I'm looking at getting my first full ATX board. I would like Intel 775 socket for a core 2 Duo and beyond that I don't have many preferences. If it is at all possible maybe a black motherboard? You guys have any good ones and ones to stay away from. I don't intend to overclock it but I will water coll it. Kinda in my blood now! john
If it was me, I would go Gigabyte or Asus, as they are large, reliable, high-quality companies, but I don't have much experience TBH. I have a Gigabyte X48-DS4, serves me pretty damn well.
It's going in my full tower Lian-Li case, it will be H2O cooled and it will be used as my daily driver as well as an occasional game. I want to try some games. I have not done a game since Myst. It is not meant to be a lan rig and moved very often. A fully loaded Lian-Li tower is heavy. john
Gigabyte boards are very colorful, so watch out! Take a look at Asus's P5Q series, particularly Pro and SE.
Some of the DFI boards are very good. The P45 DK T2RS-Plus is a good, solid board that overclocks nicely, has a black PCB and is very pretty. Review: http://is.gd/cMZk
ASUS Maximus Formula. Can be flashed to a Rampage Formula, since it's the same board (X48 is a cherry-picked X38). You can probably pick these boards up pretty cheap these days with the i7/X58 craze and what not.
I'd say since it's casual gaming, and mainly other things, get a p45, doesn't have SLI, but does offer crossfire I believe, and they overclock well if your into that sort of thing.
I was under the impression that you needed an X chipset for CrossFire, and the P chipsets can only take one PCIe 16x slot? I may be wrong, but if this is right (which it should be) then you need an X series chipset for more than one high-end graphics card. Or have I misinterpreted it :/ I would go for a touch more money and get an X48 or X38 chipset board and futureproof yourself for buying another graphics card, should you get a bit more into it
The P series chipsets offer less PCI-E lanes, so when you use both x16 slots, they'll get downgraded to x8. Crossfire is possible, however.
i guess the golden question is 'whats your budget?' I would point you in the direction of DFI or Gigabyte boards, and considering your only going to try getting back into gaming i imagine your going to have a decent mid-range graphic card. Multi GPU set up i dont see as an option as its a waste of cash. Have a hunt for DFI P35 and P45 boards, there usually black PCB's and overclock really well all for £100, not sure what that would be in yanky gold.. EDIT DFI Lanparty DK P45-T2RS
+1 for gigabyte, very colourful though may i say that if you're watercooling not overclocking your system would be a crime
er no, the P31 chipset is basically the P35 chipset that didn't pass quafilication to be a P35, so there lacking in top end speed. Bit-tech recommend the board due its cost and its stability, dont get me wrong its a good board, just not even in the same legeue as the DFI monsters. I currently use a P35C-DSR3 which clocks very well and i haven't even got serious in squeezing more speed as i dont need anymore, however the board is fulgy, and i had to replace the passive northbridge sink because it cant deal with a heavy overclock.
I already have a watercooled, overclocked board: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=159236 This case and components is more show than to go. A full tower Lian-Li done well. john
There's a plethora of good boards out there, John. Many of the suggestions already given I'd concur with. Personally, I'm a DFI man. Burt then again I like spending countless hours tweaking BIOS and pulling hair out over some asinine thing I found that bricked the build. Just depends on budget, theme, and necessities you'd want. Perhaps MSI would be a good 'all-around' board maker for ease of setup but still have capabilities that the tweakers would want. My .02.
I can't in all honesty put a budget on a LIan-Li build. It will get what it needs. With the 9600 GT video card being ASUS and black, the case being black and alum. pretty much sets the theme. Let's go for elegance. A black MB, a 120.4 or 120.3 radiator, a 1K PSU to support the video and new MB. The Alien once told me which official Lian-Li this case is closest to but I forgot. I've had it for seeming ever. In my misspent younger days I have spent a lot of money on race cars, show cars and LSR attempts. My last race car - 1989 Geo Metro with the turbo intercooled engine, trans, and rearend from a GMC Syclone consumed almost what I originally paid for this acreage. The good lady/wife Marilyn says this one needs to be done right. 30 yrs. with the lady - who am I to argue. This is my turn to use laser cutters and waterjet people and use real parts that people will understand. The neatest part is that I have to get out of the chair to work on it! Exercise! Too big to sit on my lap. If I show enough pictures could someone tell me what Lian-Li case is closest to this one? I would like to admire some other modder's works. Lian-Li has a whole bunch more coverage on the interweb than Rocketfish. john If the references to the caes got lost - go here: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=161945
