Gigabyte EP45-DS3R or Biostar T-Power I45?

[ImmaPC]

Well if you read my thread in the storage section you would know that I've been looking to buy a new motherboard, and both of these I find fit the bill very, very well. I've been doing homework and I'm hard-pressed to find out which one is better, as in which one OC's better, which one runs cooler, which one has better bang for the buck, and so on. Does anyone here have either of these boards? If so, what would you say about it?

Basically I need a second-hand opinion, please and thank-you!

[3.0charlie]

I've had so many Gigabyte boards it's a joke. I like them, even with their weird color schemes. Their BIOS is user-friendly, and very easy to oc.

[miggs78]

You should check out the recent review by Eldonko.

Personally I would also go for a Gigabyte, I made a mistake myself listening to the big hype and went for the Biostar board myself, it is a nice board, but the chipset honestly runs hot!!..

Pay few bucks more, or it maybe even few bucks less now than the Biostar, it is worth it.

[Eldonko]

If you plan on doing sub zero benching then Biostar, air/water overclocks then Gigabyte.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by miggs78

You should check out the recent review by Eldonko.

Personally I would also go for a Gigabyte, I made a mistake myself listening to the big hype and went for the Biostar board myself, it is a nice board, but the chipset honestly runs hot!!..

Pay few bucks more, or it maybe even few bucks less now than the Biostar, it is worth it.

Chipset doesn't run hot. It runs warm but not anything near that of a nvidia chipset.

[ImmaPC]

Well I'm probably just going to be air-cooling for some time, but might I ask how the Biostar overclocks better with sub-zero cooling and not air/water cooling? I mean, wouldn't ANY board OC better with sub-zero cooling?

Enaberif, I see you have the Biostar T-Power I45. How does that work for you? Do you OC on it? How much did you get it for?

[Eldonko]

Biostar is top dog for FSB clocking, which is what you need for ln2 or similar.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by ImmaPC

Well I'm probably just going to be air-cooling for some time, but might I ask how the Biostar overclocks better with sub-zero cooling and not air/water cooling? I mean, wouldn't ANY board OC better with sub-zero cooling?

Enaberif, I see you have the Biostar T-Power I45. How does that work for you? Do you OC on it? How much did you get it for?

With water I can run my 8600 at 4.6ghz.

If I try for more I get BSODs but I don't know if thats a ram problem or a cpu problem but the error is a MACHINE_EXCEPTION_CHECK error or something similar.

It seems to be a common issue with the 45nm chips when pushed to a point which is why once I get my machine running again I'm going to stick my Team Xtreem memory back in and see if its a memory or cpu problem.

But right now I'm running stock multi with the 8600 to get the 4.6 and on water I think I'm like mid 60s low 70s on temps, but again thats mostly because when you start pumping voltage through a 45nm chip temps increase like crazy.

[ImmaPC]

So in other words the T-Power i45 is a good OC under water, have you ever OC'ed your 8600 on air?

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by ImmaPC

So in other words the T-Power i45 is a good OC under water, have you ever OC'ed your 8600 on air?

I had my 8600 upto 4.4 or so on air on the same board.

Theres more than a few reasons why I prefer the Biostar board to any other board out there.

Things like 90 degree sata connectors on the edge of the board that have the capability of using locking sata cables.

Placement of 8 pin EPS 12v cable and color is pretty good too.

I do recommend like any board you buy that before you use it take the heat pipe off and remove the poor thermal pads and put some MX-2 down and you'll find temps work even better.