Best Chipset? Motherboard Socket 775 for about £50???

[malice19]

My MOBO (Asus P5Q Deluxe) has died and at the moment im using a spare naff 775 Socket MOBO just to get me by but it only has 2 RAM slots and a few SATA ports on the mobo as its not a Full sized ATX board.

I am sending back the faulty Asus P5Q Deluxe to be replaced then will most likely just sell it on but would like to get a better replacement than what im using now to replace the temp naff MOBO.

Not really sure what chip set to go for as well? Any recommendation as the Asus P5Q had Intel P45 chipset.

Want it to have as many SATA ports as possible like 6 and must have 4 RAM slots. Looking to spend about £50

Thanks for your time and help.

Cheers

[malice19]

found this so far - ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX
£49
http://www.pcupgrade.co.uk/productde...categoryid=260

[malice19]

Was even thinking of getting this MOBO, i know it needs DDR3 but might be worth the upgrade?

What you think, any one?
Gigabyte GA-EP43T-USB3 Intel P43 Express 775 Motherboard
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...b-s-atx-usb-30

[Pob255]

DDR3 on socket 775 is fairly pointless, however it has become fairly standard now on the few new 775 boards being produced.
Does mean you will need new memory however no need to go mad on the speed, it will have almost no effect on a socket 775

Personally speaking "USB3 = meh" yes it's lots faster but apart from portable hard drives nothing needs the speed.
unless you need 4 memory stick then I'd just go with a G41 motherboard http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...ta-ii-uatx-vga

[malice19]

DDR3 on socket 775 is fairly pointless, however it has become fairly standard now on the few new 775 boards being produced.
Does mean you will need new memory however no need to go mad on the speed, it will have almost no effect on a socket 775

Cheers for the heads up mate, might be nice to have USB3 though? Not that i have any USB 3 devices at the moment.

Also the chipset is P43 express? I take it is not as good as the P45 that is on the faulty Asus P5Q Deluxe board i have?

Do you think i should just wait for my replacement Asus board as did not realise that DDR3 did not make that much difference with socket 775

Just depends if I can hold out over Xmas with out being able to play on a decent PC?

[Pob255]

If you're getting a replacement/repair under warranty then yes wait.

The thing about 775 is that the memory controller is on the northbridge so running the memory faster than the fsb does very little
Actual fsb, not the quad pumped fab intel says their cpus run at, eg your QX6700, intel lists it as "1066 MHz FSB" http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=28028 which means the actual fsb is only 266mhz, DDR2 & 3 is listed at twice FSB, so when running at 1:1 ratio you'd only need DDR2 PC2-4200 533mhz memory to run it at stock.
Going below 1:1 on socket 775 would cause a noticeable bottle neck, but going over it does little as the northbridge has become the bottle heck, one of the reasons 775 does so well under fsb overclocking, because you're not just speeding up the cpu but also the memory access.

[malice19]

Hi All,

Motherboard was working ok for a bit but now has had it so back looking again for a replacement.

What do you guys think of ASRock MOBO's?

Looking at this one http://www.pcupgrade.co.uk/productde...categoryid=260

ASUS P5Q SE PLUS vs ASRock N7AD-SLI?

[Pob255]

I seem to remember that the nf 740 wasn't very good for overclocking

If you're not looking at overclocking then pretty much any thing should be fine.

trying to find a new motherboard that can take 4x ddr2 is going to be the biggest problem.
This ASROCK P43DE http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161010 is the only thing I could find.

Selling the motherboard cpu and memory and replacing them would probably be the best option, but not the cheapest esp if your current motherboard is dead/dieing

[malice19]

I seem to remember that the nf 740 wasn't very good for overclocking

If you're not looking at overclocking then pretty much any thing should be fine.

trying to find a new motherboard that can take 4x ddr2 is going to be the biggest problem.
This ASROCK P43DE http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161010 is the only thing I could find.

Selling the motherboard cpu and memory and replacing them would probably be the best option, but not the cheapest esp if your current motherboard is dead/dieing

I went with this in the end... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-vga-micro-atx
Should be ok i guess

[malice19]

I went with this in the end... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-vga-micro-atx
Should be ok i guess

Crap! After pasting the link and checking it again i noticed its a micro-ATX MOBO
Thought it was a ATX as has 4 Ram slots. Shoot knew i should of checked it again!

[Pob255]

More bad new it doesn't have 4 ram slots, that's one of the combo boards that can use 2 sticks of ddr2 or 2 sticks of ddr3
You cannot put 4 sticks of ddr2 in there, nor can you put 2 sticks of ddr2 and 2 sticks of ddr3 at the same time

better cancel that order.

[malice19]

More bad new it doesn't have 4 ram slots, that's one of the combo boards that can use 2 sticks of ddr2 or 2 sticks of ddr3
You cannot put 4 sticks of ddr2 in there, nor can you put 2 sticks of ddr2 and 2 sticks of ddr3 at the same time

better cancel that order.

Thanks for letting me know about that as well mate. I called up this morning and cancelled it good think too as did not know about on being able to take one type in 2 slots

Thanks again for your help and for your link

[scaryjim]

I think for your purposes the ASRock Pob linked is the best option available - s775 is proper end of life now so they're not going to keep making good boards for it any more....