Best fsb/money ratio mobo for e6400?

[ptm56]

Hello! First of all, I want to salute everyone since I'm a new user in this great forum. I'd like to get your advice about which mobo I should buy to make team with my e6400 allandele step6 b2 & crucial ballistix pc2-8000 5-5-5-15@1000Mhz. My main goal is to achieve the highest fsb on air (500fsb, or the nearest I can, would be just perfect), with the board “almost-out-of-the-box” -> just minor modding, like putting AS5 in the nb, put/replace heatsink on sb, add fans... or the easy and sexy vdimm mod for the biostar. I'm looking for getting the best fsb/money ratio for my rig nd, of course, UNDER 200€!

Because of my low multiplier cpu, I believe I'll have to go with the p965 or n650i chipsets. Here is a list of the boards I found interesting, with their prices according to alternate.de, just to see orientative price rises:

Abit ab9 quadgt - 184€ <- +85€
Asus P5B - 111€ <- +12€
Asus P5B Deluxe - 179€ <- +80€
Asus P5B Deluxe/Wifi-AP - 189€ <- +90€
Asus P5B-E - 134€ <- +35€
Asus P5B-E Plus - 149€ <- +50€
Asus P5N-E SLI - 111€ <- +12€
Biostar TForce 965PT - 99€ <- Cheapest!!
Gigabyte 965P-DS3 - 119€ <- +20€
Gigabyte 965p-DS4 - 159€ <- +60€
Gigabyte 965p-S3 - 114€ <- +15€

Lookin' at this table I'm between biostar 965pt, gigab ds3, or p5n-e sli, but if the extra money is worth, ONLY if it's really worth of, for my purpousses I can buy any of the not-so-cheap boards.

What do you think? What would you do if you were in my case?

And what about waitin' for other boards to be released soon, like DFI p965 infinity, Abit IN9, MSI P6N SLI-Platinum or Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4? Do you believe it can be worth waitin' for this mobos to be sold? I'm specially willing to see how good the MSI P6N SLI-Platinum is, since my old 865pe neo2 gave me so nice results in my 478 rig... It's listed in alternate for 169€ (not the cheapest) but it's not available yet.

Please, help me to make a decision. Thanks in advance. Oh, and if you know another store in Europe with lower prices and send to Spain... It'd be nice to know. ;-)

ptm56

PS: One first-time post in a new forum deserves a large post like this

[[XC] gomeler]

I have a DS3 and asides from putting some ceramique on the north and southbridge coolers and flashing to the F8i bios I am able to consistently hit 500+ FSBs. Currently my max is around 535 or so but I'm not sure if it is the chip, memory, or board limiting me.

[da_h00k]

965PT and P5N-e sli hits 500 easily. DS3 is more of luck, I have experienced.

[ownage]

Go for the AB9 quadGT. Abit AB9 boards do run on 1066 strap at 400+ fsb's, so performs better then the p5b which switches to slower strap, gigabyte board also switch.
I don't know about the biostar, but i know there good and cheap.
So if you ask me buy AB9 PRO ,or AB9 QuadGT, or the biostar.

[before]

Biostar TForce 965PT - 99€ <- Cheapest!!

Of course! :)

[ptm56]

Hi. Thanks everybody for answering. Just 4 answers so far, and all of them a little bit mixed, but it seems that the best option is the biostar:

1 vote for DS3 + 1 "it's question of luck" (x1/2)
1 vote for p5n-e sli
1 (negative) vote for "asus" and gigabyte because of the strap (*1:2)
1 vote for ab9 pro or ab9 quadgt
3 votes for biostar

so if I have to asign one value to each board, we have:
P5N-E SLI: 1/2 = 0.5
DS3: (1 + 0.5)/2 = 0.75
AB9 pro or AB9 quadgt = 1
Tforce p965pt = 3

In only 4 posts, biostar has been the most constantly suggested, so I think I'll try with this one first. As I said I'm gonna use crucial ballistix pc2-8000 cl5 in this machine. I'm not sure wich chips use this mems, but I think it's d9. Do you know if there is any problem using this mems with this board? I've read gigabyte's, for example, can cause troubles.

Thanks
See you.

[Cracker]

For future reference, the E6400 is a Conroe chip... the Allendales start with the E4300. ;)

I'm a little late to this thread but I am quite happy with my DS3. I don't think any board you mentioned is going to be your limit but rather your cooling. 4GHz on air is very difficult to achieve and heat is going to be your largest obstacle.

[Hutch]

Hi. Thanks everybody for answering. Just 4 answers so far, and all of them a little bit mixed, but it seems that the best option is the biostar:

1 vote for DS3 + 1 "it's question of luck" (x1/2)
1 vote for p5n-e sli
1 (negative) vote for "asus" and gigabyte because of the strap (*1:2)
1 vote for ab9 pro or ab9 quadgt
3 votes for biostar

so if I have to asign one value to each board, we have:
P5N-E SLI: 1/2 = 0.5
DS3: (1 + 0.5)/2 = 0.75
AB9 pro or AB9 quadgt = 1
Tforce p965pt = 3

In only 4 posts, biostar has been the most constantly suggested, so I think I'll try with this one first. As I said I'm gonna use crucial ballistix pc2-8000 cl5 in this machine. I'm not sure wich chips use this mems, but I think it's d9. Do you know if there is any problem using this mems with this board? I've read gigabyte's, for example, can cause troubles.

Thanks
See you.

The ballstix PC8000 uses Micron D9GMH chips. There used to be a problem with the Gigabyte boards and D9 ram but a new bios has fixed it.

I've got an S3 and right now I'm pretty happy with it. At 460mhz FSB the board has no problem doing it, but my ram just won't go any higher no matter what (even with a constant -15C on it...)

[ptm56]

For future reference, the E6400 is a Conroe chip... the Allendales start with the E4300. ;)

I'm a little late to this thread but I am quite happy with my DS3. I don't think any board you mentioned is going to be your limit but rather your cooling. 4GHz on air is very difficult to achieve and heat is going to be your largest obstacle.

Hello. Thanks for your comment. CPU-z says it's Allendale, that's why I said it was but, yes it seems it's just a conroe with 2MB L2 locked.

About the 4Ghz... I was not planning to achieve 4Ghz. I was thinking mult x7 and fsb somewhere between 450 and 520 more or less. Of course, the more I can go near +500Mhz, the better. With that I'll be more than happy.

[Cracker]

Hello. Thanks for your comment. CPU-z says it's Allendale, that's why I said it was but, yes it seems it's just a conroe with 2MB L2 locked.

About the 4Ghz... I was not planning to achieve 4Ghz. I was thinking mult x7 and fsb somewhere between 450 and 520 more or less. Of course, the more I can go near +500Mhz, the better. With that I'll be more than happy.If you update to the latest version of CPU-Z it now recognizes the E6400 chip properly as a Conroe.

Good luck on your O/C. :toast:

[da_h00k]

Biostar is the cheapest, but P5N-E SLi allows you to use 2x 16x opposite to 965, that usually got one 16x and one 2x/3x or 4x which lowers the performance.