If not SLI, then a P35 board is best?

[Drudge]

After doing a bunch reading, I'm thinking that for the performance increase gained of SLI, it just isn't worth it for me. I'm better off saving that $500 for the next gen video cards. Even at 1920X1200 resolutions a single 8800GTX, which I have, is quite sufficient. At resolutions above this, the benefit becomes a bit more of a factor apparently.

Hence, my question is why is P35 the best if not going SLI? Is it because of the ease of overclocking ability?

Next, can someone please recommend me a tried and true P35 board, preferably no more than around the $200-$220 price point?

Also, I would probably throw in 4 gigs of this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

So I would obviously need the mobo to be able to use this.

I will also be putting in a Q6600 as well as Vista Home Premium 64.

This will be used almost exclusively for gaming by the way.


Thanks everyone for the reading I've been doing and the suggestions here.

 

[Maziar]

well i was going to recommend P5K DELUXE , but P5K-E has same features (the difference is that DELUXE has one more copper and one more gigabit lan , the others are exactly the same ) so my vote goes for P5K-E

 

[Drudge]

Ummm, isn't that Deluxe only compatible with DDR3 RAM?

 

[zenmaster]

Any of the Gigabytes with the "Ultra-Durable" logo will work fine.

Of course, these start as low as $130.
You may more for extra goodies FireWire ports, Wifi, xtra PCI-E ports, etc.. etc.. etc...

Likely these are not needed and no need to go for that.

P35 is good because it's not really any more expensive than the 965 Chipsets at this point and easily supports much faster bus speeds which become more and more critical with the 1333 Chips out now and the 1600FSB chips coming soon.

 

[Maziar]

P5K DELUXE =DDR2 RAM
P5K3 DELUXE = DDR3 RAM

 

[Drudge]

P5K DELUXE =DDR2 RAM
P5K3 DELUXE = DDR3 RAM

So you would recommend the Asus over the Gigabyte I presume? Is this just preference or does the Asus offer some additional features?

 

[T8RR8R]

Actually I've been using the DFI "Blood Red" board for a couple of weeks and it's been the bomb. I don't really know how it compares to the other P35's but it's been getting great reviews, plus it's not over priced for what you get.

 

[computertech82]

I accidently fell into the single pci-e slot and basically screwed myself over as a gamer. Some of the newer games at high resolution kill most of the video cards on the market including my 8800 GTS. How i wish sli/crosswire was working when i bought the board (just before the fix). Always keep your options open.

 

[cptmac]

X38 and DDR3. That's a board to get you known in your neigborhood. The lights will dim when you push the go button. Nay, stay with ASUS P5K DELUXE. Gigabyte P35 DQ6, is an awsome board, late at night, blue lights and the copper. ASUS is user friendly. GB does dumb things. Turns off your CPU Fan, I love the board, looking at it right now. Silent Pipe. We moded the heat sink under the board, the Zalman 9700 won't fit the DQ6 unless you modify the heatsink (get it out of the way). I got the privledge of hacksawing it, to make it shorter. It's copper coated, not 100% copper. Q6600 is so popular. The 6850 sounds faster. The GTX owns the road. Just have fun. Stay out of Iraq, and call your mother!