Best i7 860 Mobo under $200 w/8GB no OCing

[supaidaaman]

Putting together an i7 860 build for a friend and im out of ideas for the motherboard...there seems to be a lot of good choices in the 100-200 range...and that is my budget.

Ill be sporting 8gb, and a 9800GTX+, corsair 750w, i7 860.

any suggestions?

 

[Adrenaline]

I got a Gigabyte UD4P for around $160.00 and I like it so far. I use my computer for casual gaming, surfing the net and work stuff.

 

[ehume]

If he is never ever going to OC, then the Gigabyte GA P55M-UD2 is quite the board. I've been using mine since early October, and it's great . . . except that now I want to OC and this board does not have cooled MOSFET's. OTOH, you could also look at the P55M-UD4. It's running $140 at Newegg just now. And it has cooled MOSFET's and 12-phase power.

 

[ekoostik]

+1 for the GA-P55M-UD2. Although I'll point out that you can't CF/SLI with this board so if that's a requirement look elsewhere. Also, it is possible to OC the UD2. Just not as extreme as with other, more expensive boards. See Gary's article reviewing Gigabyte’s GA-P55M-UD2 and ASRock’s P55M Pro:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3652

If you’re going to buy just one, we’d recommend the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, especially if top flight overclocking is important to you.

 

[lopri]

AnandTech's motherboard reviews have been spot on. Other than the mentioned Gigabyte boards, there was this board reviewed recently.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3682

It's costlier than some, but it's well below the $200 mark.

 

[corb01772]

You can futureproof somewhat by getting one of the new Gigabyte GA-P55A boards, which have USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The downside is that, when in use, they share bandwidth with your PCIe graphics card. However any performance loss should be negligible.

There are 3 such boards currently available in your price range (with more coming): the UD3 ($135), UD3P ($160), UD4P ($185).

UD3P = UD3 + eSATA, better on-board audio
UD4P = UD3P + dual-LAN, Firewire, XMP support

 

[ehume]

Ah, but don't forget that middle cooler on the UD4/P, the one between the CPU and the PCI slots. If you intend to mount a big cooler pointed upward, it might interfere with a fan in some circumstances.

 

[ehume]

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[ehume]

+1 for the GA-P55M-UD2. Although I'll point out that you can't CF/SLI with this board so if that's a requirement look elsewhere. Also, it is possible to OC the UD2. Just not as extreme as with other, more expensive boards. See Gary's article reviewing Gigabyte’s GA-P55M-UD2 and ASRock’s P55M Pro:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3652

I forgot about that review. That's the review that decided me on this board in the first place. I wonder if the reviewer ran Lin Pack on his UD2 when he had it up at 4300MHz. I've had mine up to 4200MHz, but I didn't dare actually run anything on it other than diagnostics - no stress tests for sure!

 

[ehume]

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[ehume]

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[FerraraZ]

Quad post!!!!

 

[ekoostik]

I forgot about that review. That's he review that decided me on this board in the first place.

That review got me interested in the board, the price made it an easy decision. Did you post your overclock settings anywhere in the forums? I'm going to be picking up an after market HSF soon then may start tweaking things again. I don't really need any more speed, but it's hard to resist the lure of whats possible.

 

[ehume]

Sorry about the quad post. Sometimes Firefox steps on its own feet.

You want to OC the P55M-UD2? I have since lost my settings, but the first thing I did was to hit the big red button in ET6. I had tried doing it the old-fashioned way, and I wanted to see what automation could do.

The big red button advertised 4200MHz, gave me 3800MHz with a BCLK of 200 or so. I set the memory timings rather loosely, set the CPU to 1.4V and the RAM voltage to 1.66V - it gives a 1.648V result, which is perfect. Intel gives a top end of 1.65V for the CPU's memory manager, and GSkill gives a top end of 1.65V for the RAM. So I tried 4000MHz. OK. Then 4200MHz. OK. No sweat. But with a 92mm heatsink I didn't want to push it.

Re-reading the comments under the review, Gary says the board held up under a full load. He does recommend not to overvolt the thing, suggests a top end of 1.45V for the CPU. Since Intel says the chip is designed to handle up to 1.4V, I will not go beyond that.

It seems that if my new Megahalems can hold down the CPU temp, routine OC'ing will be OK. Nice to know.