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P45 MB recommendation

Y

york1129

Member
P45 MB recommendation


Need recommendation on a new MB, P45 possibly, don't think I'll be getting any X48! Something stable & hopefully
with a mature BIOS, able to OC some & use all 4 RAM slots! Also need memory remapping, don't want to lose 512-
768 MB of physical RAM addresses to bus & peripheral addresses.

Need atleast 8 SATA ports [10 will be even better, but the 4 extra SATA borts on the ASUS/Gigabyte MB's are based
on Sil5723 controller & doesn't recognize ATAPI/optical drives!] At least 1 eSATA, for future expansion; 2 will is
even better.

* RANT *
ICH10R, for all the stuff Intel did to update the P35 to P45, including PCIe 2.0 & a node shirnk to 65nm they left
the south bridge virtually same as ICH9R! 6 PCIe 1.1 lanes connecting all the preipherals, any 4x PCIe slots, +
any 1x PCIe slots, the whole plethora of 8-10 SATA + any eSATA ports, any number of 2-4 LAN chips + the audio, &
the whole legacy PCI bus, all this connected with a measly 2 GBps NB-SB link, called DMI or whatever!

You gotta hand it to nVidia in this case, 28 lanes in the south bridge alone & its connected to the NB with HT too!
* RANT *

Rest of the hardware I'm getting is listed as below:

-CPU - Q9450
-Cooler - I already have a Xigmatek HDT-S1283, the extra shiny things [heatpipies & sinks] around the CPU won't
make this thing useless junk.
-RAM - 8GB [4 x 2GB] DDR2-1066 Patriot or G.Skill. Will I be able to run all 4 modules at 1066/1000 in 2 dual
channel mode? It's ok if can't do 1000/1066 with all 4 slots, however I still need 8GB as I plan on using VMware.
-GFX - HD4870 or a HD4850 [the ones that I looked at, none seem to come with a HDMI port, they all need DVI->HDMI
converter & no DisplayPort either!] Also not planning on doing any CF, atleast not anytime soon.

I have looked at some Gigabyte & ASUS MB's, but not familiar with DFI's current P45 [or P35] boards, don't know
much about FoxConn other than their recent record setting FSB & abit just went down under! So, please make your
recommendation.

I looked at the following boards

ASUS P5Q Deluxe--
-ADI AD2000B audio; for a almost $200 board you'd think they'd put in a high end Realtek if not an X-Fi, one of
those 7.1+2 chips that can playback multiple streams through different ports, also DTS/DD, I forget which.
-Marvell 88E8001 Gbit / PCI; this LAN chip is on the PCI bus, hence besides pegging the CPU to death, will barely
do 400MiBit/s; what was the point of putting 2 LAN anyway if one of them are going to be a carppy one; the other
one is a PCIe Marvell 88E8056 Gbit chip.
-Sil5723; 2 extra SATA ports but these boards doesn't recognise/work with ATAPI optical drives attached to them,
& I need at least 8 SATA ports that will all work with ATAPI devices!
-1 PS2 port; I mean wtf? What exactly am I supposed to do for a mouse, I also doubt my KVM will work with a PS2
splitter!

ASUS P5Q Premium--
-ADI AD2000B audio; same as previous asus board.
-4 Gbit LAN; all PCIe but wheres all that extra lanes coming from? Nowhere; its all being shared with the 6 PCIe
1.1 lanes in the SB.
-Sil5723; 4 SATA ports but same problem as above, no ATAPI support.
-1 PS2 port; same as above.


GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R--
+Realtek ALC889A audio codec; one of the best on board solutions.
+Realtek 8111C Gbit / PCIe x 2; actually also one of the best PCIe Gbit LAN chips.
-Only 6 SATA ports, also no eSATA.
?Dont know if memory remapping is supported.

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DQ6--
+Realtek ALC889A audio codec; one of the best on board solutions.
-Realtek 8111C Gbit / PCIe x 4; good LAN chip but wheres the bandwidth coming from; SEE BELOW!
-4x PCIe slot x 2; well these 2 slots have a PCIe switch that lets them share only 4 PCIe 1.1 lanes & that too with
the 4 Realtek Gbit LAN's!!!!!!
-Sil5723; 4 SATA ports but same problem as above, no ATAPI support. [& no eSATA.]
?Dont know if memory remapping is supported.


Well thats about all I can do for now, so please make your recommendation for other ASUS/DFI/Foxconn/Gugabyte board.

Thanks.
 
Also look at the ASUS P5Q Pro and P5Q-E and the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L. I can't comment between the P5Q Pro and P5Q-E, however the DS3L I believe is the same as the DS3R minus RAID and a bit more minor features. Maybe someone else can clarify on that.

The MSI P45 Neo3-FR should be a pretty good motherboard as well. I've seen a couple of forum members pull off some really nice overclocks with those.
 
Asus, MSI, gigabyte. the trinity of mobo manufacturers...

Rating:
Asus: 2/5 stars
MSI, Gigabyte: 1/5 stars
everyone else: -2 and below / 5 stars.

asus knows that though, so they tend to be overpriced compared to the other two. Gigabyte tends to give you the most bang/buck. with features like TONS of USB ports, optical SPDIF, etc etc.

I would go with this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128344
 
is CF the only difference b/w the Neo2 and Neo3. i am looking for a P45 mb to go with a QX 6850.
 
I have bought the ASUS P5Q Deluxe & having some issues.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131297
http://usa.asus.com/products.a...model=2257&modelmenu=1
http://support.asus.com/downlo...d.aspx?SLanguage=en-us


1st - updated to 1306 BIOS from the original 06xx
2nd - downgraded to 0803 BIOS after having stability issues with all 4 RAM slots being populated

RAM = 2 X F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK / G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2-1066 (PC2 8500)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231166

CPU = Q9550, not overclocked

PSU = Silverstone 850W Single rail

*RAM was tested seperately, single module at a time & in pair with the CPU, PSU, ODD, HD, HD4850 in a ECS G31T-M without any of the individual components giving any kind of problems.

*Nothing was overclocked on the ASUS board, cept running the RAM @ DDR2-1066 speed

*RAM runs fine 2 modules at a time on the ASUS board, but was never able to test 4 modules with the 0803 BIOS because now I can't even use the MB with the "Chassis Intrusion Detected" warning!


I have 8 SATA drives in total & need them all!

5 HD's are as follows:
#1 - OS
#2 - VM-disk1
#3 - VM-disk2
#4 - VM-OS disk
#5 - SWAP / VM-SWAP disk

3 SATA ODD's, 2 are burners, the NEC/Optiarc for single layer disks, the Pioneer for dual layer disks & the Lite-ON is exclusively for scanning!

This board has 8 ports, but the problems are: the 6th SATA port, from the ICH10R, is placed so stupidly that a single Radeon HD4850 covers this port entirely, hence making it unusable! 2nd, the orange port from the SIL detects a drive attached to it, but the white port doesnt report a drive to the OS/BIOS.

Guess what, now I can't even use this board, every time I start it gets stuck on BIOS post with "Chassis Intrusion Detected!" message & will not post or boot into an OS. No amount of clearing the RTC/BIOS with batterry, jumper & power removed solved this problem. Even the Intrusion jumper on the MB is seated in its default location as I have not moved it.

I need immediate solution to this problem; as otherwise I have to return the board & lose $30 restocking fee + $$ shipping!

Another problem was installing 8GB [4 x 2GB] G.Skill DDR2-1066 ram, the board would be very unstable & reboot, yeah I bumped the NB & RAM voltages as necessary; even though I specifically asked & got a definite "You can populate all 4 RAM slots with 2GB dual sided DDR2-1066 [specifically the G.Skill] modules for a total of 8GB" from multiple forums, including here.

Now whenever I boot up the MB all I get is the fans & HDD's spinning but no video POST & the screen stays blank!

I would appreciate anyone helping me with the "Chassis Intrusion Detected" & if you can with the 8GB/4 RAM module problem. Thank you.
 
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