You guys love these questions - Which mobo for me?

[barthautala]

I come here and ask these questions because I value your opinions -

Ive got in my posession - a pentium D 830, 2 Gb DDr2 (4x 512), ATI x1900xtx

I want to buy a new mobo. Im going to upgrade in stages to ease the pain of spending a crap load of money at once.

So which mobo will support the Pentium D but let me upgrade it when the 45nm chips come out?

I was thinking an ASUS P5K or Gigabyte P35?

I want to be able to overclock the begesus out of the pentium D until I can get a new chip. SLI or Crossfire would be nice but not necessary. 8gb ram or higher supported. Resonably priced........striker extreme would be cool but its an expensive board.

 

[localcpuguy]

Either of those boards will work and I would infact recommend the P5K Deluxe... I recently got this board and I LOVE IT!

 

[barthautala]

What do you think the best mobo processor combo would be for 400 bucks?

 

[localcpuguy]

Since you only have $400 to work with for the 2 combined, you really can't go wrong with this:

AMD Athlon X2 6000+ 2x1MB Cache.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773&Tpk= 6000%252b

ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131011

 

[aevm]

Im going to upgrade in stages to ease the pain of spending a crap load of money at once.

You'll spend 2 craploads of $400 each instead of one crapload of $700. That's how it usually works when you try this approach. But good luck to you anyway...

I'd recommend GA-P35-DS3R + E6750.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128050
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029&Tpk=E6750
Total $130 + $6.61 + $215 + $0 at newegg right now, around $352 in total.

It does better than the X2 6000+ combo, at least in the few benchmarks I tried:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=873&model2=921&chart=421
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=873&model2=921&chart=440
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=873&model2=921&chart=429

It's also better for overclocking...

The disadvantage is that this mobo doesn't have Wireless or Firewire. There are some Asus P35 mobos that can do that if you care, I'm just happier with Gigabyte's quality.

If you can afford a Q6600 instead of E6750 go for it...

 

[localcpuguy]

I'd really have to argue that this is total preference... I am an AMD guy, but chose intel b/c of the system I built myself.

I wouldn't even go as far as saying the 6750 is better than the 6000+ in a few benchmarks, becasue where it beats the AMD, it is hardly noticeable. The smae applies to the AMD being better than the 6750... where it wins, it's hardly a factor.

They are both 2 very competatively equal processors; the only thing I would say that i truely better about the Intel is that it is deffinately more overclockable.

ASUS vs. Gigabyte- Again, this is preference... Where you say you like Gigabyte's quality mopre, I would say the opposite... Not because this is factual information, but because I've had much better luck with ASUS.

Bottom of the line... Either setup is right for your $400 upgrade.

 

[Advocate]

Supposedly AMD is going to put their quad-core on AM2 right?

 

[Maziar]

Its a rumor that AM2+ (AMD QUADCORE) will be compatible with AM2 socket , AMD hasnt confirmed it yet and also there isnt any BIOS update for any Motherboard yet

 

[Onus]

If you need firewire, check out the Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053

It's micro-ATX, but is loaded.

Accepting at face value that the e6750 and X2-6000+ are roughly equivalent but the e6750 definitely overclocks better, then get the e6750, overclock it a little, and have the better processor.

 

[aevm]

Yeah, they're both good options. The OP should go to those benchmarks and run all of them, not just the 3 I picked, then decide which option is best for whatever he does with the computer.

I got a Q6600/GA-P35C-DS3R for myself and a X2 5000+/Asus mobo for my Dad. They're both working like a charm, no complaints. I'm only annoyed with Asus because of the Striker Extreme bugs. Their P35 boards may be just fine for all I know...

 

[Advocate]

These are good picks too if you want more options. They are cheap and they get the job done.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130071
http://ww w.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130050
http://www.newegg.com/Pro duct/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130071

K...for some reason my links are previewing correctly but won't post correctly.

 

[BUFF]

Its a rumor that AM2+ (AMD QUADCORE) will be compatible with AM2 socket , AMD hasnt confirmed it yet and also there isnt any BIOS update for any Motherboard yet

afaik they'll fit but that not all features (split power planes etc.) in the CPU will be supported by the older socket