Core2Duo - SLi - DDR2 800 - LGA775

[dragon2309]

Heya, heres a little test for you all. I need a "good" c2d mobo which sports at least the following:

• C2D compatible
  
• DDR2 800
• SLi (2 x PCI-e x16 slots)
• SATA (preferably SATAII)
• Preferably an NF4 chipset cos i like those

Thats about it, but you get the general idea, budget is about £120 for the mobo.

The reason i ask is because it HAS TO BE FROM THE UK, and preferably from ebuyer.co.uk cause thats where the rest of the parts are coming from

Im having quite a bit of trouble trying to find a decent board, any input appreciated.

Cheers, dragon

P.S. - And dont suggest going AMD or changing any major thing, my mind is set thankyou.

 

[leetkyle]

i know the feeling! I'm from the UK too.. (northern ireland!). Anyway, all I could find is this I'm afraid:

P2N32-SLi

 

[dragon2309]

i know the feeling! I'm from the UK too.. (northern ireland!). Anyway, all I could find is this I'm afraid:

P2N32-SLi

That board would be great, its almost perfect, and ASUS which is good aswell, if only ebuyer sold it.... *sigh*, i didnt want to buy from more than one supplier, i hate doing that

Thanks for the link man, ill go and search around and see if anywhere else has got it, maybe i could make an exception to get the mobo. Any ideas of prices for that one

dragon

*EDIT* - dabs has it for £128 inc VAT - http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp...&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

pretty good deal i say.... i wonder what the rest of ym parts would come to on there instead of ebuyer....

 

[leetkyle]

I also like www.scan.co.uk very cheap + reliable. although ADVANCETEC has got to be the best. I ordered a motherboard there and it arrived 2 days later, working perfectly with c2d flashed bios!

 

[dragon2309]

Bad experiences with scan, some muppet in the warehouse amrked my item as out of stock when the whole time it was sitting there, idiots, that was a birthday present. I dont shop with them anymore, sorry.

And im not up for flashing the BIOS, i want it to work first time without any trouble.

dragon

 

[Rambo]

Ahh, nice one Dragon! Moving up to C2D, eh?

Are you planning on overclocking?

 

[dragon2309]

Ahh, nice one Dragon! Moving up to C2D, eh?

Are you planning on overclocking?

Of course I am, lol, this is me your talking to.... heh heh

And yeh, i thought it was about time to build another main rig, my current main one, in the sig, is about 3 years old now.... its flagging, a lot.... lol, theres only so much you can do with little upgrades and software tweaks....

At the moment its looking to be a C2D E6600, 1Gb OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 800, 7900GT OC 256Mb.... Thats the main stuff, ive yet to decide on hard drives etc.... this thread is for the motherboard, because UK stockists seem to be incapable of selling any C2D compatible boards which give SLi, DDR2 800 and SATAII.... all i want is a decent board but nooo.

dragon

*EDIT* - The first few quotes ive been putting together are coming out at about £950 up to £1200 (USD = $1,100 upto $2,200) thats slightly above what im planning to spend, I would like it to be around the £750 mark (USD $1,400). I want the main system to remain the same, i will shave off the extra cost by skimping on things like harddrives... and ive decided to use my case ive already got, the ThermalTake Soprano (black)

 

[Rambo]

*EDIT* - The first few quotes ive been putting together are coming out at about £950 up to £1200 (USD = $1,100 upto $2,200) thats slightly above what im planning to spend, I would like it to be around the £750 mark (USD $1,400). I want the main system to remain the same, i will shave off the extra cost by skimping on things like harddrives... and ive decided to use my case ive already got, the ThermalTake Soprano (black)

You must remember that a $1400 system built in America would be more powerful than a £750 system built in England, so you can't directly translate the cost through the currency conversion rates.

But anyway, what I was going to say was that if you want to get the E6600's full overclocking potential, you will need a decent board to OC with in the first place...

 

[dragon2309]

But anyway, what I was going to say was that if you want to get the E6600's full overclocking potential, you will need a decent board to OC with in the first place...

Exactly the point of this thread... bu as of yet no one has replied with a good suggestion for a borad SOLD IN THE UK ONLINE

dragon

 

[Rambo]

Exactly the point of this thread... bu as of yet no one has replied with a good suggestion for a borad SOLD IN THE UK ONLINE

dragon

That's because you want SLi @ £120

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Gigabyte_179.html

Definately recommend the (D)S3 (I have the DS3. I have OC'ed my E6300 stable @ 3.25 Ghz). There's around an £18 difference. However, I'm not sure how good the S3 is at OCing (I would imagine there would be little to no difference).

By the way, I have bought quite a few things for OverClockers.co.uk. They are extremely reliable, and very efficient with their postage.

 

[SirKenin]

But...but...don't you want to wait for quad core AMD? The person in the know says they're going to blow away Intel

Why does it have to be the nVIDIA chipset? Any reason? It rather limits your options.

 

[Rambo]

Why does it have to be the nVIDIA chipset? Any reason? It rather limits your options.

Ooops, kinda forgot about that. In that case, dragon, ignore my suggestion...

 

[Saurian]

Dragon, for what you want I think you need to wait for the Geforce 590 for Intel to drop and become mainstream. If I haven't got a motherboard by the time it comes out, I might have to wait and get some numbers on it too.

Why do you have your heart set on SLI? As a knowledgable member (mod) here, you know as well as anybody that the recommendation is always to spend the money for 1 very good card then to spend it on two lesser cards. IE, spend your cash for a 1900XTX or 1950, rather then spending your money on a pair of 7900's or something. Plus, c'mon! You're a folder!

 

[leetkyle]

Yeah, go crossfire! P5W DH Deluxe + X1900XT is what I'm coupled with at the minute - and it rocks.

 

[Saurian]

Not even crossfire. Rather then buying 2 X1900XT cards to crossfire for ~400 dollars, why not just buy one 400-450 dollar card that blows them away.

That said, I would rather run crossfire then SLI. But none of this pertains to dragon's initial comment. Perhaps you need to talk to one of your moderator friends here in the US and have him buy the part you want and then ship it to you? How much could that cost for hipping to him then to you, 45 tops? Would that be a price savings?

 

[dragon2309]

But...but...don't you want to wait for quad core AMD? The person in the know says they're going to blow away Intel

In short, no, no i dont want to wait for quad core AMD, im an intel man, always have been always will be, just personal preference. If i was going to wait for quad core, i would get intel quad core of course.... lol

Why does it have to be the nVIDIA chipset? Any reason? It rather limits your options.

I just kinda like the nForce4 chipsets, ya hear good things, nice and sturdy. Again probably just personal preference

Why do you have your heart set on SLI? As a knowledgable member (mod) here, you know as well as anybody that the recommendation is always to spend the money for 1 very good card then to spend it on two lesser cards. IE, spend your cash for a 1900XTX or 1950, rather then spending your money on a pair of 7900's or something. Plus, c'mon! You're a folder!

1. I hate ATi
2. I like nVidia
3. The 7900GT OC is a VERY good card
4. My budget is very limiting
5. Yes im a floder, but im relying on my uber overclocked E6600 to help me out there
6. "Knowledgable member" HAH, ok...

Yeah, go crossfire! P5W DH Deluxe + X1900XT is what I'm coupled with at the minute - and it rocks.

See above

That said, I would rather run crossfire then SLI. But none of this pertains to dragon's initial comment. Perhaps you need to talk to one of your moderator friends here in the US and have him buy the part you want and then ship it to you? How much could that cost for hipping to him then to you, 45 tops? Would that be a price savings?

Probably not a saving of that much due to the shipping, i might look into it though

In the mean time, eBuyer have updated their stock counts on everything, so now this baby is back in stock, any guesses what i've just added to ym basket....

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/113963

Me likes, and only just over budget, yoinks...

dragon

 

[Jet]

Still, you can't say that you wouldn't like to have 440 points per day for a X1900XT...

 

[dragon2309]

Still, you can't say that you wouldn't like to have 440 points per day for a X1900XT...

Its not all about the points ya know, i actually get a good feeling out of knowing that I'm helping research into cures and causes of diseases through mis-folded protein strands. Being on a list is just an added bonus.

Any-hoo, back on topic again, anyone got any opinions on that board i just linked to?

dragon

 

[Rambo]

Its not all about the points ya know, i actually get a good feeling out of knowing that I'm helping research into cures and causes of diseases through mis-folded protein strands. Being on a list is just an added bonus.

Any-hoo, back on topic again, anyone got any opinions on that board i just linked to?

dragon

I've heard it's not the best overclocker in various Anandtech reviews (Conroe Motherboard Buying Guide springs to mind).

I would recommend you just search google for reviews on the product. You'll get more of an in depth report on the product, +'s and -'s, etc...

[EDIT:]

What about this motherboard (scroll halfway down):

Asus P5N32-SLi SE Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16

 

[dragon2309]

Thats another one on ebuyer that they dont stock at the moment, they used to, when i first starting parting this system up, that was the baord i chose, but not anymore, its gone... Looks liek a really good one though i would like it

dragon

*EDIT* - although fully ordered and delivered with VAT etc... it comes to £150, which is over budget