P35 motherboard good or wait for something else?

[gamerxx13]

I was thinking of building a new computer. I wanted to get the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P motherboard. I am not sure if this is the best motherboard, but after I was looking on the forums I saw that it is a pretty good motherboard for a dual core 2 which I wanted to get. My friend said that some new motherboards are coming out soon? Should I wait for the new ones to come out, or is GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P the best one for the money.

Second, what are the new motherboards suppose to have thats so great anyways?

 

[bigsnyder]

P35 boards are a great choice. I am also considering the P35-DS3P or the Foxconn P35A-S. They are very similiar feature wise.
The new 2.0 revision of the DS3P drops the parallel/serial ports of the backplane and adds more USB ports. The Foxconn board
still includes the legacy ports on the backplane. If you care nothing for PCI-E 2.0 or full crossfire support, then there is no reason
not to get a P35 board.

 

[gamerxx13]

What is PCI-E 2.0 and full crossfire support?

 

[NoelS]

Originally posted by: gamerxx13
I was thinking of building a new computer. I wanted to get the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P motherboard. I am not sure if this is the best motherboard, but after I was looking on the forums I saw that it is a pretty good motherboard for a dual core 2 which I wanted to get. My friend said that some new motherboards are coming out soon? Should I wait for the new ones to come out, or is GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P the best one for the money.

Second, what are the new motherboards suppose to have thats so great anyways?

gamerxx13,

Gigabyte, ASUS and Abit all have some pretty decent P35 chipset motherboards. Some can be used with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory, but most are DDR2 boards. The other new boards your friend mentioned are probably x38 chipset mobos which have quite a few new capabilities and can also be use with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory. Do some Googling or search around on theses forums to check them out...

Depends what you want to use the computer for... if you're a gamer like your name says, you could check out SerpentRoyal's thread on the Abit IP35-E, which he claims is a great mobo for overclocking. That may be what you want... here's where it is: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2063989&enterthread=y

If you want the more mature motherboards, go for one with the P35 chipset, like the IP35-E, Abit IP35 Pro, or ASUS P5K series, as well as the Gigabytes - the x38s are just getting started and may be a little too new to have the bugs ironed out. I just built a new rig using an ASUS P5K-E mobo and I love it. Check out my sig...

Noel

 

[NoelS]

Originally posted by: gamerxx13
What is PCI-E 2.0 and full crossfire support?

PCI-E 2.0 is an update of the original PCI-E standard. Crossfire is using 2 PCI-E video cards on a single Intel mobo to get higher gaming frame rates than using a single video card. The x38 chipset also allows using both video cards at x16 instead of one at x16 and the other at x8 or x4.

Noel

 

[yyrkoon]

Originally posted by: NoelS

Depends what you want to use the computer for... if you're a gamer like your name says, you could check out SerpentRoyal's thread on the Abit IP35-E, which he claims is a great mobo for overclocking. That may be what you want... here's where it is: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2063989&enterthread=y

If you want the more mature motherboards, go for one with the P35 chipset, like the IP35-E, Abit IP35 Pro, or ASUS P5K series, as well as the Gigabytes - the x38s are just getting started and may be a little too new to have the bugs ironed out. I just built a new rig using an ASUS P5K-E mobo and I love it. Check out my sig...

Noel

Ill second the ABIT IP35-E as being an extremely good overclocker. Right now my IP35-E is running my E6550 at 3.33Ghz with stock cooling and voltages. OVerclocking was extremely simple: drop FSBRAM ratio to 1:1, bump MCH up one notch, and set external clock to 475Mhz. 1 Ghz OC in about 2 minutes, no need to hit CTRL +F1(although to be honest I did have to correct my memory timings, and voltages . . . BAAAAAD Corsair . . .), or fool with any of the other settings. This board is also extremely stable at these speeds, and I cannot see a better board in the ~$90 usd price range, and many at twice that cost not being as good.

The IP35 Pro does seem to have some compatability issues with the larger Raptor HDDs, and some have reported X-FI sound card incompatabilities as well. Personally I use 100% Seagate, and have not used discrete audio in a long time, so I cannot verify this.