I'll be selling off my excellent P5KDlx, and its time to go with another board. Got bored of it, and didn't like the overclocking potential of this board two reasons for selling.
I'm not against another P35 board, or any other chipset, but i'm a little confused and out of the market for awhile, so no idea of the latest stuff.
Here are my requirements:
1. Future proofing - quite obviously, this'll be my last upgrade before tying the knot. It better last for at least 18 months, the board not the knot silly
2. Proccy will be my Q6600 now and a Q9450 when its out. I'll be on 4 GB of DDR2, so please no DDR3 boards
3. Overclocking is for benchies only, else I run on stock, don't want the best overclocking board around, but it should be able to do so occasionally.
4. Going NVIDIA again with the GPU, and my 8800GTX will be sold in lieu of a 9800GTX when its out. SLI is a 10% possibility, but not likely. Won't go ATi, no crossfire support needed.
5. Need an E-SATA port, as I have a 750GB HDD used for backup, I cannot afford to waste time on USB transfers
6. Board should be well cooled, heatpipes preferably, I won't be spending on any add-on cooling stuff, except my CPU and GPU coolers.
7. Solid state caps please
8. Very important - should have a PCI slot right at the bottom of the board. Using an EMU 1212 soundcard soon, want to minimise EMI, also the card has another daughter card so it takes up 2 slot places, but only 1 PCI slot
9. Not very important, but I do like a good looking board, a little copper here and there wouldn't hurt
Based on my requirements suggest a board.
I've put up a poll for the chipset. If you vote there, could you suggest a couple of boards based on that vote in a reply while keeping in mind my rather specific requirements?
Max budget - 12.5K. If there's anything good for more, please list it here.
Thanks!
I'm not against another P35 board, or any other chipset, but i'm a little confused and out of the market for awhile, so no idea of the latest stuff.
Here are my requirements:
1. Future proofing - quite obviously, this'll be my last upgrade before tying the knot. It better last for at least 18 months, the board not the knot silly

2. Proccy will be my Q6600 now and a Q9450 when its out. I'll be on 4 GB of DDR2, so please no DDR3 boards
3. Overclocking is for benchies only, else I run on stock, don't want the best overclocking board around, but it should be able to do so occasionally.
4. Going NVIDIA again with the GPU, and my 8800GTX will be sold in lieu of a 9800GTX when its out. SLI is a 10% possibility, but not likely. Won't go ATi, no crossfire support needed.
5. Need an E-SATA port, as I have a 750GB HDD used for backup, I cannot afford to waste time on USB transfers
6. Board should be well cooled, heatpipes preferably, I won't be spending on any add-on cooling stuff, except my CPU and GPU coolers.
7. Solid state caps please
8. Very important - should have a PCI slot right at the bottom of the board. Using an EMU 1212 soundcard soon, want to minimise EMI, also the card has another daughter card so it takes up 2 slot places, but only 1 PCI slot
9. Not very important, but I do like a good looking board, a little copper here and there wouldn't hurt
Based on my requirements suggest a board.
I've put up a poll for the chipset. If you vote there, could you suggest a couple of boards based on that vote in a reply while keeping in mind my rather specific requirements?
Max budget - 12.5K. If there's anything good for more, please list it here.
Thanks!