are to people what IBM is to businesses. Intel boards are great stable products.

I think you have to look beyond the budget lines of products for 8 sata ports. Maybe even their flagship boards. However, they're not cheap.

 

[zenmaster]

I'm starting to research a new build and after a week or so of reading I have a question for people smarter then me and that's, "Why there's not much here about Intel MOBOs"?

I need 8 SATA drives and most MOBOs support 4 to 6 while Intel has a few boards that do.

My current system is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200/ASUS A8N-SLI Premium sitting inside an Antec P180. I've sworn off gaming for a few years as I become addicted easily but video editing is something that I do. I may not do it for a month or two but when It's time I'll chop and process dozens of hours of HD. Often I'll run batches that take 4 or 5 days to complete.

My current thoughts are getting a Q6600 and 8G of DDR2 RAM although I'm not done researching.

Why don't people talk about Intel MOBOs much? I know there are a few boards that offer 8 SATA ports on them but they're hard to find.

Thanks for listening.

Intel Boards tend to be over-priced and feature lacking so most recommend boards from other companies.

Lots of boards have 8Sata Ports -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128086

 

[fatcat]

I had the same line of questioning a couple of months back and I was told that Intel do make good MB which are very stable but they are geared less toward over clocking which is a favourite sport around these forums.

 

[groo]

you can add a card for all the Sata ports you could ask for.

 

[Shadow703793]

I had the same line of questioning a couple of months back and I was told that Intel do make good MB which are very stable but they are geared less toward over clocking which is a favourite sport around these forums.

Agreed. Well most Intel motherboards don't have much OCing options,... except the Skull Trail .

 

[Joe_The_Dragon]

You don't want to use software raid with that many ports get a pci-e sata / SAS card for that.

 

[SirMoby]

Actually, that's a good question. I don't know. A few times I've heard members mention it here. My opinion is that Intel boards are to people what IBM is to businesses. Intel boards are great stable products.

I think you have to look beyond the budget lines of products for 8 sata ports. Maybe even their flagship boards. However, they're not cheap.

That's why I purchased the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium. I don't really mind paying a little extra for a good MOBO. Stability is something that I need but getting a little more performance would be helpful.

Maybe I should check some benchmarks for video encoding with normal configs vs. OC configs.

 

[SirMoby]

you can add a card for all the Sata ports you could ask for.

True but I'd prefer to just have it on the MOBO. Your comments did convince me to go check and pricing and while SATA cards have come down in price, the ones with good ratings that can handle 4 drives are edging close to $100 so it might be cheaper to have it installed on a good MOBO.

 

[SirMoby]

You don't want to use software raid with that many ports get a pci-e sata / SAS card for that.

Actually I found RAID to be a bit slower when writing so I do disk mirroring of my drives using Retrospect every night. I know that RAID is much better and if I have a failure that I could still use a day's worth of work but I still feel pretty well covered.

 

[leon2006]

Check PROMISE webpage for SATA raid controller. That is if you need 8 SATA port.

Intel boards are reliable and stable. Not good for overclock type of scenario.

Intel Chipsets are prioritize to 3rd party vendors such as ASUS, GBYTE..etc. Intel boards normally come out late compare to ASUS, GBYTE...etc.