I need a new LGA775 motherboard - I can't decide which one..

[Leeky]

After a slight mishap removing the washers from my Dell motherboard, its fubar, and needs replacing.

I've a budget of £70 (£75 max including postage), and it MUST have 6 SATA ports (I'm using 3 HDDs and 2 optical), and use DDR2 RAM with 4 slots (I have 4x 1GB DDR2 800 sticks of generic Dell RAM).

SLI would be nice, but very, very doubtful at this price point. It must also be availabe in the UK, and by next day delivery as I'd like to get it running tomorrow. I'd consider waiting on delivery for something else better within my budget.

I've sort of narrowed it down to these two:

MSI P43T-C51 P43 Socket775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186178

ASUS P5Q SE PLUS iP45 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152574

Which one would be best? I can use full ATX boards, so not worried about size, but I want something quality, with the above 2 features as a minimum.

Is there anything else I should consider? As always I'm happy to listen to peoples thoughts and advice.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JMMD]

I'd go with the Asus personally but here's another possibility:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128380

 

[Leeky]

Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L iP43 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio Out ATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174244

Thats in my budget.

The Asus worries me a bit, because I;ve read some really bad reviews in regards to drivers and Audio problems with Asus motherboards. I know they're highly regarded for overclocking, and if I have the tools to do it, I might as well extract some extra juice from my CPU, but I don't want to end up with something buggy as hell.

That said, I know they're all reputable manufacturers, and whichever I choose is going to be a good buy, I just can't figure out which is actually best out of all 3.

I'm actually shying towards the Gigabyte you mentioned above, I've had a few over the years (I've never owned MSI or Asus motherboards) and always been very impressed with them. Will an Asus/MSI be easier to overclock though?

 

[captaincranky]

I've maaged to "un" narrow it down for you; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...14 40000280 600007879&IsNodeId=1&name=LGA 775 These are what's still available from Newegg here. Sort of an amalgam of boards with DDR2 or 3, onboard graphics, or not.

The lower end pieces have SATA, but not RAID. It's not til P45 that you get the ICH10R.

Consider 5 SATA ports also, along with EDI optical drives. A DVD burner really doesn't need a transfer rate of 300 Gbs, now does it?

 

[Leeky]

Thanks Captain...

One Q though; Whats EDI? I know of SATA and IDE (PATA), ~EDI is a new one on me. I agree they don't need that much transfer rate, but I have a SATA DVD and DVDRW and I really didn't want to be spending money on my PC right now - Especially since I could well be getting a new i5 motherboard, but just can't justify purchasing the CPU/RAM etc right now.

I'd also really like a SLI board, I could then delay moving over to DDR3/i5 till later on, and get the SLI'd GTX460's and new PSU first. I'm kind of kicking myself right now as I feel like I'm throwing money away just for another 5-6 months use with my current Q8300.

I don't use RAID so the Gigabyte above is my favourite so far.

Every SLI motherboard in my chipset is around the £100+ mark as well, which is an ****!!

 

[JMMD]

I think he mistyped IDE. There is no EDI spec for drives.

My last 3 motherboards have been Gigabyte so I would definitely recommend them. I haven't used Asus for a log time and my last MSI board didn't last very long.

 

[LinkedKube]

Too bad you're across the pond. I'd sell you my asus p5n32 sli premium/wifi. I rma'd the first one, tested the new one out of the box. Proceeded to buy a p5k board the next week.

Anyway, I'd go with the asus or gigabyte over msi.

 

[captaincranky]

Posting and Proof Reading, Not Mutually Exclusive.....

Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L iP43 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio Out ATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174244

Thats in my budget.

The Asus worries me a bit, because I;ve read some really bad reviews in regards to drivers and Audio problems with Asus motherboards. I know they're highly regarded for overclocking, and if I have the tools to do it, I might as well extract some extra juice from my CPU, but I don't want to end up with something buggy as hell.

That said, I know they're all reputable manufacturers, and whichever I choose is going to be a good buy, I just can't figure out which is actually best out of all 3.

I'm actually shying towards the Gigabyte you mentioned above, I've had a few over the years (I've never owned MSI or Asus motherboards) and always been very impressed with them. Will an Asus/MSI be easier to overclock though?

Probably the Gigabyte would be as easy or easier to overclock than either one of those two, unless of course you're forcing me to choose between them, but intend to buy the Gigabyte anyway.

Yes, of course I meant, "IDE", (integrated drive electronics).

That said, please grace us with a comma between the "T", and the "S", in "thats". You really need that apostrophe to form a contraction, in both our variants of English.

Moving along, "I've" requires that self same apostrophe, instead of the semicolon you've provided us with.

And that concludes our present session of, "building stronger bonds through our common language".

Well, save for this;

Every SLI motherboard in my chipset is around the £100+ mark as well, which is an ****!!

I'm having a heck of a time filling in the expletive deleted, given your usage of the article, "an".

 

[LinkedKube]

Asus boards usually always come with an overclock utility. But you get what you pay for in the oc' department for asus. At least with the 775 market.

 

[Leeky]

Probably the Gigabyte would be as easy or easier to overclock than either one of those two, unless of course you're forcing me to choose between them, but intend to buy the Gigabyte anyway.

Yes, of course I meant, "IDE", (integrated drive electronics).

That said, please grace us with a comma between the "T", and the "S", in "thats". You really need that apostrophe to form a contraction, in both our variants of English.

Moving along, "I've" requires that self same apostrophe, instead of the semicolon you've provided us with.

And that concludes our present session of, "building stronger bonds through our common language".

Pmsl!

A R S E

I'm using my laptop now (PCs dead remember), and I keep hitting the wrong keys while I'm touch typing as I don't normally check the letters I'm typing as it's always pretty accurate. LOL. Damn laptop keys are really close together unlike my Logitech Wave keyboard!

Thanks for cheering me up with your comical response!

So Gigabyte it is, assuming I don't find a new SLI motherboard in the next couple of hours time (very unlikely!).

Thank you to everyone for the feedback and advice.

 

[Leeky]

Just ordered the Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L motherboard from ebuyer.com. I love the fact you can order up to 11pm and still get next day delivery. I should have it in 12 hours time! yay!

 

[Leeky]

I'm not happy!! My motherboard didn't arrive today, despite paying £9.99 for next day delivery and ordering it before the cut off time of 11pm last night. They're not even going to give me the difference between next day and 2 days delivery as apparently its clearly in their terms and conditions that they can delay an order due to processing times even though they have a sodding great big banner stating the following:

Order up to 11pm for next day delivery.

Apparently the "order" means, order, pay, and let them process, pack and then ship the item before 11pm! - Are they really that bloody stupid that they haven't actually made allowances for this already?!?

I ordered at 2238, and payment was cleared at 2255, so 5 mins before the cut off, even though it should have been 20 mins and absolutely fine.

Last time I order from them then! I can't stand companies that say one thing, and blantantly mislead and mess you around!!!

Been sit in waiting all day for the sodding thing to arrive as well.

Oh and to top it all off, my PSU on my other quad Dell has started whinning and squeeking its head off! Give me a break, its 3 days out of warranty!!!! FFS! lol.