I've decided to get a Q9450 CPU (with stock fan) and either an Antec three hundred, nine hundred or Cooler Master 650 case.

Not interested in overclocking, just running batches in photoshop (which might run for 10-20 hours) and copying thousands of images to external hard drives for customers.

I think I've narrowed it down to 2 motherboards and wondered if anyone can help me decide:

GA-EP35-DS3P
or
GA-X48-DQ6

The X48 is double the price but is it worth it? Does it better support the 45nm Q9450??

I'm in Canada and can't seem to find any online store in canada which sells P45 version of those gigabyte boards so I might I'm limiting myself to what's listed on the web sites.

If anyone can help me pick between the EP35 and the X48 Gigabyte boards, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

X48 certainly overclock a lot better. And it supports 45nm quad natively, without bios update, which can save you a lot of headaches. If the stock is new, there's a chance you might get a newer p35 board that comes with new bios out of the box. But it's hit or miss, so be prepared to get a second cpu just to update that bios.

P45 overclocks as wel as x38/48, and also use PCIE2.0, but no Crossfire support. It's about the same price as p35. Here's one at $99.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130181

You can't buy from newegg in Canada, but price difference shouldn't be too big. There are decent models other than Gigabyte. If you chase after brand name, you'll almost always end up paying more.

With that little warning about the P35, and not having any spare CPUs hanging around, I guess my hand is being forced into buying the X48.

It's only a chance of getting old stock with old bios. Plus any cpu, like a cheap celeron, will do. P35 is still a viable choice if you're willing to risk a little. Up to you.

i would just get a x38 instead of x48... the only difference between those are the fact that x38 is 1333mhz front side bus while the x48 is 1600mhz front side bus... mind you the x48 is more expensive... but not too much more expensive... i myself cannot afford the difference.. haha.. anyways since you're not oc'ing, then you might want to consider a higher fsb in an attempt to be 'more future proof'

p35 boards are sweet but my guess is that the x38/x48's will work 'more efficiently' on the 45nm cpus... afterall, its newer technology - dont hold me to this though.. just my guess..

if youre into graphics, then wouldnt you want to go in the direction of dual gpus? i mean in the future a lot of designing, graphics, and CAD software will use multi-core processing as well as multi-gpus... i wouldnt want to be stuck with a board that cant support sli/crossfire....

P45 motherboards support the Q9450 natively, and doesn't cost as much as getting a X48.

Never purchased from this place before so I'd rather not take a chance. It's not my money anyway (it's for work) I literally don't have any spare parts to update the BIOS if I go P35 and get unlucky.

I'm not interested in crossfire at all. This machine is just going to be used for batch processing and copying files so if it takes an extra 1 or 2 to complete because my GPU isn't high end, I'm fine with that.

The card I found to go with this machine is an

XFX GeForce 8400 GS TurboCache Video Card - 256MB DDR2, Supporting 512MB with TurboCache, PCI Express, DVI, VGA, HDTV.

whatever all that means.... it's $55 Just need something to display a picture.

In that case P45 is the way to go, $99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130181
And a bottom feeder 8400gs for $55 is very bad deal. Get a far better performing 3650 for $45 after mir, $60 before.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102726

Kind of wanted a firewire port in there too. What about the MSI P45 platinum? I see that listed at $215 for me. About $40 more than the P35 I listed originally but $100 less than the X48.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130179

That card shows up as $86 for me which ain't that bad.

This site is in Canada and has P45 mobo's
http://www.ncixus.com/search/?cate [...] -107&q=p45