What socket 775 board to get?

[gameover]

Hi,

I have :
a pci express gfx card,
a pci sound card (some creative one),
a 775 cpu (q6600),
4x 1gb ddr2 sticks,
and 4 sata drives (hdd/optical) (i may need 5 sata ports though)

What motherboard should i get?

(i also have a heatsink, that to my eyes seems quite large. Nothing too extreme, but is this something to consider?)

thanks

(Oh also, i have no intention of overclocking or for gaming. I just want something reliable.)

 

[The Running Man]

p45 s775 mobos are quite rare atm.

i didnt want to but in the end i went for an asus p45 deluxe ddr2 mobo...simply because it is probably the best quality p45 board that is still available.

if you arent oc'ing etc maybe the gigabyte UD3LR or whatever would probably do a job?

 

[gameover]

tbh i think ill be ok with any that have:
4 ddr
5+ sata

i was thinking about the MSI P43T-C51 P43 Socket775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

the only thing is, the ram i have (4x XMS2-5400C4 ) is apparently 1.9v. the mobo i just mentioned is 1.8v. will that work?

 

[The Running Man]

hmm...im not a huge msi fan myself - but dont let that put you off..

most mobos 'dislike' 4gb mem...if it only says 1.8v i might avoid it.. you dont know if the NB or SB is voltage adjustable but you might have to up one of them to get it to boost and be stable with 4x sticks.

id be tempted to sell off the individual sticks and get 2x 2gb but obviously its your cash etc.

 

[illogik]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-278-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1155

 

[gameover]

considering all i do is code (in php, not even any massive compiling to do), no games, no overclocking, is it really worth £120+? the msi board i mentioned was like 60 quid i think. does the p5q have any useful advantages?

 

[illogik]

Probably not. I'm just biased towards Asus motherboards

 

[setter]

The p5q deluxe is a great board, probably one of the best p45's. But at its current price its way too expensive, its still at the same price i paid for one a year and a half ago.

 

[gameover]

what are the advantages of it compared to a £50-80 board?

 

[setter]

Better chipset cooling, extra lan ports, sata ports, better power phase regulation, dual 8 x pcie lanes for ati crossfire, the deluxe is basically a high end overclocking board. Really liked it when i had it, as it was a fantastic platform for overclocking quads on.

 

[gameover]

chipset cooling - no gaming really, don't have really high temps
extra lan ports - only have one network
sata ports - would use these
power pharase regulation - no idea about this
ati crossfire - i wouldn't use

i can see how its handy if you care about a high end system, but tbh i don't really need many features like those

 

[pastymuncher]

If you want a standard board the Gigabyte EP43-UD3L is a good board at a reasonable price. I have the 1.2 version of this board with a E8500 in it and it is a good stable board with quite a few overclocking options if needed.

MSI's budget boards are to be avoided as they are very poor.

 

[The Running Man]

i installed my p5q deluxe last night... worked like a dream from the box...bit slow to install win7 64 from ACHI SATA DVDRW on like the preload before it starts to copy files over, i thought it had stalled...

but well, yea you might pay a bit more but can you quibble at a 3 year warranty and a better board for the extra cash?

i am now clocked to 3.00ghz with mem at 1000mhz after a quick blast last night, will be hitting 3.2Ghz @ 9x355 hopefully when i get home tonight.