Stable motherboard for E8400

[pallikari]

Hi,

My old computer had an Athlon64 3500 and a Gigabyte motherboard. The machine was rock stable for a year. After the first year, the hard drive started getting corrupted and the problem continued with 2 new hard drives and a dozen OS installations. The motherboard, CPU and memory will get the same treatment as that printer in Office Space! I'm sure it will be one of the happiest moments of my life...

I need some advice about what motherboard to use in the new machine that I'm building. I have decided on the E8400 retail as the CPU. My primary objective is stability. I don't plan to overclock the CPU since my current video card - an old passively cooled Gigabyte X800XL - is not exactly overclocker-friendly.

I'm thinking of going with Intel's DP35DP based on the P35 chipset.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813121314

I will be reusing the following parts:
CoolerMaster WaveMaster ATX case (gorgeous aluminum case but overheats)
Samsung T Series 500GB SATA 3.0Gb
SeaSonic S12-430 ATX12V 430W Power Supply
Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
GIGABYTE Radeon X800XL (passive cooling - can get extremely hot)

I'm also upgrading to Vista Ultimate.

Any advice on which motherboard offers the highest stability will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Michael

 

[krnmastersgt]

Welcome to the AT forums On to the mobo, the P35-DS3L is one of the most recommended/used boards here so that would probably be a good choice, assuming it had 45nm native support, which I forget if it has or doesn't. As for the Office Space treatment, make sure you use a nice sturdy bat

 

[KenAF]

Buy your E8400 at Microcenter for $189. If you don't have a Microcenter, you can order it for $200 from TankGuys.

I would take a look at the Gigabyte DS3L rev2.0 motherboard with 4GB G.Skill DDR2-800. It supports the E8400 out of the box. This motherboard will reduce the speed of your CPU fan at idle.

You don't have to worry about an OC affecting a video card. All the P35 boards are able to keep the PCI-E bus at a fixed speed while you overclock. As far as your video card is concerned, the system isn't overclocked.

Assuming you have a valid version of Windows XP, save yourself a few bucks and buy Vista Home Premium upgrade. With that disk, you can install the 64-bit version. Ultimate offers nothing useful over that, imo.

You will take a performance hit in Vista with that Radeon X800XL. You may not be aware, but Vista's "Aero" UI is actually 3D. It may not look 3D, but UI acceleration is handled by the 3D component of your graphics card. A card with poor 3D performance will slow the responsiveness of the "Aero" UI in Windows Vista.

Put the money you saved on Vista Ultimate toward a Nvidia 8600GT or Radeon 2600XT. Both will deliver excellent performance in Vista. The least expensive Nvidia 8600GT is $69.99 AR @ Newegg. Passive (no noise) versions will cost you $10-20 more.

Don't forget a CD-R/DVD-R drive. The Samsung SH-S203B is a good one for $30.

Since it sounds like you are interested in low-noise, I would consider one of the best cases for quiet PCs -- the Antec Solo. It is currently on sale for $50 shipped AR. If you get that case, you'll want to replace its rear 120mm exhaust fan with a Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E.

 

[pallikari]

Thank you both for the replies. I've decided to take your advice and go with the DS3L since it offers a little more than the Intel board for less money. I am not a student so I don't qualify for the academic version of Vista. I'll just get the OEM version. The reason I prefer Vista Ultimate is for the image-based backup which I wish I had in my previous system...

As for the advice on the sporting equipment, I will certainly get the sturdiest bat available to dispose of my existing components.