Board for Q6600

[WC Annihilus]

Well, my friend managed to snag one of the Q6600 $200 combos over at Fry's this Black Friday and being the cool guy he is, he's gonna let me borrow it since he already has a E6850 rig. Obviously, at that price the included mobo sucks (ECS mATX, ugh). So, normally I'd probably grab an IP35 Pro or something, but since it's only borrowing for now (if I hold long enough, I'd prolly buy it off him), I want to go with a cheaper board, sub $100 preferably but I'm willing to stretch more if you think it's worth it.

Currently have 2 main possibilities:

MSI Neo2-FR

DFI Blood Iron

There's also the MSI P35 Platinum which is about $20 more if that's worth it.

Anyways, any other suggestions? RAID would be much preferred but I suppose isn't a must.

Also a few questions:

Would my current TruePowerII 430W be able to cope?

Most of these boards have an 8-pin, but a 4-pin is fine, right?

Will the new board detect my current RAID array fine? If so, will my current XP install work fine? I've never needed to change mobos before, so I don't really know how it works.

I think that's it for now, though I may have other questions (need to head to bed )

 

[FarFarAway]

Hmm, the MSI or the DFI will probably both be fine. Not sure if your PSU is up to the job though...might be absolutely fine...give it a go?

 

[Mandible]

Just to say, nice guy! I'd never let someone borrow something that valuable

 

[WC Annihilus]

Forgot to mention: since I don't have any DDR2, he's also letting me borrow this set of RAM that he got at Fry's as well

 

[Ham]

The DFI is supposed to be pretty solid.

Isn't the IP35 (normal) or IP35-E in that price bracket?

 

[SuB]

i've got an ip35 pro and thus far solid as rock! lol

nice job getting it for borrowage though lol

the the mobo i have will take a 4 pin instead of 8 pin but it says it doesn't conform to blah blah regulation when used that way

i'd also say that psu may need to be upgraded for it tbh

 

[jabski]

ask to borrow his psu too

 

[Rastalovich]

Seen a bunch of oc`ers about the places using the Abit IP35-e (circa $80) for oc`ing like crazy.

Only ~real~ thing it lacks from the other 2 versions are 2 sata ports, raid, usb ports, firewire.. and something else. Not many people miss those things.

 

[Bal3Wolf]

The ip35-e is a great board but i thk its being phased out i got mine up to 4ghz for benchmarks and run it at 3700 folding everyday.