Hi lads hope all is well everywhere in tech land i have been using an asus striker extreme board which recently died due to an unsuccessfull bios upgrade. I am now lookin to buy a new board. I have not had many if not any problems with this brand and when was bought was considered to be high end. What i want to do is again buy a high end core 2 duo, core 2 quad board that will work with my current cpu which is a core 2 duo, (i think 8650 or something to that effect cant really remember) that runs at 3ghz. I overclocked it too. I have a budget of £200. I will be upgradin my cpu later much later to a high end quad maybe an extreme but for now need a good stable high end board. I have a pci express 8800gtx again overclocked and a pci sound blaster x fi which i want to keep. Im asking for recommendations as i love the mag and the community cpc has. Any help is greatly appreciated, Thanx in advance
if you don't need SLI, how about an Asus P5Q-Deluxe or P5Q-Plus or P5Q-Pro? they're all solid, well made boards that are pretty good.
Is the board still within its warranty period? You might want to try and RMA it. Can you not replace the BIOS chip? You might want to look at more options before you splash another £200 on a new MB. But for your budget of £200 the Asus Maximus II Formula would be a good bet, but I still think it's a bit expensive and you could probably get away with just a P5Q Deluxe or even the Pro. It depends how much you want to overclock really, and what features you need. Whatever you do, I certainly wouldn't bother going for another board with an SLI chipset, unless you really must have it (which I don't think anyone does).
how about the foccon black ops one of the best 775 mobos http://www.micomonline.co.uk/search.asp?searchtext=BLACKOPS&go what core 2duo are you using?
i would personally stick to the e8xxx as it is one of the best chips for gaming what else do you use your pc for?
For the BIOS fix try: http://bios-repair.co.uk/ You can get a new BIOS chip and the tool (makes it easier) for £20 posted. They are good to talk to in the phone and will send it with any bios version you want (will send latest version if you dont specify.)
Well the OP said he's keeping the CPU, which he will replace at a later date. The £200 budget is just for the motherboard.
what mean is that it would be pointless for him to buy a 775 quad in the future, much better to wait some time till he gets more options and when there more chips which are good for gaming
Ah, I see. Indeed, if he's thinking about getting a C2Q Extreme, then he could buy a whole i7 system for the price of that CPU itself as they're horrendously overpriced. Either way you look at it, it's hard to make the economics work.
Yeh i definatly agree with buying a core i7 in the future rather than gettin a c2qx but i cant really afford that at the mo. And this machine that just died is my mission critical machine. I do alot of video and sound production as well as alot of other things. I am a gamer just not a hardcore one. Lol I have to just thank u all for replyin so quickly i am really blown away i really appreciate it lads. I do want to overclock just not a huge amount maybe 10 to 15% and i definatly dont need sli. I am very interested in repairing the bios but i need this machine up as quick as possible so i will look at that after this machine is up. The asus sound tempting but the foxcon also sound like a good change but i really liked the bios of the striker extreme. The formula 2 sounds really good too. Am doing this on my phone cuz no computer or internet so which one is the best for me to get? I wanna up the cpu later to a maybe 6600 so i get noticeable boost. Again i must say thanx for ur help i really really appreciate it.
If you're not overclocking very much, then you really don't have any need to spend £200 on a motherboard (well, a 775 board at least, i7 is another story). People only spend that much money on a motherboard either because of its ability for extreme overclocking or simply because they've got money to burn. Sure, it'd still be faster at stock speeds, but nothing noticeable enough in everyday work to justify the extra cost. Judging from what you'll be using it for, I'd say your best bet would be the P5Q Deluxe. It's significantly under your budget, and with good cooling it should easily be able to hit at least 4.0GHz (~25% overclock).
i see what you saying about the p5q but i want to go up from the striker extreme not down. i looked at the foxcon but it doesnt work with ddr2 which i have 4 gb of. im thinking about the formula 2
Asus Maximus II Formula ive found this for £170 and looks pretty good. is this a good board? stable and reliable?
ok ive found the Asus P5Q Premium and Asus Maximus II Formula and the price between them is a difference of £10, i want to get the formula 2 as its more feture rich but i would like to know about the stabillity as ive read diferent reviews around. thanx again for the help lads
IMO: P45 > 680i But it's up to you, if you want to spend the extra money then do so, I just don't think you'd notice much of a difference to be honest.
Agreed, you're only doing a modest overclock so you don't need the extra features. Just pocket the money and put it toward upgrading your graphics card!
Biostar TPower I45, Thats the top 775 board in CPC Magazine at the moment. I have the Biostar TP45, the next one down to that and its a lovely bit of kit. The TPower adds rear esata and sata raid. If you dont need these then save yourself £20 and get the TP45.
if you are looking to get a quad after this, and you like the extra performance that an overclock gives you, please make sure you follow this rule: quad + overclock + 680i = I'd go for a P45 board, all of them are ok, really. I personally use a DFI, since i like going pretty deep into the overclocking headroom, and like the colourscheme, but i suppose a foxconn, Asus or Gigabyte would do just as well.
hey what does that mean?? quad + overclock + 680i = ?????? 680i is the nvidia chipset right? well i am looking to get a decent quad so the maximus 2 seems to be looking better and better. seeing as its a p45 chip and there all ok and this board is highe end think ill be going for it. also i want to do a higher overclock just cant at the moment due to the airflow in my case is not very good and the tempts hits too high wen theres a higher oc. after this ill be buying an ANTEC 1200
