Ugh, need new motherboard

[gamerman4]

ok so I guess I messed up me old mobo so I need some advice. Since I haven't been in the market for a motherboard in a while, i want to know what is the best board I can get for $100 for the Q6600 (LGA775). I am partial to gigabyte but I don't necessarily have to have them. I also see that there have been a few chipsets since I bought my motherboard and I assume that the P45 is the best for my socket type. Any suggestions on what I should get?
My only real requests are these:

ATX size
4 DDR2 slots
must overclock well

 

[Zatharus]

Hey gamerman!

How about one of these two:

ASUS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131347

Gigabyte - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372

Either should OC well enough.

 

[dannaswolcott]

Hey gamerman!

How about one of these two:

ASUS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131347

Gigabyte - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372

Either should OC well enough.

Those are not bad boards at all........ Let me know what one you pick because I am looking at upgrading mine.

 

[gamerman4]

I'm buying the ASUS now, I'll let you know how it does when I get it.

 

[gamerman4]

UPDATE:
got the ASUS and it works great, much more overclocking options than my previous Gigabyte and the ExpressGate OS is pretty slick.

 

[Zatharus]

Great! Yeah, ASUS tends to have quite a few bells and whistles for OC'ers.

Enjoy! :good:


Ooh...right, I forgot that one has ExpressGate. Have you found much practical use for it? I have not had a chance to play with it personally.

 

[gamerman4]

Well it is a neat feature. It comes with a web browser, multi-client chat program, music player, and image viewer. It also has a file explorer so I assume I could use it to do a basic repair if a system file gets corrupted. When they say 5 second boot, they aren't kidding. It loads even before the BIOS logo shows.

 

[Zatharus]

That could be useful. Does the file explorer work allow network access at all?

 

[SurgeForce]

Its definately got to be the ATX 775 Motherboard for $99.99 This motherboard supports Intel Quad, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo, and Pentium processors with up to 16GB of RAM. It features one PCI Express x16 slot, three PCI Express x1 slot, three PCI slots, eight Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s ports with RAID, Gigabit Ethernet, and more.

http://dealnews.com/Gigabyte-Socket-775-ATX-Motherboard-for-100-after-rebate-free-shipping/290125.html

 

[gamerman4]

That could be useful. Does the file explorer work allow network access at all?

turns out the file explorer only works with external devices like flash drives.

 

[Zatharus]

Ah, bummer... Fat16/32 only?

 

[gamerman4]

Ah, bummer... Fat16/32 only?

well the OS is supposed to be a pre-boot system so it probably runs from RAM and doesn't access the HDD. Even before the BIOS logo shows, this OS boots, before you can even hit the delete key to enter CMOS. The only HDD interaction is the inital boot because some of the system files run off of the drive which I assume are cached into RAM.

 

[Zatharus]

The only HDD interaction is the inital boot because some of the system files run off of the drive which I assume are cached into RAM.

Interesting. I thought it would have booted from an on-board EEPROM. Do you have to install it to the boot drive?

Thank you for the info.

 

[gamerman4]

When you get the motherboard, you install the system onto whatever drive you select (it gives you options) and then it makes a hidden folder called ASUS.SYS on the root of the drive and installs the files there. I assume this makes updates easier, it also has persistent sessions so data and settings saved will be available on future boots.

 

[Zatharus]

Ah...very nice. I was wondering about the persistent session as well.

After thinking about it, I wonder if the drive's file access is restricted for security reasons.