which motherboard is better?

[sxulocktor]

hello people, i need to buy a new motherboard

my computer is this:
e8400 @ 3.6
2x1gb supertalent @1000mhz
1x250gb WD
PSU: IstarUSA TC-750PD1 750w


The candidates for the motherboard are:

MSI p45 Platinum NEW (250 dollars with 3 years wrranty)
DFI lan party X38 DK t2r OPEN BOX (240 dollars with 6 moths reseller's warranty)



Well, may be you are saying WTF? the prices are bad.... well, no, im from argentina and the prices are more expensive than in the EEUU.

note: The DFI mobo was bought by an importer from my country to newegg, and its open box from newegg, but it has all the bundle and the box.



Which one of those i should buy?




pd: sorry for my english, its so bad, i'm only 15 years old and i'm still learning english.

 

[DSF]

Your English actually is quite good for a 15 year old foreigner. Welcome to AT.

Personally, I'd never pay $240 for an open box item, but perhaps that's just because things are less expensive here.

 

[Quiksilver]

If I had to choose a board, it's be the MSI one.

but are those choice your absolute choices or just the ones your looking at?

 

[sxulocktor]

no, there are the unique choices... and i have forgotten to say that im goging to make a crosffire of 4850.... that is important.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yes, that is important -- crossfire speed is slower on P45 chipset motherboards (cards run x8 speed). X38 has the cards run at x16 speed.

If you wait and buy a 4870x2 single card then you do not need crossfire. You can buy a cheaper P45 board with no crossfire, or even a P43 board.

My Gigabyte P43 motherboard does support 400 FSB for the e8400, but I have not tried it. The cost was under $100 US.

 

[sxulocktor]

i'm going to make a 4850 Crossfire on the mobo.


does not influence the mobo is openbox? openbox products of newegg are really reliable and full and good working??

 

[DaveSimmons]

Open box products at Newegg are not tested, and you do not know what the owner did to the board before sending it back to Newegg. Open box also can be missing parts like the metal plate for the back of the case, cables, and the driver CD.

In the US, it would be $100 + $500 = $600 for P35/P43 motherboard and 4870x2, or $180 + $350 (2x$175) = $530 for x38 and crossfire 4850. The 4870x2 will be faster.

 

[badnewcastle]

Originally posted by: sxulocktor
i'm going to make a 4850 Crossfire on the mobo.


does not influence the mobo is openbox? openbox products of newegg are really reliable and full and good working??

My 680i SLI was an open box item from Newegg, it performed even with OC'ing, but once in a while the onboard ethernet would not work. No big deal.

Then 7 months later (1 month ago) I ordered my second 8800gt which was the whole purpose of getting the mobo I got. Well turns out the next sli slot down was bad... causing the cards to perform worse in sli then either card in single. MSI replaced it and the SLI is fixed, but I can't OC which makes SLI pointless because my cpu bottlenecks unless I can OC, on the replacement board it barely runs stable at stock speeds. By new, by retail with the mobo!

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: sxulocktor
openbox products of newegg are really reliable and full and good working??

Very risky.