TR Forums

First of all, hello. I'm going to buy a new PC, which will be specifically for gaming and overclocking.

My budget isn't the greatest, so i'm planning to get E5200. I was thinking i could get ~3.75-4.0Ghz from that bad boy with a good air cooler.
But now the question raises, which motherboard should i buy?
I have three choises:

#1 MSI Neo2
#2 Asus P5Q Pro
#2 GB DS3L (I suspect the only difference from DS3R is the PCI-E slot?)

Thanks.

P.S. I'm actualy living in europe, so i don't realy have access to DFI, Biostar or other brands except theese three.


[EDIT]: Thanks for the responses, i've decided to take the EP45-UD3R.

I'd recommend the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R. Its cheap, has nice features and overclocks like a breeze. Got my E5200 to 4.0ghz with little hassle, using Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. Temps never go above 55c.

BoBzeBuilder wrote:

I'd recommend the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R. Its cheap, has nice features and overclocks like a breeze. Got my E5200 to 4.0ghz with little hassle, using Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. Temps never go above 55c.

Is there a significant difference between DS3L and DS3R ? Because i'm buying a 260GTX, so i don't realy need the other PCI-E slot.
Also i'm having some doubts about their cooling, honestly - that little heatsink over the north bridge doesn't look too assuring , and mosfets don't have any at all. Is it enough to keep the temps down?

If you don't need the extra PCI-E slot, then go with the DS3L, but I'll probably be doing crossfire with two cheap ATI cards in the future. Also I've had no problems with the NB cooling. Just make sure you have good ariflow in your case, and you'll be fine. The P45 chipset does run cooler than the P35 it replaces.

The GA-EP45-DS3R also has the ICH10R south bridge vs. ICH10 in the budget models.

You could even save $10-15 more bucks and go with a tried and true P35 board. Hell, even lots of P965 boards got BIOS updates for the 45nm CPUs. They all overclock like crazy. I have Gigabyte P35 and P965 mobos and have the 965 running 450MHz FSB right now. My RAM and CPUs become the limit before the chipsets do. Some CPUs have FSB limitations, such as the E4x00 series. The E4300 and and E4500 I've worked with could hardly manage >300 MHz FSB while my E6300 is happy at that 450MHz x 7 and my Q6600 runs 400x8.

The heatsinks aren't that much of a worry. People just tend to get all scared when hardware isn't running lukewarm. Look up the GA P965 boards to see what a tiny heatsink really looks like. I actually hot glued a 40mm fan to my 965 board cuz of how far I pushed the chipset. But the P35 and newer boards have bigger heatsinks, and P45 runs cooler because of (I think) 65nm manufacturing.

Thanks for the responses. So, basicaly i got the answer i needed. I'll go for the gigabyte
By the way, i was searching the gigabyte website, and came in to contact with theese mainboards. I'll take the EP45-UD3R as soon as it hits the stores.