Best Business Motherboard? Please help.

[Aranon]

I can't figure out which motherboard to buy for my business host computer. I don't need an expensive gaming mother board with graphic chipsets and SLI, but I do want a very fast, but STABLE board that does not require a lot of power or put out a lot of heat. I do need gigabit ethernet

I would like to use:
1. Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
2. 4 gigs of DDR3 ram. Standard voltage ( I do not want to overclock)
3. Areca ARC-1210 PCI-Express Raid Controller Card in a Raid 1E (Raid 10 with 4 drives)
4. Four- WD Caviar RE2 WD1601ABYS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB SATA 3 Hard Drives
5. Some cheap video card or board with on board video. I will only use monitor for updates &
status.

So with all the vast knowledge,expertise and experience out there, what do think would be the best mobo for this type of computer. Remember this computer will never shut off so I would like it to be somewhat "Green" that doesn't consume huge amounts of power and really don't want to put in several fans that run all the time trying to cool it. Any suggestions???
Thanks.

 

[GhislainG]

I use an Asus P5Q Deluxe with a Q6600 to run Windows Server 2008 64-bit and VMWare Server and it is stable. I use the on-board SATA controller and an ATI 1950 Pro video card (Vista 64 drivers work fine).

What OS will you run on that system?

 

[roadrunner197069]

You dont need DDR3, and if you think you want it a board will cost alot more.

I would use Asus P5kPL-CM.

 

[Silverion77]

Drop the DDR3 and get a P5Q Pro or Gigabyte P45 DS3L

Whoops...

 

[timaahhh]

I would not go with Asus on this one.... Quality has left something to be desired and support is just God aweful. I would go with Intel, really quality support, and fast turn around on returns.

 

[GhislainG]

Silverion77, why would you recommend a 4850 on what will most likely be a server? On a server, what counts is CPU and I/O performance. Video is used to manage it (and most people do it remotely).

 

[Silverion77]

O rofl....sry sry...

I missed that completely...totally forget that part

 

[Aranon]

Ok, so now you got me really confused. So do or don't get DDR3 and do I understand don't use Asus but I should get which board?

"Drop the DDR3 and get a P5Q Pro or Gigabyte P45 DS3L"
Did you mean sry don't get this. Or do I get this. I confuse easily.

 

[GhislainG]

The Asus P5Q Deluxe is very stable and it uses DDR2. I have an Intel motherboard and when it failed (bad BIOS flash) it took 2 weeks to get a replacement from Intel, in addition to the 4 days of "try this, try that, flash a new BIOS, etc." Would I buy another Intel motherboard? Certainly if it's a stable one that meets my requirements, but my Asus motherboards also are very good and stable. If I needed it, I'd buy another Asus P5Q Deluxe.

 

[Aranon]

I still don't understand why no one wants me to use DDR3. For 4 gigs there are several brands between $150 and 180 dollars. That is not very expensive for 4 gigs of ram. If a host/server is suppose to be as fast as possible is that too much to spend. That is only about $48 more than I was going to spend on some high end DDR2 memory.

A Quad Processor with DDR3 and Raid with wired gigabit smart switch. Isn't this one of those no brainers, especially for the future? $50 - $100 bucks extra really doesn't seem to be that big a deal for a business host/server. Is it?

I'm a noobie with all this stuff. I have only built two gaming systems that seem pretty good with my sons (which are a lot smarter than me on this stuff) but it seems I would want pretty much the fastest I can get for the money.

I welcome all replys, like I said I am a noobie and trying to research all I can before I start building. I don't want to waste money, like putting in a couple of GEforce 9800 GX2's for a monitor I won't use, but memory seems like something to spend $40 or $50 more dollars on. Am I looking at the the wrong way?

 

[GhislainG]

Then get an Asus P5Q3 Deluxe and DDR3 memory. As a server or workstation it won't be faster than the P5Q Deluxe, but it should meet your requirements.