Enthusiast P55: Eight LGA 1156 Boards Between $150 And $200

[cory1234]

The gigabyte mobo is the best value imo.

 

[Guest]

Anybody reading this page and are going to be using XP, surely has a good technical reason for it and absolutely should know about slipstreaming by now!

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Britster[/nom]Anybody reading this page and are going to be using XP, surely has a good technical reason for it and absolutely should know about slipstreaming by now![/citation]

Yes, they know it's a PITA.

 

[twanto]

Why didn't you use a state of the art SSD to text the SATA interface on these boards? Another site did a test where some motherboards performed poorly with their SATA implementation, but you would never notice that sort of things with an HDD.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]twanto[/nom]Why didn't you use a state of the art SSD to text the SATA interface on these boards? Another site did a test where some motherboards performed poorly with their SATA implementation, but you would never notice that sort of things with an HDD.[/citation]

It's all about driver implementation. Really. If you load the boot-disk drivers you get better performance than if you only load the Windows drivers. And the drive manager is only good for added features, not improved performance, so you're best off to simply load the boot disk drivers unless you need the added features.

 

[niknikktm]

I suppose if you are on a low budget with tight purse strings and can't affort it, $150.00 for a motherboard may well seem humorous to you. For those of us who can, it's money well spent. I see no problem spending 150 bucks on a MoBo to get a little more performance. I'd spend 250 for that matter if the performance boost is worth it. It's only money after all.

 

[hilobill]

Getting a 45 nm chip for a processor is important of course, and plenty of bandwidth, but how are you going to see it if your ram and motherboard chips are not up to these specs?
Really nice would be a fully buffered motherboard, then you could run your ram and FSB at different speeds and it might be over 100 times faster. (resulting in very significant and nice changes)

 

[ghostofrecon]

I just bought this MoBo, to me, it seems the best collection of features and EVGA quality for the price.

I don't really understand why people are so hard up about using WinXP, it's end of life. I have been using windows7 since the release of the beta and i cannot believe anyone would rather use WinXP.

Also, to Gedoe_, If you don't think that your MB has a great deal to do with your system performance, you need some serious reeducation.

 

[triadwarfare]

When will core i3/i5 boards reach the core 2 board price range?

 

[triadwarfare]

[citation][nom]ghostofrecon[/nom]I just bought this MoBo, to me, it seems the best collection of features and EVGA quality for the price. I don't really understand why people are so hard up about using WinXP, it's end of life. I have been using windows7 since the release of the beta and i cannot believe anyone would rather use WinXP. Also, to Gedoe_, If you don't think that your MB has a great deal to do with your system performance, you need some serious reeducation.[/citation]

Hm, a lot of people are still using Windows XP cause it does not have the additional OS overhead like Windows Vista and Win7. What is compatible in XP, you will have to add an additional 512MB/1GB memory or or a (slightly) faster processor in these newer OSes so that it could run a particular game. Try to look at the System Requirements of a game and you'll see. Inevitably, if you're in the bleeding edge of your hardware (especially if you don't have enough money to replace your parts), you will have to choose an older OS like XP.

Not everyone is rich. Although Core 2 will be an obsolete technology sooner or later, i will have to buy it cause the current Core ix offerings, even the core i3 is still too expensive when coupled with the whole set.

I want to replace my aging P4. Isn't removing the northbridge from the board supposed to make it CHEAPER? Well, it's either I will have to replace it with a core 2 quad or i will have to wait a little more until core ix mobo prices are at par with core 2 boards (probably Php 2,xxx/$4x price range)

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]triadwarfare[/nom]Isn't removing the northbridge from the board supposed to make it CHEAPER? Well, it's either I will have to replace it with a core 2 quad or i will have to wait a little more until core ix mobo prices are at par with core 2 boards (probably Php 2,xxx/$4x price range)[/citation]

Intel wants to charge you a premium for the new stuff, so the new Southbridge (P55, H55, H57) cost $40+ without even having a Northbridge supplied with it.