Motherboard gun shy...

[FingerDemon]

I'd appreciate some informed opinions here. I find there is so much to know about system builds that I generally use process of elimination to rule out whole areas of things. But now I'm in a corner and I want to know if any of this makes sense.

A few years ago I built an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 with Athlon XP 2500 and Corsair 333 DDR 2700. (No overclocking, but updated BIOS)

It has been pretty good but I have had some stability issues and some issues with USB ports not working reliably. When I researched it, Microsoft's knowledgebase indicated they thought ASUS did not supply enough power to USB and they had no solutions. I don't know if this is total bull, or if it was later fixed or what. I can tell ASUS still has its supporters, but I had planned on going with another brand of Mobo.

I wanted to pick a Mobo that was well reviewed and a lot of people used and liked. I looked at Gigabyte and even bought a Q6600 on sale for $200.00 that I planned to put in a Gigabyte board. But then I read about the latency problems people were having with Gigabyte boards. I don't really understand the problem, but I don't want to buy something that might have an unsolved problem that impacts music listening and gaming. I really want stability.

So, I looked at aBit IP35 Pro. Looked good, but now, I read that Abit might not stay in the Mobo market.

Me=confused.

Can anyone either dispel or confirm my concerns for these Mobo manufacturers or direct me to the maker of a stable system for the Q6600? I like gaming, but I really don't do much of it anymore. I will do some video editing, but just home movie stuff.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

 

[Onus]

Well, I'm using an Abit IP35 Pro. It has performed well in the few months I've had it, with a Q9450. The Q6600 should work just fine on it too. Get DDR2-800 RAM for it.

 

[aevm]

The aBit IP35Pro is probably the best P35 MB out there. I wouldn't worry about them getting out of the market. I don't think they'll do it. Besides, the BIOS is mature now, you won't need them to be around and update it anyway. If they go bankrupt and your MB blows up you will lose $170 or whatever, but how likely is that, and would it really be a major disaster for you?

I heard the thing about Gigabyte and latency too, read some articles. Personally I have never noticed anything wrong, even though I looked for it. I have had a GA-P35C-DS3R for almost a year. True, I use an X-Fi sound card, not the onboard audio, so maybe I do have a problem but it's solved by the X-Fi.