Motherboards

Motherboards

Postby rockingmtranch on 17 Dec 2008 17:49

Boy there are a lot of them out there. Which one is best for gaming? Which one is best and the best on the pocketbook for gaming? Which one are you using and how do you like it?

I'm using XFX GeForce 8200 and really only because it was a bundle deal (came with an Athlon 64 X2 4600+) at NewEgg. The board is not SLI. I had to be careful with my cpu cooler choice because the ram is very close and it is possible to lose slots. My monster sized card (BFG 260) blocks 3 of the 6 SATA connections and I don't see anything I can do about that. Otherwise, it seems like a good board.

So what about y'all?
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Re: Motherboards

Postby Nightwatch on 17 Dec 2008 23:53

I'm sort of ASUS guys as far as the motherboards go. They are very reliable. In the class specs level, in which I find myself facing to choose a motherboard, the most important issue for me is the reliability of the motherboard in that specs range, I'm not much interested with other options that they may offer. I never overclock a motherboard. I find it a very bad idea.
Nvidia motherboards are also quite good, reliable and fast.
Frankly I don't have much knowledge on XFX motherboards, but it's a highly reputable company and I wouldn't expect them produce something that may tarnish their name. So I believe it should be trustable.

I will need to change my motherboard, in fact build a new computer in the next few months as this one is reaching the replacement time. Three years now, working 10 hours a day in stressful conditions.

A motherboards discussion is therefore very welcome idea. :)
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Re: Motherboards

Postby EggChen on 18 Dec 2008 00:36

I'm with you on the Asus, I too have mostly used Asus boards as they are very reliable. I have only ever had one go on me, and that went when the Power Supply gave up, so I reckon it was not a board reliability issue.

Currently using the following board :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... cket%20775)%20PCI-Express%20DDR2%20Motherboard

Mainly as the price-performance, and user reviews were good.... only complaint I could find is that the 24pin power socket was in an awkward place. In truth you just have to plug that in before the GFX card, which is probably the correct sequence anyway!!

I have always found Asus BIOS to be simple and easy to use, and on other brands I have had issues with USB headers, network chips, etc. One MSI board I had needed a plug in network adaptor, as the oonboard chip simply did not work (I could not be arsed with RMA). A gigabyte board had issues with the USB headers, and so to get my front USB ports working required a plugin USB card, and some hacking of wires!!

All in all, never had a problem with Asus. They run pretty cool at stock speeds, and seem to have excellent build quality and bundled cables/software. The current board shown above even has a fastboot Linux based OS system built in!!
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Re: Motherboards

Postby Nightwatch on 18 Dec 2008 01:16

Yup, it's a pretty impressive board. Mine is older, as I mentioned above. It's a P5LD2 revision 2 ASUS board, set to accept Core 2 range CPUs. Intel P45 chip, 4 Gig RAM DDR2, 4 SATA, 2 ITE (can hook 4 HDD), 1x2 IDE and those additional things as usual. Runs very cool, too.
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Re: Motherboards

Postby ket on 18 Dec 2008 03:51

Well, assuming you want a decent board for OCing while keeping all your current components, the Asus Crosshair is a STONKING board, I owned one and I'm pretty sure I set a WR at the time for A64 CPU clock on air (3GHz). The board is no slouch when it comes to memory clocking either, I got some Mushkin XP-2 8000 2x1GB GMH kit to 1180MHz @ 4-4-4-12. I could of gone higher, but my CPU was preventing me. Of course, the board is SLi ready too. Linky

As for other boards I've owned.. yeesh over the last 15 months or so alone its a long list, Abit AW9D-Max (not a bad board at the time, completely outdated now) Asus P5Q Pro (I love this board, if it were possible I might actually make sweet, sweet love to it :p ) a Biostar TPower I45 (don't like this board much, feels like an overpriced budget board) The Asus Crosshair as I already mentioned, and technically a Asus M3N78 as well. (In the parents new puter I built them for christmas)

For anyone having trouble, thats 5 boards in about 15 months, lol. I'm a hardware whore and proud of it! :d
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
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Re: Motherboards

Postby rockingmtranch on 18 Dec 2008 20:37

All good info thanks. Looks like ASUS is in the lead =D> So my next board, I'll look into those. And it's funny, layout was never an issue until now with these video cards so that does sway me a bit on model.
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Re: Motherboards

Postby rockingmtranch on 20 Dec 2008 17:18

So, nobody else? Here's your chance at some bragging rights for your board B-) The more info we have on different boards, the more informed decision we can make in our next purchases.
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Re: Motherboards

Postby Nightwatch on 20 Dec 2008 19:42

I would reiterate that -as I believe- ASUS is the top motherboard by any means, as far as reliability, longetivity and stability matters are concerned. They also offer state-of-the-art software tweaks and options. Second best, though quite near, is the Nvidia motherboards which also offer very useful inbuilt power management systems as well. This is only my opinion of course, but in those two brands, only the models are a matter of discussion for me, as I wouldn't consider any other motherboard. Never an ASUS motherboard has ever died on me, I either sold them or gave to friends in exchange, and until they got new tecnology-ones along the road eventually, those old motherboards continued to perform as the day one. Well, that's something.

(PS: I never OC -I may OC the CPU or GPU but never the mobo- or update the BIOS; both are bad ideas, as I'd tell anyone who may ask my opinion.)

edit: typo
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Re: Motherboards

Postby rockingmtranch on 21 Dec 2008 01:37

Well, sounds good to me then. Next mobo will be ASUS. We'll see how long this MSI lasts. Right now, Fallout3 is playing on max with no issues (nothing overclocked). I am using EVGA Precision to boost my GPU fan when I run the game but that is all. The bios settings on this board are phenomenal though as far as controlling just about everything. Of course, not knowing what to set something could burn ya.

Oh, and Ket mentioned the Crosshair. Looks like a very nice board.
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Re: Motherboards

Postby ket on 22 Dec 2008 23:15

The Crosshair is the best AM2 board, period. Even offers good AM2+ support with a BIOS update :thumbright: oh and nightwatch, updating the BIOS is a VERY GOOD IDEA 99.99% of the time. Inital release BIOS code is always bugged to hell and\or just plain crap. BIOS updates are not there willy-nilly, they are there for good reason ;) I have updated BIOSes more times than I can remember and the only danger of a BIOS flash going wrong is if something is unstable, in which case you can fubar the BIOS, but even then 99% of the time you can recover from a corrupt BIOS quite easily.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
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Re: Motherboards

Postby Nightwatch on 22 Dec 2008 23:37

This is from ASUS BIOS Update service:

Updating the BIOS only if you have problems and you are sure that the new BIOS revision will solve your problems. Careless updating may result to more problems with the motherboard!

(bolds are ASUS bolds)

Well, ideas and approaches do indeed differ. I'm lucky maybe, that I've never needed to update any BIOS.

this is the full ASUS BIOS Update page:

http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/technicaldocuments.aspx?root=198&SLanguage=en-us---------
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Re: Motherboards

Postby ket on 23 Dec 2008 02:57

That is a very basic explanation of what I went into a little more detail about. If you really want all the hardcore details and the good vs. bad of BIOS flashing (the good really does massively outweigh the bad) then pop along to xtremesystems.org, me and lots of other folk there will be happy to go into all the details you want to know, its our job\hobby :salute:
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
PSU: eVGA 1000w G2 Supernova
Case: NZXT Phantom 530

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Re: Motherboards

Postby audioave10 on 29 Dec 2008 07:11

I would add to this that if your considering a BIOS update, they
are serious when they say only if needed. I have two of the more
basic ASUS boards and one was killed with a correctly done BIOS
update. The RMA was done fairly well (but did take two weeks).
On the cheaper Asus boards VDIMM is restricted and OCing is not
seriously available. No trouble really since if your going to OC ,
you want a Top Tier board. Still good quality boards. My two are:
Asus M2NE & M2NE-SLI. Both AM2 boards.
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Re: Motherboards

Postby ket on 30 Dec 2008 20:39

Asus have released a few dodgy BIOSes for AM2 boards. The Crosshair had a few, but apart from that all is good. If a BIOS is truely good you will NEVER end up with a dead board.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
PSU: eVGA 1000w G2 Supernova
Case: NZXT Phantom 530

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Re: Motherboards

Postby Grump642 on 03 Jan 2009 19:25

Mine is an ASUS P5E w/ x38 chipset. Uses DDR2, not DDR3, which is why I picked it. Intel E8400, Kingston HyperX PC8500-2x1 Gb. I have always used ASUS and have always been very happy with them. The HyperX will not OC much, but they will pull real tight timings and low latency.
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Re: Motherboards

Postby VINTAR on 14 Jan 2009 15:25

Core2Quad Q8300 2.5 @ 3.6ghz
Cooler Master Hyper TX 2 CPU cooler
Gigabyte EP45 UD3R mobo
Nvidia GTS450
2 GIGS Transcend DDR2 800 pc6400 @ 960
Thermaltake Tough Power 650w PSU
Samsung Syncmaster P2350
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Re: Motherboards

Postby rockingmtranch on 14 Jan 2009 16:16

VINTAR wrote:Does this pic not arouse you slightly :D

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp238/vintar/x58extreme.jpg

Um.....little bit :p
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Re: Motherboards

Postby VINTAR on 28 Jan 2009 12:49

Further to my needing help.....

Is the ASUS P5Q-E an ok midrange mother board or should I cough up a bit more for something better? (stress again the tight budget)

If its a waste of money, what MOBO is the best bang for your buck?
Core2Quad Q8300 2.5 @ 3.6ghz
Cooler Master Hyper TX 2 CPU cooler
Gigabyte EP45 UD3R mobo
Nvidia GTS450
2 GIGS Transcend DDR2 800 pc6400 @ 960
Thermaltake Tough Power 650w PSU
Samsung Syncmaster P2350
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Re: Motherboards

Postby Nightwatch on 28 Jan 2009 21:38

You don't need to spend more at all. ASUS P5Q series motherboards are very good in terms of both the specs and built-quality. They offer Intel P45 chipsets, no need to go"X48 and DDR3" road as they are way too expensive and the human-eye viewable results between them will remain only as academic. Also check that the model that your getting supports the 45nm structure for a future-proof usage. You can get a lot of DDR2 RAM which will make a better difference in performance than simply getting a mobo which seems more high-tech on the paper.
From the P5Q series, you can get the cheapest available one, in practice all would be the same as long as they offer P45 and 45 nm compatibility. :mozilla_smile:
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