Looking for help on a Motherboard decision.

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Weyl
Well, 30W difference is very important if you want a cool and quiet system, but does not matter otherwise apart from a slightly higher electric bill (less than 0.5 cents per hour). Comparison of features is a good way of choosing a board.

P5K Deluxe: no keyboard PS/2, no serial/parallel ports in the back panel, dual PCIe x16 slots (one is electrically x4), 6 internal SATA, 2 external SATA, daul Gb LAN + wireless LAN, AD1988B audio codec, IEEE 1394

GA-P35C-DS3R: all the legacy ports in the back panel, single PCIe x16, 8 internal SATA, 2 external SATA by the bundled bracket, ALC889A audio codec (slightly better than AD1988B), no IEEE 1394

GIGABYTE's high-end DQ6 supports dual PCIe x16, DTS Connect, IEEE 1394, and so on.

Asus' Intel boards are famous for pulling a lot of current from the wall. If you want very low load and a cool running board, then check out the Abit IP35-E. It's an excellent overclocking board with very low ide current (89 actual watts idle, and 191 watts under Othos large file mode). I use a calibrated AC ammeter to check for AC current. Vcore is set at 1.465. Test rig consists of one 80GB HDD, 2 GB RAM @ 2.0Vdimm, and one floppy drive. PSU is the Antec SP350. Note that these numbers were obtained with an overclocked E4300 @ 3.44GHz. Expect much lower readings with default Vcore and FSB.

You should be able to run the FSB up to 400MHz with default Vnothbridge and Vsouthbridge. For an easy overclock, use 1:1 RAM divider (1.8-2.1Vdimm), bump up Vcore 1.4-1.465, and slowy raise the FSB.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...AR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

 

[mikeyikeey]

Well thanks everyone, but I don't think I'm going to be going with Abit.

So my good friend recommended the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R to me.

But I've got my heart semi-set on the P5K Deluxe. So now I'm wondering, is it going to spit out so much heat that I should ditch it? I will be purchasing a Tuniq Tower, and my case is going to be an Antec Nine Hundred. Will that be enough to 'take on the heat?'

If not, the DS3R is my second choice, and a great option I believe.

One question about the P5K though.
On newegg, under the P5K's memory specifications it says:
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Memory Standard: DDR2 1066 / 800 / 667 MHz The chipset officially supports the memory frequency up to DDR2 800MHz. Tuned by ASUS Super Memspeed Technology, this motherboard natively supports up to DDR2 1066MHz.</end quote></div>

Does this mean it takes DDR2 800 MHz and cranks it to 1066 MHz? This confuses me.
Will my Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB function properly, or should I hunt for new RAM?

Well, let me know! I'm sure you're all going to bomb me with answers!

 

[Weyl]

Practically a 30W higher heat output does not matter; what you need to do is just slightly crank up your case fans (I don't know how more rpm is required). But if you are extremely picky about fan noise, you may not like it.

Super Memspeed Technology is just an enhancement of BIOS to improve memory performance by enabling 1T command rates. Your memory will work fine.

 

[mikeyikeey]

Gotcha, and thanks Weyl.

Great news though, I've decided to go with another motherboard my friend recommended! The one and only GIGABYTE GA-P35-DQ6.

Also, I might get the Scythe SCNJ-1100P to cool it since the Tuniq Tower might not fit / be compatible.

Let me know what you guys think about this one. I hope I've finally found something that works just great.

I'm sure everyones ready to grab their pitchforks and stab me after asking so many questions!

 

[Weyl]

You mentioned DQ6 in the original post, but stopped talking about it. So I thought you didn't like it. Yeah, it is a very good choice and Ninja fits it perfectly ("CRAZYCOOL" prevents from installing many good coolers with a back plate!).

Edit

I just learned the strap changes at FSB 417 in the GIGABYTE P35 boards. If you don't overclock past FSB 417, this doesn't matter, though.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...=2252376&postcount=256

 

[mikeyikeey]

Thanks Weyl, but I don't know much about overclocking so I probably won't be going past that? Is that alot of overclocking?
I was planning on overclocking a little, but I'm not going to ask for alot out of my system.

 

[Weyl]

FSB 416MHz means:

E6850: 416MHz x 9 = 3.74GHz
E6750: 416MHz x 8 = 3.33GHz

So it's a lot of overclocking from the default of speed of 3.00GHz and 2.66GHz respectively. At FSB 417MHz, memory performance suddenly decreases. But I guess you will never care of it.

 

[mikeyikeey]

I don't think I plan on asking that much out of my computer, but thank you for getting the intel on that for me.
I'm pretty sure I've come up with my final build. I'll be sure to post a link to it whenever I get around to putting it on the forums.
Thanks for all your help though Weyl, and everyone else!

If you do end up finding out something new, go ahead and PM me or something.
I'll greatly appreciate it!

Well again, thanks everyone! Hopefully now I can go help some kiddo on picking out the right motherboard!

 

[aigomorla]

i personally grown fond of the P35-DS3P.

It doesnt offer the DDR3 ram, but its almost the same layout as the DQ6.

 

[mikeyikeey]

Do you think its better than the DQ6? Or just like the DS3P? I do know at first I was heavily considering the P35-DS3R, but I've settled down with the DQ6 since then.