Best motherboard for my situation? Please help!!

[kubes]

I am a gamer and am planning on ordering the parts for my next rig. I have a question about what motherboard I should go with. Current things that are factories in my decision on what board to get are,
• ddr2 1066 ram (I don’t see enough of a performance increase to go to ddr3 yet)
• gtx280 vid card(only one)
• 1 to 2 hard drives
• Air cooling
• Q9550 cpu (might overclock a bit but not much…maybe up to 3.2)

Question:
what’s the best chipset to get? P45, x48 or n780?
What’s are some suggestions for boards that are for my situation.
Is asus still play god of all motherboards?

Boards that have caught my eye:
Asus Rampage Formula
Asus Maximius Formula 2
Evga 780i FTW
Evga 780i normal
Asus PQ5's boards

any suggestions would really help ...thanks

 

[evongugg]

Welcome to the forums!

P45 if you are not going to do Crossfire or SLI. Gigabyte is good too.

Asus PQ5's boards are good.

 

[swidd]

I just had the same question myself, two days ago, and I ended up ordering the Asus P5Q Pro, with similar setup requirement as you, a single GTX 260, Q9400, single hard drive, for gaming.

Cheap, same performance and standards as more expensive cards, good features, solid state capacitors. Its got all I need (and all I would use anyway) in the card, for about half the price of SLI-enabled cards.

I'd avoid the 780i and SLI-boards. While necessary for SLI, and good performance when they perform, they don't have the rock solidness of a Intel P45 board.

 

[aevm]

+1 for P45. With a single video card, it's the smartest choice. I like the GA-EP45-UD3R and the P5Q Pro for example.

Get DDR2-800, not DDR2-1066. The DDR2-1066 is for people who want to overclock a lot.

If you make these changes ($120 P45 MB instead of $200 or $300 X48/780i, and cheaper DDR2-800) you may even be able to upgrade the video to 4870 X2 2GB. I suggest you check some benchmarks for you favorite games to see if that is worth it first.

Asus makes good motherboards these days, but so does Gigabyte. I think they're both lucky because Intel did a good job with the P45 and X48 and they benefit from it.

Check out the WD6400AAKS hard disks and the HDT-S1283 or Sunbeam Core Contact coolers (you can find details at www.newegg.com, I'm too lazy to provide links, just search for them, OK?)

 

[col-p-todd]

I have both the Asus Rampage Formula & Asus Maximius Formula 2 and i Prefer the P45, it has more features. I would highy recommend itif your not going to crossfire anyway.

 

[kubes]

Thanks guys for such a fast reply. Great Help and I must say some of the friendliest replies I've received on any forums.

I’m a pretty big nvidia fan boy so I’m planning on sticking with the gtx280. I have had a lot of issues in the past with ati cards mostly revolving around driver issues and am timid about going down that path again.

I also appreciate the comments about getting ddr 2 800 instead of 1066. I was thinking of going for the 1066 to have a little bit of breathing room in case I need to overclock. I know with a 1333mhz fsb I really only need a 667mhz for the ram. I guess only using 800 still leaves me some breathing room.

I will admit I was pretty set on getting the Asus Maximius Formula 2 but now hearing some of your guys’ thoughts and looking into some of the other boards I will say I am looking into the asus p5q pro and the GA-EP45-UD3R. Both of these are a lot cheaper that I originally budgeted myself to be. I expected 200+ dollars for a motherboard but this is a pleasant surprise that I really don’t need those.

 

[bobbknight]

OK your a gamer, the very first thing you need to answer before anything is,
SLI, Crossfire, or single video card.
Then we can build from there.
Oh and stay away from Asus they have the worst service department.