Help!! Too many Intel chipsets!

[Numenor]

I'm currently doing my research on what components to buy for the new PC I'm putting together, and am most likely going to buy my first ever Intel processor.... but there are far too many chipsets for Socket 775, and I don't know what's best. I know each chipset has its pros and cons, but apart from guessing that e.g P45 is newer than P35, I've no idea how to compare. Can anyone help?

I'm probably looking to get a Wolfdale E8400, if that helps. It's about the right price point for me, and I think I'll do better with dual core than quad.

The rest of my system will be:
Radeon HD4870 (possibly 1GB), I seriously doubt I'll ever want to use SLI/Crossfire.
8GB RAM (prefer 2x4GB but will be ok with 4x2GB)
150 or 300GB Velociraptor for system drive - haven't made my mind up yet.
1TB Spinpoint F1 for data.
Not too bothered about sound, onboard will probably do.
Similarly, not fussed about Blu-Ray (yet!!)
I'll want plenty of SATA ports for future expansion, and plenty of USB ports.

And once it's all put together (with an OS installed) I'll get to work on fixing my old system to keep as a secondary.

[staffsMike]

P45 is a nice chipset and is the newer chipset to P35.

The DFI is a fantastic board in uATX or ATX guise

http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=853562
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=876380

No idea what the new plus version is but looks good too.
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=884418

If you perfer Asus then the P5Q-PRO is good as is the -E which offers a weatlh of features.

I'd save money on the HDD though. A WD 640GB AAKS is mostly as fast

[NovaSphere]

P5Q Pro I'd say, I recently got the same lol

Only thing was my graphic card ended up being dead on arrival, rest seemed fine ;f

[Numenor]

So P45 is the way to go then? Not X48 or any of the other 'series'? I just want to make sure I'm choosing correctly, as my current rig has a VIA chipset which turned out to be a pain in the posterior.

I guess P45 would grant me the 2x4GB memory configuration I was after...

Oh, and in case it makes any difference, I intend to dual-boot between Vista and Ubuntu (and possibly occasional other flavours of Linux via an external disk).

[kalniel]

Any of X48/P45/X38/P35 are excellent and are functionally identical for your use. Instead go for a motherboard that has the right memory slots, a good layout, and a BIOS tailored to your level of expertise.

If you want to twiddle every little setting then go for a DFI board - just beware that unless you know what you are doing and spend a lot of time tweaking then they aren't as good as others. Otherwise makers such as gigabyte, asus and msi provide better set ups out of the box and are easier to tweak. As you already play with linux you might like the Asus boards that come with the mini-embedded linux.

[Papipap]

P5Q Pro I'd say, I recently got the same lol

Me too.

I went for P45 because its supported PCIe 2.0 and has the Intel ICH10 southbridge, which means AHCI support, allowing you hot-swap SATA drives.

An alternative to dual-booting would be to use virtualisation, in which case a quad core might be better. I have the Q6600, which I don't think is much more expensive than the E8400. I have just "installed" openSUSE using VMWare Workstation and assigned two cores to it - works like a dream.

[kalniel]

which means AHCI support, allowing you hot-swap SATA drives.

All the others have this as well.

[Clunk]

Any of X48/P45/X38/P35 are excellent and are functionally identical for your use. Instead go for a motherboard that has the right memory slots, a good layout, and a BIOS tailored to your level of expertise.

If you want to twiddle every little setting then go for a DFI board - just beware that unless you know what you are doing and spend a lot of time tweaking then they aren't as good as others. Otherwise makers such as gigabyte, asus and msi provide better set ups out of the box and are easier to tweak. As you already play with linux you might like the Asus boards that come with the mini-embedded linux.

The DFI boards mentioned above will hit very high overclocks with very few settinsg changed.

Also keep in mind that all new DFI boards have ABS (Auto Boost System) which lets you download an overclock profile and then load it at startup by hitting F1.

It's good for beginners and experienced overclockers because it's so easy - Gone are the days when you have to sit there for hours tweaking the BIOS just to get an extra few MHz.

Of course, you can tweak the BIOS if that's your preference.

Another board that has an excellent set of AUTO settings is the DFI LT/UT X48-T2R

[kalniel]

Oh, I thought I read auto-boost was terrible.

[Clunk]

Maybe you did?

It had a few problems when it launched, but it works fine now that the BIOSes have matured a bit.

[cheesemp]

Personally I've just gone for an P43 board as it was cheap, good layout and had 6 usb ports on the back (never have enough). I checked out the difference between P45, P35 and P43 and couldn't find anything i'd actually use. I doubt i'll upgrade the CPU as by the time I've needed to in the past its not been economical buying older CPUs. I can get an FSB of 1600 for OC which will be nice to go with my Q6700!

[Pob255]

Nice to see you've not abandoned us yet Clunk
Have you had a chance to play around with the DFI DK P45-T2RS yet? the BIOS looks very intresting (just need to get over the orange&brown colour scheme)

I'd grenerally rule out the x48/x38 chpsets, unless you are try to squeeze every last drop of performance and overclock out of your pc the 50% extra cost over a p45/p35 board is not worth it.

The asus P5Q-Pro looks like a great board for the price (the extra £8 over the basic P5Q is worth it just for the better placement of the power connector)

The differnce between the p35 and p45 is very small, 16mb max memory vs 8mb max, pci-e 2.0 (not really sure there's much differnce to be gained by pci-e 2.0)

[Webby]

Well PCIe2 gives double (or there abouts) the bandwidth of PCIe1 and it also allows cards to draw twice as much power through the motherboard 150W rather than 75W now if current graphics cards take advantage of that I don't know but its a major change!

Oh and talking of DFI what is the difference between the Lanparty DK P45-T2RS and the Lanparty Plus DK P45-T2RS? Any ideas? The only thing I can see is the 2 extra SATA ports is that it?

[Clunk]

I believe the Plus version has the A03 revision NB too and some of those smart connectors as well as the extra SATA sockets.

[Webby]

Are those additions in your opinion worth the extra £10? Not about to buy one but just in case people ask

[Clunk]

I would say yes. Those smart connectors are worth their weight in gold