Ive been looking at the DFi, and asus boards, but are there any others you would recommend? As im stuck on the differences!! as the dfi has three stages, and asus has premium, extreme etc!! Not bothered about the sli, but probably dual channel memorywould be nice? Any help?
All of those you mentioned have Dual Channel memory. You may also want to look at the Abit KN8 boards. The DFI boards have a reputation as overclocker's boards: great clockers, but requiring a fair amount of tweaking. If you have to ask, I'd say that perhaps this wuoldn't be the best choice for you. The ASUS or Abit boards, however, are great. They have a good reputation for being very stable, and if the overclockign capability isn't quite as high as the DFI boards, well, do you really need it? The Extrem, Premium etc boards will have extra features, and it really boils down to you looking at what extra you get for the extra money, and deciding if its worth your cash.
Truthfully, on a 3000+ or 3200+ for either 939 or AM2, you wont have issues with finding dual channel; All those boards will do dual channel because in reality, its up to the CPU. You can probably go for the most barebones solution if you dont want the extra features, ports, etc. For stability and ease of operation right off the bat, go with Asus. For super overclocking ability, go with DFI. You may want to look at Abit boards too.
The thing is with a 3000/3200 venice, core i would like a decent overclock once im bored with the upgrade!! Will both boards be up to the task, for a ocing noob? Also really wanted some decent audio? Any ideas, and cheers for the suggestions so far!
agreed ^ DFI takes some time and work to get them stable but they have features hardly matched by any other brand to help you tweak your brains out. Asus and abit boards have some decent overclocking tools for decent overclocking.
Which of the abit.asus boards would you recommend? As im not looking for sli, but dont wanna be upgrading anytime soon either! lol God sounds and a bundle of extras is always good!! LOL
Just have a look at any ASUS A8N, any Abit AN8, or Abit KN8 board. Or, you could have a look at those boards with a Radeon Xpress chipset. The DFI CFX3200-DR has a review here on bit-tech, and is apparently much more user friendly than the other DFI boards. The ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe also has a review here.
Cheaper optiosn Asrock dual sata2 AGP & PCI-Express around the £40 EPoX EP-9NPA or EPoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra £62
