hey guys ...im kinda in a rut here and need some advice ... i need a new system by tuesday, i want to order it tonight but it always seems the motherboard is hardest component to pick so a little help would be greatly apprechiated.
my system is going to be a budget system and here are the components i have picked less the mothor board
Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 625MHZ 512MB 1.88GHZ DDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out Video Card
only going with 2 gigs for now as i will be running XP
now i have thought about the Gigabyte EP45-DS3L but have herd mixed things about it ...ppl having problems with ram voltages and slower sata/usb and the Gigabyte EP35 DS3L also sounds like a mixed bag...so im kinda lost on the whole motherboard thing...any suggestions on which one i should get? asus? gigabyte? DFI?...who knos?...lol....... looking for something that isint going to break the bank..but also be reliable and a good overclocker ...or even a avg overclocker ..i kno i cant expect too much in the pricerange i just want to kno whats my best bet ......if you have any advice that would be awesome , TIA
If you're playing games, 2gb isn't enough even for XP. A lot of people get the wrong idea concerning ram usage. Vista's 1gb vs XP's 500mb is really just hald a gig of difference. The real ram hogs are games. Crysis hogs 2+gb after a while of gameplay, so does Supreme Commander at higher unit counts. More typical games, like Gears of War and Stalker, can hog about 1.5gb or more. Newer games will consume more. It won't be enough no matter what.
Mainstream people kept whinning about Vista ram usage because all they do is browsing the web. And at 1gb, it's a 100% increase over XP for them. If you run games, it's not as significant.
P5Q Deluxe or P45-DS3L or if on a budget P35-DS3L. I'm not sure what you have heard about the Gigabyte boards but as long as you don't install the DES software you won't run in to much problems and providing you know what you are doing (if OCing).
I find that BIOSTAR/MSI/etc have issues with quality control. Had a couple of BIOSTAR and MSI boards die on me. I'll never personally buy a BIOSTAR/MSI unless absolutely necessary.
P5Q Deluxe or P45-DS3L or if on a budget P35-DS3L. I'm not sure what you have heard about the Gigabyte boards but as long as you don't install the DES software you won't run in to much problems and providing you know what you are doing (if OCing).
I find that BIOSTAR/MSI/etc have issues with quality control. Had a couple of BIOSTAR and MSI boards die on me. I'll never personally buy a BIOSTAR/MSI unless absolutely necessary.
Biostar/MSI quality is fine. Current overclocking recordholder is Biostar. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813138118 In order to qualify, it held up stable at extreme clock rate for an extended period of time, maintained working order long after other "good quality" boards failed under the intense stress. Quality can't be too bad. After all, would you doubt the physical conditions of an Olympics gold medal winner?
As for p35, it's better to avoid it at this point. P35, while still perform decently, is obsolete. It's going out of production and being officially replaced by p45. Support is going to be poor from that point on. Since p45 start at under $100, there is no advantage in price for p35.
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