Good Intel Processor Motherboard combination

[amitagarwal]

I was buying Motherboard and CPU , so was looking for advice from you .

Intel Core 2 Duo and Good stable and reliable motherboard.

(combination should be reasonable priced)

Thanks

[3DGuy]

I was buying Motherboard and CPU , so was looking for advice from you .

Intel Core 2 Duo and Good stable and reliable motherboard.

(combination should be reasonable priced)

Thanks

Last week i built some cheap render boxes and they work really really well..

Both have -

Foxcon P4M9007MB
Q6600 G0 Stepping
1Gb Corsair XMS2 5400 (6400 not supported on the board for 800mhz)
Stock Cooler keeps both CPU's idle at 30C
Hiper 435Watt PSU
80GB WD Hard drive.


If you want a cheap setup i cant reccomend that combination enough... It bearly cost me anything for both. If you went with a Core2 instead of a quad it would also halve the overall cost.

My 10c

[jdrom17]

Isn't that motherboard a bit dated? Didn't even know VIA had chipsets out for Core 2s.

I'd go with the Gigabyte GAP35-DS3L or if you need RAID get the Gigabyte GAP35-DS3R. Both are based on the Intel P35 chipset and are fairly reasonable for pricing. They also both overclock nicely too.

As for the CPU, whatever you can afford I guess. No idea what your price range is so I can't really recommend anything. Maybe E6550 or E6750?

You'll also need some DDR2 memory too, preferably DDR2-800. 2GB (2x1GB) would do nicely and is only about $100 now.

And please don't buy some cheap power supply. Get something from Antec, Enermax, Corsair, OCZ. Corsair has a 450W PSU for fairly cheap which may do you fine depending on your video card. OCZ StealthXStream 600W is also very reasonable as well if you need more power.

[3DGuy]

Isn't that motherboard a bit dated? Didn't even know VIA had chipsets out for Core 2s.

Erm i dont know? It was like £28 (under $60) But its listed at supporting Wuad cores from buying it so im not sure how *dated it is* but for my purposes of addding raw CPU power for rendering and as a basic platform it works perfectly. I didnt know his budget so i just thoguht id add my 10c from first hand buying and using two of them and it being cheap to buy.

And please don't buy some cheap power supply. Get something from Antec, Enermax, Corsair, OCZ. Corsair has a 450W PSU for fairly cheap which may do you fine depending on your video card. OCZ StealthXStream 600W is also very reasonable as well if you need more power.

And i completly agree here!! If your budgets tight it just shows you dont have to fork out too much for a setup these days.

[amitagarwal]

Thanks everyone for your replies,

Processor:
In Processor, mostly i would going with Intel 2.0 Ghz with L2,2 mb cache.
if the L2, 4 mb cache proc is cheaper, then might go for that

Main confusion is the motherboard
I have heard ASUS boards are not that reliable and stable off late recently.

after ASUS , which is the next best board manufacturer

1) MSI
2) Gigabyte
3) ASrock

(Also among them which is the exact model number)

Currently my confusion is with the board only.

[jdrom17]

The E2180 and E4500 are supposed to be of good revision/stepping I believe, if your into overclocking.

After ASUS, I'd go Gigabyte. Never used MSI myself so I can't comment on them. ASrock is mainly just value based products but I didn't have any issues with the 1 board I had from them. I've posted the "good" Gigabyte board model numbers above, and for ASUS look into anything with P5K in the name.

Look into those 2 Gigabyte boards I said above. My friend got the DS3L with E2180 and it performs perfectly. However his PSU just isn't strong enough so we couldn't get a stable overclock. It was a very value based upgrade for him, I think the total was about $300 for motherboard, CPU, RAM.

Post everything else you planning to buy in case there something we could make a better suggestion for. Also post your budget.

[Zefram]

The E2180 and E4500 are supposed to be of good revision/stepping I believe, if your into overclocking.

They are good overclocker because they produce less heat than the 4MB variant, however, since it came from lower-level bins do not put too much hope on the overclockability of the CPU.

After ASUS, I'd go Gigabyte. Never used MSI myself so I can't comment on them. ASrock is mainly just value based products but I didn't have any issues with the 1 board I had from them.

ASRock is a value division of Asus. So if you hate Asus, you gotta hate ASRock ;)

As for MSI, if you go with Platinum or Diamond version of their motherboard - its going to be good. Used MSI motherboard before for my AMD64 system, it went through three AMD 64 and still perform admireably.

Gigabyte........ i only believe in their high-end stuff. Had too much experience with value/midrange gigabyte boards dying on me. My brother previous Gigabyte 865PE-chipset based mobo died after two years of usage. And two year what gigabyte had for their warranty. Blows :p

[dark41]

We've been dealing with Gigabyte boards for the past 3 years and have yet to have one fail. We deal only with mid to high range boards, so I can't speak as to the quality of the low end boards. I'm talking hundreds of systems in that time. We have had a couple come DOA, but they were replaced immediately with new boards. On the other hand, we tried several MSI boards a couple years ago (all high end) and every one of them had problems. I haven't really had problems with Asus (at least not more than any other brand) but their RMA's seem to take forever when you do have problems.

Myself, its Gigabyte P35-DS3P and E6750 for the most features and best performance according to price. I wouldn't buy a motherboard without solid capacitors anymore.

You can go cheaper, but this is a great combo for the price.

BTW, Gigabyte's warranty has been 3 years for the past 3 years. :)

[Zefram]

BTW, Gigabyte's warranty has been 3 years for the past 3 years. :)

The warranty differs for different region and part of the world........ thus, do check the warranty period

[dark41]

I don't think that's quite true. Various retailers may offer different warrantys depending upon what they wish to honor, and Gigabyte may insist that your board is returned via the store/supplier you bought it from. But Gigabyte upgraded their warranty on all their motherboards to 3 years on December 1, 2003. I checked with my supplier before posting my last statement as I didn't want to mislead anyone.

Bottom line is get a decent retail store or supplier that will support the full Gigabyte warranty. :)

[yahooadam]

often with that situation

The supplier will take the RMA for the first year
The Manufacturer will honour it for the rest of the time

If the MFR offers a direct RMA, you always go with them
And sometimes the supplier will honour it whenever

In any case, you should take to the MFR first anyway, and your supplier will usually ask you to first

[dark41]

Me thinks you're confusing stores with suppliers. A supplier supplies at wholesale, directly from the manufacturer, and usually honors the manufacturers' warranty for the entire period.

A retail store usually offers their own warranty, and then refers you to the manufacturer after that period.

But yes, almost without exception manufacturers will steer you to where you purchased the product first.

I suspect any warranty issues with Gigabyte for less than 3 years in the recent past (just over 3 years) were rejected by a retail store, not Gigabyte nor their suppliers. ;-)