I'm looking for a motherboard

HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
edited November 2008 in Hardware
Allo Icrontic

My budget is about $200, cheaper the better but I am looking for stability, performance and reliability (unlike everyone else, right :rolleyes:).

I've currently got a broken ASUS P5N-E SLi board and need a replacement.

Requirements:

Intel 775 socket ('bout 1333Mhz bus)
DDR2 RAM slots (800Mhz minimum support. 3-4 slots)
SLi/Crossftire not needed (I have an nVidia card)
SATA II
Space enough for an Arctic 7 pro
Good for overclocking

I think that's everything I need, but I'm a tad clueless when it comes to motherboards and dont know what's good, in, reliable, whatever any more :tongue:

Any help, suggestions, previous experiences appreciated. Rest of my specs (If relevant) are in my signature below

Thanks!

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    DFI BloodIron or (for more overclockability and +£32), the DFI LanParty P35(/P45?) DK-T2R/S
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    The LanParty P45 DK- T2RS is looking very strong at the moment :tongue: Anyone got anything to beat it?
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Not really. It's a fine choice.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    RMA was approved, thankfully I get my money back instead of a free replacement :rockon:

    I'll be ordering this board as soon as the money is sent. Thanks guys :D
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited November 2008
    Another good choice is the Asus P5Q Pro. It's based on the P45 chipset and is pretty full featured with some good overclocking options in bios also. I've recently put together 2 systems with this board and it's a nice board for the price. I have nothing against the DFI boards though either. But I would go with a P45 chipset board over a P35 board nowadays, for better 45 nm quad overclocking.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    I ordered the DFI LanParty P45 board, will be arriving today :tongue: With any luck I'll be able to install the goddamn HDD now >: (
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    It arrived today. I started at 14:30. A miserable 11 hours later -yes, 11 hours- I managed to get everything sorted out. Glad its running again but horribly disappointed at how faffy that was >.<

    I'll do some benchmarks when Im not EMOMODE
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    What the hell did you do?
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    I wuz doin' it rong.

    Actually I have no idea what went wrong :tongue: Things weren't working all over the place, drivers going nuts, things not being detected, [strike]idiot between the chair and screen[/strike], USB mouse and keyboard not working and then taking about an hour to realise PS2 mice etc would still work.

    At least now I can experience overclocking in a way other than, as you put it Thrax: PRESS BUTTUN, RECEEV OVERCLOCKZ. Or to that effect, anyway.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    So what's the next step Haru?
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    It's all working now, am trying overclocking :tongue: It's not gone so well...

    Finally sorted the [strike]mysterious[/strike] [strike]elusive[/strike] really stupid shifting CPU multiplier problem that was keeping me between (Every 1-2 seconds) 2GHz and 2.3GHz, even though my stock speed is 2.6 *headdesk* I've not tried up from 3GHz yet, as Im still trying to figure out how to raise the Vcore :tongue: Bets on how long before I fry the mobo?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Disable speedstep, EIST, C1 and Vanderpool in the BIOS. All or some of these may be present with these names.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Yep, already have. I'm still trying to fiigure out how to change the vcore >.< It's at 1.280V, so I cant go higher than 3GHz (Thereabouts).
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    You're looking for the vcore special add option. Every 25 millivolts (mV) is another 0.025v on your VCORE.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    This thread may be helpful:
    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=191950
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Both were very helpful :D I'll try again later and post results
  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Oh hehehe, when I first read the heading of your thread, I thought it said "I'm looking for motherhood." Hehehehe. I have nothing constructive to contribute otherwise. Carry on.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    WTB Baby Implant.

    I did a quick test, CPU's at 3.5Ghz and not showing signs of wanting to choke yet. Super Pi's showing 1M Digits in 15.485s.

    I'll do more this evening. it's 02:34 at the moment :zombie:
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    It's happy at 3.6Ghz and with the video card at 724/1720/1056 I scored 14267, which is a new record :D I'll do some moar later, as I think the my video can go further than that :D

    What is a sensible voltage for DRAM at 1066?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    No more than 2.1v if you can help it.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    I did a clever.

    My PC wouldn't boot if my RAM went over like 900MHz, just figured out why. My RAM isn't Dual Channel compatible with this board, now that it's in single channel I can (According to the board :tongue:) Go up to 1200MHz. Is there much of a performance difference between single and dual channel? I never really looked into it as my last board couldn't do it either.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    There's no such thing as dual channel-compatible. Memory not working in dual channel isn't working for some other reason. It probably has nothing to do with the DRAM.

    Single channel will rape your bandwidth.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Hmm, I have the same RAM that I had with my last board, and according to my dad there was a list of motherboards that supported this particular set in dual channel, and if a board wasn't in that list then there's no guarantee that it will work. Ima go search for this fabled list.
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