Motherboard selection.

[miggs78]

Originally Posted by enaberif

On the edge yes. But not the proper way I like. Look at the Biostar board and see how they do the sata ports; thats the right way.

Cables run a lot easier and cards work a lot better.

Actually your right, sorry I thought that they were actually the same on the Asus board, my bad!!.

[Eldonko]

I would buy Biostar but of those two I would go with p5q-e.

[miggs78]

How would you compare the Biostar mobo to a DFI Lanparty Dk P45-T2RS. Since its almost about the same price.

[Boldeagle]

Well I'm no expert here but it seems that DFI may have lost their way a bit recently have a look at the video feeds in this mag by what I consider are a lot more experienced OC's than me, most think that DFI has lost something lately (makes me think of Crucial);

The Overclocker: the world's overclocking magazine : The Overclocker magazine

You could also look at SKYs' review on the 4870x2 and DFI:

Palit Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB Video Card Review

Things aren't looking the best for DFI at the moment.

[miggs78]

Oh how could I forget that review of SKY, the amount of probs he faced with DFI, that meens DFI is a flop plan.

It comes down to either of those 3, Biostar, Asus or Gigabyte. Both Asus and Gigabyte are available at the local store. The only thing that really annoys me or lets say I don't rally like is the fact that you have to move all those jumpers on the Biostar board to enable Crossfire, also I wonder if there enough space to access those jumpers with a video card in the first gpu slot..

Asus World Champion, hmm thats interesting, thanks Boldeagle for the link.

[Boldeagle]

Thank Eldonko for the OC mag.

Well I wouldn't be overly deterred about setting jumpers to enable xfire, as imho you will get more power from a single 4870x2 (or GTX280x2 if that's your flavour) than you can possibly utilise. Nehalem is launching soon so within 12-18months you maybe considering a whole new set up and there will be new series/families of Vid Cards by then and I seriously doubt you will be seeing any performance bottlenecks in the current top end cards.

[miggs78]

Well.. I understand, but at the moment I need a new board, I just can't live with this crappy 680i board, its just being PITA honestly..

I'm almost digging this Biostar board, just have one more question, how is the tech support, service, RMA wise for biostar. I haven't had all luck with Asus, there has been a little annoyance too in there, so I might try another board only if biostar's are at least worth trying service wise. If they are good on that part, consider another biostar sold.

Also with your comments Boldeagle, makes me wonder if I should wait or invest in a 4850 CF, probably a worthy upgrade from a 8800GTS 512mb card to play games like COD4 and do benchmarking on a 19" LCD. Thinking btw the 4850CF or GTX280, considering the fact that warranty wise nvidia card manuf do much better. I am dissing the 4870x2 because on low resolutions it doesn't really outperform a 4850CF. Off course if I'd be going with a 4870CF then GTX280 not even a question, but its almost going to be $100 more than a 4850 (single card).

Thanks guys.

[Eldonko]

Biostar's service is not the best, but you have a 1 year warranty through NCIX if you need to RMA. You can also PM DC for $150.

[miggs78]

Well Eldonko, I went ahead and read some more reviews. And some things made this my final choice.

Things like, on board power and reset switch, POST/error code reader comes in very handy, all SATA ports are neatly lined up 90 degrees, the cpu area is nice and clear. You got me sold eldonko!!. hey actually do you know where the cmos clear jumper is on this board, can't seem to find it.

[Boldeagle]

Originally Posted by miggs78

Also with your comments Boldeagle, makes me wonder if I should wait or invest in a 4850 CF, probably a worthy upgrade from a 8800GTS 512mb card to play games like COD4 and do benchmarking on a 19" LCD. Thinking btw the 4850CF or GTX280, considering the fact that warranty wise nvidia card manuf do much better. I am dissing the 4870x2 because on low resolutions it doesn't really outperform a 4850CF. Off course if I'd be going with a 4870CF then GTX280 not even a question, but its almost going to be $100 more than a 4850 (single card).

Thanks guys.

Frankly it wont matter which flavour you choose (nVidia/ATI) after sales service will be dictated by the "manufacturer" and there are significant differences in the after sales service for almost identical products. I explored this issue when making my Video Card decision:

Which brand off HD4850 should I get, want technical input

Damn there is one company/brand in particular that offers a "Limited Lifetime Warranty", just can't remember which and you can find it quite easily on their website but I couldn't get them in Australia.

Imho a single 4870 or GTX260 will give you more performance than you will need and possibly use, unless your going to upgrade to a larger monitor.

I'm allowed to get a BIOSTAR to once I get a job again , damn missus we have a nice chunk of money in the bank but she won't let me till I start working again.