Powerhouse Motherboards for the Q6600

[mathminded]

As I'm sure many of you have seen, NewEgg's weekly newsletter has the abit IP35 Pro for 129.99 after mail in rebate for subscribers. This is one of several boards that are left after I've spent a couple weeks narrowing down computer parts for my first build (for myself -- I've built a couple for friends in the past).

I'm looking to build a powerful system that could be categorized as a versatile gaming computer or an all around build that supports gaming. I want it to be able to handle graphics intensive games but have no need for the most hardcore equipment (i.e. I don't play FPS 😛). At the same time, this will be my primary computer, and I want it to be able to reliably run any program I throw at it and do so rapidly. It's worth noting that I don't do a lot of video editing (although, given a computer that could handle it... 🙂).

I recently bought a Q6600 g0 for $130 on sale, and am wanting a motherboard that can support it and the other parts I'm looking for to the fullest extent possible without breaking the bank. The rest of my set up is as follows:
- 4 GB DDR2 RAM (will bump up to 8 GB over the next year)
- GeForce 8800 GTS (or perhaps a slower model, but I'm pulling for this one)
- 750 GB hard drive or two 500 Gb hard drives in a RAID setup
- 1 or 2 CD/DVD read drives
- 1 or 2 CD/DVD write drive
- Haven't decided on a sound card yet, but a higher end model
- Large heatsink over the Q6600 (in all likelihood a TRUE)
- A powersupply dependent on what my hardware requires 🙂

At this point, a lot of the remainder of my build rests on what the motherboard will support. I've never had to choose a motherboard for myself and am finding it awfully tough to narrow it down more than I already have, which is currently a pool of about 15 boards. The abit IP35 Pro was the last abit candidate I was considering, after reading so many reviews from people who hated the utter lack of support on abit's end for their products. My questions are essentially...

- How is the IP35 Pro being received?
- Does the board work well with the Q6600?
- How is its overclocking support?
- Are there any boards you would recommend over this one for a high end Q6600 build?

I would prefer to keep my motherboard purchase to under $250...and ideally under $200. Any feedback on this one would be a lot of help. I really appreciate it.

It's been a long day at work today, so if I'm sure I've forgotten to fill in some details that would help you. If you need any more info on what I'm looking for, let me know. Thanks guys!

 

[dr150]

- How is the IP35 Pro being received? Go to Newegg. Ratings is 5 stars--extremely few boards have 700 plus ratings giving such high marks.
- Does the board work well with the Q6600? YES! I have this chip.
- How is its overclocking support? YES! Great flexibility.
- Are there any boards you would recommend over this one for a high end Q6600 build? Depends on what features you want. Gigabyte, MSI, DFI are also good brands. Asus's competitive offerings have a poor scheme/layout with SATA ports being blocked by the video cards. The IPpro 35 seems to have just about the right balance of features for me and the $130 price makes it a no-brainer IMO.


You can't go wrong with the IP35 Pro. It is an extremely popular board (since it's so highly reviewed by users and tech sites) so you'll find a healthy community to help you overclock, etc. The board is dummy proof with the reset switch in the back in case your overclock setting don't take. It's a solid board.

 

[Heidfirst]

what he said ^

 

[wwswimming]

safe to say, Intel goes to great lengths to make sure their motherboards work with
their CPU's. the 975XBX2 is a good board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813121059

the OEM version is $190.

it has an older chipset. i haven't seen any of the new Intel boards "stand up"
(and say "buy me !!!") the way the XBX2 did.

wusy, one of the more experienced OC'ers at Tom's, has/had it listed as
a recommended board on his OC'ing guide.

 

[mathminded]

Hi guys! Thanks so much for your quick replies!

@dr150 and Heidfirst: I definitely appreciate the confidence boost. I've been following it on newegg for quite awhile and am impressed with the amount of positive reviews. My concerns stem from the DOA reviewers and the apparently poor marks abit gets by users in customer service (especially pertaining to rebates). Have either of you had problems in these areas?

@wwswimming: This is why I love these boards -- people know what they're talking about! 🙂 This is another board I'm considering, but have been wary due many negative reviews indicating difficulties with flashing the BIOS and compatibility problems. I'll definitely explore it further, though.

Another question that might be suitable for this thread is in regards to the performance gain when one goes from a P35 to either the X38 or X48. Has anyone used the P35 and one of the other two and compared? If not, does anyone know of any good comparison articles on this? I have so far come up short in my searches.

Also, if anyone has other board recommendations (<=$250 excluding tax/shipping), please please let me know. There are so many out there that look good with reasonable newegg reviews that I don't know which to go for.

Last question...is anyone familiar with the DFI LP UT P35 T2R? As I recall, it had a great review here, with specs comparable to the other top boards on the market (at the time of writing).

 

[brencat]

I wouldn't recommend a DFI board to a novice OCer if you are one. Their bioses are highly customizable which is very good for someone with experience but damn near intimidating for a beginner. I will 'third' the IP35-Pro as I own the IP35-E and can vouch for Abit's solid engineering and well laid out and logical bios which is also EASY for a beginner to navigate and manipulate.

I've primarily owned Asus boards in the past but the Abit IP35 series is a winner. The Abit forum community is also among the most helpful and intelligent group of people anywhere too. Buy it without hesitation.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: mathminded
@dr150 and Heidfirst: I definitely appreciate the confidence boost. I've been following it on newegg for quite awhile and am impressed with the amount of positive reviews. My concerns stem from the DOA reviewers and the apparently poor marks abit gets by users in customer service (especially pertaining to rebates). Have either of you had problems in these areas?

1) people are far more likely to post a negative complaint than a positive 1 which will always make it look like there are a higher % of DOA etc. than there really are
2) sometimes the problem isn't the board but may be other ancillary hardware or the user ...
3) point 1 also goes for CS, tbh I don't think that any mobo company are universally great (I'm not counting people like eVGA because they don't design & manufacture but market) - you'll certainly see strikes against Asus, DFI, Gigabyte, MSI etc. too. For a no. of year its seems that abit USA service hasn't been to the same standard as that in Europe (but again it could just be that the larger market leads to more complaints even though the % is the same).

As for rebates abit sold a pile of mobos over Black Friday & this was followed by a bug that ran through a large % of their office staff which slowed things down. As a result of this about February they subcontracted to catch up & going by the user posts on the abit USA forum things are much improved.
abit stand behind their rebates.

 

[bryanW1995]

I have 3 quads on abit mobos: x3350 on ip35 pro, q9450 on ip35-e and q6600 on ip35-e. You can't go wrong with any abit p35-based mobos imho, but the ip35 pro for $129 is really good. newegg did offer them for $99 AR a couple of months ago, but it was only for a single day and they haven't brought that deal back.

regarding motherboard doa issues, I second heidi's statement. even experienced motherboard users can have problems. In fact, I just reinstalled windows after a hard drive shuffle (gave the 36gb raptor to mom's q6600 rig, ordered a WD6400aaks) on my ip35 pro. I have installed windows 4-5 times on this mobo since july 07, so I'm very confident in my knowledge of it. however, I had set it to failsafe defaults so it wasn't recognizing my gigabit ethernet, usb, or audio. I reinstalled windows a second time without realizing my mistake. I snarled at the wifey for 4 hours...finally, I clued in and went to the bios to check things out...needless to say, if I was a novice user I might have just assumed that the mobo was defective and rma'd it.

@OP, on your other system components, I would highly recommend the WD6400AAKS for a hd and also wait for june 18 decide on a video card.

 

[mathminded]

Thanks to all of you for the encouragement! I'll definitely be going with the IP35 Pro. It seems far too good an opportunity to pass up.

@bryanW1995: I'm definitely going with WD6400AAKS unless something my plans change drastically. What occurs on June 18? Is a new card coming out?

Thanks again everyone for all your help! I'll update this when I have my final build. 🙂

 

[mathminded]

One more question I forgot to post. How does the ip35 pro stack up when compared to the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe? Is it worth the upgrade to the p5k3? This is my last board consideration before getting the ip35 pro.