Mobo recommendations

I am currently buying everything for my computer but it is seperate purchases.

Currently I have the following:

2 HDD's
Quad Core CPU (Q6600)
Nvidia Geforce 6800XT 256MB GDDR3
600W PSU
1 Floppy Drive

That is about everything at the moment. So I need to know if you guys can recommend a board that supports DDR3. I am not gaming but I want a board that has a lot of features. I ended up coming across the ASUS Maximus Extreme. Man that is a nice board.

One thing to note is a graphics card DDR3 is not the same as RAM DDR3.

A DDR3 graphics card will run on a RAM DDR2 motherboard.

Unless you want DDR3 RAM which as of today is very expensive.

DDR3 RAM will run over twice the price of the motherboard itself.

Just want to clarify that for starters.


The next thing to check out is how boards are handling the Quad core.

Many high end boards (especially SLi models) were having some difficulties running Quad efficiently.

If you want the quad check out reviews of any board you consider as the board will say quad ready but again many are not so ready as others.

Yea I know GDDR3 is different from DDR3 Ram itself. I want DDR3 Ram because its out and now it costs about $250 Canadian. Before when it came out it was about $600. Btw that $250 is for 2GB of ram Dual Channel.

I have heard about boards supporting Quad Core and have done really well. I am not sure about the boards using quad cores itself when the testing was happening.

Well if you are getting DDR3 RAM it makes choosing a motherboard fairly simple as there are only a few out there that will run it.

The Maximus Extreme is one and it indeed looks like a sweet board. Here is a comparison of it with a P5E3 Premium:

http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/...d_P5E3Premium/

Sweet. Would the chipsets really matter? X38 and the X48? I think I should be good if I got the X38 from the P5K3 Deluxe right? It seems the premium is off the charts for pricing and a wicked mobo. How much is it btw? I didn't see it.

I cannot find a Premium for sale anywhere at the moment. One thing I discovered that I don't like is that it appears to have integrated RAM.

Anyway the MAXIMUS and the DELUXE are out there:


ASUS Maximus Extreme LGA775 X38 ATX DDR3 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2PCI 2GBLAN 1394A SATA RAID Motherboard

$379.99 CAD

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=27114


ASUS P5E3 DELUXE/WIFI-AP X38 ATX DDR3 3PCI-E16 2-PCI-E1 2PCI SATA RAID 2XGBLAN Draft N Motherboard

$331.78 - $361.90 CAD from 5 stores

http://www.pricebat.ca/ASUS-P5E3-DEL...AN.p_10063274/



Here are some more tech reviews:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/...ards_compared/

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/11/...parison_part2/

Oh dang. These boards are capable of supporting XP right? I don't want vista right now.

Those boards will support any Operating System.

Note the MAXIMUS is one inch "wider" than conventional ATX.

ATX Form Factor, 12"x 10.6" (30.5cm x 26.9cm)

As opposed to the standard:

ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.4cm)

It is also noted that the SATA ports face the front of the case or off the inside edge of the board.

Point being the MAXIMUS would be best in a FULL Tower rather than a MID Tower case.

That killed my hopes for an Asus maximus. Oh well the Premium is still just as good :P I think I will go with the Deluxe. Still just as good though. Thank you for your help jephree.

No problem.

The MAXIMUS would still work in a mid tower but it will be just a bit more awkward in setting it up.

Just looking at one of my mid towers and envisioning the extra inch ...

You would need to connect the SATA cables to the motherboard then install the hard drives.

If you ever needed to make any changes again you'd have to remove the hard drives.

In a mid tower the rear of a SATA drive would be right on the edge of the motherboard. It is still "above" it but you need to work "beneath" it.

Hope that makes sense.