Suggestions on good motherboard for E8400

[xp0c]

I got an e8400 ordered but couldn't decide on a motherboard yet. lol
I need a board that will support the e8400 right out of the box, and with good overclocking potential.
The only half decent place to get a mobo only have asus and gigabyte.
I have the 8800gts 512, but whether or not the board is crossfire or sli i dont care, as I'd rather just buy the next gen card instead of going sli.
Should I worry about PCi-e 2.0? I was looking at the Asus P5N-D, but there are no reviews and I don't want to risk getting a shady motherboard.

Thanks for any input.

 

[alfa147x]

I bought the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L the price just went down to $89
I have heard every thing but bad about them
hope fully some will back me up
oh and welcome to the forums

 

[KenAF]

If you don't need SLI or RAID, the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L is an excellent board. It has the build quality of a $200 DFI for less than half the price.

PCIe 2.0 is nothing to worry about with a single card unless you plan to buy a $400+ 9800GX2 with SLI on one card. By the time <$200 cards are available that benefit from PCIe 2.0, you'll probably want a Nehalem CPU anyway.

 

[MarcVenice]

Does this look like the motherboard forum ? But yeah +1 for ds3l, or abit ip35-e or asus p5k-se, all cheapest p35 mobo's you can get. There's also some DFI boards but I don't know those.

 

[myocardia]

Yeah, any good overclocking motherboard with a P35 or X38 chipset will do right by you, although you'll most likely get a higher overclock with a good X38 or X48 motherboard.

 

[KenAF]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Yeah, any good overclocking motherboard with a P35 or X38 chipset will do right by you, although you'll most likely get a higher overclock with a good X38 or X48 motherboard.

Just to elaborate on that, you are probably looking at 3.8-4.1GHz with a P35 vs. 4.0-4.3GHz with a X38/X48. You've got to consider whether that 200-300MHz is worth an extra $100-$200 that could be put toward a new graphics card, faster hard drive, or next-generation Nehalem system.

 

[xp0c]

Thanks for the replies you guys!
I was looking at the P5N-E x38 and might get it. Mainly because I have no intel cpu to use to flash the bios, and that mobo should accept the 45nm dual core and quad core right out of the box.
If I could convince the store I order from to flash a P5K-E's bios, I could save some money.
I did message them in case they have a newer revision that will support the 45nm right out of the box.
The P5N-D is still at the back of my mind, but still no reviews. It just came out, but has a bios release that "enhances stability when overclocking" LOL i don't know if that's good or bad.
I think I'm just making an easy decision into a hard decision.

 

[aussiestilgar]

My Gigabyte P35-DSR v2.1 came ready for wolfdale, no flash required. FYI.

 

[alfa147x]

Originally posted by: xp0c
Thanks for the replies you guys!
I was looking at the P5N-E x38 and might get it. Mainly because I have no intel cpu to use to flash the bios, and that mobo should accept the 45nm dual core and quad core right out of the box.
If I could convince the store I order from to flash a P5K-E's bios, I could save some money.
I did message them in case they have a newer revision that will support the 45nm right out of the box.
The P5N-D is still at the back of my mind, but still no reviews. It just came out, but has a bios release that "enhances stability when overclocking" LOL i don't know if that's good or bad.
I think I'm just making an easy decision into a hard decision.

My GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L didnt need to be updated

 

[xp0c]

I have never owned a gigabyte board, but I am definately tempted.
I was looking at the GIGABYTE GAP35-DS4 P35+ICH9R, as well as the one you guys have.

But even if the procesor is not supported i can still boot into windows long enough to download the newest bios right? or wrong? lol

I am sorry i got this post in wrong section.

 

[alfa147x]

Originally posted by: xp0c
I have never owned a gigabyte board, but I am definately tempted.
I was looking at the GIGABYTE GAP35-DS4 P35+ICH9R, as well as the one you guys have.

But even if the procesor is not supported i can still boot into windows long enough to download the newest bios right? or wrong? lol

I am sorry i got this post in wrong section.

If by any chance you can wait till this weekend or at latest next monday ill have completed my personal build ( above i was talking about my neighbor's computer i helped with )

which consist of
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
E8400
Samsung 200gb sata hdd
G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
GIGABYTE GV-NX72G512P2 GeForce 7200GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2

total 500$

 

[Markfw]

What OC are you looking for ? what FSB is needed again ? What is the budget... I love the DS3R (see sig) and the DQ6 ($$, see sig) How big an OC do you want ?

 

[xp0c]

I'm hoping to get close to 4ghz, maybe more and be stable. They have the Asus P5K-E WiFi in stock so I think that should hold me over a little while.

 

[imported_wired247]

IIRC the main thing that is nice about PCIe2.0 is that it has much higher power delivery compared to PCIe1.x

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: KenAF
If you don't need SLI or RAID, the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L is an excellent board. It has the build quality of a $200 DFI for less than half the price.

PCIe 2.0 is nothing to worry about with a single card unless you plan to buy a $400+ 9800GX2 with SLI on one card. By the time <$200 cards are available that benefit from PCIe 2.0, you'll probably want a Nehalem CPU anyway.

Have you owned a $200 DFI board?

How about the $120 DFI P35 TX2 Blood Iron? All the overclocking of the Lanparty series just minus some of the fairly useless extra's and extravagant color.

EDIT: the blood irons went up about $10 since I las checked.

 

[jdkick]

I'm still running stock, but i've been pleased with the ASUS P5K-E/WiFi AP so far.

 

[xp0c]

You guys all suggested nice boards. I wish i could try them all. lol
I have never owned a DFI board either. I hear they are quality boards as well.
I ended up changing my mind at the last minute and ordered the Asus P5E with the X38 chipset.
A bit pricey, but oh well.

 

[Ika]

While I was originally satisified with my Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R, I've been running into a lot of problems trying to manually configure some stuff lately; all this coincides with my friend getting a new Abit IP-35 Pro and him bragging about all his motherboard's features (basically, it has everything the DS3R has, except more). I've been super jealous