P45 board, which gets your pick?

I need some advice after reading many reviews I dunno... I'm pretty much as undecided as I was when I was first started looking.

But overall I'd appreciate hearing what you guys would pick for your own and why.

I'm personally trying to find something with an adequate CMOS reset button. Good company support RMA and BIOS wise. Under $175 would be great, last but not least can live up to or surpass my Abit IP35 Pro. To me this was the greatest board I have ever used it terms of stability, performance and just overall layout goodness, even the cmos reset button I loved its placement. Curious to hear what you guys fancy.

MSI P45 Neo3-FR, I love mine.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages...TPI45_full.jpg

any thoughts on this one? any problems with it? besides where that molex is...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ght=tpower+i45

Dfi P45 T2rs

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Originally Posted by Glow9

I need some advice after reading many reviews I dunno... I'm pretty much as undecided as I was when I was first started looking.

But overall I'd appreciate hearing what you guys would pick for your own and why.

I'm personally trying to find something with an adequate CMOS reset button. Good company support RMA and BIOS wise. Under $175 would be great, last but not least can live up to or surpass my Abit IP35 Pro. To me this was the greatest board I have ever used it terms of stability, performance and just overall layout goodness, even the cmos reset button I loved its placement. Curious to hear what you guys fancy.

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I can relate directly to the move you are planning on making. My previous board (which I sold to a good friend) was an Abit IP-35 Pro. I played with that board for about a year, and had great overclocking success and stability with it. As for the remote cmos switch, I thought that was pretty cool too although I rarely had to use it:p: I also liked the socketed bios chip, and onboard lcd poster. It was a great motherboard.

Fast forward to today: a month ago I bought an Asus P5Q-Deluxe so I could try out the new P45 chipset, since unfortunately Abit isn't going to be selling one anytime soon. To sum things up, with the same E8400 cpu, memory, and everything else, I had far better overclocking results with the Abit. I have tried many combinations of bios settings with the Asus, but the best I can do is 4050MHz. It won't run with any half-multi, and the max fsb I can run is 450. I've seen more bsod's with the Asus in one day than I did with the Abit in one year.

With the Abit, I could run the same cpu at 8, 8.5, 9 multi anytime and was able to hit 500 fsb. The highest overclock I ran was 4400 MHz, not completely Prime stable but Windows, gaming and 3DMark stable. I did have a Prime stable 4275MHz with it.

As I am going to replace my trusty E8400 with, most likely, an E8600, I hope it will work better with this Asus board. Maybe a future bios revision will help.

But if I ever come across an unsold Abit IP-35 Pro sitting in a shop somewhere, I will buy it immediately:p:

So think about it before you buy that next motherboard. You may be surprised how good the board that you have now really is:cool:

sorry to go off topic :
Retro either 1) RMA your board or 2) try other ram (P45 is very picky) or 3) come to the P5Q thread and share ya settings... something is wrong and for me the P5Q dlx is an incredible stable board... a solid workhorse... don't think another CPU will help in your case...

I would upgrade to an E8400 CPU mate instead of buying a new mobo... unless you want a new toy to play with

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Originally Posted by Leeghoofd

sorry to go off topic :
Retro either 1) RMA your board or 2) try other ram (P45 is very picky) or 3) come to the P5Q thread and share ya settings... something is wrong and for me the P5Q dlx is an incredible stable board... a solid workhorse... don't think another CPU will help in your case...

I would upgrade to an E8400 CPU mate instead of buying a new mobo... unless you want a new toy to play with

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Thanks Leeghoofd, I have been following that great thread, trying out the settings that you and others have posted. I will post my settings there. Certainly possible it doesn't like my ram.

Glow9: That's a good suggestion from Leeghoofd to buy an E8400, it would be a big improvement from your E4300, very overclockable cpu. And their current prices are good so it would meet your budget.

Well I see what you're all saying and I agree, but because my Dad trades stocks and runs 4 LCDs on a 754 AMD epox sli rig I'd like to upgrade him to my rig more or less. I have extra ram and think the 6600gTs would fly with the dual core chip. I just know I can trust the Abit thats why I would upgrade him to it. Which in turn I'd pick up new processor and mobo but I dont want a pos like the 650i I had before. Abit <3

P5Q-D is nice, I hit 590 FSB with no problems, could bench 3D at 572+ FSB and I found it to be a very stable board. I also have TeamGroup ram and it ran without any problems for me and although I had some ram related issues and RMA'd the mobo, I clocked it up to 1333 MHz. Sounds like you need to tweak some settings, your ram isn't playing nice with it, or your board may be defective.

DFI P45 Plus looks good too.

why does MSI use that little 4 box usb thing? I'm surprised nobody's recommended anything from Gigabyte

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Originally Posted by gillbot

MSI P45 Neo3-FR, I love mine.

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I'm thinking about upgrading to that MSI P45 board myself, how does it clock with quads?

P5Q-Deluxe. Buy it now. It's f*cking awesome. Next to no vDroop even at high speeds/voltages, very stable, and it looks fantastic. Plus the heatpipe system keeps the board very cool.

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Originally Posted by Retro

Thanks Leeghoofd, I have been following that great thread, trying out the settings that you and others have posted. I will post my settings there. Certainly possible it doesn't like my ram.

Glow9: That's a good suggestion from Leeghoofd to buy an E8400, it would be a big improvement from your E4300, very overclockable cpu. And their current prices are good so it would meet your budget.

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Glow9 & Leeghoofd:
Update: It looks like Leeghoofd was right about my ram, see my post in the Asus P5Q-D thread. Now the Asus board is working as it should with different ram. So, I can recommend the Asus P5Q-Deluxe if you want a good mobo upgrade:)

I know I might get some crap but I kinda hate Asus. Worste mobo experience I have had was with a Asus board. Plus Asus and Foxconn have a little too much market share since theres a lot of other great companies out there. I tend to go for the little guy who's producing quality stuff and stand by it, not just mass amounts of stuff. Asus/Biostar/DFI/EVGA/Abit have been my upgrade path So you guys really got to sell Asus to me cause 2 years of hell with the past Asus kinda made me ehhh... Reluctant.

p.s. Retro what was the problem?
Can someone tell me why theres a little plastic thing in the power connection at the top of the ASUS P5Q-Deluxe?

If ya PSU doesn't have the 8 pin connector you can use the 4 pin , it's jut there to avoid wrong connection, if your Psu has an 8 pin connector (or 2 x 4) remove it...

i'd second p5q series, personally i no longer deal with DFI after what happened in the s939 days. i've had great experiances with gigabyte and p35 so i'd imagine their p45 would be the same

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Originally Posted by Flip_Lx

i'd second p5q series, personally i no longer deal with DFI after what happened in the s939 days. i've had great experiances with gigabyte and p35 so i'd imagine their p45 would be the same

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eh? Ultra-D and company was awesome in 939 days what happened to yours?

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Originally Posted by Glow9

I know I might get some crap but I kinda hate Asus. Worste mobo experience I have had was with a Asus board. Plus Asus and Foxconn have a little too much market share since theres a lot of other great companies out there. I tend to go for the little guy who's producing quality stuff and stand by it, not just mass amounts of stuff. Asus/Biostar/DFI/EVGA/Abit have been my upgrade path So you guys really got to sell Asus to me cause 2 years of hell with the past Asus kinda made me ehhh... Reluctant.

p.s. Retro what was the problem?
Can someone tell me why theres a little plastic thing in the power connection at the top of the ASUS P5Q-Deluxe?

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Well, as Leeghoofd said, there may be an incompatibility with the ram I was using, the Team set in my sig. Sure enough, when I swapped them out for the only other DDR2 ram I had, a 1GB stick of PC2-4300!!! Crucial Rendition, all was well and the Asus board now works with the half-multis, and will overclock beyond 450 fsb. No more bsod's or shutdowns. As the Team set seems to be ok and passed Memtest with no errors, etc. with the Abit board, I can only conclude it is incompatible with the Asus. Not to knock Asus for this, as other brands of mobos have incompatibility issues with some brands of ram as well. So now I have to find a good set of ram to replace my Team sticks that is compatible with the Asus. But at least I know the board is ok and should be able to do what my Abit was capable of:)

Ultra-D was awesome and S939 were DFI's glory days. Maybe Flip means what happened directly after S939. Core2 totally messed with DFI because they had put all their marbles into AMD.

Anyways, I had the P5Q Pro in my possession, but returned it before opening because the Gigabyte P45 boards became available. However, I caught wind of the E0 stepping E8400's, so I decided to wait on ordering one of the Gigabyte boards, until I knew I would get an E0 stepping for sure. Then before I could do that, I decided to enroll in college this semester, so I've put off all upgrades for now. I've liked the Gigabyte boards since the P965 DS3 I had. I'm currently on the P35 DS3L. I really like the simplistic, yet effective BIOS that the mid-range Gigabyte boards use. I also like the fact that they cut costs on features I wouldn't normally use. This makes the boards around $20 cheaper than the immediate competition.

The P5Q Pro had a really nice box.

I just built my nephew a system with an E8400 and the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R. Great board, especially for the money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128344

User friendly, even with overclocking, we got his to 4Ghz without much trying, everything on auto. It has plenty of SATA connections, great support, and just all around great board.

Utnorris

Edit: The only reason I would not also recommend the Biostar I45 is that you have to manually set CF and you have to run power to the MB for the video cards, which both of these seemed odd for this day and age.

I am actually looking for a P5Q deluxe myself. I like the Gigabyte versions but they are way overpriced atm. I want to see someone review the new foxconn P45 too.

$126 with a $20 rebate is overpriced?

Utnorris

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Originally Posted by Utnorris

$126 with a $20 rebate is overpriced?

Utnorris

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Lemme rephrase that. I'm looking for a almost top of the line P45 ie: P5Q dlx. the EP45-DQ6 which I would also like to own is considerably more IMO. 179.99 vs 230.00 us dollars.

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Originally Posted by stealthbomber

I'm thinking about upgrading to that MSI P45 board myself, how does it clock with quads?

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I've had my current quad north of 475fsb but i'm not sure if i'm CPU limited. I haven't had the time to tweak voltages and dial it in with a 9 month old crawling around pushing buttons on the front of the case. ;)

biostar i45 is thee best trouble free highest o\c fsb world record STABLE mobo out for under $150 (724 fsb).it also runs ram AMAZING.

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Originally Posted by railmeat

biostar i45 is thee best trouble free highest o\c fsb world record STABLE mobo out for under $150 (724 fsb).it also runs ram AMAZING.

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Seems like a good board, I'm a fan of biostar even corrected some typos on their website for them lol. But 724 isn't exactly going to happen unless I throw water or LN2 on my chip really. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...d,2001-53.html Kinda shows it's average I think for normal users.

Asus's 16phase and 8phase is it more of just a marketing scheme than anything? I mean MSI has something like 6phase and I think Biostar does too and they seem to do just fine. Maybe someone can elaborate. Granted 16phase just seems kinda massive compared to it's competitors with like 6 and such.

really mostly concerned about vdroop.
ive heard p5q-pro's loadline calibration compensates for vdroop, from a couple diffrent sources, one a review and other in a forum...
http://www.overclock.net/intel-mothe...y-e8400-2.html

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Yep, the P5Q Pro has that feature and it's called Loadline Calibration in the BIOS. When enabled it eliminates vdroop and actually adds a little voltage when at load (.008v for me):

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http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/im...rge/p5q_75.jpg
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...review-14.html

Are the 16 phase boards the only ones to do this? Seems like all it does is boost you voltage to what it should be? Is this more of a BIOS setting? I'm not bashing it I'm just trying to understand it

Except a lot of folks recommend not using LLC with the 45nm CPU's. Not sure of the exact reasons, but I think that there is a fear of it overvolting the CPU and that the 45nm's are more suseptible to it than the older 65nm. Just a heads up.

Utnorris

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but I think that there is a fear of it overvolting the CPU and that the 45nm's are more suseptible to it than the older 65nm. Just a heads up.

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yeah, but what is too much voltage for 45nm?...and i would have thought that having less vdroop would actually help to stabilise an oc at a lower vcore ? :hehe:
65/45nm wotever.
45nm requires less v's than 65nm.

i peezume that more volt regulation may help with quad overclocking, more tweaking / fine tuning options on expensivier boards too probably.

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Originally Posted by Glow9

eh? Ultra-D and company was awesome in 939 days what happened to yours?

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sorry for late reply, school is running me ragged. my nf4 sli-dr ultra? (forgot the excact model name wasnt the venus though) had a bad habit of sending massive volts to my ram and cpu, so magically one day turned it on and there goes g.skill ddr500 (though they rmaed it nice and fine, props to G Skill) and an opty 170

as for LLC i use it on my p5q-e and it hasn't caused any issues for me witha 9450, though i've been reading people with e8*00 have been keeping it off for some difficulties/crashes if you want to look throught he p5q threads you can learn why (sorry i haven't paid much attention as its usually llc + dual core)

as for volts on a 45nm well i wouldn't go past 1.4 on my quad but i've got liquid (and am only at 1.25 right now)

The Biostar boards and the P5Q-Deluxe's seem to be the hottest thing right now.