Picking out a reliable mobo

[nub]

I've been trying to build a new system that I hope to get this year once I get a job. I've been having some trouble trying to find a reliable motherboard. I read all the reviews I can and it seems like all of the boards that are top sellers have issues with bad ram slots, or they blue screen all the time. I can't seem to find a motherboard that I can trust won't start acting stupid, forcing me to RMA repeatedly, wasting more money on having to pay for shipping costs; etc.

I'm also trying to figure out whether I should stick with Core2 or jump to i5/i7. My friend upgraded to an i5 and he said his Core2Quad Q6600 ran faster, even though it's overclocked (he also had his Q6600 OC'd). On one hand, sticking with Core2 will not only be cheaper, but I also won't have to pay more for DDR3 ram. However, the new i5/i7 cores are supposedly great and all.

I've been trying to do as much research as possible, but I can't find any REAL guides to help me with making the right choices. If any of you guys have some feedback, I'd love it.

[srredfire]

http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=5

Nuff said. Seriously.

[SotaPoika]

I have ASUS P6T Deluxe V2. It's a 1366 socket [core i7] mobo with DDR3 memory. With that mobo I have Core i7 920 @ 2.66Ghz, 6GD DDR3 RAM and GTX260. It's lightning fast and also it has worked flawlessly all the time I have owned it (since July 2009). No bluescreens or crashes.

[vcool]

I have a Gigabyte and I like it thus far.

I think this topic is highly subjective. Everyone is going to recommend what they are using and since there are plenty of people you will see a lot of different recommended manufacturers.

[Unreal_Me]

core i7's use a newer socket than the i5, so if you're going for the leap, go for an i7.
1366 will support any new launches from intel AFAIK.

Getting a Q6600 would be cheaper, but it's a question of how soon you plan to upgrade afterwards.
Apparently intel is releasing a six-core i7, so not only does that give you another (high-cost) option, but it will most likely drive down the cost of current i7s.

As for a stable mobo, ASUS ftw? The thing with mobo reviews is that it's not always the motherboard that's causing problems.

[MrTwoVideoCards]

http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=5

Nuff said. Seriously.

Beat me to it! Yeah Gigabyte was a fail purchase for me, and their mob's suck. EVGA is the best, and only motherboard manufacturer you will ever have to buy from.

[xoqolatl]

Yeah Gigabyte was a fail purchase for me, and their mob's suck.

You've gotta be joking. Most ASUS, GIgabyte and MSI X58 boards are pretty close in quality. Only X58 mobos I would call "fail" are ECS X58B-A, Foxconn Renaissance, all DFI and Asrocks and MSI Eclipse (not Eclipse Plus!). The rest simply works.

[nub]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128359

So would a board like this one be suitable? I've decided to just stick with Core2 for now. I'm getting a Core2Duo E8400 3.0 ghz cpu. I plan to overclock it a lot since it's supposed to OC like a beast.


EVGA mobos are damn expensive, so I won't be getting one. Granted they make some top notch shit, but I don't want to spend a crap load of money.

If the motherboard I posted is one to avoid, let me know. If you have any pointers on motherboards that can OC well, let me know, because I definitely plan to get some nice cooling and then OC my CPU, maybe my GPU. I'm going to get one of the newer ATI cards so I can support DX11.

[fry_]

That looks like a good choice, I've bought two Gigabyte motherboards now and they're both great boards (AMD though). I've had a bit of trouble with my OC adventures with one board, but it seems like it's probably more related to the Phenom series I'm using.

By the way, if you're going ATI new serires keep in mind the drivers are still absolute shit. At least right now. Don't get me wrong, I love my 5770, and will probably run another in crossfire in the future, but getting the damned thing to work can be a pain sometimes. GTA and Fallout seem to hate the card with a particular passion.

[nub]

I figured that was the case. Well if worse comes to worse, I can swap it out with my GTS 250 that I'm using on my current computer, and I'll just put my old 7900 GS back in this thing and make it available for my sister to use or something.


Perhaps the drivers will be updated by the time I buy all the parts, but anyway, the card I chose is the 5850, by Sapphire:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102857

Considering the price, I thought it was a great deal. A lot of Nvidia's higher-end models are around the same price but aren't nearly as good. I think it may be time for me to jump to Red team for a while until Nvidia catches back up or starts showing more more promising development.

[xoqolatl]

Good choices nub.

@ drivers: I've been using a HD5870 for several weeks without problems, I don't play GTA or Fallout though.

[nub]

Well I thought hard about everything and I think I'll jump to the i series. I think Core2 will become obsolete too soon and it will cost more than I want to upgrade to an i5 or something. In light of this, I chose the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128412


The price isn't too bad, and it seems to be very futureproof (USB 3.0 support). I chose this for the CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115215


Then I chose this for the RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231193



What do you guys think? I know it's only LGA 1156, but 1366 motherboards are just too damn expensive, and I don't think I need to get a CPU that powerful any time soon. I plan to overclock anyway.


Also, I went down to a 5770 to fit my target budget (1500 USD). I have to get a new monitor and I want it to be a nice one, however I think the monitor selection on Newegg is a little mediocre.

[RefaelBA]

A ha!
There's a pretty solid 1366 board that I'm going to buy soon.
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R

I don't know how much it is over Newegg but it's worth a look. Read some reviews, it's a badass board.

[nub]

I checked it out, but I'm confused on one thing.


It's triple channel, but why is there only 4 slots? Doesn't there need to be 6 slots for it to be triple channel?


By the way, it's $188 at Newegg.

[xoqolatl]

It's triple channel, but why is there only 4 slots? Doesn't there need to be 6 slots for it to be triple channel?

four slots on UD3R are configured the same way as on Intel reference board (DX58SO "Smackover"): slots 1 and 2 belong to channel A, slot 3 to channel B and slot 4 to channel C. You can run single channel (one module in slot 4), dual channel (two modules in slots 3 and 4), triple channel (three modules in slots 2, 3 and 4) and triple channel with two modules in channel A (all slots populated).

P55 + i5-750 is a very good combo in it's price range. You are only sacrificing seriously-multithreaded performance (rendering, encoding, vrad.exe ) compared to i7-9x0.