Budget Motherboard

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eitai2001

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Hi.

I am looking to get myself a fairly good board, but on a tight budget. I can't really spend more than about R800. I can get boards from almost any supplier at cost ... so take costs rather than selling prices into consideration. I have got an E4500 processor and was hoping maybe to overclock it a little, but not too much because it is standard cooling.
Please tell me what you would think is a good board.
Some of the boards I am looking at are:

MSI P31 Neo-F Board
Intel P35 Dragontail Peak
Asus MB-AP5KPL


These are other options, but are a bit higher than budget so I'll have to wait longer:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Asus M-P5K
Foxconn P35A

I can only choose board with DDR2 800 x 4 as I have 4 x 512MB Modules.

Please help me with this choice.

Thanks

Itai
 
Cant go wrong with the MSI Neo board, great little board for the price.
Stay away from the intel board, it doesn't have any overclocking options in BIOS.
The Asus is also decent, but the MSI is better than the P5KPL.

Have fun with the new board
 
eitai2001 said:
Hi.

I am looking to get myself a fairly good board, but on a tight budget. I can't really spend more than about R800. I can get boards from almost any supplier at cost ... so take costs rather than selling prices into consideration. I have got an E4500 processor and was hoping maybe to overclock it a little, but not too much because it is standard cooling.
Please tell me what you would think is a good board.
Some of the boards I am looking at are:

MSI P31 Neo-F Board
Intel P35 Dragontail Peak
Asus MB-AP5KPL


These are other options, but are a bit higher than budget so I'll have to wait longer:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Asus M-P5K
Foxconn P35A

I can only choose board with DDR2 800 x 4 as I have 4 x 512MB Modules.

Please help me with this choice.

Thanks

Itai
Click to expand...

If you are wanting a decent board with good overclocking potential then the ASUS P5k is a good call.

The intel board wont overclock at all.
Basically the P35 chipset boards are going to give you the best overclock.

Having said all of that, if you only want a small overclock than most any board should be fine.
 
The P5K is awsome, wait a bit and go for that one. The all solid capacitors will make it last much longer than the cheap boards
 
Sapphiron said:
The P5K is awsome, wait a bit and go for that one. The all solid capacitors will make it last much longer than the cheap boards
Click to expand...

Strange, I've never had a capacitor fail on me (yet) :D But hey, if it improves the lifespan of the motherboard, why not ;)
 
WKJ?:beanie said:
I've still got a Pentium 1 board (with a 100MHz Pentium 1) running without any capacitor problems :D Maybe I'm just lucky :D
Click to expand...

I think so. I also have quite a few old machines that are fine. It is just sad when a board goes because of those blasted rubbish caps!
 
WKJ?:beanie said:
Stop a direct lightning strike? I doubt it... :eek:

All my PCs run on their own UPS, it blew the UPS as well... If I was home then I would've unplugged everything, but I was on holiday :D
Click to expand...

LOL! Isn't that supposed to happen before you go on holiday? :D
 
Zenbaas said:
LOL! Isn't that supposed to happen before you go on holiday? :D
Click to expand...

I would've, but one of my friends (you know who you are) came along when I wasn't there to feed my pets and to use my computer (he didn't have internet access, still doesn't :rolleyes:) so I just left it plugged in... Stupid I know, but hey :D
 
WKJ?:beanie said:
I would've, but one of my friends (you know who you are) came along when I wasn't there to feed my pets and to use my computer (he didn't have internet access, still doesn't :rolleyes:) so I just left it plugged in... Stupid I know, but hey :D
Click to expand...

I know how that goes. Had lightning hit some metal shelves i have on my stoep in the flat i live in and to say it was a scary experience is a massive understatements!
 
Some of your stories are unfortunate :P ... but thanks for the tips ... I think I will wait and rather get a P35 board ... question is, Gigabyte or Asus?
 
eitai2001 said:
Some of your stories are unfortunate :P ... but thanks for the tips ... I think I will wait and rather get a P35 board ... question is, Gigabyte or Asus?
Click to expand...

Well, it's more personal preference than anything else... I have Asus and Gigabyte motherboards and I don't prefer one above the other. Take the one with the most features and the best performance between the two ;)
 
Both are good brands. Personally i think the P5K is prob the more solid choice. Only thing to consider then is if you are planning on running a RAID configuration which the P5K does not support(in the normal way).
 
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