New Mobo

[handscombmp]

Going to buy a new mobo as i feel that the prices of them are going to go up and being as they were badly affected last time so i want to buy it before they go up.

I'm going to use it to overclock my Q6600 and am aiming for about 3.2Ghz

This would be my first overclock though so i want it to be fairly easy to do.

I've got up to £100 but the cheaper the better of course.
The only two i've come up with are the biostar P45 model and they Gigabyte P31 model that is reccommend for cheap overclocks.
I know they are differnet end of the scale.

I have also though about getting a P43 which as i see it is a cut down P45.

[Webby]

If you want the best of both worlds then I would probably go with this Biostar P45

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Biost...-SATA-RAID-ATX

All the benefits of a P45 board including a native FSB upto 400MHz which means that you wont be stressing the NB as much with the overclocking and it costs the same as the P43 boards only real downside is the lack of cooling on the Mosfets (but you are not going to get that on a cheap board anyway) and no Firewire or ESATA which are really only an issue if you require either.

Oh and overclocking Intel Core 2's is so easy you will be able to do it in your sleep

[handscombmp]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Biost...-SATA-RAID-ATX

All the benefits of a P45 board including a native FSB upto 400MHz which means that you wont be stressing the NB as much with the overclocking and it costs the same as the P43 boards only real downside is the lack of cooling on the Mosfets (but you are not going to get that on a cheap board anyway) and no Firewire or ESATA which are really only an issue if you require either.

Not bothered about eSata or Firewire but you mention Mosfets.

From what i've learnt these are what is pictured just north of the cpu socket in the scan picture. Why is it important to keep these cool and wat do they actually do. Will they only start to heat up once i go past 400fsb and increase the voltages.

[staffsMike]

Yeah overclocking that chip should be simple on any of the new boards.

That biostar is obviously cheap and cheerful but I know for myself I would probably go for the mid range board like this one
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Biost...-SATA-RAID-ATX

Just that extra peace of mind for upgrading, perhaps quality and feature set are worth the £20 or so more for me.

Where is the abit P45 anyway?

[handscombmp]

Where is the abit P45 anyway?

Sorry meant biostar.

For some reason had it in my head as i know they were good boards

[Webby]

Mosfets regulate the voltage going to the various places on the motherboard which do not use the standard voltages pushed out by your PSU so your CPU, NB, Memory to name but a few so basically when they are kept cool they work better and more efficiently and if they get to hot then you can start to see instability.

Now while I say all this my motherboard a Gigabyte G33M-DS2R has no mosfet cooling and overclocks like a dream.

Anyway yes any of the big brands will be fine I would probably stick with a P45 chipset rather than P43 or P35 if they were to expensive then I would drop back to the P31.

[handscombmp]

The thing is a dont want to spend to much as its a sort of stop gap board.

I'm going to keep it until in about a year's time i will upgrade to core i7 as its just to expenisve at the moment and i reckon its cheaper to buy a lga775 board now and a core i7 in a year than buy a core i7 now.

[Webby]

With what Intel has planned for CPU's and sockets who knows what will be available in a year and at what price.

i7 is really only expensive for the memory compared to DDR2 and that is coming down in price all the time the motherboards while pricey are not too bad when you consider that they are Intel's top of the line board with crossfire and SLI support they start to look priced about right check the prices of the X48 boards for comparison. And the CPU is again priced about right well at least the 920. But it is obviously a big price jump from just a cheap and cheerful motherboard.

With your aim of 3.2GHz I am pretty sure the cheap Biostar will have you covered.

[Olmy]

Sorry meant biostar.

For some reason had it in my head as i know they were good boards

Unfortunately Abit are out of the motherboard business now.