help buying new mobo

hi ,

i am looking to buy a new mobo, i recently had a pk5c which was not that great and had to return it after the bios deleted itself when updating with asus easy update. i am getting a refund on this and now want to choose another motherboard. i am not that big on overclocking but would not mind getting into that if recomended to. i have a wolfdale e8400 3.0g, 8800gt , 4 gig ocz reaper 8400 1066mhz, and a coolermaster case with 450w psu. just wondering if any of you guys could recomend a motherboard for me i have a budget of around £100.

thanks for youre time.

This Biostar iP45 is good value for 70 quid if you are not overclocking:

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

It is reviewed here:

http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Moth...TP45D2_A7.html

For £100 one of the DFI P45 motherboard probably seems to be the best bet. They probably are better for overclocking too.

thanks for the quick reply i will check out the biostar, i did read somewhere that the board gets warm is that likely to be a problem for me do you think?

It depends on your case ventilation really!! However there are these P35 Gigabyte motherboards for a few quid more:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148800

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143228

There is also this MSI P45 based motherboard for under 80 quid:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145707

The 100 quid motherboards tend to have better overclocking capability and features. However you need to decide what features are useful and what ones you will never use!!

so out of the bunch would you choose the msi ?? i just get so confused when it comes to buying a mobo and having bought the wrong one last time i dont want to make the same mistake ! thanks again for youre help

I always think that Abit, Gigabyte and DFI are good brands but YMMV!! The best thing is to look on Google to see if any people have issues or problems with the motherboard you are after.

you would of probably of been ok with that asus motherboard if you'd done a bios update off a floppy and not from within windows.
At a very rough guess I'd say probably an over zelious antivirus software blocking or scanning part of the file caused it to get corrupted.

No matter what motherboard you get you may have problems when updateing the bios
It is a bit of a hard call now that ABit has dropped out of the motherboard industry :(
If a bios update fails for most people the only option is to RMA it, but at least it should be fairly easy for them to fix.
So the question come down to Who has the best UK rma?

Maybe worth going for an actual intel one?
ip43 is the best intel one in your price range
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150952

thanks for the advice, i didnt like the pk5 c because of memory issues i was running my ram at 800 when the ram is 1066, i know i should not of updated the bios that way but had done it before and it was fine and then this time was my wake up call as to why you should not do it !!! i am keen to get a board that will not limit me in this way again with the kit i have. i am not to worried about easy bios updated as i have learned my lesson now and will only do it the right way as you suggested. thanks again for youre replies it is much appreciated !