MSI vs ABIT vs Gigabyte

[oslama]

I am looking for a fairly stable OC able MB for Q6700 with support for legacy ide (none of the Jmicron crap) pc6400 and under $100.

I have had good luck with ABITs (long live the K series MBs) and MSI (currently running a s939 rig) but Gigabytes seem to stable and popular.

Looking at ABIT IP35-E, MSI Neo2 and GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L

waht about ASUS pk5 series

Parts for system

retail Q6700
4 gb OCZ PC6400
Ati 850XT soon to be upgraded to 8800gt
430w thermal take PSU

 

[SirSnipe]

I just picked up an IP35-E myself from newegg (30$ MIR), I didn't really like my P5KC personally, but have been a good Abit/Gigabyte fan, the Abit was cheaper after MIR, and I replace my motherboards often enough to not really care about the caps in other places than the cpu/power caps

Comes will all Japanese capacitors and low-profile solid caps at the CPU power regulation circuit." My understanding is it has solid caps for all the more important parts, or at least those most likely to be impacted by cheaper capacitors.

Don't know much about the Neo2, so can't really recommend it, seems like a good buy at 89$ if you get it at Clubit.com tho

Btw you'll need a better psu, 430W for that rig isn't enough, especially if you OC

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: oslama
with support for legacy ide (none of the Jmicron crap)

all P35s (& X38 etc.) have to use an addon controller (usually the JMicron series) for IDE support.
nforce 650i/750i is probably your best bet for native IDE support but I don't know how well they will clock with a Q6700 ...

 

[v8envy]

If that's the thermaltake 430-TR2, that's not a 430 watt PSU. It's a consumer grade 300 watt PSU in disguise -- the 18 amps on the 12v rail are 1. not enough 2. were rated at a low temperature and 3. not designed to be served continuously. Besides, yours has probably been in service for a while. I have that same exact unit (FAR, whatcha gonna do) and I can confirm it doesn't behave anything like an enthusiast PSU. It's great for an older athlon XP rig though.

I highly recommend you read reviews/feedback/dissections all over the net before you trust this ~$10 PSU to power $800 worth of high end computer components.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've had no problem with my ThermalTake 430W PSUs, powering an OCed E2140 @ 3.2Ghz, a SATA HD and an IDE DVD burner, along with an X1950Pro. 4GB of RAM too.