I got a Q9450 and nothing to put it in

[figgly]

Please help me pick a MB.

The more SATA ports the better and I would like esata too (preferably not via bracket).
The more USB the better. Need firewire.

Won't use onboard RAID. Don't play games but do do video conversion.

DDR2 memory.

Don't overclock (much). Stability critical.

Around $200 would be nice.

Thank you for suggestions.

PS, have liked Gigabyte in the past. Never tried an Asus board.

 

[Heidfirst]

abit IP35 Pro?
6 SATA ports on the ICH9R (so you get RAID capability too although you don't need it).
2 eSATA ports on the rear IO plane off the JMicron controller
firewire
4 USB ports on the rear UIO plane & another 8 supported via header (bundle includes a PCI slot plate with another 2 USB ports)

$140 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127030

 

[imported_Irse]

GA-EP35-DS3P?
The only thing is eSATA via bracket.
8 SATA
2 firewire on rear, one on board
8 USB2 rear 2 headers on board

 

[bryanW1995]

can't comment on the gigabyte, but I will say that the ip35 pro is by FAR the best selling mid/high intel mobo over the past year (at least judging by # of comments on newegg, admittedly a not very scientific process). it also got anandtech's gold award. Plus, you'll have plenty of bios support on it b/c of the huge adoption rate, I know that they're already on bios 17b02 right now.

Additionally, I'm currently running an x3350 (xeon equivalent to q9450) on my ip35 pro bios 16 with 100% load 24/7 clocked at 3.6 and 100% stable.

never used most of the sata/usb/etc ports but for me it's nice that they're there in case I ever transition this rig into my fileserver.

 

[figgly]

Does anyone know if the IP35 Pro will boot up with the Q9450 with the BIOS it gets shipped with these days? I don't have a spare CPU to put in if I have to update the bios to get it to boot with Q9450.

 

[Skraeling]

Using a P5E myself. It booted up fine just with "unrecognized cpu", flashed it to 605 and works fine. This was my only socket 775 cpu so I did not have a spare one either.. you should be fine on another board as well.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: figgly
Does anyone know if the IP35 Pro will boot up with the Q9450 with the BIOS it gets shipped with these days? I don't have a spare CPU to put in if I have to update the bios to get it to boot with Q9450.

I booted just fine with a q9450 on my ip35e that I just bought(shipping bios was 15b02), and my ip35 pro booted just fine on an x3350 using bios 16b04. you should be gtg.