IP35-E vs DFI Blood Iron

[joker380]

Hi guys i have read tons of post about both this board and now i am confused which one to buy there is 20 dollars diff between both. I have read that DFI has so many options in their BIOS that it is not for the NOVICE but they are very very stable if you know what you are doing. On the other hand i have read that IP35-E are also very very good and easy to OC. So if anyone one has experience with any of this board let me know which one will be easy to maneuver. Below is what i have.

E2160
ADATA DDR2 800 2X2gb
Antec SOLO
Antec 500 earthwatt
Video card for now i will use the old Radeon 9100 Till i find a good deal on 8600 as i dont play games.
CPU cooler GemenII The huge one
HD still on the look for a SATA but currently i have a 160gb IDE WD

All i am interested is getting the CPU to around 3GHZ nothing much.

Thanks For all your replies in advance.

 

[imported_Scoop]

Save some bucks and get the abit IP35-E

 

[The-Noid]

I like the Blood Iron, Great board.
IP35-E is very good as well. Just depends how much you want to spend.

 

[joker380]

my main concern is the BIOS which will be easier to understand and tweak. Also does ABIT NB get hotter like DFI and also is GemenII CPU Cooler be fine in any of this board or should i go for something smaller.

 

[MTDEW]

I see the Cooler Master GemenII fits on the abit IP35-E.
LINK
Scroll down to moparacer's post.

Looks like a nice cooler to me.
I want one now...LOL

 

[The-Noid]

DFI boards always have a tougher bios to understand but also are more stable when fully tweaked.

 

[nyker96]

I got 2xIP35E love both. NB very cool even after FSB reach 400+. Anyways, I think you need to consider features here. IP35-E is barebone as they come. I don;t do RAID or anything fancy so it's fine. but if you are maybe get another board more feature packed.

 

[Heidfirst]

DFI has RAID as well iirc whereas the -E doesn't.
An important consideration is support - here in the UK DFI support is non-existent (mobos have to be sent abroad for RMA at significant postage cost) whereas abit are very good. I don't know what the situation is like where you are though.

 

[Yoshi911]

I was a novice when I wanted to first start over clocking (weren't we all) but I read that the DFI boards were the best at it so I went out and bought one (during the NF4 era I bought a total of 3) all of them worked like champs. I am currently using one and it's great. Since then I've purchased nothing but DFI boards when I want a high end motherboard for a little OC'ing. I think that the OCing options are very well layed out, and with a little research one can understand the basics of what you need to get a nice OC.

I have built a few custom setups with the DFI L2R P35 board ($300+) and the two with the Blood Iron ($115@newegg) and I would not waste my money on anything else unless you wanted SLI. It is rock stable, as always with DFI

Worst case you OC your CPU and just leave your memory timings real loose (won't effect performance much)(this reasoning because CPU settings are easy to understand but there are 15+ memory settings)

If you get a board that has limited overclock ability, once you overclock a little bit you will be disappointed that you cant go any further, trust me, I've seen it over and over. $115 is damn cheap for a high performance motherboard

 

[joker380]

thanks youshi for you insightful comment however i just bought IP35-E purely because of Price Diff at 66 after rebate one cant go wrong with this mobo. However once i get use to all this OC maybe my next build will be on DFI if they keep up their good work.

Thanks again.