Best P45?

[Exavier]

Hey guys, I just RMA'd my DFI X48 due to it not working with my 4870X2 because DFI X48 has CF problems (mostly boiled down to me screaming "NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE!" amongst other key phrases, haha)
long story short, I'm looking for a new board, anywhere up to about the £150/160 marker.
MSI/DFI/Asus P45;
or even the new DFI "JR" P45?

I'm looking at the following but need more recommendations as to whether my card will actually work this time:

Asus Maximus II Formula £149
Asus P5Q-Premium £163
Asus P5Q-Deluxe £120
DFI DK P45 £107
MSI P45 Platinum £120
etc, etc

I've heard the Foxconn P45 can be good too, but I'm just throwing ideas around.

More to the point is that I'm annoyed my 4870X2 didn't work with the X48, and so I'm uber paranoid that anything I buy won't work so if you recommend or have heard good things about one over the other, please share this would be with Paulie's q6600, which did really nicely on the X48 (with a x1650, lol); shame about the incompatibility with my X2..but yeah, quad clocking would be of the essence too.

 

[alexp999]

P5Q Pro is a good one to get. Only reason i got the Deluxe is cus i wanted the Express gate SSD (i actually use it )

My recommendation to you is to get an Asus P5Q Series mobo, and pick the one that gives you the features you want/need. Then either keep the change or spend it on something else/going out/ a game, etc.

 

[PaulieG]

Be aware that the p45 chipset does not play nice with high speed memory. You will NOT be able to clock the memory nearly as high as a x38 or p35 chipset. I've gone through 2 p45 boards, and now back to x38 because of this.

 

[alexp999]

Be aware that the p45 chipset does not play nice with high speed memory. You will NOT be able to clock the memory nearly as high as a x38 or p35 chipset. I've gone through 2 p45 boards, and now back to x38 because of this.

Really? first I've heard of probs with OCing ram. What was your max OC in comparison between the two boards then?

 

[francis511]

P5Q Pro is a good one to get. Only reason i got the Deluxe is cus i wanted the Express gate SSD (i actually use it )

My recommendation to you is to get an Asus P5Q Series mobo, and pick the one that gives you the features you want/need. Then either keep the change or spend it on something else/going out/ a game, etc.

You mean the p5q pro DOESN`T have express gate ?

 

[Lillebror]

It do have express gate, but you have to install it in the deluxe version, its a ssd chip on the board.

 

[cdawall]

biostar i45 hans down holds the WR for highest FSB

oh and its really not the ECS P45T-A don't buy its a piece of shit

 

[DOM]

I would get the Asus Maximus II Formula looks bad ass

 

[francis511]

It do have express gate, but you have to install it in the deluxe version, its a ssd chip on the board.

What`s the difference ?

 

[alexp999]

What`s the difference ?

Express Gate installs the mini linux OS onto the HDD, Express Gate SSd, had a small SSd drive on the mobo, which contains the Linux OS.

 

[ascstinger]

the hdd express gate boots slower and takes up hard disk space

 

[PaulieG]

Really? first I've heard of probs with OCing ram. What was your max OC in comparison between the two boards then?

My Ballistix could do 1140 on my DFI p35, and were only stable on loose timing on both of my p45 boards. Same exact issue when I tried a set on Gskill Pi.

 

[PaulieG]

biostar i45 hans down holds the WR for highest FSB

oh and its really not the ECS P45T-A don't buy its a piece of shit

Do you have this board? I did, and I did not find the crazy high fsb, and memory scaled poorly on this board.

 

[alexp999]

My Ballistix could do 1140 on my DFI p35, and were only stable on loose timing on both of my p45 boards. Same exact issue when I tried a set on Gskill Pi.

Were you on latest bios?

The 1306 bios has added: "enhanced mem compatibility"

I know the higher up the series of the P5Q you go, the big the mem table. Thats why ketxxx was putting the premium mem/cpu tables into the pro bios.

Would have used it myself but dont want to see his branding every time I trun on the PC, plus mines working fine on the vanilla bios.

 

[JC316]

Can't recommend the P5Q-Pro. Mine has given me nothing but headaches so far. First, it didn't like my Corsair XMS2 memory, then it wouldn't go over 410 on the FSB and I have yet to get a CPU above 3GHZ stable on this damn thing. Mind you, I am using budget chips, but still.

 

[alexp999]

Can't recommend the P5Q-Pro. Mine has given me nothing but headaches so far. First, it didn't like my Corsair XMS2 memory, then it wouldn't go over 410 on the FSB and I have yet to get a CPU above 3GHZ stable on this damn thing. Mind you, I am using budget chips, but still.

Are you using the 1306 Bios?

 

[JC316]

Tried it along with Ket's 1104 bios. Kets gave the most stability. It seems to be doing good so far, I did some research and found that the E2180's don't clock worth a crap without high volts.

 

[cdawall]

Do you have this board? I did, and I did not find the crazy high fsb, and memory scaled poorly on this board.

freaksavior does its a nice board its just really really picky with ram and should do ~600 on the stock chipset coolers

i also have a ECS P45t-a black series and it clocked very easily but tops around 450 FSB with out mods but a chipset mod should fix that

 

[ShadowFold]

I love my P5Q-Pro. Can do 500x6.5 fine and runs really good.

 

[Damian^]

I have the Biostar TPower I45 and personally i think it's great.
I'm still testing it but i have my E7200 3.3GHz stable at 1.34V but i set the volts like that even when i was doing 2.8GHz just to find the max.

Overclocking memory takes a bit more testing but once you get it down, it can be very stable. This is on the original BIOS, there is a new one but i have not tried it yet, i hear it really fixed up memory issues.

just my two cents, by the way if you buy a DFI P45 motherboard, make sure to buy the "Plus" version and not the normal one, has problems going over 450FSB+
Im sure a BIOS update will fix it but the "Plus" is still pretty decent.

The Asus P5Qpro seems like a decent motherboard, but there wasn't any "flash" to it, just seems like a normal P45 board. I could be wrong but at least the Biostar had a WR for highest FSB.

 

[PaulieG]

freaksavior does its a nice board its just really really picky with ram and should do ~600 on the stock chipset coolers

i also have a ECS P45t-a black series and it clocked very easily but tops around 450 FSB with out mods but a chipset mod should fix that

When I said it wouldn't do high fsb, I mean HIGH...like 500fsb+. I'm not say the p45's are bad. What I am saying is that I personally had much better luck clocking 500fsb+ and 1000+ on RAM with the p35 and x38 chipset. Usually when I buy the next generation chipset I'm hoping for more performance, not less. This was just not the case in my experience with Biostar and Gigabyte p45 boards.

 

[flclisgreat]

Do you have this board? I did, and I did not find the crazy high fsb, and memory scaled poorly on this board.

i thought you had the non tpower version?

biostar tpower i45 is the board i have, and love it

 

[ariff_tech]

i have MSI P45 Neo 3,
very stable board, but not for over clocking,

the only reason I buy this board cause it has 4 pci slots,

my opinion, go for P5Q Deluxe,

 

[Exavier]

okay, so far people are commenting on/recommending either the P5Q-Pro (or Deluxe) and a couple on the Maximus II Formula - I'm hesitant to go DFI despite my love for their crazy OC options, due to the way my X48 refused to work with my 4870X2.
of course, if anyone can find evidence that it does on their P45, I'd give DFI another shot I guess
but yeah, these two Asus boards are looking mighty hot right now haha..

 

[JC316]

Mine seems to be doing alright now. I tweaked all of the options, run the RAM at stock speeds, and don't go over 410 and everything works as it should. Haven't tried Crossfire yet. If you have a chip with at least a 9X multiplier, then go for the Pro.