ASUS P5W DH Deluxe or ASUS P5B Deluxe?

[yolt2430]

I'm in the process of building a new computer, and have most of my components picked out. I'm going with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, CORSAIR XMS2 2GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400), and my current video card (EVGA 7800 GT). I have been researching the two motherboards, and was set on the P5W until I recently read that the P5B now supports more improved overclocking and unlocked multipliers with the updated BIOS. I'm definitely looking to OC the E6400, but I can't make up my mind which to get. If anyone has any reasons/suggestions as to which motherboard I should get and why, it would be greatly appreciated. Which would be more stable at a decent OC? I have read success stories about both, but can't make up my mind. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[yolt2430]

Bump...anyone have any suggestions?

 

[42matrix]

neither

wait a bit for the P5B-E to lower in price

 

[Skott]

Unless you want the added features of the P5W DH I'd say the P5B in your case. Although the P5B-E is about to come out so you may want to get it instead.

 

[Gary Key]

You do not want a P5W-DH if you plan on seriously overclocking the E6400, however, if you stay in the 435FSB range or under then this board is really good.

My choices for that CPU would be the Gigabyte DS-3, Asus P5B-E, or the P5B-Deluxe, depends on your budget and the features you want. I would throw in the Biostar board but they still have supply shortages.

Here are my initial results with a P5B-E, E6300 -
P5B-E 7x515

 

[Skott]

Thats a sweet OC, Gary! Refresh my memory please, isnt the P5B-E a single card mobo or does it have 2xPCIe settings(CF)?

 

[yolt2430]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm basically looking to get the most out of the E6400. From what I've read, the 975x chipset still OC's better than the P965 (or at least performs better overall than the P965. Budget is no object here, just looking to all I can out of the less expensive E6400. How does the P5B-E differ from the P5B Deluxe? I guess I'm also looking at the basic performance plus the OC performance. I want to make sure the OC is stable yet fast.

Skott - My setup would be pretty much identical to yours in your sig, execpt I have a 7800GT. You satisfied with your stability and OC? If you don't mind, let me know what kind of OC you are achieving.

 

[Skott]

So far I have just a 25% OC achieved. 333fsb x 8 = 2.666GHz. Which is about the equivalent to a E6700. I havent gone further because my load temps are around 57C during testing and I'm kinda afraid to take it higher since going over 60C isnt good. Idle temps are 45C. Thats using CoreTemp program to monitor the temps but I also run SpeedFan as a comparison. I'm a real new to OCing so I been real jittery about going higher. I need to figure out how to get my temps down more before continuing I think. I'm running 0801 bios still. I should get 1405 but havent been able to get the ASUS windows update utility to work at all. So I'm just kinda reading up on things till I figure it out. Theroretically I should be able to get it to 3.0GHz without temp problems. Just a little leary about moving forward at this point. Its rock solid stable so far though.

 

[yolt2430]

Not bad at all, but yeah, your temps are high. On the E6400 OC article on here they achieved 2.88 without hardly any temp change. Just hard for me to make up my mind because the 975x has better overall speed with an OC, and I'm not completely convinced the P5B would be completely stable if I take it to an extreme overclock. I guess I'll just have to decide one way or the other and roll with it, but I think I'm leaning toward the P5W right now. I don't really need the bells and whistles it provides, but I think a little less OC and stability would be better than the P5B pushed to the limits to reach the same performance, wouldn't you agree?

 

[Skott]

Not sure which is actually more stable. I would say its pretty close. I'll call it a tie for lack of better info. It comes down to two things IMO. Overclocking and features. If you want all the bells and whistles with good OCing then the P5W DH. Not sure if the P5B has CF ability but the P5W DH certainly does along with a bunch of other things. If you want just pure OCing goodness then the P5B. The p5B reaches a higher fsb for those that love to go crazy at OCing. So to me it comes down to OCing or features as the primary concern. You could throw cost in there as well I suppose but everyone knows the more features the more it costs so back to OCing vs Features again. Thats just how I view it anyway.

 

[Jumpem]

I am debating the same thing.