Budget £40-£50 Motherboard?

[KalC]

Looking to buy me a cheap(ish) motherboard for my E5200, need some recommendations from you knowledgable folk.

Needs to be a fairly good overclocker (P35/eP43/P45 chipset?) and something that can fit my 4850 too. Don't really have a preference to mobo makes but have used Gigabyte and Asus in the past and they have been really good in terms of stability and long life.

I have a budget of around £40-£50 but possibly could push it a bit if a decent offer comes around.

Cheers dudes

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

These motherboards should do the job:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148024

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152576

Review of the Asus motherboard:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...us_p5qle/8.htm

[KalC]

Thanks for that mate!

Ive read the reviews on the Asus P5QL which say it has overclocking limitations...there are a few good deals going on the Asrock P43DE @ £46.13 but im not too sure how Asrock are recommended as I have no experience with them.

The MSI P43 you linked to seems quite decent and suits my needs quite well. One question though if you will, whats the main difference's between the P35 chipset and P43? I know the P43 is a cut down version of the P45 but is it on par with the P35? They seem to be priced roughly the same...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for that mate!

Ive read the reviews on the Asus P5QL which say it has overclocking limitations...there are a few good deals going on the Asrock P43DE @ £46.13 but im not too sure how Asrock are recommended as I have no experience with them.

The MSI P43 you linked to seems quite decent and suits my needs quite well. One question though if you will, whats the main difference's between the P35 chipset and P43? I know the P43 is a cut down version of the P45 but is it on par with the P35? They seem to be priced roughly the same...

The P35 is a decent chipset and I have it running an E4300 at around 3.1ghz. Have you checked if your 975X is compatible with an E5200?? My current 975X was not too bad for overclocking. Also do remember that an E5200 has a 12.5x multiplier so reaching 420mhz would mean something like 5ghz with your E5200 and TBH the chip would be more of a limitation.

The P43 has PCI-E 2.0 and the newer ICH10 southbridge too when compared to the P35.

Also I would looking to add some heatsinks to the VRMs of either P43 motherboard to keep them cool as if they overheat it can also hamper overclocking.

I would look at professional and user reviews of the motherboards you have and choose the best one. Sometimes an older higher end motherboard with better build and a stable BIOS which has been discounted in price can be better than the lower end motherboards implementing a newer chipset.

[KalC]

The P35 is a decent chipset and I have it running an E4300 at around 3.1ghz. Have you checked if your 975X is compatible with an E5200?? My current 975X was not too bad for overclocking. Also do remember that an E5200 has a 12.5x multiplier so reaching 420mhz would mean something like 5ghz with your E5200 and TBH the chip would be more of a limitation.

The P43 has PCI-E 2.0 and the newer ICH10 southbridge too when compared to the P35.

Also I would looking to add some heatsinks to the VRMs of either P43 motherboard to keep them cool as if they overheat it can also hamper overclocking.

I would look at professional and user reviews of the motherboards you have and choose the best one. Sometimes an older higher end motherboard with better build and a stable BIOS which has been discounted in price can be better than the lower end motherboards implementing a newer chipset.

Im pretty sure there is compatiblity for 45nm processor's with the 975X chipset, I think maybe if anything a BIOS update might be needed...but im not 100% sure on this though or if it would be worth the risk

Yeah I understand what your saying, a modest FSB setting of like 320Mhz would hit near 4Ghz which is probably pushing it on air cooling anyway. Which 975X did you have? The Asus P5W in my sig is outdated and I no longer have it due to it dying on me

On a side note, would my 4850 be affected by the difference of PCI-E 2.0 on the P43 chipset? Performance wise?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The HD4850 will work fine on PCI-E 2.0 AFAIK. The 975X I have is one in a Shuttle SFF PC. It does not support 45nm CPUs as Shuttle are terrible for supporting older motherboards IMHO but I have a Q6600 in there now so everything is OK so far. Shuttle made noises a while back about selling new replacement motherboards but as usual nothing happened at least in the UK.

[KalC]

How about this Gigabyte P43 from fleabay? The layout in particular would suit my case (LC17)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,I do not know how a good overclocker it will be.

Edit!

The Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L seems decent:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buy...uy-july-2009/2

The GA-EP43-DS3 and GA-EP43-DS3L seem very similar though:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2846

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2847