Motherboard Recommendation

[locky28]

Hi all,

Tossing up the idea of putting together a new PC, sold me old one a while ago and have been running with just my laptop but it's just not doin the job for gaming

I've decided with the following components,

Core 2 Duo E8500
4Gb of RAM, Gskill looks to be the go
500Gb HDD
Radeon 4850 512mb
19" Viewsonic VX922 monitor that I have lying around 1280x1024
Thermaltake 430w powersupply that I have lying around
And got a copy of Vista lying around as well hence the 4GB

Now I'm looking for a motherboard and haven't been following them for a while so not sure what to look for. So I'm reaching out for a recommendation, heres a few notes about what I'm after.

-Don't need crossfire
-Note sure if I should get DDR2/3, but leaning towards DDR2
-Might do a little overclock down the track but it's not a deal breaker
-I have a RAID card for the array that I use so don't need that
-Cheap but good Quality.

Any recomendations would be greatly appreciated

 

[aevm]

GA-EP43-DS3L, GA-EP45-DS3R, or one of the Asus P5Q series... You could even go cheaper, with a P35 board, but P45 makes it easier to overclock the E8500.

 

[locky28]

Thanks aevm, I actually just read a review on the P45-DS3L and came back to get opinions on that board, it looks to be exactly what I'm after.

However I didn't look into the DS3R which looks to be exactly the same but with an extra PCI-E 2.0 slot, not bad for an extra $10 bucks so I'm leaning towards that even though the PSU wouldn't handle it

Any more thoughts/suggestions?

 

[dagger]

Thanks aevm, I actually just read a review on the P45-DS3L and came back to get opinions on that board, it looks to be exactly what I'm after.

However I didn't look into the DS3R which looks to be exactly the same but with an extra PCI-E 2.0 slot, not bad for an extra $10 bucks so I'm leaning towards that even though the PSU wouldn't handle it

Any more thoughts/suggestions?

P45 bottlenecks on cf due to pcie throttling back to x8, so you won't be using it anyway. DS3L is the way to go.
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/7/page_7_benchmarks_crysis/index.html

 

[locky28]

Yeah I noticed that as well but it's only an extra $10 for the R, plus it's got a second Gigabit Ethernet port as well as firewire....

I think I'll go with the GA-EP45-DS3R, thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[dagger]

Yeah I noticed that as well but it's only an extra $10 for the R, plus it's got a second Gigabit Ethernet port as well as firewire....

I think I'll go with the GA-EP45-DS3R, thanks for the advice everyone!

It's more than $10 difference in the States. Not sure where you live though.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128345
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128344

 

[Onus]

Your Thermaltake PSU is a little meager for that build, especially with the overclocking you say you may do. I think 500W would be a much safer choice.
On the RAM, whatever you choose, be sure it runs at its advertised timings on the JEDEC standard 1.8V.

 

[locky28]

I'm in australia so yeah not sure why theres such a big difference :S

Yes I'm concerned about how the PSU will hold up jtt but as I said I've got it lying around so I'll see how it goes before I splash out on a new one. I'm going to try to avoid overclocking as long as I can and by the time I feel the need to do it I'll prob be up for a new card that needs a bigger one anyway