Which motherboard?

[Eugopnosaj]

Well i am in need for a new mobo and im looking at paying around 50-70ish for a new one. I've seen four that i like and read faily good reviews about all four but im not sure which one to go for as they all sound good. The mobos in question are the:

Asus p5n-e sli 650i

Asrock Penryn1600SLI-110dB

Gigabyte GA-N650 sli-DS4L

XFX 680i LT edition (or evga nForce 680i LT SLI 775 T1)

The three boards are based on the Nvidia nForce 650 chipset and are all Sli compatible (albeit only 8x so not brilliant but at least give me the chance if i want to sli), with the XFX being 680 so it is 16x on both slots. All of the boards are availble from ebuyer from between £55-£65. They're all quad-core compatible, 8gb max ddr ram, with the rest of the specs being fairly similar. The asrock claims to support the new wolfdale and penryn processors (not sure how much of a benefit that will be to me yet because i'm not upgrading my processor till the end of summer). The asrock has a built in wifi-e header but i will have to get the wifi adaptor seperately (probably for the same cost of a usb or pci wireless card). The Gigabyte, XFX and Asrock have 7.1 surround sound with HD audio and better outputs

So if you can let me know what you think, which one will be better for me in the end etc. Dont get me wrong, i know a lot about computers having already built a fair few of my own, something of a passion for me but it's decisions like this, where every review praises the motherboard where i need some advice.

Thanks!

[BUFF]

Do you really need SLI?
If you don't then nForce 6xxi isn't a great chipset (I say that having a P5N-E), Intel P35 is better (but no SLI).

Of the boards that you have mentioned I would probably go for the XFX followed by the Gigabyte.
Whilst they are all quad compatible that doesn't mean that they will overclock quads well.

[Eugopnosaj]

hmm well im not that bothered about ocing at the moment, sli would be nice if i choose to upgrade my GPU at a later date, although, i guess in the long run if i could afford to get 2 GPUs to sli then i can always buy an sli board at the same time.

What are the benefits of an intel P35 chipset over the nForce 6xxi?

[Thorsson]

More stable, overclocks better, faster at stock speeds, cheaper. These days with two GPUs on one card as an option, you can get SLI without using two slots. BTW P35 does support Crossfire.

[Eugopnosaj]

Yeah i know it supports crossfire but it doesnt help when i've got a NV card lol. I could hold out i guess and get an x2 card i guess and since i cant afford either that or another card it's probably better to get a P35 board and then if or when i want SLI upgrade the board again...any recommendations of boards?

[staffsMike]

In your price range grab an Abit IP-35 dark raider if you want P35. It's a great board

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This seems to be a good board for the money but I would question it's quality as I havn't had much luck with MSI over the years.
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[Eugopnosaj]

cool thanks well i'll have a look around and see which one i like best