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c2d motherboard recommendation please !!!!

M

Maximoff

Junior Member


I've got a 6420 in the mail and 2 GB of crucial ballistix PC2-6400 ram on the way.

Right now I've got a opteron 165 and DFI board oc'ed but I havent kept up with the Intel changes since.

I need a recommendation for a good overclocking board for the Intel 6420 please.
I've read a few reviews but I cant come to a decision, any recommendations and or links would be appreciated.

Thanks !
 
I might be making the C2D jump since a friend of mine offered some serious cash for my AMD FX-57. I basically narrowed it down to two boards, the ASUS P5N32-E SLI and the eVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1. Both are 680i boards and support up to 1200 MHz for memory and the 1333 MHz CPUs that will be coming soon, so they seem to be pretty future-proof. I'm personally leaning towards the eVGA board, reviews seem to say it works well, and I'm kind of sick of ASUS in general... their website is a pain to navigate, downloads are extremely slow, customer service isn't all that good, etc etc. Not to mention the TWO Asus motherboards that have died on me so far (Asus replaced them both but still... that's freaking lame.) So far my experience with eVGA has been better (with my video cards) so I'm willing to give them a chance in the mobo department.

So yeah, go eVGA.
 
oh man do NOT get me started on asus their website !!! youd think a respectable company, leading motherboard manufacterer would have a frigging decent website !!! /end rant

the gigabyte ds3 seems to be pretty popular too btw, for c2d's ...
 
Originally posted by: hardwareking
get the gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 and if u can get the rev 2.0 version
Click to expand...

No, get the 3.3 revision. It supports 1333 FSB and has a few other minor improvements.
 
Explanation of differences between the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 versions:

Rev. 1.0: FSB 1066MHz, one system fan header, ALC883 (Vista Basic Logo)
Rev. 1.3: FSB 1333MHz, one system fan header, ALC883
Rev. 2.0: FSB 1066MHz, three system fan headers, ALC888 (Vista Premium Logo)
Rev. 3.3: FSB 1333MHz, three system fan headers, ALC888
 
Wow, that Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 is $330... plus freight! That's $25 less than I spent for my entire e4300/DS3 mobo/2 gb RAM/ACF7Pro cooler upgrade...

One higher-priced alternative (still under $150 though) to the Gigabyte P965/DS3 board would be the DFI INFINITY P965-S that all of the overclocking sites are buzzing about. Take all of the positive virtues of the DS3 then pair them up with the ICH8r southbridge, 4-phase power and an improved IDE/SATA drive implementation plus the BIOS greatness that Oscar Wu is known for. It should be in stock at the egg tomorrow... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136034
 
There are so many good boards out it's so hard to decide at this point.

For 975x - intel bad axe 2 and asus p5wdh seem to be the two most popular.
For 965p - ... too many... asus p5b-deluxe, commando, premium, abit quadgt, gigabyte ds3, dfi p965-s dark, etc...
For 680i - eVGA 680i A1/T1, asus striker, p5n32-e sli and sli plus, abit in9-max
For 650i - asus p5n-e, etc...

you need to let us know if you plan on sli/crossfire, etc...
 
i have the original DS3 (rev 1.0) and I like it a lot. initially it was kind of buggy, but the latest BIOS is quite stable. it overclocks like a monster. Also, if you are a big overclocker, support for a faster bus doesn't really matter at all in the grand scheme of things, since you can simply set the bus to whatever speed you want. In fact, many people prefer to CPUs with slower busses, since they have higher multipliers and thus allow for greater potential overclocks, although it seems that Intel is getting better at binning its chips than it was with the original conroe cores, and as a result, the budget chips like the e4300/e4400 are generally worse overclockers than the more high-end chips
 
I've got a P5W DH and love it. if you are going 975x then go with the P5W. I've heard good things about eVGA's 680i board too.
 
Originally posted by: Shimmishim

For 680i - eVGA 680i A1/T1, asus striker, p5n32-e sli and sli plus, abit in9-max
Click to expand...

The P5N-E SLI PLUS is not 680i, FYI. It's based off the 650/570 nFORCE chipsets, if memory serves me right. Just a little heads up.
 
The DFI P965-S Dark is one of the best overclocking boards right now. It's only $139.99 too but hard to find in stock at the moment. I snatched one off Newegg a couple of weeks ago.
 
Originally posted by: Maximoff


I've got a 6420 in the mail and 2 GB of crucial ballistix PC2-6400 ram on the way.

Right now I've got a opteron 165 and DFI board oc'ed but I havent kept up with the Intel changes since.

I need a recommendation for a good overclocking board for the Intel 6420 please.
I've read a few reviews but I cant come to a decision, any recommendations and or links would be appreciated.

Thanks !
Click to expand...

I currently have the same ram lying around and have been waiting for the 6420 to come out. Plan to pick one up once I can get my hands on a DFI 965-S Dark mobo.
 
Originally posted by: hardwareking
get the gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 and if u can get the rev 2.0 version
Click to expand...

what's the difference? Is rev 2.0 the most current MOBO or does the BIOS still need to be flashed/updated?
 
Originally posted by: 1ManArmY
Originally posted by: hardwareking
get the gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 and if u can get the rev 2.0 version
Click to expand...

what's the difference? Is rev 2.0 the most current MOBO or does the BIOS still need to be flashed/updated?
Click to expand...

The most recent revision is 3.3. Rev 3.3 uses a 1333 FSB strap instead of 1066 on Rev 2.0. The 1066 strap has shown to actually perform better so that's why someone would go for the Rev 2.0 board.
 
wow, thanks guys, that's a lot of good info !
Looks like I still have some reading to do but thanks to your suggestions I can narrow down the search.
I've had good luck with the two DFI boards I've owned so I'm kinda leaning towards the DFI P965-S Dark and the VGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 . I've never spent over 150$ for a mobo so that would the upper limit of what I'd want to spend, 160$ at the very most in all likelihood.
Thanks again for the great responses everyone !!!
 
Originally posted by: burningrave101
The most recent revision is 3.3. Rev 3.3 uses a 1333 FSB strap instead of 1066 on Rev 2.0. The 1066 strap has shown to actually perform better so that's why someone would go for the Rev 2.0 board.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but it's also alot harder on both the RAM (harder to hit higher FSB's) and harder on the motherboard, so unless benchmarking is all you do, it's wise to get the 3.3, IMO.
 
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