Which Cheap Motherboard for good OC?

[krazynutz]

I'm looking to build four $500-ish overclockable rendering machines for a 3ds max mini in-house rendering farm. Got all the parts figured out except the motherboard. These will be for rendering and rendering only. No work/gaming will be done on them.

I've chosen:

Q6600 (Hope to OC to 3Ghz+) ($179)
2GB Corsair XMS2 PC6400 ($27) - Post MIR
ATI X1600 graphics card (only $25!)
Sunbeam PSU-HUSH680-US-BL 680W PSU ($30) - Post MIR
Rosewill RZS01Black Case ($28)
Xigmatek S1283 Heatsink ($25) - Post MIR
Seagate SATA 80GB HDD ($39)
Asus SATA DVD-ROM ($15)

Regardless of the mobo, the final price after shipping and mail-in rebates is around $495 per machine.

So which mobo do you think I should go with?

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L ($85)

or

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L ($90)

Which board/chipset is better? P35 or P43? Only a $5 difference.

Thanks in advance!

 

[dagger]

The p43 board will overclock better than p35. Also consider P45 for better performance. It cost $10 more, but comes with free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128345

 

[krazynutz]

Hmmm...don't know how I missed it, but I'm an Asus fan. Never a problem with Asus.

What about the P5QL PRO? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131329&Tpk=p5ql pro

Same price as the GA-EP43_DS3L ($90)

I've always preferred Asus's BIOS over Gigabyte's.

 

[krazynutz]

actually I've read that the p43 chipset seems limited when it comes to overclocking. The p35's all seem to get over 500, as do the p45's. The p35's use less power though and I don't need PCI-e 2.0.

Anyone else wanna chime in on the the boards? I'm really torn. I'd go with the Asus but the 24-pin jack is in the worst place EVER and these are going into Antec 300 cases.

Prices include shipping.

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L ($94)

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L ($99)

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L ($99 - free ship)

ASUS P5QL PRO ($99)

 

[Triknives]

Im goin for the EP45 my self. Godo price, free shipping, seems to OC nicely. And ya i couldnt agree more, what the hell was Asus thinking when putting the 24 pin right next to the VGA slot? Why? Why?

 

[iluvgillgill]

EP45 FTW. overall better OC ability and feature.