Motherboard Recommendations

[styles-T]

I'm getting an E6600 cpu soon. Was wondering what mother board i should match it with. I wanted to get an EVGA 680SLi but after reading some mixed customer reviews I'm not sure what to settle on.

250$ or under..
I'm not overclocking. I just want a mother board that can run smooth at stock speeds also thinking of running raid1.
Any help would be appreciated. If you think its worth it to spend a few dollars more, I'm open to suggestions of any sort..

[SlieTheSecond]

sli or non sli

[Uberpwnage]

If you don't care about SLI, you would probably be better off going with an Intel chipset.

[LORD-eX-Bu]

Go with the Asus Commando. It is the p965 "striker" equivalent that totally blows it out of the water:D

[buffbiff21]

I'm not overclocking.

WFT?:wtf:

You will be...
http://www.martinwildig.com/pictures/emperor.jpg
You will be.

If you want no SLI get a Gigabyte DS3. they are cheap as hell @ 130 bucks. It was the best Conroe board I used before my 680i.

If you want SLI, get 680i.

[LORD-eX-Bu]

RAID performance on Intel 965 chipsets totally kills 680i raid.

[Zelda_fan]

I'm getting an E6600 cpu soon. Was wondering what mother board i should match it with. I wanted to get an EVGA 680SLi but after reading some mixed customer reviews I'm not sure what to settle on.

250$ or under..
I'm not overclocking. I just want a mother board that can run smooth at stock speeds also thinking of running raid1.
Any help would be appreciated. If you think its worth it to spend a few dollars more, I'm open to suggestions of any sort..

I recommend the D975XBX2 (otherwise known as the badaxe 2) for the following reasons:

-Ultra-stable. I have never, ever, ever (even under an overclock) had this motherboard crash. Ever. Never locks up. Period. And I have done 24+ hours of torture testing (Orthos, iTunes, & memtest all running at the same time) on this thing. It won't lock up under torture conditions, and it defiantly won't lock up under normal usage.

-The 975X chipset has the fastest clock-per-clock performance of any chipset. This means if you plan to run at stock speeds, this is the fastest motherboard you can buy.

-If you do happen to overclock, this board overclocks extremely well. It passed 24h of torture testing with my E6600 @ 3.0GHZ on stock voltages and stock cooling. Ultra-stable. Has never crashed once at these speeds. With a good cooling setup, most people seem to get their E6600 stable up to 3.6-3.8GHZ.

-If you plan on running RAID this board has extremely fast Matrix RAID.

-Will run crossfire.

The only negative is that it won't run SLI, but once the R600 comes out, that won't be a big deal since you'll be able to get the equivalent performance with x-fire.

You can get it for $200.

Here is a link to the stability testing I did on this motherboard. Keep in mind this is as STOCK VOLTAGES and STOCK COOLING. For stock voltages, I think this is pretty impressive.
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/7426/3ghz500mhz4445yy3.jpg

[CaptNKILL]

Has anyone used an ABIT IB9?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813127018

Looks sweet for a non-sli system.

I plan on building a system with an E6320 (I think thats what it is) when they come out this spring. I'm trying to go "cheap" but with quality components.

EDIT: Or the Abit AW8D:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127235

[mullet]

I am really pleased with the ASUS P2B Deluxe for a non SLI board.

[Mr Bigman]

I thought Intel Boards weren't OCable.

[Zelda_fan]

I thought Intel Boards weren't OCable.

the BX2 is an exception.

[CaptNKILL]

the BX2 is an exception.
And from what I've read, so are the P965 based boards like the P5B. :)

EDIT: Oh I see what you're saying, actual Intel made boards, not just chipsets. :thumbsup:

[Zelda_fan]

And from what I've read, so are the P965 based boards like the P5B. :)

EDIT: Oh I see what you're saying, actual Intel made boards, not just chipsets. :thumbsup:

It's sort of funny. Asus and ABIT have been working on overclocking boards for years, and on Intel's first attempt at an enthusiast board, they blow everyone away.

If you have a CPU with a low multiplier (8x or below) then I'd recommend a P965 chipset because their FSB will go much higher than the 975X, but for any chip with a 9x muli and up, I recommend BX2 all the way.

[CaptNKILL]

It's sort of funny. Asus and ABIT have been working on overclocking boards for years, and on Intel's first attempt at an enthusiast board, they blow everyone away.

If you have a CPU with a low multiplier (8x or below) then I'd recommend a P965 chipset because their FSB will go much higher than the 975X, but for any chip with a 9x muli and up, I recommend BX2 all the way.
Yeah I'll most likely be going with one of the low end Core 2 Duos with 4Mb of cache after the prices come down this spring (the E6320 and E6420 will both be under $200), and overclocking is going to be the main focus.

Its a tough choice leaving SLI behind completely, but I just don't see myself spending that kind of money any time soon. If I do find a significantly better paying job it could happen, but in that case I'll probably be able to afford an SLI motherboard too.

If Intel follows the new pricing scheme they announced a few months ago I should be able to get 2gigs of DDR2 800, a P5B and a core 2 with 4Mb of cache for under $450. Hell of a deal.

I'll probably get some sort of massive heatsink to go with it as well. If I can get 3.4Ghz I'll be happy. :D