I have a q6600, and may opt for a quad penryn, mainly looking at seamless 1333 FSB, and a stable overclocker. Solid caps is a necessity, and I want something which runs cool, with the FSB at 390 MHz or thereabouts (modest overclocks). I'll also be looking at tight memory latencies 3-3-3-8 @ ddr2 800, currently I'm doing 4-3-3-8 at the same speed on my P5B dlx.
Budget - up to 15~16K max.
Candidates:-
Asus Striker (biased towards)
Asus P5K dlx (biased towards)
Asus Blitz formula (biased towards)
Asus P5K premium
Gigabyte P35 DSR3 (Do not like the enormous heatpipe solution on the DQ6 so its out)
MSI P35 Diamond
MSI P35 Platinum
Don't consider the audio solutions as I have an X-Fi Platinum already. Also I am not really in a position to afford SLI right now, but am looking at the 680i purely for features, performance, and OC'ability.
I also need an additional PCI slot well away from the PCIe slot which has an 8800gtx + HR03 plus that takes a sh1tload of space. the P5B dlx has the last slot at the bottom as a PCI slot, this suits me.
Have I missed any worthies - any other boards?
Oh and the chipset should be either a 680i or a P35. I am biased towards the 680i, but want something hassle free, like my P965. Are NVIDIA solutions hassle free these days? Advise, I've not used NVIDIA on Intel personally. Also will the memory unlinking on the 680i help me?? I ask because this was supposed to remove poor memory from the equation as a limit for OC'ing. I happen to have good memory (micron D9's @ 1066, my OCZ Platinum XTC's)
But I need advice as to which is more suitable for me. Can anyone do a vis-a-vis chipset comparison please?
No newegg, I need my local warranty on this one...
I'll be sticking with this board for another year and a half so it better last as far as features and expandibility go.
Advise guys...
Budget - up to 15~16K max.
Candidates:-
Asus Striker (biased towards)
Asus P5K dlx (biased towards)
Asus Blitz formula (biased towards)
Asus P5K premium
Gigabyte P35 DSR3 (Do not like the enormous heatpipe solution on the DQ6 so its out)
MSI P35 Diamond
MSI P35 Platinum
Don't consider the audio solutions as I have an X-Fi Platinum already. Also I am not really in a position to afford SLI right now, but am looking at the 680i purely for features, performance, and OC'ability.
I also need an additional PCI slot well away from the PCIe slot which has an 8800gtx + HR03 plus that takes a sh1tload of space. the P5B dlx has the last slot at the bottom as a PCI slot, this suits me.
Have I missed any worthies - any other boards?
Oh and the chipset should be either a 680i or a P35. I am biased towards the 680i, but want something hassle free, like my P965. Are NVIDIA solutions hassle free these days? Advise, I've not used NVIDIA on Intel personally. Also will the memory unlinking on the 680i help me?? I ask because this was supposed to remove poor memory from the equation as a limit for OC'ing. I happen to have good memory (micron D9's @ 1066, my OCZ Platinum XTC's)
But I need advice as to which is more suitable for me. Can anyone do a vis-a-vis chipset comparison please?
No newegg, I need my local warranty on this one...
I'll be sticking with this board for another year and a half so it better last as far as features and expandibility go.
Advise guys...