Discernible difference in p35 and p45 boards

[mentalcrisis00]

Hello all

I've looked around online about the differences between p35 and p45 boards and it seems like those are more peripheral and sata ports, better overclocking support, and pci-e 2.0. I was using a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R for awhile and it seemed to work out great but I had to RMA it. While I was waiting I traded someone on anandtech for an MSI P35 Platinum Combo board. I like the layout of the board a bit better and that it has crossfire support, dunno if I'll use it but it's nice to have it in case.

I'm wondering which of the boards has the advantage other than one being older than the other? I know that many people tout the Abit IP35-Pro as one of the best boards even now. The MSI seems to be comparable to it other then perhaps that MSI sometimes has quality problems and the bios might be a bit more of a headache. Also the MSI board seems to have 1x PCI-E 16x and 1x PCI-E 4x instead of 16-16 or 16-8, would I see a performance decrease seeming the data bandwidth of the second slot is 1/4 of the speed?

The big advantage to me would be that I do like the MSI board layout wise and it seems to be solid. I could also sell the Gigabyte board for probably more money than the MSI would fetch seeming it's a brand new replacement. Perhaps it would be smarter to use a brand new board than a used one. I'm just curious about what others think.

Oh and one question about the MSI combo, does anyone know if it would boot and run ok without the memory switch boards? All those LED lights are kind of annoying me.

 

[stevvie]

I have an MSI P35 Neo2-FR and if you want to dull down those BRIGHT green leds do what I do, I use a piece of Opaque white plastic and double sided tape it to the leds. It then gives then a VERY dull green glow.

 

[taltamir]

i use electric tape.

 

[Absolution75]

There isn't any real reason imo to upgrade from a P35 to P45 unless you plan on going to a 45nm quad core - which is rather foolish at this point in time imo.

If its stable, don't touch it - resist the itch to upgrade.

 

[mentalcrisis00]

well it would be more like a downgrade seeming i had the p45 gigabyte board first, but not much of one I guess. I haven't even tried the MSI board out yet I was gonna wait for my gigabyte p45 to get back from replacement. But I hear that gigabyte takes like 3 weeks or more to return RMAed items and thats a long time to wait without a computer. One thing I do worry about with the msi p35 is the northbridge heatsink is to tall i think for my xigmatek 1283 cpu cooler, I haven't tried it yet but it just looks as if it'd be to cramped.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I heard P45 boards overclock better and that is why i picked up mine. At 430FSB i have not touched board voltages and i'm stable.

 

[lopri]

P45 runs cooler than P35 as well.

 

[E4300]

Both should be able to overclock a 45nm quad up to 475MHz FSB as long as the NB and PWM heat sinks are properly cooled. The P35 uses a larger die (more heat).

A good P45 board can push 45nm quads to 510MHz FSB at the expense of very high VTT and VNB. P45 also comes with more bells and whistles. IP35 Pro is probably one of the best P35 board. It's smaller brother IP35 may require active cooling if you pump more than 1.3V into a 45nm quad.

I'd personally stick with 8x multi 45nm quads (easy 3.8GHz with a good chip). GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R is an excellent board to extract the last 35MHz FSB from a 7x 45nm quad. Be prepare to spend days tuning 6-8 parameters.