Which one of these motherboards should I get?

[ragingazn628]

I will game and not SLI (not a hardcore gamer)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131295

or any other one?

 

[Onus]

I've used the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L. It should be fine. Get DDR2-800 for it.

 

[ragingazn628]

Thanks a lot btw what's the difference between the new P45 chipet and P35 chipset?

 

[aevm]

P45 comes with PCI-E 2.0, for example. I'm voting for the 3rd one (P5Q). You pay $33 more than for the DS3L (after shipping) but get RAID, eSATA, FireWire, more cables, PCI-E 2.0, 8 SATA ports instead of 4.

The second one (P5Q Pro) is the best of the 3 if you want a Crossfire setup. Otherwise you pay more than for the P5Q and end up with a PCI slot less - not a good deal. You said you won't SLI, so I guess two ATI cards in Crossfire is also not something you'd want. What about using 3 or 4 monitors? If you expect to do that then you do want two PCI-E slots (2 video cards, each with two monitors) so it's worth getting the P5Q Pro.

 

[Zenthar]

The DS3L (1st one) is a good cheap choice, you probably won't get your money's worth in performance increase if you go for the P45, but you will get nice extra features. You have to know if these extras are worth ~30-40$ to you.

 

[geofelt]

They are all good boards.
They will all perform about the same with the same processor.
Get the cheapest one that has the features that you need.

The gigabyte ds3l is limited to4 sata ports. Is that enough?

Do you need 2 pci-e slots?

 

[ragingazn628]

I will only use 2 SATA slots and I don't need 2 pci-e slots because I will not dual video cards. I will only use one 22inch monitor.

 

[aevm]

Sounds like a job for the DS3L then. The others add features you don't need, so why pay extra.

 

[ragingazn628]

Sweet thanks! but they are all the same speeds right

 

[aevm]

Yes, sort of. That is, no differences you'd notice unless you look for them and run benchmarks.

The PCI-E 2.0 on the P5Q makes a (small) difference for very expensive video cards that need a lot of bandwidth, like the 9800GX2. Most video cards work just fine in PCI-E 1 slots (like on the DS3L) without losing any speed.

The CPU works the same on any MB if you leave it at stock. If you overclock, the MB matters because some let you reach higher clocks. Both the DS3L and the P5Q are good at it, no worries.

The HDD speed differs between motherboards, but it's just a few percentages and I have no idea which is better there, DS3L or P5Q.

 

[GMDEv]

The PCI-E 2.0 on the P5Q makes a (small) difference for very expensive video cards that need a lot of bandwidth

Actually, you can find really good PCI-E 2.0 video cards now that are priced at-par with the PCI-E 1.1 of same model. My favorite one is the ASUS 8800 GT which is only $129 (after rebates)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121224

So there's another reason to go for the P45 right? I'm thinking of going the P45* route myself but I'm just a bit afraid that I might have difficulty overclocking it based on some of the things I've read: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/12/will-you-overclock-intel-s-p45/1

Although I'm just not convinced if that still applies to the newer P45 boards that have come out. - Can anyone help shed some light on this? (avem?)


* btw OP, you might want to check out this board, it's also got a P45, and is exactly the same price as the P5Q ($149), but it's Gigabyte
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128344&Tpk=GA-EP45-DS3R

 

[aevm]

I don't think there ever was a PCI-E 1.1 8800GT. Was there??? Anyway, it doesn't matter - the 8800GT works just as well on PCI-E 1.1 and PCI-E 2.0, no difference.

P45 - I don't know, honestly. I still like some P35 MBs more. For example the GA-EP35-DS3R has 3 PCI slots and 8 SATA ports, while the GA-EP45-DS3R has only 2 PCI slots and only 6 SATA ports. If you need a sound card/TV tuner/modem for example, it's annoying to have only 2 PCI slots. You can buy USB based versions to solve it, but they cost more. If you want 5 HDD and 2 burners, only 6 SATA ports are also annoying. OK, maybe it's just me.

Interesting article about overclocking the P45. I think the point is if you overclock a lot you need to know about a lot of weird BIOS settings and to spend a lot of effort and time. Well, that's fair IMO and to be expected. For your average enthusiast who wants to overclock but doesn't care about records, I think the P45 is just fine. Keep in mind that a P35 (normally at 333MHz) gets praise if it can do, say, 420MHz, while a P45 (standard 400MHz) gets insults if it only does the same. The P45 may in fact get you a higher clock than a P35, it just doesn't blow past expectations so nicely because the expectations are higher for it.