2 reliably solid builds

[Rastalovich]

Hey guyz, I want to test the water for some products to keep any eye out for price-wize and offers etc.

I`m going to be building 2 pcs in the autumn for 2 people who are like 1000s of miles away, so as u can imagine, the less grief the better

They`re moving from 2 similar AMD XP cpu systems, so anything c2d 4300/6300 and above is going to be a stoopendouso performance boost to their reality.

I`ve got memory and harddrives covered. CPUs I`m gonna grab the best priced at the time, not concerned about that - that`ll be up to the market. Add to that I`m gonna get them 8600 cards, most demanding game they play is WoW and they`ll be having Vista in about April next year.

Now, what I`m opening to speculation is the mobo really. These pcs will not be clocked at anything above stock as we`re looking for 2000% reliability (I can`t simply pop-over to look at them). There will be no raid`ing.

I`m open to suggestions on mobo, preferably from ABit, c2d banker, very good performance at stock, doesn`t need to have a clockable bios, good SATA2 handling (no poking around with drivers), doesn`t need SLI, onboard sound needs to be ok/fair, preferably works well with Vista (for the future), very solid and very reliable.

 

[FarFarAway]

Anything on an Intel platform is your best bet tbh

 

[Rastalovich]

An Intel Mobo u reckon ?

 

[FarFarAway]

Could do, or an abit mobo with an intel chip

The IP35 is solid as hell, by far the best most solid mobo i've used on 775

 

[Rastalovich]

ABIT IP35-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail is going for ~$120 atm

I know it`s the -E, but in all honesty the stuff the non-E and pro ones have - they simply aren`t going to use.

 

[nathan]

not related to what you want, but i'd set something like logmein.com up on them. Makes logging in loads easier as you dont need to forward any ports like RD.

 

[BUFF]

ABIT IP35-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail is going for ~$120 atm

Fry's have them for $95.

Only thing with the -E (apart from being basic) is that it currently has the start stop start boot behaviour that's been seen on many 965 mobos.

It possibly may get addressed with a new BIOS though.

 

[Rastalovich]

Weird, I searched the outpost.

See, now this is the thing, my fear was looking at the basic model, that I would doubt Kemp would have used the basic model and stepping down a gear may bring up an issue or 2 (it shouldn`t, but meh).

Stop start boot like what happens when u have a barely powerful enough psu ? or something more sinister ?

 

[FarFarAway]

Stop-start boot just means that you have to switch it on twice I think

And ye I have the IP35 Pro

 

[Rastalovich]

Ye u kinda press it.. nothing happens.. press again and wahey. I`ve had that with boards in the past. U think it`s the psu, change it out a few times then scratch u`r head for a while - then the prob goes away and in a week it happens again.

As long as this isn`t something that continues into after the OS has started I don`t think I`d lose any sleep over it. And tbh I think I`d flash these anyways.

 

[mVp24]

Just get an Intel Badaxe

 

[BUFF]

he can get 2 IP35s for the price of 1 bad axe 2

No, you press on & it starts up then a few seconds later it stops & then it starts again. It's a wee bit similar to how when you save new BIOS settings on a 965 or a P35 it will shut down & then start up again.

It's something that's been seen on many 975X & 965 mobos at points in their BIOS development.

abit's IB9 has always done it & the IP35-E & IP35 do it as well (the IP35 Pro doesn't). It may well be curable by a BIOS update & I know that it's been reported to abit.

It's a bit annoying in that it will lengthen your time to Windows from cold but other than that it's not sinister.

& I think that the $95 is an instore deal.

Come to think of it though how about something like the 945G based LG-95?

 

[Rastalovich]

Ah kewl, thanx for tidying that up for me.

Yeah I kinda thought about boards that u`d get if u were buying for u`rself, but from my experience, if u`r not gonna be around to tweak this`n`that, u`r better off just going for reliability/stability/solid.

Remember Tox, these boards are gonna be `insert the cpu, make sure bios booting option etc are ok` then it`ll be left alone.

EDIT: I took a quick look at the 945 based boards (Abit), and in terms of tech, when I look at the cpu ranges of the two cards, the 945 goes from Celeron to C2d, whereas the P35 goes pentium to quad, which implies that straight out of the box, the P35 has more to-date tech associated with it. U can applies bios(s), but I only want a bios upgrade for cosmetics.

 

[BUFF]

There is no doubt that the P35 is a more modern & higher performance chipset but it also does away with native PATA support (fair enough not a problem if you are starting out all SATA incl. opticals).

& do they need a state of the art chipset - do you see them running a quad/overclocking etc.?

 

[Rastalovich]

There is no doubt that the P35 is a more modern & higher performance chipset but it also does away with native PATA support (fair enough not a problem if you are starting out all SATA incl. opticals).

& do they need a state of the art chipset - do you see them running a quad/overclocking etc.?

It`s a fair comment, I think the base is a 1 connector 100ATA, but I`ve got all SATA drives for it. 1 hd and 1 optical is about it.

Well no with the Quad/oc, but from my pov - the board has the c2d as it`s middle tech, whereas the 945 has it as it`s top tech (granted u could probably bios upd8 to a quad somehow or another). So looking at it like that u know the mobo will do the c2d very well, with plenty of scope to spare.

 

[JN]

I've built quite a few systems with this board:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/121397

In terms of BIOS and features it's pretty much as simple as it gets.

For rock solid reliability I wouldn't choose any board that's been designed for overclockers - they all centre too much on performance, features and tweakable options rather than stability IMO.

EDIT: And oh as said Stop-Start is common on P965 boards (my Commando does it). You press the power, it turns on, it then turns off, then turns back on again and stays on.

It's not as bad as it sounds as it's never caused me any problems - just strange behaviour compared to other boards.

 

[Rastalovich]

I do appreciate the feedback.

Thing is, u can set u`r mind on something as a future purchase. But when the time comes, suddenly every1 is oos.

I`ll definately be keeping the qualifying boards in mind, and any others people can vouch for. 945, 965, p35 - whatever.