The difference 35 quid can make....

[mikek75]

I bought an ASUS P8P67LE a couple of months ago, all I was interested in really was that it had an IDE slot, and I was too lazy to transfer the 200gb drive and just use SATA... The board cost me £95 and seemed ok, but since I also upgraded my CPU to a 2500K , graphics to a 6970 and DDR3 from a Q6700/P45/4870/DDR2 set up of course it felt quick!

However, after fitting a Corsair H80 water cooler last week, I was running OCCT and noticed that my CPU ran at its Turbo speed of 4.2ghz fine for a couple of minutes, but after would start cycling back to 3.3ghz every 5 seconds, then back to 4.2. Temps were fine, all cores below 60c so it wasn't throttling due to overheating...

I hit google and found someone else or a review( cant remember which) which said that ASUS really skimped on the power phases on the LE boards, which explained this phenomenen which they had also observed.

Bit the bullet this week and bought a Gigabyte Z68xp-ud3p mobo. Cost me £130, but it was so worth it! No sign of the fluctuating clock speeds, so many options in the BIOS, rock steady so far, and my games are running so much better now.

Lesson learnt, never go for the cheapest mobo, you get what you pay for. Even though its still only a mid range board, this Gigabyte is officially awarded the Dogs Bollocks award!

 

[_JP_]

The "you get what you paid for" is more true nowadays then ever.
It's simple really, budget boards usually pack a 4-phase VRM for the CPU. Well you can pray all you like, that setup won't get you to the magic 4.8GHz without a few issues along the way, if it at all.
I would still like to buy a P8P67 LE. Seems like a neatly feature packed board for those that don't want to OC.
Intel needs to release those damn Sandys sans iGPU.

 

[brandonwh64]

Yea it sux with these lower phase boards. Mine is OCed to 4.3Ghz but after about 10 minutes of full load it will throttle back to 4.0/4.1, I have set the Overload in the bios to 300mA and it fixes this but reports of damaging the VRM by doing this change my mind and I put it back to stock. It never throttles when playing BF3 only when doing Prime95 or ITB

 

[mikek75]

JP, if you want to buy this one you can have it for £65 + postage. Got a set of PNY 2x4gb 1333mhz as well if you want, £30.

Never noticed the difference in quality before, although to be fair I've never bought a cheapy cheap board before. I usually buy online, but just for a change I went for a small PC shop locally, and that ASUS was the only full size LGA1155 board they had... That will teach me for supporting the little guy, lol

 

[_JP_]

JP, if you want to buy this one you can have it for £65 + postage.

Than you, but I'm going to hold off buying hardware for now. Not having a job+economical changes here really make this a volatile situation and I must have spare cash available. Still, thank you.

Never noticed the difference in quality before, although to be fair I've never bought a cheapy cheap board before.

It's not much about quality, but rather about features. The P8P67 LE is feature rich for everything else but high-performance/OC. Of course you can still slap on it whatever you like, but budget these days means to run stable at stock.

 

[Flibolito]

Agreed motherboard are very important. Not saying one has to spend a fortune but definitely never skimp in the department and its not just overclocking. I found the z68xp-ud3p to be one of the best boards for the $$ around.

 

[Frick]

Speaking of this. is it just me or are motherboards more expensive these days? It feels like the good ones are in the €150 range and I don't think they used to be up there.. I mean the high end boards obviosly are there, but you used to be able to get solid boards for like €80 iirc.

 

[boomstik360]

Speaking of this. is it just me or are motherboards more expensive these days? It feels like the good ones are in the €150 range and I don't think they used to be up there.. I mean the high end boards obviosly are there, but you used to be able to get solid boards for like €80 iirc.

I know exactly what you are talking about. It does seem that way.

 

[mikek75]

Yeah, also agreed. I think its down to sockets changing so fast that they dont make the numbers they used to, so you don't get much discounting. I bought a fantastic DFI board back in the s939 days, paid £60 for it in a clearout, top of the range thing it was too. Just a theory...

 

[mikek75]

Than you, but I'm going to hold off buying hardware for now. Not having a job+economical changes here really make this a volatile situation and I must have spare cash available. Still, thank you.


It's not much about quality, but rather about features. The P8P67 LE is feature rich for everything else but high-performance/OC. Of course you can still slap on it whatever you like, but budget these days means to run stable at stock.

Excuse the double post, but actually I also tried the board with the turbo at the stock intel setting of 3.7ghz and noticed the same thing.......

 

[_JP_]

Excuse the double post,

Avoid doing so by using the Edit button. If you want to quote somebody after you've posted, click quote, highlight the quoted text, copy it, go back, click edit and paste it there along with the text you want to add. I know it's faster the way you did it (apologizing and all) but double-posting is against the rules.

but actually I also tried the board with the turbo at the stock intel setting of 3.7ghz and noticed the same thing.......

Uhm...so it's either a BIOS/EFI issue or power saving features.

Speaking of this. is it just me or are motherboards more expensive these days? It feels like the good ones are in the %u20AC150 range and I don't think they used to be up there.. I mean the high end boards obviosly are there, but you used to be able to get solid boards for like %u20AC80 iirc.

Socket 775 was available for a long time (chipsets and all), making the supply overcome the demand, so prices plunged. AMD motherboards also have a habit of being cheaper.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

...so it wasn't throttling due to overheating...

I hit google and found someone else or a review( cant remember which) which said that ASUS really skimped on the power phases on the LE boards, which explained this phenomenen which they had also observed.

Thanks for sharing the story (and insight). Interesting. I wouldn't have guess such a problem would have shown itself in the way it did.

 

[mikek75]

Results of a lazy afternoon with this cracking mobo... Thats with the pump on its lowest setting too. Loving it (hate to use a Mickey D catchphrase, but I really am)