Best mATX bang for buck motherboard for OC with E4300

[50]

Hello,

I was looking at the G33 gigabyte board but I'm not sure I want to spend 140 on a motherboard. I saw the ASRock CONROE1333-DVI/H which I've heard has good overclocks and is about half the price. Anyone have any other recommendations? Thanks

 

[kmmatney]

I have the Asrock DUAL VSTA on an other computer, and it was very quirky, has trouble soft rebooting, and is not compatible with my main SATA hard drive. I can deal with it, but I really have a hard time recommending a cheap Asrock board to other people. Also, I wouldn't recommend at 945 chipset for overclocking the C2D.
I have a Gigabyte 945 based motherboard and overclocking was limited to 2.7 Ghz on my C2D, even after the pin mod.

 

[kmmatney]

Initial tests show that the Intel G33 chipset performs about the same as a P35 chipset, so a G33 based motherboard would be a good option, as long as it has overclocking ability, such as these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813186125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813130120

Of course the E4300 runs at a FSB of 800, so you don't really need 1333 FSB support, but it doesn't hurt to have it for the future.

 

[Skott]

As far as OCing goes... At the moment the two best matx OCers we know are good quality/performance is the GA G33M-DS2R and the ASUS P5K-VM. MSI has a new one out but its untested as of yet. ECS has one now also but a reviewer only got 335fsb out of it. So for now if you want RAID get the DS2R and if you dont want RAID get the P5K-VM(it doesnt have RAID). Thats my reccommendation for now until we see what the MSI can do.

Side note: Currently it looks like the Intel G33 models are going to stay above $100. Generally they are being priced between $120-$140 US.

 

[flmjiggy]

The Asus VDimm is low isn't it? Like almost ALL of their MATX

You posted the MSI. Any news on how well it OC;s?

 

[Skott]

Yes, the vdimm is 2.1 but people are still getting good OCs with it despite that. Just need to get the correct RAM modules. I just ordered mine today. I chose some G.Skill because others have gotten good results with them. Crucial Ballistix modules work very with it as well.

No one knows how well the MSI mobo OCs. One person over at HF has one on order and he'll post when he gets it and sets it up. Till then info is scanty about it I'm afraid.

 

[MarkJohnson]

I am in the same boat as the original poster. I have a e4300 and it is a FSB of 200 and a lot of board don't support it well for overclocking. I currently have it in my DFI Infinity 975x/g board and it won't OC past 270. for kicks I pulled my e6300 out of my gaming rig that has a DFI Infinity P965-s board that will OC to 420fsb and plugged in the e4300 and at first I ran into the same problem of the 270fsb. left a message on the forums and and they said there was an option for setting the bootstrap from 200 to 266 and then it allowed me to hit 375fsb. Maybe the newer boards will make an option for a 333 bootstrap and see if thing will fly!

so, with that, does anyone know of a good board to OC the e4300?

-=Mark=-

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Abit IP35/IP35-E. Good up to 425MHz FSB with 8x multi. Currently at 384 x 9 with 1.465Vcore.