Hey,

I am wondering what motherboard you would recommend for Q9450?

As I have no old socket 775 cpu around, I have to count in the price of a cheap cpu for updating the bios unless the board can run with Q9450 out of the box.

I haven't been able to find any other boards than ASUS P5K/EPU supporting Q9450 out of the box - do you know of any others? (I looked at http://support.asus.com/cpusupport [...] uage=en-us for ASUS support list)

I'm just in doubt whether I should go for a X38 board (though I haven't been able to find one supporting Q9450 with the oldest bios) - I am probably gonna get a 8800GTS and I have no intentions for Crossfire at the moment.

But as I'm not very often upgrading my system, I am wondering if it is worth taking X38 because of PCI 2.0 and just having the option for crossfire (in case crossfire solutions become cheaper and more normal in the future)? I would like to have the option of buying a good graphics card at some point in the future when things start getting slow.

As a last note I am not playing games in extreme resolutions (gonna get a 19" or 20" screen at some point - not bigger).

Thanks in advance

If you don't want an Asus, you can try GA-EX38-DS4. It supports the Q9450 all right. PCI-E 2.0 won't do much for an 8800GTS, but it will be useful when you upgrade that video card to something more powerful.

Can you afford a HD 3870X2? It's faster than the 8800GTS in many games (that is, in games that support Crossfire), and it gives you the option to add more GPU power later. For example AMD promises you will be able to combine it with a HD 4870, which apparently will be faster than any card out there now.

That would really push the limits of my budget, with both X38 and an HD 3870X2, but would you say the performance gain is worth it?

And are you 100% sure that GA-EX38-DS4 can run with Q9450 out of the box?

I don't have anything against ASUS, I am open to all brands available to me (I'm from Denmark)

Oops. I am absolutely sure that the GA-EX38-DS4 from www.newegg.com can run with the Q9450 out of the box. But if you're not in the USA you can't buy from newegg. Some retailers in Denmark may still be selling it with an older BIOS. Sorry, I just don't know... Can you ask the retailer what BIOS version you get, before you buy?

My Abit IP35 Pro ran my Q9450 out of the box.

aevm: I can try to ask but I don't think they will know

Would you advice me to buy a X38 board even though I decide to go with a 8800GTS? After looking up the price of HD3870X2 I think it's too expensive.. it's almost double the price of a 8800GTS..

Yeah, to find out they'd have to open the box, and they hate that because they'd have to sell it cheaper if you don't buy it.

The 3870X2 is worth more than the 8800GTS, but not even close to double. OK, stick with the 8800GTS. In that case, Crossfire is not an option, so you might as well get a P35 motherboard and save some money. The aBit IP35 Pro jtt283 mentioned is an excellent mobo, for example.

PCI 2.0 and an option for crossfire in the future wouldn't make you take an X38?

I'm not much into the technical details, but I've read that future cards should take use of this - but I can't see how great impact it's gonna have, and if it's gonna be required at some point in the near future - forcing me to buy a new motherboard.

I just want to be sure that in like 1 year I can buy a new graphics card - for example next year's equivalent to 8800GTS in price/performance ratio.

PCI-E 2.0 will be important for future cards, absolutely. Just guessing here, a card that costs $300 in 2010 will lose at least 25% of its speed on a P35 motherboard. Don't ask me to prove it, it's a guess and it may be completely wrong. All I'm basing it on is some articles that showed the 9800GX2 losing a few percentage points on P35. I'm guessing that future cards will need even more bandwidth than the 9800GX2 so they will suffer more from the PCI-E 1 limit.

For a 20" monitor you don't need two video cards. You can get your PCI-E 2.0 slots from either X38 or 780i, and you don't need to care that one supports Crossfire and the other SLI. The XFX 780i would probably be better than an X38 because it has SLI and you're getting an nVidia card, but you don't really need a second card.

I think the asus x38 works out of the box

http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6813131219

Can any one confirm this?

I'd consider an X38 for the Q9450 because:

1) Nice powerful new 45nm processor because of all that hardcore stuff you want to throw at it, why start out skimping on the motherboard?

2) Overclocks, an X38 is gonna do 1600FSB easily, maybe even 1750FSB or better...which would be harder (but maybe not impossible) for the P35.

Ok, so.. I think the choice has come to some X38 board or XFX 780i (since the other 780i boards are getting too expensive) - if I can find a board working with q9450 out of the box.

The ASUS P5E which Karol4 links to, seems to need one of the newest bios versions? At least that's what I figured out when looking at the support list at ASUS' website. It's really only P5K/EPU that, according to ASUS' support list, works with Q9450 with the oldest bios.

The price difference between P5K/EPU and Gigabyte EX38-DS4 and a possible cheap cpu for bios update is quite noticeable

I couldn't find any detailed support list for XFX 780i.

Okay, I didn't read further after that statement. Here's some funky logic. I have an X48 board. Many people here tell me that its older sibling the X38 Maximus Formula...is precisely the same thing and that only if you're stupid would you pay the $20 difference. Well, my X48 ran my Q9450 right out of the box. So, that should mean that an X38 Maximus Formula would also run the Q9450...right out of the box. Well, the P5E is ...basically a Maximus Formula minus some heatsinks and bios smoke and mirrors. So, see where I'm going with this?

If A = B and B = C, then A ... = C

LOL. I know its not quite like that. I think your Q9450 will work on a P5E...right out of the box and give you more than enough time to upgrade the bios, if you feel you need to. Here's where you might find some more info on that...right out of the box... http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.as [...] board_id=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128337

Just came out not long ago, and will work with all that junk out of the box. $90 shipped, and it's an update to the P35 which was also an awesome board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128059

I have no idea why it went up in price so much though. It was $90 the other day.

I have the same problem but I guess I will take a chance and get the Asus X38. Yeah i think all x38 support q9450 out of the box.

Ok thanks, It looks like I should take a chance with a X38 - paying extra for a 780i is probably not worth it since I'm not going with SLI right away?

I've read about the Gigabyte boards having double bios which sounds nice - but how difficult is it to reset an ASUS board if I screw something up? I would like to try a bit of OC'ing, but I'm a beginner