ASUS P5E (X38 - DDR2) Opinions please! Any good!?

[Kemita]

Hi there. I've been looking for a good motherboard that suits my needs. I'm not an avid overclocker and I'm trying to get a good MOBO for building a PC aimed mainly for gaming, that lasts me 3 years at least, not less.

I've seen many MOBOs (Asus Maximus Formula, 780i, Striker II, DQ6 Gigabyte..) but noone of them gives me what I need or it's too expensive for stuff it offers that I will never use.

I've found ASUS P5E suitable for me but I'm not sure if it's the best I can get.

This is a short list of what I NEED:

- Intel LGA775 Platform
- Intel® X38
- Supports Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU
- Dual-channel DDR2 800
- PCIe 2.0


And this is what this Motherboard OFFERS:

- Intel LGA775 Platform
- Intel® X38 / ICH9R chipset
- Intel® Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Duo / Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 Processors
- Supports Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU
- Dual-channel DDR2 1200*/1066 / 800 / 667 MHz
- PCIe 2.0
- ASUS EPU (Energy processing Unit)
- ASUS 3rd Generation 8-phase Power
- All High-quality Japanese-made Conductive Polymer Capacitors
- Precision Tweaker 2
- Heat Pipe / Stack Cool 2
- AI Direct Link / Q-Shield
- ROG Level Features: SupremeFX II / 2-phase DDR2

What I want to do with my next brand new motherboard:

-Very little OC up to 3Ghz for the CPU (not touching volts)
-Gaming for years to come.
-Use a single Graphic card: 8800 GT/S or future Nvidia ones.


Knowing this, could you please me give me any kind of advice. I really need it.

Thanks to all in advance.

 

[budc]

I have been going through the same process as you and have similar requirements. I want to overclock a Q6600 just a bit but my primary needs is to build a very high quality work station that will not be outdated too quickly.

IMO, this is an excellent motherboard and I'm trying to decide between this one and the more expensive P5E Pro. I really don't need the Pro but if I have the money, I'll probably get it. Frankly, the Pro is overkill but it does support multiple graphics cards and it has eSata ports on the back.

There is one other card that I was really interested in and that's the new Intel BOXDX38BT. Unfortunatey, Intel only offers this board with DDR3 support so that kills it for me. The reason I was interested in Intel is that they have great support and the boards would probably be less of a hassle to get configured and updated than others.

Good luck with your choice. Please report back when you've made a decision.