Best Overclocking AM2 board

[DCypher]

Looking for opinions on the best Socket AM2 board.

It must require DDR2 RAM, and it need only have 1 pci16 slot, because I won't be running SLI.

Thanks guys.

 

[DCypher]

any advice?

 

[cmrmrc]

from anand's review, the ASUS M2N32-SLI is the best reaching 260x12(5X HTT) and 350x9(4X HTT)

 

[DCypher]

Awesome, thanks for the reply, any other opinions?

 

[imported_inspire]

I've got another question to add - I'm looking for just about the same thing as DCypher. The board mentioned above is an SLi board. I don't need SLi - but I am looking to do a substantial overclock on a 3800+ Windsor.

My questions:
I just noticed a NVIDIA/ULi ® M1697 Chipset. What is that? I think ULi is a chipset manufacturer like ATi, Nvidia, and Via, but I can't really remember. Is it any good?

What boards have the best Overclocking potential?

 

[customcoms]

Anand didn't say what stability tests were run on the Asus board at those speeds. And I bet their wasn't time for an 8 hour+ Prime95 run. I doubt the board is 100% stable at that speed. Nothing against Anand, but thats just the way reviews work these days.

And we have no DFI boards out yet. Why? I bet they'll be more stable than anything out yet (after the nForce4 fiasco where the great boards they shipped weren't great until a bios revision 4 months latter). Plus, they'll overclock higher as well. I'm betting that 350+ will be STABLE all day and typical on a DFI AM2 board.

 

[Kromis]

That one Epox board that Anand reviewed is good, I think.

BTW, I think all AM2 boards are suppose to support DDR2.

 

[customcoms]

Their is no "supposed to"-its a requirment from AMD in the form of an onboard memory controller.....

 

[Kakumba]

The DFI boards are coming soon. In fact, I am willing to say that we will have launch dates by the end of this month. Last I read (on Dailytech) was that all DFI AM2 boards bar the new top one (to replace the socket 939 SLI-DR Expert), are Q3 this year, which means any time between now and September, but Im betting the earlier side of the quarter. The board with the 590 SLI chipset is going to be released ~1 month after the others.

And yes, I suspect that with the extra wait time, Oscar Wu and his team will have good overclocking boards from day one. I say its worth waiting.

 

[Metr0]

best one for now are, epox mf570sli and foxconn mf590 sli

take a look here for a review on epox mf570sli and msi k9n sli
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1888809&enterthread=y

 

[cmrmrc]

hardocp has another review of the m2n32-sli and they've reached 355x9 on an FX-62 and they call it perfectly stable...

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA3NCw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

 

[imported_inspire]

That's great guys - but I don't need SLi, and I don't want to have to pay for it. Any Good Non-SLi Boards that OC well?

 

[Kakumba]

Unfortunately, high end boards are best for overclocking, and they always have SLI (well, almost always). And really, the price difference isnt huge, and even if you dont use it, its not like its gonna hurt performance elsewhere....

DFI Will probably have a boad like the Ultra-D, legendary overclocking without SLI. Again, I would recommend waiting if possible. I know its hard, but you will thank me in the end.

 

[Skott]

Supposedly ASUS does have a non-SLI AM2 mobo out. Reviews of it are hard to find though. Not alot of info is availble. I'm guessing its not real popular compared to the SLI mobos.

 

[DCypher]

Thanks for all your opinions, I think I'm going to trust you guys and wait for the DFI boards. Thanks.

 

[Kakumba]

Here you go. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2517 That has the DFI roadmap, so you can make a more informed decision.

 

[imported_inspire]

Again, most of those are SLi. The price differences that I see are between $50 and $100. I want to OC an X2 3800+ by at least 600MHz, but I'm not sure if buying a non-stock fan and an SLi board will still give me a price advantage over just buying a 5000+

 

[theprodigalrebel]

The ~$150 ASUS M2N-SLI is also believed to be a good OC board (I'll dig up the link soon...I can swear I saw a review in a forum/obscure website that had it running between 280-300HTT which is pretty good). The value-oriented ASUS M2N-E doesn't have any strong showings in the OC arena.

 

[Skott]

I think SLI is going to become a standard on most mobos wether you want SLI or not. The manufacturers are probably thinking if you dont want to use SLI then you wont use it and at the same time its there in case you decide to want it. It also allows them to keep the prices higher for the extra new features. The ASUS non-SLI AM2 mobo supposedly overclocks nicely but its a 570 chipset and not the 590 so although it'll overclock pretty good it wont reach the level of the 590 mobos. Thats what I have heard anyway. Still not much info about it. We'll have to wait and see what DFI brings out because they are known for serious overclocking abilities.

 

[Kakumba]

Yeah, DFI shouldnt be far away having re-read my link there. but theres no mention of when the non SLI boards are coming.