Motherboard suggestions

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hell everybody. i was wondering if i could get some motherboard suggestions.
my current setup:
mobo: asus p5n32-e sli (overclocking my q6600 is a pain in the butt, cant get past 2.7)
cpu: q6600
500 gb hard drive
psu: 600w
gpu: 8500 gt (will have a gtx 260 in a week or so)
memory: corsair 2 gb dual channel 800 mhz (5-5-5-18) (upgrading to some ram that runs at 1066)

i have a max of 300 dollars to spend but i would prefer boards within the 0 to 200 price range.
i need some suggestions for a mobo thats good for overclocking q6600 and supports ram up to 1333, and has at least one pci-e 2.0 slot.

any suggestions would be great, thanks

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I have a X48 rampage formula and a P45 Maximus II formula and I would really recommend the P45, it has tons of options highly customisable. great board. Best board i,ve owned so far.

Reply to col-p-todd

To answer your question, a P45 based board should be good. It should cost <$100.

Instead, since you seem to be a gamer, why not just get a E8500 already clocked much higher at stock and sell the Q6600?

Instead of faster ram, get 4gb. It will do more for you in games.

Reply to geofelt

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128359

EXTREMELY good overclocking board. Took my q6600 to 3.4ghz outta the box. The board is very heavily built and that heatsinks seem to do their job very well. Board runs cool even with the overclock. I can't say enough good things about these boards. I've always had ASUS and had pretty good luck with them (for the most part), but I decided to try gigabyte and I'm 100% satisfied.

Although I agree with Todd and that ASUS Maximus board was on my lookey list when I purchased last week, I couldn't justify the huge price increase over the gigabyte. For the price of that one board I could get one very similar AND purchase another 4850. I actually ended up buying the UD3P version, which is the same board +1 PCIe slot, and 2 4850s in xfire, and wowwww. My 3dmark vantage scores increased by almost 3k.

Reply to bosshoss

geofelt wrote :

To answer your question, a P45 based board should be good. It should cost <$100.

Instead, since you seem to be a gamer, why not just get a E8500 already clocked much higher at stock and sell the Q6600?

Instead of faster ram, get 4gb. It will do more for you in games.



i have considered getting 4gb, but i have xp 32-bit, and it only has a max ram limit of 4 but they say that it only reads like 3 or 3.5 and plus my gtx 260 memory adds on to it.

Reply to wahjahka

bosshoss wrote :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128359

EXTREMELY good overclocking board. Took my q6600 to 3.4ghz outta the box. The board is very heavily built and that heatsinks seem to do their job very well. Board runs cool even with the overclock. I can't say enough good things about these boards. I've always had ASUS and had pretty good luck with them (for the most part), but I decided to try gigabyte and I'm 100% satisfied.

Although I agree with Todd and that ASUS Maximus board was on my lookey list when I purchased last week, I couldn't justify the huge price increase over the gigabyte. For the price of that one board I could get one very similar AND purchase another 4850. I actually ended up buying the UD3P version, which is the same board +1 PCIe slot, and 2 4850s in xfire, and wowwww. My 3dmark vantage scores increased by almost 3k.



seems very similar to the gigabyte ga-ep45-ud3p. seems like if i want to pay another $20 for another pci-e 2.0 i should get that one haha i really do like those 2 boards, probably going to get the one you suggested, thanks :)

Reply to wahjahka

wahjahka wrote :

i have considered getting 4gb, but i have xp 32-bit, and it only has a max ram limit of 4 but they say that it only reads like 3 or 3.5 and plus my gtx 260 memory adds on to it.



Still, 3gb is 50% better than 2gb.
Here's why 4gb is good:
http://www.corsairmemory.com/_appn [...] alysis.pdf

Reply to geofelt

geofelt wrote :

Still, 3gb is 50% better than 2gb.
Here's why 4gb is good:
http://www.corsairmemory.com/_appn [...] alysis.pdf


good read
going to upgrade to 4gb (5-5-5-18, 1600mhz) thanks


Message edited by wahjahka on 10-31-2008 at 03:40:31 PM
Reply to wahjahka

geofelt wrote :

Still, 3gb is 50% better than 2gb.
Here's why 4gb is good:
http://www.corsairmemory.com/_appn [...] alysis.pdf



would i be better of getting 4 x 1024 or 2 x 2048? or does it not matter? will windows recognize more then 2 gb
with 2 sticks of 2048?

Reply to wahjahka

Get 2x2gb.
1) Preserves your option to go to 8gb.
2) 2 sticks is easier on the mobo, particularly if you will overclock.
3) Price is about the same.

A 32 bit OS will see about 3.4gb, depending on the vga card memory.
Still 3.4gb is a good boost over 2.0gb.

Reply to geofelt

+1 for Bosshoss recommendation, or the slightly hier priced one

(1) With that board you should easily hit 3.2 ( 8 x 400), may even get thatt 6600 to 3.6 GHz (9 x400)

(2) Recommend 2 x 2 Gig sticks. geofelt has valid points - concur.Recommend 4-4-4-15 DDR2-800. Low cost,
With a Bus of 400 it will be a 1 to 1 ratio with either of the above proc settings. (FSB = 1600)

Note: have a Gigabyt DQ6 board with Bus set to 400, 2x2Gig Mushkins set to 4-4-4-15, 1::1 and Cpu 8 x 400 = 3.2 (E6400)

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by RetiredChief on 11-03-2008 at 10:01:40 PM
Reply to RetiredChief

RetiredChief wrote :

+1 for Bosshoss recommendation, or the slightly hier priced one

(1) With that board you should easily hit 3.2 ( 8 x 400), may even get thatt 6600 to 3.6 GHz (9 x400)

(2) Recommend 2 x 2 Gig sticks. geofelt has valid points - concur.Recommend 4-4-4-15 DDR2-800. Low cost,
With a Bus of 400 it will be a 1 to 1 ratio with either of the above proc settings. (FSB = 1600)

Note: have a Gigabyt DQ6 board with Bus set to 400, 2x2Gig Mushkins set to 4-4-4-15, 1::1 and Cpu 8 x 400 = 3.2 (E6400)


are you saying i should be able to hit 3.2 (8 x 400) on the gigabyte ud3p?

Reply to wahjahka

Just get a UD3R. You don't need the extra PCI-E slot since you can't SLI on an Intel chipset anyway. Even if you intend to SLI in the future, don't go for an Nvidia board cuz they generally cost more, and many people still prefer Intel chipsets. The extra $ saved should go to a new processor (E8400/E8500) or better RAM (2x2GB DDR2 800MHz as suggested)

Reply to huilun02

huilun02 wrote :

Just get a UD3R. You don't need the extra PCI-E slot since you can't SLI on an Intel chipset anyway. Even if you intend to SLI in the future, don't go for an Nvidia board cuz they generally cost more, and many people still prefer Intel chipsets. The extra $ saved should go to a new processor (E8400/E8500) or better RAM (2x2GB DDR2 800MHz as suggested)


i know, it cant run sli (sli is point less to me) i have an nvidia board now its sooooo bad (680i). so the ud3r over the ud3p? will the o/c capabilities be the same, ud3p got good o/c reviews so i wanna make sure that i can o/c my q6600 just as much on the ud3r as the ud3p


Message edited by wahjahka on 11-12-2008 at 04:37:37 AM
Reply to wahjahka
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