ASUS P5KPL-VM (G31 chipset) a decent board?

DanG

I'm building a new server rig for home and don't need anything fancy other than support for a couple of IDE drives and a couple of SATA drives and support for a Q6600.

My only concern is the G31 chipset. I'm hoping to hit around 3GHz, nothing too crazy.

Dependant on decent ram (OCZ DDR2 6400), a G0 and a thermalright ultra 120 extreme, will the G31 let me OC to a decent extent?

I like the G31 over the G965 because it has support for the 1333MHz FSB chips and would like to ensure a bit of upgrade room in the future. Or if the G965 is a better overclocker, I wouldn't have any issues going that way.

DanG

Actually I just found that I can get either an eVGA 650i Ultra or a BFG 650i Ultra board for the same price as the Asus, and add a PCI Radeon 7000 for about 40 bucks.

I've read a ton of good stuff about the 650i and 680i chipsets when it comes to overclocking as long as the north and southbridges are properly cooled.

Would that be a better option? Or something like the Giga-Byte P35-DS3L for around the same $100 price range.

I forgot to mention in the first post that ideally I'd also love to have gigabit LAN seeing as this is going to be my file server and I do have a gigabit switch.

Ultra-Nexus

You can check the Gigabyte G31MX-S2. Either are great options for a mATX that will let you oc that quad to 3Ghz without issues. If I am not mistaken the G31 is not a bearlake chipset (as the G33 and P35) but a G945 with FSB 1333 support with an ICH7 southbridge. The only problem is that the G31 would not support the future 45nm quad´s Yorkfield. In that case I would go for a G33.

I personally wouldnt recomend the nvidia chipsets since not only they tend to overheat but also consumes a lot of energy (wasted as heat).

The Gigabyte has a gigabit ethernet.

DanG

I'm perfectly fine with spending 40 bucks on a cheap pci video card and a board with non onboard video if it's going to get me a better overclocker. Full sized or micro atx aren't of any concern for me, it's going into my old antec sonata 2 case.

So the P35-DS3L should be a winner?

Ultra-Nexus

DanG wrote:

I'm perfectly fine with spending 40 bucks on a cheap pci video card and a board with non onboard video if it's going to get me a better overclocker. Full sized or micro atx aren't of any concern for me, it's going into my old antec sonata 2 case.

So the P35-DS3L should be a winner?

Yes! Just make sure you get the rev 2.0!

DanG

is there a way to see if it's version 1 or 2 other than what's screened on the PCB?

Ultra-Nexus

I´m not sure... I guess it should say in the sticker outside the box as well.