Which one? Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L vs Asus P5Q SE

[nene_mataro]

Hi! I'm building a new rig and I've decided to buy one of these two unexpensive motherboards based on the P45 chipset:

- Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L
- Asus P5Q SE

I don't want to spend more money because I'm looking forward to acquiring a Core i7 32nm next year. However, I urgently need a decent computer right now...

I've just bought a HD 4870, and I'm not going to use Crossfire.

My question arises when choosing the CPU. I've read that E7200 (112€) is good for overclocking, achieving a similar performance to the E8500 or even higher. But I'm afraid these mobos are not good enough to stretch the E7200 up to 4Ghz, so I'm wondering whether would it be better to buy a E8400 at 3,0GHz (157€) and use the stock heatsink. The price difference is roughly the same as the new heatsink I would buy for the E7200.

Please, what do you guys think of it? If I decide to go for the E7200, which mobo is better for overclocking?

Thank you all!!

 

[Infinity_Wasted]

if you're going to be getting another setup in one year, just go ahead and buy the cheaper parts and overclock them as much as possible.

I have a P5Q-E, and it's very good. the overclocking menu in the BIOS is a bit over my head, though, but if you're familiar with terms like "skew" "strap" "spread spectrum" and all the other ones like that, then the P5Q series should be fine for you.

I'm not sure about the Gigabyte board, though. I've built several computers, and I've always used ASUS Motherboards. not that I'm against any of their competitors, but they've just always worked for me. hell, my very first one even caught on fire and it still works.. as a home server.

 

[MaDMagik]

Hi,

My suggestion is either one of these mobos, because unless you get a faulty one than both will do the job. As for cpu I would go for e8400 because as you said price of e7200 with decent cooler and e8400 is roughly the same, and probably you could do as many others run it at 3.6ghz 400mhz fsb(nice 1:1 memory ratio if u have ddr2 800 ram) on stock cooling, providing theres good airflow in your case.

 

[Noya]

This board is much better and only a few more buck in the states:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359