motherboard makers / good and bad

[Raven]

hi.

looking for a motherboard capable of running a c2d but what brands are good and bad ?

gigabyte abit asus and msi is those i have been looking at.

is nforce something to look for or is intel965 better ?

Regards

Raven

 

[nathan]

i'm not that educated in this area, but i would recommend intel 965. But i suppose a part of it depends on what your looking for in the board. overclock? etc...

 

[FarFarAway]

i965 for Intel atm, though DFI's board is good, but very tricky to deal with

Asus P5B Deluxe/P5B-E plus or Asus Commando

 

[Raven]

But i suppose a part of it depends on what your looking for in the board. overclock? etc...

well my main requirment is passive cooling and not to expensive.

overclocking will be done but nothing extreme, 2.6ghz would be more than enough for me.

have no interest in running sli and i want to use my audigy2 soundcard.

need atleast 2 pci slots for the soundcard and tv-card.

Asus P5B Deluxe/P5B-E plus or Asus Commando

how about p5b ?

http://uk.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=307&model=1178&modelmenu=1

it has what i need and is within my budget.

 

[markkleb]

If you dont need Raid the Biostar is very good and inexpensive board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138037

OCing is very easy, and the PCI slots are excellent (none are wasted with a double wide GPU cooler.)

 

[Raven]

biostar isnt an option, have not seen them in any of the 8-9 stores i looked in.

 

[markkleb]

what about the Gigabyte DS 3? I seem to remember a few commenting on how good it was.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012

 

[FarFarAway]

I wouldn't get a DS3 although I've seen some good results.

I wouldn't get a Vanilla P5B, can you not stretch to a P5B-E Plus?

 

[Raven]

not with todays prices.

regarding the ds3 im abit cautious about it, heard rumours about compability issues with it.

how good is abit ab9 ?

 

[BUFF]

it's a good but not great overclocker compared to some but that's becase it doesn't switch to the 1333 strap like most other 965s.The JMicron causes some people bother but that's true of other mfrs 965 mobos too.

See the review http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?type=3&id=113&page=1&desc=abit_ab9_p965_conroe_motherboard

Hopefully I'm getting an AB9 QuadGT this week but given your modest requirements another mobo worth looking at maybe the abit IB9.

It uses a different IDE controller than the JMicron, still overclocks to ~400fsb & it's a bit cheaper than an AB9.

 

[Raven]

checked up on ib9 and found a couple of store that had it and looked ok, like the 2 ide channels and passive cooling and cheap.

will have to look it up alittle closer.

400fsb is more then enough and aiming for 2x1024 800mhz memories.

 

[FragTek]

AB9 is a great little board. I had it and it worked a treat, pretty good clocker too. My buddy just picked up the AB9 Pro and he loves it as well, clocked his E6300 very nicely.

Definitely a board worth looking at if that's what's in your price range.

 

[Raven]

i can afford the ab9 but the pro costs abit to much and does not have anything over the ab9 i need.

but read it is a tad low on dram voltage but how high can it go ?

checked the manual but it didnt say anything.

 

[FragTek]

i can afford the ab9 but the pro costs abit to much and does not have anything over the ab9 i need.

but read it is a tad low on dram voltage but how high can it go ?

checked the manual but it didnt say anything.

IIRC vdimm goes up to like 2.4 or 2.5 which was more than enough for my D9 to scream.

 

[Raven]

2.4, should be more then enough then.

the corsair i have looked on is verified at 1.9.

btw how big difference is it between 1t and 2t memories ?

also heard some motherboards like 1t memories more than 2t and other way around, any truth to it ?