I would like a recomendation on a Motherboard

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Sircoop

Member
Jan 10, 2002
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Dear Anandtech,

I will be grabbing an INTEL Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16G CPU
I will not be overclocking (Main reason, never tried it)
I will be buying Windows Vista (32 or 64) No Idea if I need 64 for only gaming
I will be buying at least 4GIGs of DDR3 1333MHX Corsair RAM. (Unless you all think 2GIGs is fine)

I have always went with ASUS boards but there are many out there and the features and price breaks are confusing me.

Based on this knowledge pool here, do you have any thoughts.

Thx!

Yes I have research and viewed many stickeys on this topic, but there is not direct recommendations on the CPU above for a Gaming rig only.

Sircoop
 
DSF

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
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I strongly recommend you reconsider your DDR3 decision. It's just not cost-effective even though prices have come down quite a bit. Gaming isn't really memory bandwidth dependent, so the performance gains moving from DDR2 to DDR3 are a few percent at best. You get a much better return on your money by putting that extra $300-400 into the video card/monitor or even the bank.

If you're not going to overclock any P43 chipset board from a good manufacturer is fine. If you're open to overclocking in the future you may want to go with P45.
 
B

badnewcastle

Golden Member
Jun 30, 2004
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I agree with DSF assessment of DDR3 vs. DDR2. It's just not worth the money for the memory or the mobo you need to support it.
 
S

Sircoop

Member
Jan 10, 2002
163
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Thank you both for the responses.

INTEL Core 2 Duo E8500

CORSAIR 4GB KIT TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX (Do I really need 4GIG? Gaming only.)

Can anyone recommend a proven P43 motherboard. There are many to choose from

I will be moving to new technology in regards to a Hard Drive, right now my system is IDE. So do I grab a P43 MB with SATA or SATA2?
 
DSF

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
4,902
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It sounds to me like your overclock will be mild if you do it at all. I wouldn't spend the extra money on DDR2-1066, or PC2-8500 as badnewcastle referred to it. With DDR2-800 you can take an E8500 up to 3.8GHz without your RAM holding you back. (That doesn't guarantee hitting that speed, just that your RAM won't be what stops you.)

The ASUS P5QL is a good P43 board, as is the Gigabyte EP43-DS3 series. DaveSimmons is running a P43 board (I believe it's an MSI board but I don't know the model number) so you might try PMing him for his input.
 
S

Sircoop

Member
Jan 10, 2002
163
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OK I am getting closer. Since it has been some time I also need a recommendation on my memory.

Windows Vista (64)
INTEL Core 2 DUO E8500
ASUS P5Q-L
4gigs of one of the following....

Crosair TWIN 2x4096-6400C4DHX
Crosair TWIN 2x4096-6400C5
Crosair TWIN 2x4096-6400C5DHX
Crosair TWIN 2x4096-8500C5D
Crosair TWIN 2x4096-8500C5DF
Kingston Kit KHX6400D2K2/4G
Kingston Kit KHX6400D2LLK2/4G
Kingston Kit KHX8500D2K2/4G
Kingston Kit KHX8500D2LLK2/4G


 
S

Sircoop

Member
Jan 10, 2002
163
0
0
I am buying a MOBO with Ram. If you had to choose, I am thinking you would go with either of these based on your reply:

Crosair TWIN 2x4096-6400C5DHX
Kingston Kit KHX6400D2LLK2/4G

 
S

Sircoop

Member
Jan 10, 2002
163
0
0
I Have an updated question. As you know this will be a gaming rig only.

Can the ASUS P5QL P43 with 4 GIGs of DDR2-800 run this card

POWERCOLOR AX4870 512MD5-H Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retai

 
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