775 Mobo's....Intel or nforce?

I am building a Q6600 system, 2GB or 4GB of Ram, 8800GT, etc.

Which motherboard should I go for? I see the Abit Dark raider recommended on these forums, however I am leaning towards a PCI 2 board as my GFX is PCI-E 2.

This basically (from what I can see) narrows it to the nforce boards...am I wrong?

Looking at this one:

ASUS P5N-D nForce 750i SLI Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard - £83 on microdirect

Am I fooling myself with PCI-E 2?

I am also am moderately concerned about my previous PSU purchase...which is a Corsair 450W. Acording to the power calculator it is fine, but I plan to OC the cpu to 3GHz. Am I good?

PCIe 2 currently offers no advantages over PCIe 1. The nforce boards are only worthwhile if you want SLI. Stick with the intel boards as they are better overclockers and have lower power consumption.

That PSU will be fine for what u want. I doubt your system will pull more than 300W. That PSU has a single strong 12V rail which will easily handle your system.

or wait untill end of this month and get an Intel P45 - they have PCI-e 2.0 ports..

new graphics cards from nVidia and ATI aswell...

Having owned 2 nForce on C2D. My personal advice would be to avoid like them like the plague. 8800 cards work perfectly on PCIe 1. I much preferred nvidia on 939 but they just haven't got it right for core 2 boards.

I can recommend the Abit IP-35 boards(bought mine a few weeks back), so much nicer after owning the nforce boards. It just works, no screaming and pulling hair out just because I wanted to add some ram and they don't run at ridiculous temps like the nforce. Abit's uGuru is great to.

P45 might be worth waiting for depends on how much of a hurry you're in. You're not going to see a huge performance jump or anything. P-35 is mature and works well now.

I thought x38 chipset and later came with PCI-E 2.0?

X38/X48 do but are notably dearer.

I own a 8800GT btw and am not buying it.

I assume for my future "I want one purchases" the PCI-E 2 would be better for the next phase of GPU's?

When is the expected release of the IP45's? and expected pricing?

p45 - don't know release date but scan have them for pre-order... could be middle to end of this month...

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

mainly asus, but that gigabyte has shown up in the past 24 hours, others will follow shortly...(i assume)

Yes, go for an intel based mobo like the p35 or p45. I've yet to see a card which has a major benefit being on pci-e 2.0

Excellent! Thanks for the advice guys, as I was really leaning towards a nforce board & did not realise there were difficulties with them.

Any particular P35 board? Abit? :telephone:

abit IP-35 PRO is on scan today only for £80. Great board at a better price :)

SLI for the win. That is all.

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Originally Posted by WoLFe

SLI for the win. That is all.

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Never asked for it :P

SLI = nvidia, so if you think you may be adding a 2nd card you have to go nvidia, if not then its intel all the way imho..

i have had nvidia for the past few boards as i always end up buying a 2nd card when the prices drop and i want an upgrade.

then again i could never get my 2 7900gtx's working well in SLI, wednesday i dare say im about to repeat it when my 2nd 8800gtx arrives :s

lets hope the water cooling can keep it happy this time !

if not someones going to get a bragian 8800GTX and a striker extreme up for sale while i lick my wounds and buy a x48

Don't worry, I have heard the 8800 and 9600GT work very well with Sli.

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Originally Posted by staffsMike

abit IP-35 PRO is on scan today only for £80. Great board at a better price :)

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Yup, great board. Absolute bargain.