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Difficult mobo upgrade decision

alexp999

alexp999

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Joined
Jul 28, 2007
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Location
Dorset, UK
System Specs
System Name Gaming Rig | Uni Laptop
Processor Intel Q6600 G0 (2007) @ 3.6Ghz @ 1.45625v (LLC) / 4 GHz Bench @ 1.63v | AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 2 GHz
Motherboard ASUS P5Q Deluxe (Intel P45) | HP 6715b
Cooling Xigmatek Dark Knight w/AC MX2 ~ Case Fans: 2 x 180mm + 1 x 120mm Silverstone Fans
Memory 4GB OCZ Platinum PC2-8000 @ 1000Mhz 5-5-5-15 2.1v | 2 x 1GB DDR2 667 MHz
Video Card(s) XFX GTX 285 1GB, Modded FTW BIOS @ 725/1512/1350 w/Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 + Scythe sinks| ATI X1250
Storage 2x WD6400AAKS 1 TB Raid 0, 140GB Raid 1 & 80GB Maxtor Basics External HDD (storage) | 160GB 2.5"
Display(s) Samsung SyncMaster SM2433BW @ 1920 x 1200 via DVI-D | 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050 resolution)
Case Silverstone Fortress FT01B-W ~ Logitech G15 R1 / Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000
Audio Device(s) Soundmax AD2000BX Onboard Sound, via Logitech X-230 2.1 | ADI SoundMAX HD Audio
Power Supply Corsair TX650W | HP 90W
Software Windows 7 Ultimate Build 7100 x64 | Windows 7 Ultimate Build 7100 x64
Benchmark Scores 3DM06: 19519, Vantage: P16170 ~ Win7: -CPU 7.5 -MEM 7.5 -AERO 7.9 -GFX 6.0 -HDD 6.0
Hi,
I am looking at upgrading my mobo to get the most out of my hardware. Cus atm my Gfx card is being held back by a 4x PCi-E slot, and the highest OC I can get on my CPU is a 280FSB, lol!
Thing is I was hoping just to get a new mobo, but it seems most new boards only have one ide channel, I need two. From what i can see there is no intel chipsets out there which have more than one ide channel. So all i can find, is that the only chipset i could get is a VIA PT890 chipset.
And the only two boards I can find are these:

MSI PT890 Neo-V
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=264&maincat_no=1

and

ASUS P5VD2-X
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=1362&l1=3&l2=11&l3=346
(think asus is down atm)

So my question is, does anyone have any experience with these boards? would I get a better OC out of them and would I be able to push the mobo upto to getting it to run DDR667 mem?
Or anyboady got any boards, that support an e6600, 2gb ddr667, 2xIDE and a PCI-E x16?

Cheers.
 
Okay, done a bit more surfing, Am I right in thinking that the P4M900 is the best VIA chipset?

Cheers.
 
Okay having looked through the VIA P4M900 chipset boards, I have found these:

ECS P4M900T-M
MSI P4M900M2-F / L
Foxconn P4M9007MB-8EKRS2H
Gigabyte GA-VT890P(rev. 2.0) <- Prefered as it is the only full ATX but cant find it anywhere!!! Any help?
Gigabyte VM900M(rev. 1.0)
Gigabyte VM900MC(rev. 2.0)

All but the one I have made a note of are mATX, will these fit okay in a full ATX case?
Also what do people think of these boards, or maybe just the manufacturer?

Cheers.
 
Just found another couple:

ASUS P5VD2-VM SE
Asrock 4CoreDX90-VSTA
Asrock 775Twins-HDTV

Let me know what you think,

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
Cus I have an ide storage drive and 3 cd-dvd/rw etc drives that i use all the time, just wanted to get a board that opened up a few bottle necks, so specs would be:
2xIDE
2xSATAII (3gb/s) min
PCIE x16
Socket 775 with a view of hopefully getting to 333Mhz FSB or at least 300Mhz
DDR2 667 for upto 4gb
 
Also, the answer to your OP, an Asus P5NSLI.

You are very welcome!

EDIT: You shouldn't have any problems, it has its own bios chip.
 
Last edited:
JrRacinFan said:
Also, the answer to your OP, an Asus P5NSLI.
Click to expand...

Surely an nvidia chipset wont go down too well with my ATI Gfx card tho?

(BTW I am talking about upgrading the mobo for the PC in my sytem specs)
 
alexp999 said:
Surely an nvidia chipset wont go down too well with my ATI Gfx card tho?

(BTW I am talking about upgrading the mobo for the PC in my sytem specs)
Click to expand...


yes it will . I just perfer intel chipset on ontel processore. Dont see many problems with nforce (nvidia) chipsets though. The msi 975X chipste board I linked would be awesome. ALLEN
 
Au contraire mon frere: nVidia card on an ATi chipset here! EDIT: Kinda beat me to it!^^^^
 
Lol, an ATi card on an NVidia chipset makes no difference. Try the Asus P5N-E Sli, I had the board until it was replaced 2 weeks ago (I still have it if you want a bargain! :laugh:), they will not overclock quads very well but I got 4.2Gig stable out of my E6850 and 3.9Gig out of my previous E6600. It has 2 IDE channels also so no worries there, Ohhhh.....and it's fast!
 
I love your thinking allen! That is one heck of a board and SUPPORTS CROSSFIRE!

Alex, Does your psu have an 8 pin aux power connector?
 
Yeah my PSU has an 8 pin, so i can get an nvidia chipset mobo, and it will work with crossfire and be stable with OC's and stuff with my HD2600Xt?
 
I don't beleive you can go crossfire on an nVidia chipset, I had asked the same question though a while ago and noone answered me.

I would think that it could happen cause Crossfire is mainly driver based and SLi is mainly chipset based.
 
alexp999 said:
Yeah my PSU has an 8 pin, so i can get an nvidia chipset mobo, and it will work with crossfire and be stable with OC's and stuff with my HD2600Xt?
Click to expand...



Wont work with crossfire but will with single ATI card. ALLEN
 
Not a good choice, VIA chipset.

This board doesn't even support the Core micro-arch.
 
Shame the nvidia chipsets are so expensive compared to the rest, tho.
Are there not intel chipsets with 2xIDE?

Cheers.
 
alexp999 said:
What anyboady think of this one:

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?ID=en-us0000226#

Cheers.
Click to expand...

If you want to overclock your CPU (which you say in your origional post) then forget it, that board has the Intel 945 chipset, so it does not overclock a C2D, it will take one but through a BIOS update, it's architecture was never designed to support C2D.

I have just taken a look at all my favorite clearance sites and there is nothing with the 975 chipset that comes remotly close to your £30-£40 budget even at "B Grade" level, bare in mind that until Intels P35 chipset came out the 975 was their "Premium" chipset.
 
Tatty_One said:
If you want to overclock your CPU (which you say in your origional post) then forget it, that board has the Intel 945 chipset, so it does not overclock a C2D, it will take one but through a BIOS update, it's architecture was never designed to support C2D.

I have just taken a look at all my favorite clearance sites and there is nothing with the 975 chipset that comes remotly close to your £30-£40 budget even at "B Grade" level, bare in mind that until Intels P35 chipset came out the 975 was their "Premium" chipset.
Click to expand...

Okay fair enough, but maybe as an interim board, would you say it is better than what I have now? According to Foxconn's site it is compatible with a e6600 and passed their test. What are foxconn's like? better/worse than asrock? or maybe the same?
Also will a mATX board fit in an ATX case,

Cheers.
 
It seems foxconn make everything for everybody anyway, so surely they shouldnt be too bad, least no worse than asrock?

So let me ask a question.

If you had to pick between these to:

Asrock 775Dual-Vsta
2x SATA (150)
2x IDE
1x PCI-E x4
VIA 880 chipset

or

Foxconn 945G7MD-8EKRS2H
4x SATA (300)
2x IDE
1x PCI-E x16
Intel 945G chipset.

Which would you pick? Intel chipsets are better than VIA arent they? and i take it I can OC even if it is just a bit on the foxconn, cus of intel chipset? (just I had an intel board once which allowed no OC :( )

Cheers.

Any thoughts (other than unhelpful, unconstructive ones) are welcome.

Cheers.
 
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