Advise on new MOB

[wevsspot]

Mike,

 

I've been a fanboy of nVidia chipsets since the NF2 days, but let me tell you based on my last few Intel CPU based builds, I'd go with an Intel Chipset and the Intel CPU 10 out of 10 times. I know, the question "what if I want to go SLi in the future", well for now and for the near future your (g92) card will tear through about anything you throw at it. And if need be, in the future you could always consider crossfire if you wanted to defect to the red team.

 

The E6750 is a great dual core performer, but unless you need quad core, pick up an E8400 Wolfdale and a compatible motherboard. If you go that route you'll need a pair of Praz's favorite memory sticks here lately, the G.Skill 2X2gb kit here;

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231145

 

Motherboard brand is really up to you, but realistically I don't see any reason on dropping two bills for a motherboard these days. There are a lot of happy Gigabyte board owners around these parts lately, you might consider checking out their offerings.

[Mike1161]

With each passing day I get different ideas. Now I figure I should go with the E8400 and an MOB that works with it. Most seem to need BIOS updates from day one. Isn't anything being delivered that is ready for this chip?

 

Now that the new EVGA 8800 GT AMKIMBO I am considering chaning that too.

[wevsspot]

The Gigabyte boards are very easily flashed to the latest BIOS revisions that support the E8400 right at first boot. Their flash utilities are a snap, just download the utility, the latest BIOS and put them on a flash drive or floppy and flash the second you boot the board.

 

If you really want to spend $200 on a board, I can highly recommend the Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4.

 

I recently installed one in my personal rig and have been nothing but 100% pleased with it's performance and stability.

 

See my OCDB over in the Socket LGA775 Overclocking Database. 4.0ghz was a snap

 

3.8ghz wasn't even a challenge and that was at stock vcore.

 

But I'll tell you, any of the Gigabyte P35 boards would be a great choice too, just pick one with the feature set you want or need and save yourself some money.

 

Or if you want to stay with DFI you could go with any of these;

 

http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-LanParty...oard-p-428.html

 

or this one;

 

http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-LANPARTY...tail-p-531.html

 

or this one;

 

http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-LanParty...-775-p-369.html

 

Depending on your budget.

[mousekin]

...

Or if you want to stay with DFI you could go with any of these;

 

http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-LanParty...oard-p-428.html

 

...

Depending on your budget.

 

Anyone got one of these? Do they work well with the E8400?

 

I know DFI isn't a favorite around here, but I've really liked my DFI 939 board.

[wevsspot]

A lot of water under the bridge 'round these parts so we'll just leave it at that. But DFI still makes a few good boards, and their NF4 boards were top notch. This Gigabyte board I've got now is the first non-DFI board I've had in a few years now.

 

You got PM.

[snugglealufacus]

I think I will join in on this discussion as I am also thinking about upgrading the 3 main parts of my comp (mobo/ram/CPU). Everything else is fabulous and I'm quite positive that combining the new parts with my current parts will cause no problems. I'm thinking of that 2x2 set of G.Skill DDR2 1000's posted up there, and an 8400 wolfdale. And, anlthough at a steep $269, I was thinking of the DQ6 board by gigabyte as it has dual LAN (which I use) and PCI-E 2.0, which will come in handy in the future as this is an investment for me and not a 6-month toy, which is also why I'm willing to chuck out an extra $60 over the DS4

[wevsspot]

The new EX version of the GB X38 DS4 board has dual lan also, as well as power saving features. Pisses me off that I bought the regular X38 version. But oh well. My current mainboard is 100% stable, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

[snugglealufacus]

its weird though that newegg shows a pic of a dual-lan mobo but the specs only show a single lan chipset.

[sailindawg]

@ the OP

 

If overclocking is not your thing, just running at stock, consider this board. ElAguila started a thread about it. It has some very nice features, can run both DDR2 & DDR3, supports 1333 FSB cpu's and has the PCIE 2.0 spec. Costs as much as the ASUS board you mentioned. There have been about 3 BIOS revisions for the board. When reviewing ElAgila's thread, check out the links for the reviews. Look at the date the reivew as compared to the dates of the BIOS revisions. Foxconn seems to have improved the BIOS as evidenced by overclocking results.

 

If you are looking for a board for the long term, overclocking is not your thing, then this board, for the $$$ spent, may be a very good buy. Another board that is pretty cost effective, if all you want is stock cycles and a lot of RAM, is this board as evidenced by this thread.

 

There are really a lot of very good hardware choices out at the moment.

[Mike1161]

Pulled the trigger today:

 

E8400

EVGA 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB

EVGA 750i FTW

OCZ 700

Corsair Domanator DDR2 1066 4Gig

WD HD 250 gig

Tuniq Tower 120

DVDR & DVD

Antec 900

 

With shipping after rebates, just over $1,200.