Matt said:
Also, are their any other motherboarss around the £110 mark that I
should be considering? I'm aware Asus boards are popular with
overclockers. However, as I am not an overclocker would I be paying a
premuim for features I wouldn't use?
Kind Regards,
Matt
P5E3 is X38 chipset, and offers two fully wired PCI Express video
slots. You could look for P35 chipset as an alternative, like
P5K3. P5K3 looks like it has the same Vcore setup, for powering
the processor. Both boards only have PS/2 keyboard plug, and no
PS/2 mouse plug (an issue only if you are using a KVM).
To some extent, the higher end boards are supporting better
potential video capabilities. X38 would be for Crossfire, with
two ATI cards in tandem. Nvidia SLI chipsets would handle two
Nvidia cards in tandem. If you don't need those kinds of gamer
features, and can live with one video card (driving up to two
monitors), you have a lot more options.
P35 or P45 should be cheaper than X38, X48, or some high end
Nvidia SLI chipset. And as long as the Vcore setup looks
good, and the reviews look good, that should be a good
enough solution. Some models are differentiated, by having
a Firewire connector on the back, or other I/O enhancements,
and that accounts for the small dollar spread between some
of the models. But not all the pricing differences are
rational. And the junky additions of the super high end
boards, adds nothing to the computing experience. Who
wants a motherboard that mocks you with "CPU Init" on a
tiny LCD display, when a cheaper board posts every time
and never complains ?
The reason I picked the P35 or the P45, is there can be
much older chipsets (P965), but the maximum FSB might be
lower on those. A lot of processors are FSB1333 now, which
is a reason to try to use a more current chipset. Boards
seem to reach FSB2000 or so, as an upper limit on overclock,
but you've already mentioned you're not an overclocker.
And that gives you some idea how much headroom, for normal
operation, that these chipsets have.
X38 and X48 have ECC capability, but the feature is not
well supported (i.e. is missing from motherboard adverts,
may not support DDR3, may not actually be working). If you
are interested in enhanced memory error detection, it is
an uphill struggle. The last time I looked, I don't think
I could find any DDR3 with ECC. Only DDR2 had ECC, and the
sticks weren't that fast. So one of the selling features
of those chipsets, is the addition of ECC, but in general,
the motherboard makers haven't gone out of their way to
promote it, or make it work. P35 and P45 don't have ECC
as an option, so you're saved from even thinking about it.
Paul
