• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Advice on e8400 MOBO selection

S

syadnom

Member
Greets!

I'm split between 3 motherboards
ABIT ip35-e
MSI neo2-fr
gigabyte ga-p35-ds3l

all are right there in the price range I want though the gigabyte is the least expensive.

I'm don't really care about dual graphics as I am more than happy with an 8800GTS(and I'm tired of crappy ATI cards!) but I do run a lot of photoshop and 3dmax as well as tons of RAR and ZIP archiving. basically CPU power is the most important to me. I do like the second PCI-E 16x as I would like to upgrade my SCSI setup to SAS but need PCI-E 4X and that should work in the 16x slot on p35 boards.

Would some of you please give me some advice on one of these 3 motherboards? I would like to overclock the chip hopefully to 3.6Ghz, 4 would be nice but I'm not that greedy.

I am leaning towards the neo2-fr as it is dual PCI-E 16x but I see a lot of people are swearing by their ip35-e though I can't find any available. Im considering the gigabyte because of its overclocking potential, coaxial SPDIF and price but i would have a second PCI-E slot in the future.

the MSI board has all the right features but I'm have only owned 1 MSI board but I have owned at least 4 of each gigabyte and abit(my BP6 still cranks along as my fileserver dual celeron 300a@450mhz!) and had good luck with them.

thanks for any help.

also, I am making another post on advice on memory configurations. please help me out if you can.
 
Any of those boards should hit 400FSB without a problem unless you get a bad mobo. You might also include the DFI blood iron board, but it probably is a little more expensive then the three you listed.
 
the DFI is $20 more than the gigabyte but still affordable, any reason to choose it over the gigabyte? still just a single PCI-E 16X slot but it looks pretty feature compatible. I have read that the gigabyte has a pretty nice BIOS.
 
Originally posted by: syadnom
the DFI is $20 more than the gigabyte but still affordable, any reason to choose it over the gigabyte? still just a single PCI-E 16X slot but it looks pretty feature compatible. I have read that the gigabyte has a pretty nice BIOS.
Click to expand...

DFI is generally accepted to be benchmark when it comes to overclocking, so if you can stretch your budget to accommodate the DFI then go for it. If however you choose otherwise, I'd say you'd be quite happy with either of those mobos you listed- I have the Abit IP35-E and its a great board does everything its supposed to nothing more I can really add. I also have had quite a few MSI's boards and they have always been top notch stuff (am using one now)- I cannot comment on Giga as I have never owned one but i am sure they're much the same.
 
I have both the MSI neo2-fr and the gigabyte ga-p35-ds3l. They both are great boards and I have no complaints about either, but since they are priced about the same, I like the MSI better. Has better chipset cooling, raid, slighty better board layout and most importantly, appears to get along with my Mushkin and Gskill memory better. Both could not break 1000mhz stable on the gigabyte even with relaxed timings and settings, but do 1100+ on the MSI.
 
Originally posted by: syadnom
the DFI is $20 more than the gigabyte but still affordable, any reason to choose it over the gigabyte? still just a single PCI-E 16X slot but it looks pretty feature compatible. I have read that the gigabyte has a pretty nice BIOS.
Click to expand...

I'd go along with what Sylvanas said.

I've never had a gigabyte board, and have had 3 DFI boards before getting my new DFI mobo. That's why I picked DFI again, but I think all these motherboards will do fine.
 
Does anyone know if the new DFI board supports 4xDimms of DDR2? I have the NF4 Lanparty Ultra-D with my Athlon64 and I was shocked when I wanted to add another 2x512MB to find that despite having 4x slots for DDR, it is nearly impossible to get it to work with 4xdimms unless all identical chips. Any other similar issues with the DFI 775 board?
 
Originally posted by: Penley
Does anyone know if the new DFI board supports 4xDimms of DDR2? I have the NF4 Lanparty Ultra-D with my Athlon64 and I was shocked when I wanted to add another 2x512MB to find that despite having 4x slots for DDR, it is nearly impossible to get it to work with 4xdimms unless all identical chips. Any other similar issues with the DFI 775 board?
Click to expand...

I don't have the Blood Iron, but I have the DFI LT P35-T2R. I'm running a Q6600 with 8 Gig of Patriot DDR2-800 5-5-5-something @ 390FSB (so just a bit under spec) without any problems or instability.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top