mobo, which one to buy ?

[JD]

Every company has threads like that...

I think its more user errors than hardware errors. But sometimes it is the BIOSes fault or hardware, but usually it can be solved with some troubleshooting/tweaking. I know with my P5N-E SLI people have had numerous amounts of issues, yet I never really did.

DFI comes to mind...

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by frosty

well take this with a grain of salt, but if you venture to there fourms (and I admire any company that supports a public fourm to deal with there products), you will read alot of people have problems with some of there products. At first it spooked me into almost looking at another brand with all the threads saying :my stuff doesn't boot", "my board is fried", "blah", "blah"....... but if you look beyond that you will see alot of people very happy with there products, lifetime warranty, and RMA program. I myself have not had an issue with them. Some have , some haven't.....im very happy....but do what I did and read the fourms of the specific brand or company you want, and see what folks are saying..... see what there overclocking too, see how or if the hardware is user friendly....anyways..... sorry I'm rambling.... what was i talking about??

That's a very good point about product forums.

It would be easy to take the complaints as an indication of product deficiencies, but it pays to remember that the great majority of folks who've been happy with their gear will never visit the forums.

It's only when stuff doesn't work that most folks post, so the ratio of good vrs bad is strongly biased against the product even if 95% of users are happy with it.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by frosty

well take this with a grain of salt, but if you venture to there fourms (and I admire any company that supports a public fourm to deal with there products), you will read alot of people have problems with some of there products. At first it spooked me into almost looking at another brand with all the threads saying :my stuff doesn't boot", "my board is fried", "blah", "blah"....... but if you look beyond that you will see alot of people very happy with there products, lifetime warranty, and RMA program. I myself have not had an issue with them. Some have , some haven't.....im very happy....but do what I did and read the fourms of the specific brand or company you want, and see what folks are saying..... see what there overclocking too, see how or if the hardware is user friendly....anyways..... sorry I'm rambling.... what was i talking about??

life time warranty really ? is the bios full featured ? whats the max volt range for the memory ? they oc easily ?

[Babrbarossa]

As great as EVGA is, the 680i is probably a bit passe now unless you need SLI- I would suggest you go for the p5k

Nice OC on the e4300, by the way. Glad to see you got a good one

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

As great as EVGA is, the 680i is probably a bit passe now unless you need SLI- I would suggest you go for the p5k

Nice OC on the e4300, by the way. Glad to see you got a good one

any 680i board is hardly passe as there is nothing out there that will support SLI at this point and there hasn't been a glimpse or word of nvidias plans.

Too many people are jumping on the p35 chipset bandwagon for no real reason aside its "new". The 965 and 680i are still two VERY strong chipsets and I don't see them dying anytime soon.

[Babrbarossa]

Originally Posted by enaberif

any 680i board is hardly passe as there is nothing out there that will support SLI

yeah- that's why I said "unless you need SLI" - I know they're good boards- I love mine, but if I was buying now and I didn't want SLI, I'd go for p35... or an x38 if I was planning on waiting a bit. I've ordered a second 8800 though, and plan to use SLI so I'm happy to have my 680i which also overclocks very well.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

yeah- that's why I said "unless you need SLI" - I know they're good boards- I love mine, but if I was buying now and I didn't want SLI, I'd go for p35... or an x38 if I was planning on waiting a bit. I've ordered a second 8800 though, and plan to use SLI so I'm happy to have my 680i which also overclocks very well.

Even if you don't need SLI, SLI boards are rumored to be better overclockers due to the power they can use or take.

I'm standing firm footed and staying away from p35 and x38 as I think they are highly overrated.

[Babrbarossa]

maybe somewhat over-rated, but surely not "highly over-rated"- people know what they can do. At this time, being able to get 3.5 GHz on your 680i over 3.4 Ghz on a p35 with your e6420 might be enough to send you to the 680i, but what about down the road when you've got your new 1333 cpu and DDR3 which will soon be cheap as well as fast- I know that the 680i can OC these chips and that ddr3 won't exactly turn the world on its ear, but at the end of the performance pipe, the newer chipsets will come out on top. To be fair, though, there is something said for going with what is performing the best bang for the dollar right now, and depending on what you can afford to plug into these boards, you could go either way.

[3.0charlie]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

there is something said for going with what is performing the best bang for the dollar right now

Speaking of which, if you're on a tight budget, the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (which I own) could be a very good choice.

Easily oc'ed, my E2140 runs @ 3.0 (1.6 default) like a charm. That board also supports the newer chips. And if I want to jump on the DDR3 bandwagon, I wouldn't mind changing the mobo, since it only cost me 89$...

As for the eVga 680i, I have bought 3, RMA'ed 1 @ NCIx (defective memory controller). They are oc monsters, with the right hardware. But they cost a bunch too, especially if you don't need SLI. I did replace the first one too for the Quad support and I can say that their support is unmatched. Free cross-shipping, no questions asked.

John

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

As great as EVGA is, the 680i is probably a bit passe now unless you need SLI- I would suggest you go for the p5k

Nice OC on the e4300, by the way. Glad to see you got a good one

hey Babr , thanks man ,yea likely going p5k