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Help Me Pick a New Motherboard

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - Help Me Pick a New Motherboard

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ideffect   12-29-2008 at 05:38:25 AM

Hello,

My motherboard's bios is screwed (a flash gone bad) and I can't wait for a new bios chip to repair my motherboard (if it even will) and my local choices for a new one are limited.

So what I was running...
Asus PK5-Deluxe - Dead
4GB DDR2-800 (4x1GB)
Q6600 OC'd to 3.0GHz
ATi 4850 500MB GPU
4 SATA Hard Drives - 2 in a Raid 1 array
Vista x64
and not that is should matter but a 650watt (Quality brand that I can't remember).

My choice of boards are:
ASUS P5Q-E for $150.00
MSI P45 NEO2-FR for $125.00


So what do you think?

Thanks for the help!


Message edited by ideffect on 12-29-2008 at 06:18:54 AM
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peaks   12-29-2008 at 12:37:36 PM
- 0 +

I'd probably go for the Asus board. 1 - because they have a better name in MoBo's, 2 - because I know they are good boards (stable and OC well)

Altho, you dont get PCIe x 4 but does that really matter? The asus board supports a higher memory standard, the MSI needs and overclock!

Reply to peaks
Nils   12-29-2008 at 04:18:28 PM
- 0 +

Definately go for Asus. I have heard some very bad things about MSI mobo's. Would not get one.

PS. Doesn't Asus have a function on its boards called Crashfree BIOS? With it you can restore the BIOS if you messed it up, using the mobo support cd/dvd.

Reply to Nils
MRFS   12-29-2008 at 04:45:21 PM
- 0 +

> Doesn't Asus have a function on its boards called Crashfree BIOS?

Yes, and it has worked as advertised for us, but we generally stay with stock settings and avoid overclocks for the sake of the highest possible stability.


Also RTFM: The manual for the P5Q Premium says ExpressGate does not work if you enable RAID on the main SATA connectors.

The ASUS P45 chipsets support 16GB of DDR2. G.Skill have a 16GB "kit" (4 DIMMs @ 4GB).

A good stock "sweet spot" is DDR2-800 (400 MHz "DRAM Frequency" per CPU-Z) and 1600 MHz FSB (400 MHz "Bus Speed" per CPU-Z) for a 1 : 1 FSB : DRAM ratio.

Good luck!


MRFS


Message edited by MRFS on 12-29-2008 at 04:47:55 PM
Reply to MRFS
IH8U   12-29-2008 at 05:05:25 PM
- 0 +

Avoid MSI like the plague, ASUS, and Gigabyte are very good brands. BTW Gigabyte frequently has dual BIOS, you can always roll it back if you have problems. (I have done this myself)

Reply to IH8U
AMG   12-31-2008 at 02:46:49 AM
- 0 +

^1 vow for that one too I had a k9..... what a mistake >.> replaced with asus.
this was AM2 btw not LGA775 but ethoir way i will never go back with MSI

ASUS,Gigabyte. yes defo what about DFI ? they are good so I hear

Reply to AMG
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