Good motherboard for a 4870X2

[lanken123]

what would be a good motherboard for a 4870X2? I've ready about the X48 motherboards but they seem a bit pricey. are they a whole lot superior to a P45 motherboard? if not, what would be a good X48 motherboard?

[Dr_BenD_over]

I'd go with a P45 based board myself, oh wait, i did. I've been gravitating towards Asus products lately, the P5Q-E would be my suggestion. The only advantages X48 seems to have is the 2 full speed PCI-E slots and official 1600FSB support. However the P45 can use more ram and more importantly the cheaper DDR2.

Intel Product Comparison Chart

[cgbc]

I agree with the P45 recommendation. I have an Asus P5Q-E and a Gigabyte EP45-DS3R and they're both great mid-range boards.

The biggest advantages to X48 are the 2x full 16x PCI-e 2.0 lanes, but if you're going w/ a 4870x2 then you probably don't care much about Crossfire so that shouldn't be important. It's also worth mentioning that the dual 8x PCI-e 2.0 lanes provided by P45 chipsets is still equivalent to dual 16x PCI-e 1.x lanes in bandwidth and should be enough for most people, unless they're Crossfiring 4870x2s or similar.

Another advantage to X48 is simply that you're buying a high-end board. You might be able to run with performance level 6 up to 450fsb or so, which you can do with high-end P45 boards too like the Maximus II Formula, which probably won't be possible with a P5Q. I can run PL 8 up to 500fsb and PL 10 beyond that on my P5Q-e though, which still gives great performance.

[yycraven]

For a X48 board I would go with a Asus P5E Deluxe, and for the P45 would be the Asus P5Q-E, great board. IMO.