New board for a core 2 duo - which and why?

[coiler]

Looking at building a core 2 duo on a P35 chipset. (not bothered about DDR3 due to lots of £££ increase for little %%% increase) I was considering these two which get supurb reviews >>>

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asus+P5K+Premium+Wi-Fi+Intel+P35+LGA+775+?productId=28229

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Abit+IP-35+Pro%2C+iP35+Express+Motherboard+?productId=2725 5

Some guys seem to like the below board on here >>>

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asus+P5K+Premium+Wi-Fi+Intel+P35+LGA+775+?productId=28229

and also which is 680i which gives SLI but no P35

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asus+P5N32-E+SLi+Socket+775+ATX+MOTHERBOARD+?productId=25917




Which should I go for and why? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[alexnifty]

Why does it have to be P35 chipset? Crossfire?


I have the Asus P5N32-E SLi and it's very good. Loads of kit in the box, and is quite easy for overclocking.

If it has to be P35 then I would go for the Asus P5K Premium, I am now an Asus fanboi :D

[coiler]

Why does it have to be P35 chipset? Crossfire?


I have the Asus P5N32-E SLi and it's very good. Loads of kit in the box, and is quite easy for overclocking.

If it has to be P35 then I would go for the Asus P5K Premium, I am now an Asus fanboi :D

Just seen a lot of benchies that rated P35, SLi would be nice.

(I have a 7950GX2 card, you know x2 cards stuck together so SLI in one slot - do you think this would be an issue in a P35)

I'm going to look at some reviews on your board as we speak :)

[alexnifty]

I think the board comes off about 1fps slower in benchmarks against P35 boards, so thats nothing to worry about.

Where this board wins is with the overclocking. Theres a lot of options available, and the memory and fsb can be unlinked, which is great for overclocking them exactly as you like!

[coiler]

I think the board comes off about 1fps slower in benchmarks against P35 boards, so thats nothing to worry about.

Where this board wins is with the overclocking. Theres a lot of options available, and the memory and fsb can be unlinked, which is great for overclocking them exactly as you like!

This is really selling it to me, on 5th page of review now

[alexnifty]

Yeah pretty much, if you like to have as much flexibility with your overclocking as possible then this is probably the board for you.

Its got two 16x PCI-E slots so you could put another 7950GX2 in there for Quad Sli... I don't know why you would want that apart from saying "I have Quad Sli".

[mac124]

If it has to be P35 then I would go for the Asus P5K Premium, I am now an Asus fanboi :D


Agreed, i have said it before and i'll say it again, SLI is a complete waste of time UNLESS the have more money than sense and are running 2x 8800 ultras on some uber 30" monitor

[Lynx]

The record on 3dmark is with 2 2900XT ddr4s... So why would you get two ultras when for like half the price you can get better syntheic bragging rights..?

[mac124]

:|

You know what i mean :S

[bouncyb]

ive read throught this thread and im unsure as to what your after. is it sli you are interested in or crossfire. If your after sli you will be using nvidia cards with an nvidia chipset such as a 680i. if its crossfire your will be using ati cards on an intel based chipset such as the P35. Id agree that the P5n325-e sli appears to be a very good board according to the reviews that i have read. It is essentially the same board as an asus striker which costs a lot of money but has a little eye candy and some extras but benchmark wise it rates the same.

[coiler]

I have my 7950GX2 so if that would work as in windows will recognise it as SLI and show x2 cards in control panel on a P35 - I quite like the look of the ATI 2900's.

So I want to run my 7950gx2 until I can afford a decent dx10 card. The next quest is for me to compare 8800gt's to 2900's.

[tystar]

Welomce back bouncyb. thought you'd moved on to pastures new. or u been away?

[PeterStoba]

I was recommended an Asus P5KPL-VM, iG31 LGA775 Core2 Quad / Extreme / Core2 Duo Quickcode 28610