Help with choosing a motherboard

[tazz85]

Hi, I'm looking for good motherboard. Budget is up to 180$ and I want to use the on-board graphics card if my primary dies so maybe something with Z68 chipset. Also it must be reliable - I don't know what this technologies - Ultra Durable 2 and 3 mean, but I' having enough changing some parts every 2 years. I have one ASUS Commando and it's still very well performing although it 's 3 and half years old. I went to some local store in Bulgaria and the seller showed me Gigabyte Z68X-UD3P B3 and told me that these capacitors are Japanese as said by the manufacturer, but are they from Nippon-Chemicon or Matsushita? How to identify them? There were no signs like described in hardwaresecrets's guide or Gigabyte's site? I'm building the following PC and I'll use it for running Vritual Machines with Windows 2008 and playing 1080p movies:
Core i5-2400/2x2GB Kingston HyperX 1600/WD Black 1TB + Black 500GB/Gigabyte GTS450 1GB GDDR5/Chieftec case/Seasonic Bronze 520W

Please give me some advice. Thank you.

BTW does this mobo have SSD iintegrated ga-z68xp-ud3-issdrev_10
http://www.gigabyte.bg/products/page/mb/ga-z68xp-ud3-issdrev_10/

 

[jaquith]

The GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD is a rip-off, and it's better to get your own SSD. Nippon is the native name for Japan, and Matsushita is in Kadoma, Japan. Japanese capacitors are the best.

An i5-2400 is incapable of OC so any Z68 with an 'iGPU' that can connect to your monitor is fine. High phase or high cost Z68's are solely geared to 'K' Sandy Bridge CPUs and/or multiple CF/SLI configurations.

However, 'I'll use it for running Vritual Machines' if it requires VT-d/Vt-x then most consumer MOBO's turn this OFF!!!
LGA 1155 with VT-d/Vt-x:
Intel -> http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-030922.htm?wapkw=%28support+for+Virtualization+on+desktop+board%29.
ASUS P8B WS -> http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8B_WS/

I don't know what Gigabyte 'consumer' MOBO's support VT-d/Vt-x and because it's difficult to find this info easily I suggest you contact Gigabyte and request Tier2 Support for a list of LGA 1155 MOBOs if you want a Gigagyte.

IMO - do it right and don't use a consumer CPU/MOBO/RAM!

 

[tazz85]

Thank you. I didin't know this. Core i5-2400 supports VT-d, but I'm actually will it be a good deal for me to let VM to use the real videocard and partition of the HDD. Maybe if run then under ESX Server it'll be. This Commano mobo supported VT-x as I managed to run 64-bit Windows.

 

[jaquith]

You might be missing my point, just because the CPU supports VT-d/VT-x doesn't mean that the MOBO supports that feature, and without 'both' you've got nothing. Maybe the ESXi in 32-bit, but not 64-bit. Just because your ASUS Commando LGA 775 supports VT-d assume the MOST LGA 1155's do NOT. Most LGA 1366 MOBO also support VT-d.

The LGA 1155 makes for a very poor VT-d/VT-x environment: limited support for VT-d/VT-x, 4XDIMM limit, costly and inefficient 8GB UDIMM, no RDIMM support, etc.

Even the ASUS overlooked VT-d support on its' P8B WS until BIOS 2011.07.05 update Version 0605.

IMO - look at either a LGA 1366 Xeon or Xeon (MP) MOBO, and one that supports RDIMM. edit: otherwise if you can wait for another 2~3 months look at the LGA 2011.

 

[tazz85]

Hmm, I will use this Virtual Machines for educational uses, not for running as a server...

 

[jaquith]

Then get an ASUS P8B WS with VT-d; update the BIOS to version 0605 or higher first; no RST support {SSD Caching}.

I have NO IDEA how reliable this document is, but it's worth checking out -> http://tinkertry.com/files/Z68-Motherboard-VT-d-ESXiNIC-RAID-Test-Matrix.pdf

I noticed ASRock Z68 Extreme4 and MSI Z68A-GD80 (B3) with both VT-d/VT-x support.

 

[tazz85]

OK, thank you, MSI and ASRock which I don't like so I'll try contacting Gigabyte support. SSD caching is good idea, but I'm going to leave it for now.