Best Motherboard For <£100 ?

[Kelvin_C-J]

Hi All,

With my Birthday on Monday (next) I'm getting a CoolerMaster Cosmos S case.. however, what I really need is a new and better motheboard.

My budget is around £100 - tops £115.

What I'd ideally like is a decent motherboard with good cooling - big heatsinks on northbridge etc.. basically one which is good for overclocking and can handle stress!

I was looking at the Asus P5Q Turbo.. but what advantages does the + D offer? for the extra £6?!

Any other recomendations or make of better motherboard to choose will be appreciated.

To be honest, I don't fancy spending over £100, but if the motherboard is supposedly good enough etc then I'll probably get it.

Many Thanks,

By the way; System utilising the motherboard will be the same as in signature.

[J1993]

Gigabyte EP45-UD3R

[Mr. Orange]

DFI LanParty DK X48-T2RS
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...8T26-00MG.html

[Kelvin_C-J]

Thanks for the recommendations guys.

I was looking at the Nova website and took particular interest in the Asus P5Q- Deluxe £132 and Asus Maximus II both the same price.

To me, they look the best value and performance wise, so I might end up going for one of those..?

Is one of those any better cooling or performance wise than those aforementioned?

I did look at the DFI but apparently DFI aren't that great..?

[IainK]

IMHO i rank DFI amongst the best, great overlockers with unrivaled amounts of options and precise settings

[Mr. Orange]

i've always gone with Asus, but i've heard Rumours of DFI being great, tbh, if i had to to choose between the X48 DFI board i linked earlier, over a Asus P5Q-E, I would've gone with the DFI. Because this P5Q-E isn't really living up to my expectations, which are high, after owning a Asus P5K Premium

[Kelvin_C-J]

Cheers Guys.

That's interesting about your pre-reference over DFI but then again it's about ~£35 difference so with the money saved a chipset cooling kit could be purchased ?! (maybe a fan controller too!)

To be honest, I only need 1 pci express slot, but a 2.0 would be nice as would adequate board cooling as mentioned.

Just what I'd like is:

Good chipset cooling
Fast performance; P45 chipset.. or there abouts.. just something faster than my current G31!
PCI-E 2.0 - better gfx card performance?
DualBios - for safety?

That's about it really, Just something alot better than my current, I don't mind what make but dualbios's are a plus.. I don't even know if I've damaged one.. but if it fails to POST and then reboots is that the backup bios or just a CPU parameter or whatever hardware recall?

[Mr. Orange]

hmm... then a P5Q-E, meets ur specs. includes a dual BIOS, a bunch of other features etc.

[Kelvin_C-J]

Thanks mclarenvj.

I don't have the money as of yet anyway so perhaps the prices may (hopefully) be reduced slightly! - But I'll definately purchase a new motherboard within a month, maybe even (as I hope) within 14 days.

Cheers for your help.

I do like the look of the P5Q-E.. but I do find it 'strange' that the Maximus II is the same price.. presumably with the -E you get more features? except all the OC'ing gizsmos etc.. - I don't need or probably wouldn't understand half that stuff..

If I could get my E8400 @ 500X8 stable then I'd be very happy indeed.

[Mr. Orange]

hmm.. i personally havent tried my E8200 at 500x8 as of yet on my P5Q-E, i'll give it a quick go for you tomoroow, atm i'm on 533x7, but i should be able to hit the higher clocks, as my NB isn't so full of dust now

[Kelvin_C-J]

Originally Posted by mclarenvj

hmm.. i personally havent tried my E8200 at 500x8 as of yet on my P5Q-E, i'll give it a quick go for you tomoroow, atm i'm on 533x7, but i should be able to hit the higher clocks, as my NB isn't so full of dust now

That's impressive for an E8200, if you don't mind me saying.
Nice to know it can handle high FSBs.

Out of interest, is the P45 a big step-up (performance-wise) from just about any of it's predecessing chipsets..?

[IainK]

if you're currently at 4.0Ghz (as your sig suggests) i' be tempted to stay with your current mobo as you won't get much more out of it (especially as you said that you only need/want one PCI-e slot

[Mr. Orange]

i'm not sure, as before, i've said i used to own a P5K Premium P35 Chipset, I ran 540x7.5 (4.05Ghz) with my E8200 rock solid stable, which ran amazing for me.. until the huge amount of Dust from my extension attacked it and it died... but now i've got it back from the RMA (they gave me a brand new one ) to sell to a mate, who i'm helping build a PC.
He'll be using:
an Intel Core 2 Duo E5400
my Asus P5K Premium
my Corsair Dominator Twin2x2048-8500C5D 2x1Gb 1066Mhz, which i have managed to OC to 570 Mhz into windows .

i should hopefully be able to get a nice 4Ghz+ on air.

EDIT:
I personally wished i went with the P5Q Premium, I've never used it, but i would assume it would have the same potential as my P5K Premium, just a step up. but as budget was low, and the best board i could see (the DFI x48 wasn't at Novatech at the time) was the P5Q-E.

Many people would reccomend a Biostar P45, supposedly brilliant for overclocking. I didn't go with it.. cause i imagined..
"I've got a Biostar motherboard!"
just doesn't sound as impressive as
"I've got a Asus motherboard!"

purely because Asus has the bigger history in Motherboard making.

[Kelvin_C-J]

Originally Posted by IainK

if you're currently at 4.0Ghz (as your sig suggests) i' be tempted to stay with your current mobo as you won't get much more out of it (especially as you said that you only need/want one PCI-e slot

I couldn't get 4.0ghz stable.. and when I increased Vcore to 1.325 after a few minutes of Prime I could smell PCB burning...

But, a Matx in a Cosmos is stupid, especially for the SATA cables! Plus I'd like a PCI-E 2.0 and P45 for the heck of it!

[IainK]

fair enough
TBH i don't think you'd be disappointed with ANY of the P45/x48 boards out there, it's just a matter of choosing one you like

[Mr. Orange]

Originally Posted by Kelvin_C-J

I couldn't get 4.0ghz stable.. and when I increased Vcore to 1.325 after a few minutes of Prime I could smell PCB burning...

But, a Matx in a Cosmos is stupid, especially for the SATA cables! Plus I'd like a PCI-E 2.0 and P45 for the heck of it!

for me to get 4.26 Ghz stable, (533x8) i have to have a vCore of 1.47 =/, which is a huge step up from a vCore of 1.3375 for my current 533x7. That's why i'm currently at 533x7, until i'm certain that my PC can remain cool. it idled at 27C @4.26Ghz, but jumped up to 58C under load which for me.. is hot.

[sniperdude]

DFI do great boards but you need to have a degree in using DFI BIOS

my last board was a DFI and the amount of settings was unreal

[IainK]

well, for any1 who needs help with their DFI boards heres a good 'living review'/guide

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/revie...ng-review.html

thats for my board (so glad i found it) but the settings should be pretty much the same for any DFI board

read the conclusion to any review for ANY DFI board and i think you will be converted to the LANparty side of the force (we have cookies )

the board used on Clunk's living review (x38) managed to hold down an 8400 @ 4.59 GHZ!

[Kelvin_C-J]

Cheers for the info peoples.

I'll admit I like the looks of the ASUS, I've heard of issues with DFI and the Gigabyte UD3R Nova don't sell at the moment.

However, I'll have ~£500 and I owe about £350 to family members so the remainder I'll be able to spend...
- I'm just not sure what on.. I mean, 2 PCI-E's is probably for the better if I ever decide to invest in two gpu's..
But I wouldn't be able to get another 9800GTX+ anyway so that'd be even more money spent on graphics' cards.

In truth, unless there's a massive price reduction, I'm really not sure what to go for;

DFI is the cheapest, but I've heard of problems on OC forums and to be honest I don't like the colour!(not that I'd see it anyway)

The Asus P5Q-E is nice but the Maximus is the same price and I've no idea which is better value for money?

And as mentioned, the Gigabyte isn't even in stock so they're out of the question.. plus I've had 2 bad experiences with them so I'm willing to exchange vendors.

[Kelvin_C-J]

Ok, if everything stands as it does currently, I'll most definately get the Asus P5Q Deluxe.

However, I have heard of problems mounting the CPU heatsinks due to the size of the north and south bridges.. should or would I have any problems with a Thermalright 120A ?

And, Ebuyer currently have them on sale for £119.99 so I'm sure Nova will price match, which would make it a great buy.