What Motherboard should I choose?

[sunnyoc]

Hi Guys,


I am torn between these 3 motherboards. Please help me out to choose the best one for my purpose:

1. Abit IP35 Pro
2. MSI P35 Platinum
3. Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R

This new PC will be used mainly for photo/video editing, little bit games. I do want a rock solid stable system(will be loading XP Pro but might look to Vista down the line). I am ready to tinker the MB to tweak and OC the CPU and RAM. But I am mainly looking for a stable and fast sytem.

I definitely need the Firewire for some video editing and other stuff like that. I have already gathered these for the new PC build:

Antec Solo (Case), Corsair HX520 (PS), Intel E6420 Retail Processor, 2 320GB SATA Drives, Samsung SATA DVD Writer, Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 2GB DDR2, EVGA 7900GS PCI-E Video Card, Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7, Acer 22" LCD, Microsoft Natural 4000 KB, Logitech MX Revolution.


Please any input would be definitely appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Heidfirst]

I'm sure that all 3 are fine.

IP35 Pro has uGuru which imo is the best hardware mointor/fan control offered by any mobo mfr.
If you don't need that or the 2nd physical x16 PCI-E slot then you could save some money & get the IP35.

P35C-DS3R offers the ability to use DDR3 in the future when the prices become reasonable - but by the time that happens perhaps a better chipset/mobo will be out? Again if you can do without that then you can change model & save some bucks.

It's up to you what your priorities are.

 

[sunnyoc]

Thanks Heidfirst,

I went with Abit IP35 Pro. I definitely wanted the RAID capability with Firewire. So my choice was down to MSI & Abit. I will update the site once I get the MB and put the system together. I have all the parts and pieces and I think I should be good to go pretty soon.

 

[orion23]

Good choice. lots of good reviews on the Abit P35 Pro!

 

[SerpentRoyal]

The basic IP35 (if you can locate one in the US) may be a better buy with 1394 and RAID if you don't need to run two GPUs.

 

[rich168]

right now the ip35 pro

but DFI is coming up with an enthusiast p35 also.

gotta watch out for that one

 

[vrdublu]

Any of the suggested will do the job just fine, stay away from MSI their support is almost as bad as their motherboards.