Core 2 Duo Mobo Recommendations

[valkyriex]

I'm building a core 2 duo PC for my 15-yr old cousin. It's mostly going to be used for gaming and web browsing. What's a reliable, yet affordable (< $150) mobo for a E6400? I just need a mobo that's easy to set up and works right out of the box after I plug everything in.

 

[moosey]

gigabyte s3 $110

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Yeah, I 2nd what moosey said. The S3's dirt cheap over @ the Egg ($108 + 6 bux ship). Thinking of getting that & an E4300 to replace my Barton 2500+ @ 3200. Sweeeeet....

 

[jboot51]

I'm researching a similar project, was going for the Asus P5LD2 SE/C,as the Gigabyte 945PL-S3 will only support a FSB of 800 is this of concern?

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

I meant the 965P-S3 -- a much better future-proof investment (& quad core compatible). I'd avoid the 945 chipset...it's a POS, IMO.

I figure the E4300 @ 3.0+ Ghz, 2GB DDR2-800, and a Nvidia 8600 GPU = "budget" gaming bliss

(OT) Say, that's a nice system you got there, jboot51...you try to push that E6700 any further?

 

[Cheex]

Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H......$99.99 @ Newegg.

 

[jboot51]

I now agree that the gigabyte 965P-S3 is the way to go.

oldhoss, I can reach 3.6GHZ, but not stable.
3.2GHZ is rock solid

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

oldhoss, I can reach 3.6GHZ, but not stable. 3.2GHZ is rock solid

sweet, man. Just sweet. You play oblivion on that bad mutha?

I'm cheap, so I'm gonna try for >3.2 on one of them 4300's (heck, Anandtech hit 3.37 with just the stock HS)

peace ouwt
OH

 

[BigShroom]

I'm looking for a no frills c2d motherboard also, right now I'm leaning towards the biostar tforce 965PT. It's $110 shipped at newegg. Seems to be getting some good reviews. First I was thinking of getting a gigabyte ds3 but I was scared off by the cold boot issues I've heard about.

 

[moosey]

Originally posted by: BigShroom
I'm looking for a no frills c2d motherboard also, right now I'm leaning towards the biostar tforce 965PT. It's $110 shipped at newegg. Seems to be getting some good reviews. First I was thinking of getting a gigabyte ds3 but I was scared off by the cold boot issues I've heard about.

Price difference between the DS3 and the Biostar is at least $30 IIRC. The Biostar is down to $105. It's the S3 that's $110. Biostar should be great for your system as Anandtech rated it highly in the roundup, great price to performance....plus no Jmicron IDE controller.

 

[BigShroom]

Originally posted by: moosey
Price difference between the DS3 and the Biostar is at least $30 IIRC. The Biostar is down to $105. It's the S3 that's $110. Biostar should be great for your system as Anandtech rated it highly in the roundup, great price to performance....plus no Jmicron IDE controller.

Yeah I'm not that concerned about price, I'm just looking for the best c2d motherboard without all the doo-hickies on it that I don't need. The biostar is $105+shipping on newegg which makes it right around $110 shipped.

 

[derail]

From all that I have read it seems that most of the newer MB's seem to have Problems, I hope we see a more stabel chip set on MB's that works from the get go and suports Nivida SLI and quad core CPU's , and another that suports ATI crossfire and Quad Core CPU's.
When they charge $200-450 for there MB it should be rock stabel from the release date.

 

[quest55720]

Originally posted by: derail
From all that I have read it seems that most of the newer MB's seem to have Problems, I hope we see a more stabel chip set on MB's that works from the get go and suports Nivida SLI and quad core CPU's , and another that suports ATI crossfire and Quad Core CPU's.
When they charge $200-450 for there MB it should be rock stabel from the release date.

I agree I almost gave up on getting a core 2 duo because every time I went to reseach a motherboard there were lots of issues. The only motherboard I could find with out issues was the bad axe 2 but that is out of my price range. I settled for the biostar p965pt it seemed to have very few problems and the price was right. I always assumed that intel had the most stable platforms I guess not. I don't have high expectations right now if the platform is half as stable and issue free as my old nforce 2 I will take it. It is a shame that intel could not come up with a better platform for such a killer CPU.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: quest55720
I agree I almost gave up on getting a core 2 duo because every time I went to reseach a motherboard there were lots of issues. The only motherboard I could find with out issues was the bad axe 2 but that is out of my price range. I settled for the biostar p965pt it seemed to have very few problems and the price was right. I always assumed that intel had the most stable platforms I guess not. I don't have high expectations right now if the platform is half as stable and issue free as my old nforce 2 I will take it. It is a shame that intel could not come up with a better platform for such a killer CPU.

No kidding. Isn't it ironic that we find A64 platform to be more stable after all those years we're led to believe "stability = Intel"?

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Ironic indeed Intel should be smacked for not adding a native IDE controller. What the hell were they thinking?

Has the cold boot issue affected the Gigabyte S3 as well? Nevertheless, I'm leery of getting one now; seems like they try to fix one thing, and break another with each new bios update. Just silly. You'd think they'd get all the kinks worked out by now.

I agree, the Biostar's looking good. Cheap, & a good overclocker.