Gigabyte P43 vs. P45

[trkraus]

I've got a question.
I've been researching motherboards, mostly around the $100 dollar range. I'm pretty set on the p45 chipset, and probably going to go with either

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard for $98.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128372

or

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard for $115 ($100 after MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128359

but i just noticed that there is also this model, with the p43 chipset

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128380

in comparing the ep43-ud3l to the ep45-ud3l, it seems they are virtually they same board, but for the memory type (p45 can go to 1366+ MHz)
are there more subtle differences between these 2 boards, or is that it? Will I be happy with the cheaper p43 board, or do you think I should just spend the extra cash for the p45
I don't plan on ever going crossfire, so the 1 PCI-e slot is of no concern, and I don't really care about having RAID capabilities either, so not having the ICH10R chipset doesn't matter either.

Any help or opinions on this board are much appreciated, thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

your e-peen will be slightly bigger with a P45 board...

 

[Absolution75]

The only difference I can think of is that the P45 boards have a different audio codec which supports Dolby Digital 5.1 over optical/spdif.

Also, there is a GSATA chip on the P45 boards for 2 more SATA ports.

The P45 board may OC better due to the 8PIN CPU Power Header rather than the 4PIN, though eh. . . thats more of a guess than anything.

 

[amenx]

Originally posted by: Absolution75
The P45 board may OC better due to the 8PIN CPU Power Header rather than the 4PIN, though eh. . . thats more of a guess than anything.

An 8 pin CPU power connector would be the better choice if you're OC'ing a quad core to its limits. On a 4 pin, this is what *may* happen:

http://www.siliconmadness.com/...u-push-things-too.html

NP with dual cores though.

 

[trkraus]

well i think im just gonna have a dual core in this build
might upgrade to a quad core in the future, but if i upgraded it would be in a while and i would go with a core i7 by that time, so i would need a new mobo anyway

and 6 sata ports should be fine, 2 sata DVD/RW and 2 sata hard drives

it seems like a solid board, as it is part of the UD3 series