Motherboard musical chairs

[Madmanxer]

I built a Conroe setup 2 months ago using the following:

E6400 B2 w/stock HS
G.Skill 6400 2x 1GB
ATI X1950 Pro
MSI P965 Platinum

Originally the MSI board had good reviews and was priced right, but I've found it to be a horrible overclocking board.

I decided to buy an open boxed Asus P5b Deluxe WiFi from Newegg to replace it. $200 is too much for a new one. I was very dissapointed to see the MB came with absolutely nothing more than the motherboard in a cardboard box. No accessories, no manual, no nothing. Now I read their open box policy several times, so I knew what I signed up for. Just a warning to others looking at open box items from Newegg. Sad part was the MB was DOA, will not post. I tried many combo but was unable to get any life out of it.

So now I'm considering the Gigabyte DS3. I'll get a refund and use the $ to buy a new one from Clubit so I'm sure I get a ver 3.3.

I want to overclock my 6400 to as high as I can get on the stock cooler, and I've read good reviews of the DS3.

Any comments on this strategy?

 

[The Sauce]

Stay away from the DS3 if you plan to o/c. It's a dog. Extremely quirky, lots of hard restarts while overclocking. The BIOS is extremely finicky. After three days of tinkering with mine it's going back. Wouldn't o/c my 6600 higher than 3.1.

 

[craftech]

The strategy was penny wize and pound foolish. Read the User reviews and see how many boards have DOA complaints and buy accordingly. Best bet - maybe an Intel board NOT overclocked. I don't like Asus quality control but the others aren't generally far behind these days. Never remember complaints about motherboards years ago.
MSI seems to be trying hard unlike some of the others. Foxconn makes a lot of OEM stuff.

John

 

[Edge1]

That's a shame about your OC results. I'm building a new system based on that mobo (MSI P6N Platinum) although I'm not looking for extreme overclocking. I've seen a number of places now where users were getting over 3gHz with an e4300 and e6300 on air. Hardwarezone's review also eclipsed 3 gHz with an e6300. For intense OCing maybe an aftermarket HSF might help you out?

FWIW, I've read nothing but great reviews about the overclocking potential of the DS3 in its various iterations. Reviews and reality seem to be two different things these days:roll:.

 

[Madmanxer]

I find it funny that I'm having such a time electing a motherboard. As I read more, it seems almost every popular board has those that say it's awesome, and those who can't get it to work at all. Kind of hard to make selections with conflicting info. Seems there is no clear winner for a 965 board.

At this point the MSI board is rock stable, but I can't settle for my 6400 to only run at 2.1GHz. My quest continues....

 

[Edge1]

Removed due to misunderstanding

Good luck man!

 

[The Sauce]

Originally posted by: Madmanxer
I find it funny that I'm having such a time electing a motherboard. As I read more, it seems almost every popular board has those that say it's awesome, and those who can't get it to work at all. Kind of hard to make selections with conflicting info. Seems there is no clear winner for a 965 board.

At this point the MSI board is rock stable, but I can't settle for my 6400 to only run at 2.1GHz. My quest continues....

I know exactly how you feel. I have had, and am having the same problem. It seems that there is no good, clear winner out there that doesn't also have a lot of problems. The question for me at this point is not "which motherboard is the best" but "which motherboard is likely to have the least problems..."

If you look through the forums on any board there are tons of people with problems, multiple RMA's, conflicts.... I'm really surprised being how long the 965 chipset has been out. I specifically waited this long for them to mature. I guess that they haven't.

 

[Madmanxer]

Originally posted by: Edge1
Madmanxer - just curious - since your OC results seem inordinately poor - did you disable C1E? Check this thread for some interesting MSI P6N discussion and how to disable C1E.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1164174

People are getting some healthy overclocks. I plan on getting upwards of 3gHz with an e6300. At least I hope to...

Good luck man.

Hi, yes I did go into the secret MSI backdoor and disable C1E. I'm just frustrated to see others getting 450 - 500FSB and I can't get close to 400 with this board. BTW, my board is a P965 Platinum, different from the ones in the links above. Some MSI boards are doing better than others. This one is a dog though.

 

[Madmanxer]

Snatchface, have you made a decision on a board yet?

The more I read, the more confused I'm becoming! This is really getting to be a joke.

To top it off, if you go to different sites, there is a totally different bias.

Now I know why MAC users like their computers so much, 1 choice for everything!

 

[Edge1]

Dude - I'm totally sorry - I missed the P965 part. DOH! Please disregard my previous comments and links. I need a brain transplant:roll:.

From everything I've read, the DS3 will OC like mad for you. It was one of my final options before I went with a 650i board. The other P965 I was considering was the P5B Deluxe (loaded with extras). I've heard MSI's P965 took a lot of flak for being an OCing dog, so you're right on there I think.

The P5B-E seems like a nice 'tweener...Asus' direct competitor with the DS3.

 

[The Sauce]

I am replacing my DS3 with a P5B Deluxe. I based this decision on the results of the overclocking database. Most of the top 20 entries belong to the P5B Deluxe. The DS3 doesn't even break the top 20-30 entries. And it's been out just as long. That tells you something I think.

I am going with more of a trial-and-error approach at this point. Might just be that my DS3 was defective or that there was some conflict... However, wjhenever I ask DS3 owners if they have had the same problems as me all I hear is silence. Makes me think that perhaps the problems I had were more prevalent.