New motherboard

[DaveVader]

So it looks like I will be ordering a new motherboard tomorrow, I've got about £100 to spend so I'm going for the P45 chipset. It will be used with 800MHz RAM and an E8400, I will be overclocking as far as I can so stability with high volts and Hz is a must.
The three main players for me are DFI, Gigabyte and Asus. I'm very tempted by the DFI Lanparty DK P45 T2RS but for £20 less there is the Gigabyte EP45 DS3L; and then finally there is the Asus P5Q Pro.

The reason I'm asking is mainly because I'm tight with my money . If I can get something for £80 that is just as good as something for £100 then I will chose the cheaper one even if it has less features. I'm not too bothered about features that don't really help with overclocking and the stuff I stated above.

I know DFI OC awesomely but I don't know if I can justify the price tag. Difficult decisions!

[staffsMike]

In your position I'd take the DFI without even thinking about it.

The Asus PRO is overpriced now (since it was £80) and the gigabyte is a gigabyte.. sorry but thats good enough for me not to buy it lol

If I have to give a more objective view on it though, an E8400 being a 1333MHz chip is going to need a decent overclocking motherboard to get the best out of it I think. The gigabyte will probably do the job.. but the DFI deffinatly will... plus it looks the dogs

[Will404]

I have a P5Q PRO, and think that for what I paid for it, it is gr8 (but I paid £80). As the DFI is the same price, I would swing in that direction, as StaffsMike says, and I would stay well clear of Gigabyte, as they dont clock well, and break a bit...

[Webby]

<- Begs to differ about Gigabytes not clocking well.

My G33M-DS2R is sat at 500FSB rock solid stable and will happily run up at 530.

I have no experience with the P45 boards but I'm reasonably sure they will be just as good as the Asus etc for overclocking on the whole.

Saying that I would probably go with the DFI as well gotta love all the options so much to tweak if you want to and still OCs well with minimal effort if you don't fancy playing around for a week trying to eek out that last MHz.

[GSte]

The high end Gigabytes generally clock well but I couldn't buy one simply due to their horrendously garish colour schemes...

Either the DFI or the Asus will be fine, but if you want to spend less, how far are you planning to overclock? As far as the chip will go?

[DaveVader]

I suppose 4.5GHz would be nice and if I got there, wouldn't be too fussed about pushing it harder, but anything really over 4 I suppose.
Wouldn't mind trying a few benchmarks though.

[Pob255]

Seem to remember that the good gigabyte boards are the high end ones and they carry high price tags

You could look at the biostar motherboard that's only &#163;84
Review here http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=906802

You'll probably find you overclock limited what ever the board you use by your memory for serious overclocking of the e8400 you really need to go for faster memory.
You should be able to get a small to medium overclock out of it.
3.6ghz *should* be fairly easy on a e8400 (9x 400fsb) higher will depend on your memory. (and you're ability to overclock)

[GSte]

I will be overclocking as far as I can so stability with high volts and Hz is a must.

Doh! It's been a long day.

You may aswell get the DFI mate if you like the look of it.... personally I think the colour scheme is great and it should do 500FSB if the CPU can..... the JR version holds the FSB world record at the moment iirc:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...A+RAID%2c+uATX


As Pob rightly says, you'll need faster RAM, but 2GB of PC8500 can be had for around £30 at the moment, so it won't break the bank.

Keep us informed of what you buy and how you get on with it please.

[Rud91]

Is it true that the gigabyte boards( at least the budget ones) are not up to the standard? I was planning to buy the P45-D3SL...Do i need to change my plans?

[Webby]

As I said my G33m-DS2R (which is hardly top of the line) overclocks admirably.

I think people really need to consider what they are trying to achieve? Do you want 4GHz if so with what chip?

All P45 boards will in my opinion get to 400MHz FSB without blinking, most will get to 450MHz without a hitch. If your OCing an E8400 then 450*9 = ~4GHz if your not going for OCing benchmark records then the really is very little point in going past 4GHz (well 3.5GHz is more than enough in most things) While overclocking is great you really need to consider if the extra speed actually gains you anything in most situations it doesn't have a noticeable impact, apart from on your electricity bill

[Pob255]

I agreee with you Webby, all of the p45 motherboards should be able to hit 400fsb.
But at the same time the p35 chipset hits 400fsb without problems and should hit 450

The p45 is an improvement over the p35 but not by a great deal, ether will run and overclock well.

[DaveVader]

I think I'm going to go for the Gigabyte DS3L, I don't need the DFI no matter how tempted by it I am, what I do need is to save money so I think this will be a wise option. E8400s have no issue with 3.6GHz and 4GHz shouldn't be difficult.
The money hasn't appeared in my account yet though so I still have another day to think about it. (Another day to fight off the temptation of the DFI)

[GSte]

Might be wise to google the Gigabyte board and see if others have had it up to 444FSB....

[DaveVader]

Yeah I did have a quick look. I think I remember seeing 4+GHz on an E8400 on this board. I will have a look again.

[DaveVader]

I went with the Gigabyte, mainly from the point of the price vs performance. I will let you know how I get on!