ABIT AB9 QuadGT LGA 775 - Good board?

[sinitry23]

I'm about to build a new system soon. I have all the parts picked out and I am planning on making the purchase through newegg tonight. Please let me know if this board is good or not? These are the parts I am planning on purchasing. I did notice that the board I am getting has a PCIe 16x slot and PCIe 1x slot. What is the PCIe 1x slot used for? Is it for a SLI video card setup?

ABIT AB9 QuadGT LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP
Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-05

I have an Artice Freezer 7 pro heatsink fan and I'm still looking for a decent power supply. The Abit AB9 board I am purchasing requires a 24 pin power along with an 8 pin power. What do you guys recommend for the power supply? How much wattage should I get?

 

[brencat]

Your "shopping cart" looks great. The Abit Quad GT is an excellent board provided you use the most up to date bios. The shipping bios is a disaster, so make sure you flash as soon as you plug in if you end up buying this.

However, I'd strongly consider the Abit IP35 Pro since it's the new chipset which runs cooler, has better memory bandwidth, has an almost perfect shipping bios, and gives you the Penryn upgrade path. The Quad GT is based on the older P965 design and will limit your ability to upgrade. You make the call however, since you can probably get the Quad GT for ~ $130 after rebate, whereas the IP35 pro is ~ $185.

Alternatively you should also consider the Asus P5K vanilla for ~ $150 as well as the Gigabyte P35-DS3R for ~ $130...both have the new P35 chipset and are excellent overclockers.

Regarding power supplies, whatever you do don't cheap out! I'll give you a few that I would use below. FYI...focus less on total wattage and more on total 12v rail Amps. The ones I'm going to recommend have between 40A and 50A total on that rail:

Modular:

http://www.clubit.com/product_...l.cfm?itemno=CA6200027 (the one I have)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?Item=N82E16817151030 (same as Corsair...which is made by Seasonic)

Non-modular:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817703005 (the best! but a little long...check your case before ordering)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817341002

 

[trx]

AFAIK
- P35 dissipates 20W more then 965P at idle, and 10W more at full-load
- besides that, it has worse memory bandwidth
- you're right about peryn support

 

[Pepsiennis]

The AB9 QuadGT is a top-rate motherboard. Just be prepared to flash to the latest Bios when you're up and running (so get a floppy or CD with the Bios and flash program prepared before you begin to build). After that you've never worked with a better board. Just one suggestion: I own and have used for several months the QuadGT and it has never once let me down, either at stock or OC'd. But recently I have begun using the abit IP35 Pro, and it is even better... all the features of the QuadGT (except for no pretty blue lights underneath the board) and it also has more features thanks to the P35 chipset. It is a very strong overclocker, you don't need to add as much chipset voltage until you are at 400+ fsb, it has dual GbE, it (this is subjective here) runs a bit cooler than the QuadGT, and isn't very much more expensive. Just some thoughts from having used both. You'll love either board! Best Regards!

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: trx
AFAIK
- P35 dissipates 20W more then 965P at idle, and 10W more at full-load
- besides that, it has worse memory bandwidth
- you're right about peryn support

Hmm....

That's interesting because every review I've seen actually shows that the P35 gets MORE bandwidth than the 965.

I'm sure you won't care about this but for benching, the P35 is faster than the P965 at superpi which will correlate to more points in 3Dmarks as well.

P35 > P965 ... a lot better? no, probably not but enough for a bencher that needs every 1/1000 of a second.

The X38 will be the next intel chipset to get