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Motherboard Choice - Gigabyte EP31, EP35 or EP43 ???
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MaccerM
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2. September 2008 @ 07:40 |
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Hi all, I am building a PC for my front room for use as a media centre, file sharing, general office and light gaming machine (hardcore hi-res games in the next room!)
Components I have;
E4300, Freezer 7 Pro
8800GS
2Gb XMS2 6400C4 (EPP needs 2.1v)
SATA 160, IDE 60, IDE DVD-RAM
I now need a mobo. (I did buy a Evga 650i off Ebay but after 20 mins that crashed and now refuses to read any RAM in the first two slots so is needing to be returned!)
I have the boards mentioned in mind. Here in the UK the EP35/43 are the same price (~£65), the EP31 is ~£45. (All the boards I'm looking at are the DS3L versions with solid caps.) Now I want to o/c using this board, to around 3ghz so it must handle at least 1333 fsb but I don't really need too many fancy features. I'm torn between just going for the cheap P31 - but I have not seen any reviews on this so am not sure what the bus/memory/voltage options are like - or spending a bit more on the 35/43.
Do I go for the cheaper one and save £20, if not what are the pros/cons of the 35/43? The p43 is PCIe v2, so is the 8800GS, but is this bandwidth going to go unoticed on a crippled GT? And will the p43 o/c as well as the p35? Would I really be loosing anything by going with the cheap P31? Any other recommendations outside these?
Q9550 @ 3.4Ghz-1.275v & TRUE, Asus P5N-T Deluxe, 4Gb Dominator 1066 (5-5-5-15), Inno3d OC 8800GTs in SLi with TT Duorbs, 580w 5.1 Setup, 2x DVD-RAM, 320&160Gb SATA2 HDDs, 17" 3ms Hyundai TFT, 700w Jeantech PSU.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 2. September 2008 @ 07:55
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voodoo172
Newbie
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2. September 2008 @ 08:06 |
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i dont know if you would take the reccomendation of a totally different board but i wud reccomend this one...
http://www.ginger6.co.uk/asrock-skt775-4...sb-p-30437.html
For £53 u get crossfire, overclockability with the fsb going up to 1600mhz and also, the capability to use DDR3 Ram in the future (up to 4GB) and up to 8GB DDR2 now with ur existing modules. its a p35D chipset.
Hope this helps...
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MaccerM
Member
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2. September 2008 @ 08:20 |
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Hi, I'm not really after a dual graphics solution. I doubt I'd ever want to spend out to put a second graphics card into the system, it just doesn't need that level of gfx power. Same for DDR3, if I do get it it will be for my other pc and that will be a complete upgrade - this machine would get the DDR2 hand-me-downs anyway. I need a fast, stable, good overclocking DDR2 board for as cheap as possible. (And I was put off Asrock by a 4Coredual board which was truely awful!! - not to say that board is not a good one though!)
Q9550 @ 3.4Ghz-1.275v & TRUE, Asus P5N-T Deluxe, 4Gb Dominator 1066 (5-5-5-15), Inno3d OC 8800GTs in SLi with TT Duorbs, 580w 5.1 Setup, 2x DVD-RAM, 320&160Gb SATA2 HDDs, 17" 3ms Hyundai TFT, 700w Jeantech PSU.
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voodoo172
Newbie
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2. September 2008 @ 09:54 |
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fair enough, i just though was good value for price essentially for overclocking due to the fsb. and you do just have to option there if you were to ever need it with crossfire and ddr3 if you see what i mean. it seems to have got very favourable reveiws.
if you have your heart set on the gigabyte board, i would go for the higher chipset version 43.
i currently have a gigabyte board in my system atm and its very stable and overclockeable, P35 i think it is chipset-wise, and came with lots of extras.
gl with the build anyway. :D
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MaccerM
Member
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2. September 2008 @ 18:13 |
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It seems from a Xbits review that that Asrock mobo is pretty rubbish for overclocking; (the one in the review is it's bigger brother but essentially the same)
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboa...fi_7.html#sect0
They have a habit of trying to make half-way house boards between two technologies that end up being rubbish at doing both! (My last one was a AGP/PCIe combo - never again!!)
Anyone have any thoughts on my original options?
Q9550 @ 3.4Ghz-1.275v & TRUE, Asus P5N-T Deluxe, 4Gb Dominator 1066 (5-5-5-15), Inno3d OC 8800GTs in SLi with TT Duorbs, 580w 5.1 Setup, 2x DVD-RAM, 320&160Gb SATA2 HDDs, 17" 3ms Hyundai TFT, 700w Jeantech PSU.
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