Need to choose b/w Asus and Gigabyte

[Ballatician]

I'm going to have to choose between a motherboard from Asus (P5Q line) and Gigabyte (EP45 line).

I won't have the exact model numbers until later on today or tomorrow but since I have not used a mobo from either manufacturer I was hoping someone could recommend one brand or particular motherboard to me.

I have done some research myself and can't find a lot of difference between the two.

Any comments?

 

[elconejito]

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R and UD3P (crossfire) are phenomenal for LGA775. Especially if you plan on OC'ing.

 

[Shmee]

Originally posted by: elconejito
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R and UD3P (crossfire) are phenomenal for LGA775. Especially if you plan on OC'ing.

Truth! Gigabyte UDxx line recommended!

 

[yh125d]

Both lines are VERY good choices all around. I've owned a P5Q LGA and a UD3P and both were equally amazing. Just go for whichever has the right features for you

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

If you stick with a dual core, either board - it don't matter. If you are using a quad core or maybe sometime in the future, the Gigabyte hands down. Cmon, 500fsb with a C2Q - that's a very fun overclocking for your multi to play with.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
If you stick with a dual core, either board - it don't matter. If you are using a quad core or maybe sometime in the future, the Gigabyte hands down. Cmon, 500fsb with a C2Q - that's a very fun overclocking for your multi to play with.

My old P5Q went to 475+ without too much trouble

 

[Ballatician]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, seems like Gigabyte is the unanimous winner. I should be able to find out the exact model today so I'll post it.

The processor will probably be an E7400.

 

[Ballatician]

So I got some more information. The store is willing to exchange my Abit IP35-E which no longer works for a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR.

At first they were pushing a Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L. I feel like the EP45-UD3LR is a good choice though considering the positive experiences people have had with the line. I didn't want to push harder for a UD3P because the UD3LR is actually quite similar to my old board in terms of features. Perhaps they would let me pay the difference though and upgrade to a UD3P, maybe something for me to consider.

Since I bought a mobo/cpu combo they are also replacing my E6750 with an E7400.

All this will hopefully go seamlessly with the rest of my components. Thanks for the help.

 

[Ballatician]

Since I already have this thread, I thought I would ask here instead of making a new one.

Now that I have the replacement motherboard and replacement CPU, do I have to reformat my hard drive to install everything?

 

[yh125d]

Not likely. Use something like drivercleaner to clear out all old motherboard drivers (chipset driver, lan driver, audio driver, utilities, etc) before you install the new ones. Although it's usually a good idea to do a clean install, its very rarely required (especially among similar chipsets like yours)

 

[elconejito]

^^^ what he said. You might not need to, but it's a good idea.

There's a sticky in this forum about that, btw...

 

[Ballatician]

Originally posted by: elconejito
^^^ what he said. You might not need to, but it's a good idea.

There's a sticky in this forum about that, btw...

You're right. I totally read that sticky a few hours earlier and completely forgot about it when I was super sleepy later. Thanks for reminding me.

I think I'm going with a fresh install. I wanted to try and get vista 64 or experiment with ubuntu but I really don't have time for that.

 

[Ballatician]

Man I don't like having to use so much force during installation. The lever arm on this mobo was MUCH tougher than my last and I didn't like how much the locking plate moved.

Also, although it's been said a million times, the pins on the stock intel 775 cooler are horrible. These new gigabyte boards are very thick and mine has a noticeable curve to it now from trying to get all four pins down without one popping up.

Usually my AC 5 goes down the middle in a nice small perfect looking grain. I did it so sloppy this time in nothing that resembled a rice grain but in hopefully enough compound to work well. I did notice the cooler with the 7400 has a much thinner heatsink, anything above 35C and I'm reseating. I think I'll use some of the money I saved on a cpu cooler without dumb pins.

On to try and post now.

/blog