Which chipset to go for?

[Betty_Swallocks]

I have to replace my motherboard shortly. I like to use Abit because I had good experiences with my old IC7-G so I thought this would be the best place to ask the question.

I'm going to be getting a Core 2 Duo, either the E8400 or E8500 but looking at the motherboard section on Scan there are a confusing array of different chipsets for 775 boards. I've hunted around and I can't find anywhere that can give me a definitive answer as to the best chipset for my purpose.


My budget for the board is up to about £70.

I'm unlikely to do much overclocking, if any, but I would like to have the ability to if possible.

Main uses will be gaming (FPS, racing games and some RPGs) and office type applications. I'm not likely to do a lot of multimedia encoding or anything like that.
I'll be running with 4Gb DDR2 RAM and I have an ATI 3870 already.

I had been looking at the IP35P which comes well within my budget and seems to be a popular choice but is there any advantage in going for anything different? If so why?

Can anyone point me at a site that can explain the difference between the various chipsets, or perhaps tell me what will be the best, most future proof option that will make the most of the cpu?

Thank you.

[Tetras]

Can anyone point me at a site that can explain the difference between the various chipsets, or perhaps tell me what will be the best, most future proof option that will make the most of the cpu?

Intel has two main chipsets in your budget range, mainstream and enthusiast.

For Core 2 Duo the first generation was P965 (mainstream), which was accompanied by 975X (enthusiast), 975X was not designed to be used with Core 2 but with dual cores it performed very well (and still does).

The next generation was P35 (mainstream) and was followed (eventually...) by X38 (enthusiast).

X48 is not a replacement for X38 per sae, it is the same chip but comes with official Intel certified 1600 FSB CPU support.

Lastly P45 is the mainstream replacement of P35 and is probably the last LGA775 chipset. It is most remarkable for enabling PCI-Express 2.0 support with 2, 8X / 8X PCI-Express 2.0 slots.

Intel 975X (with ICH7R):
Official 667 Mhz DDR2 (Unofficial 800 Mhz DDR2)
PCI-Express 1.0a & 1.1
8X / 8X Crossfire
native IDE, SATA

Intel P965 (with ICH8)
Official 800 Mhz DDR2 (2 DIMMs only)
PCI-Express 1.1
16X / 4X Crossfire
SATA (native IDE removed from the southbridge)

Intel P35 (with ICH9)
Official 45nm CPU support
Official DDR3 and DDR2 800 with 4 DIMMs
PCI-Express 1.1
16X / 4X Crossfire
SATA

Intel X38 (with ICH9)
Official DDR3 & 1333 FSB
PCI-Express 2.0 (Northbridge) & 1.1 (Southbridge)
PCI-E 2.0 16X / PCI-E 2.0 16X Crossfire (May have a 3rd PCI-E 1.1 slot running at 4X)
SATA

Intel X48 (with ICH9)
Official DDR3 & 1600 FSB
PCI-Express 2.0 (Northbridge) and 1.1 (Southbridge)
PCI-E 2.0 16X / PCI-E 2.0 16X Crossfire (May have a 3rd PCI-E 1.1 slot running at 4X)
SATA

Intel P45 (with ICH10)
PCI-Express 2.0
PCI-E 2.0 8X / PCI-E 2.0 8X Crossfire
SATA

Notes:
P965 overclocked very well for the time but didn't do quite so well with quads, P35 was and (still is) exceptional for overclocking. P45 clocks well and is basically a die shrink of P35 with PCI-Express 2.0 and improved Crossfire bandwidth.

Intel 975X is an excellent, mature chipset but overclocks poorly with Quads and like P965 doesn't have official support for 45nm CPUs. I would avoid boards based on 975X and P965.

[Betty_Swallocks]

Thank you Tetras.
That narrows it down a bit.
It doesn't look like Abit do an IP45 board, or at least Ebuyer, Scan and Overclockers don't seem to stock one so it looks like I'll go for the IP35P.

[Tetras]

I wouldn't buy the IP35P, it is very much a cut down budget P35 mobo and I wouldn't expect great feats of overclocking from it. The 3 phase PWMs aren't going to support quads well either should you upgrade in the future and it has no second PCI-Express 16X slot meaning you will never have the option of using Crossfire.

Edit:
If you haven't seen it on this forum, Abit have the IP45-Pro out soon:
Abit IP45 Pro Image and feedback of course :-)

[Betty_Swallocks]

So what would be your recommendation given my budget? I really can't go over that seeing as I have to buy CPU and RAM as well. Is the IP45 going to be affordable for me?

The problem is I can't wait very long. My DFI mobo has died so my PC is out of action and I'm having to use my wife's laptop. I'm not going to be able to afford it for a couple of weeks but as soon as I've got the money together I want to get my rig back up and running. I'm getting withdrawal symptoms already.

[rickworden]

I used to spend a fortune on MOBOs (it's the heart of the system right?). Nowadays, forget it. I use dedicated graphics and sound to get just what I want. As long as you choose a MOBO with correct FSB and CPU support it ain't worth spending a fortune. For socket 775 I use Asrock Dual Sata Mobo. It supports Quad core, 1066 FSB and it also has both AGP and PCI graphics along with DDR and DDR2 memory support. The best bit - it's less than £40!

[Tetras]

So what would be your recommendation given my budget? I really can't go over that seeing as I have to buy CPU and RAM as well. Is the IP45 going to be affordable for me?

Well the IP35P will do the job and it should have some overclocking life in it (E8400 and E8500 are gentle on the board and it is P35 after all), so in your case if you never have intention of Crossfire and want to keep the budget down, I think I'd go for it.

It is a shame the IP35 and IP35-E are no longer for sale.

I used to spend a fortune on MOBOs (it's the heart of the system right?). Nowadays, forget it. I use dedicated graphics and sound to get just what I want. As long as you choose a MOBO with correct FSB and CPU support it ain't worth spending a fortune

You do get more for your money, PWM system, capacitors, feature set, overclocking but you are absolutely right, if you don't need it, why pay for it?

[JKL]

On your budget of £70, providing your not interested In running 2 graphics cards, take a look at the Asus P5Q. That's a lot of board for the money
has an Intel P45 chipset, it's available now, will handle your 4 GB RAM and seems to be well reviewed by those who've bought one.

http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=...64&modelmenu=1

[Betty_Swallocks]

Thanks, I will. I am predisposed towards Abit but if they can't supply what I need at a price I can afford I'll have to look elsewhere.

It's a minefield, isn't it? Scan have 17 differect categories of 775 motherboard listed. That's over 150 different motherboards to choose from.
There is such a thing as too much choice.

Another question leading on from those answers if I may.

The cheapest Asus P5-Q is pennies under 80 quid. That's fine, I can stretch it that far, but it raises another question. That's only about £8 less than the Abit IP35-Pro with the better circuitry.

Which is better? The entry level Asus? Does the newer technology give me benefits that outweigh the higher quality components, or would I be better off paying another few quid and going for the Abit?

I have to be honest, as far as overclocking goes I haven't got the bottle to run my system permanantly overclocked. I'll probably push it just to see how far I can get it then say "That's nice dear" and put it back to stock.
As for dual graphics cards I'm never likely to want to run more than one. A second slot doesn't enter into the decision making process.

I'm much more concerned with how well it runs at stock speeds and how dependable it is.
My last board was a pain in the arse because it was so damn fussy about RAM. I had 4x512Mb of Crucial alue RAM. Ran fine in every other system I had at the rated speed of 3200 but the DFI Infinity wouldn't boot unless I ran it as PC2700. Whether that was a DFI thing or an Nforce4 thing I don't know, but I don't want any nasty surprises like that again.

[BUFF]

1 of the users on the abit USA forum has both an IP35 Pro & an Asus P5Q (forget exact variant) - he says that the IP35 pro is the better of the 2.

abit's IP45 series are overdue but hopefully should be out before your couple of weeks before you can afford it are up (although tbh if you aren't going Crossfire then it doesn't really improve on P35).

[JKL]

Your changing the goalposts, if your budget really is £70 then the Abit IP35 PRO is beyond your budget, if your saying you can stretch to an Abit IP35 PRO and asking which is the better board, the Abit IP35PRO or the Asus P5Q (P45), who knows because no one has done back to back reviews. The P45 boards are the newest tech, their BIOS are young and they may have teething problems. The Abit IP35 PRO is tried & tested, has a mature BIOS, and is a top quality P35 board. If it were my money I would buy the Abit IP35 PRO before the Asus P5Q, but it's not my money!

[Betty_Swallocks]

Yes, goalposts do tend to move a bit, don't they
The budget was £70 but if I can get something significantly better for just a little more money then I'll adjust. Perhaps start off with just 2Gb of RAM and get some more in a month or two.

[JKL]

then I would definitely go with the Abit IP35 Pro, you seem to like the Abit boards, and they have good support forums should you need them, good luck with your new board whatever you decide.

[Tetras]

My last board was a pain in the arse because it was so damn fussy about RAM. I had 4x512Mb of Crucial alue RAM. Ran fine in every other system I had at the rated speed of 3200 but the DFI Infinity wouldn't boot unless I ran it as PC2700. Whether that was a DFI thing or an Nforce4 thing I don't know, but I don't want any nasty surprises like that again

That was more to do with the Athlon 64 memory controller, it was fussy as hell at first and would only run 4 sticks at 333 Mhz but eventually the controller was refined enough to use 4 at 400.

Many motherboards defaulted to 333 for 4 sticks because otherwise it would fail to boot with older cores, that said it should have still worked once you manually adjusted it (providing the CPU core was up to it) but DFI are not known for producing easy to use BIOS. They are for dedicated enthusiast who want to be able to mess with everything, while Abit offer a much simpler BIOS (but with everything you need).

Any motherboard based on an Intel chipset will be at a base level, reliable and mature but when you talk about dependable it then depends on the manufacturer. There are some who fit the board with insufficient power regulation for the CPUs used (look at the 780G and Phenom CPU troubles reported on bit-tech and anandtech for a start) and fit questionable components (cheap caps is common) that are unable to cope with the strain (heat is often deadly) and the board dies an early death.

Most (if not all) of Abits enthusiast parts for the last few years have used high quality caps (often Rubycon) and been fitted with decent components elsewhere. The uGuru chip gives great fan and temperature control (on the IP35-Pro) but the software leaves something to be desired. BIOS support is for the most part ok (the AW9D-MAX supports Wolfdale CPUs which it was never intended to) and QA is pretty decent (but like all manufacturers a few bad ones slip through).

In general an Abit board is fairly priced, uses decent (but not spectacular) components and will be as durable as anything else out there. The IP35-Pro would serve you well (as it already has done for many others).

[Betty_Swallocks]

I think that's a decision then.
The IP35-Pro it is.

Many thanks to all of you for your input. You've been a great help.