All,

I'm building a new PC and i can't choose between the Asus P5K, P5QL and P5Q model boards. They use the Intel P35, P43 and P45 chipsets respectively.
Does anyone have any insight that might swing my thinking either way?

GA-EP45-DQ6

IIRC the 4* series was a significant upgrade over the 3* as you'd expect, but mainly in areas that are rather high end, so if it's just a mid level system.......

hi reso
thanks but i'm a gigas***e hater.
love
mr hardware

ah thanks giririsss

P5Q and the P5QL-"Pro" use splashtop (asus express gate) if thats of any interest to you. I'm actually in the market for a new motherboard myself but am waiting for the X58 series chipset which is due out very shortly and will take the new Nehalem processors.

Just get a P5Q-E or a P5Q Pro
Depending on your price range.

I just bought the P5Q-Deluxe, seems ok thus far

As to Giga-ByteMe, you can stick that brand where the sun don't shine >:(

P5Q series decided on.

Thanks for your help gents, and Hermitech speaks the truth.

Best manufacturer ever is always gonna have hatas.

Just to tag onto this thread, im in the same boat and I was looking at the Asus P5E Deluxe for $228. However I cannot really see the difference (apart from X48 chipset and P45 chipset) between that and the Asus P5Q Deluxe for $229.

Oh and from what i've read the X48 seems like the better option as its that tiny bit faster.

last edited by Bad at 12:17:48 21/Aug/08

Test show they are faster in some areas and slower in others. The P45 are such good chipsets, the only reason you would have to buy such an expensive chipset as an X48, would be for the Official 1600FSB support.

P5Q-E / P5Q Deluxe definately

Gigabyte forever!

giggity giggity gigabyte.

asus fanboi reporting in

The corpse of my recent grievance with a GA-965P-DQ6

http://www.users.on.net/~thevault/HERMITech/Mobo/DQ6_Arthur.JPG

I don't really have a problem with Asus but I personally prefer Gigabyte. Out of all the motherboards I've used over the years and all the motherboards I've installed for others, I've found gigabyte to be the most reliable over the long term. At this stage my next motherboard will definitely be asus though as I love the idea of having a usable operating system stored on the board. Ultimately I'm hoping they eventually start releasing boards with enough flash onboard to store a full blown OS but splashtop will do for now.

What problems had you been having herm?

I'm a big Asus/Gigabyte fan. They're both long lasting, feature rich and have good performacne from my experience.

I think the 4 series chipsets are good at the moment. From what I've read they have great power efficiency, DDR3 support and high speed FSB. The 3 series are pretty good too. If you're building something midrange I would go for which ever best fits your price range. We've built a couple of systems with 3 and 4 series at work lately and they're both performing well.

i had gigabyte going back to the old 440BX chipset of pwn that was (at the time) one of the most stable and fastest chipsets out and the gigabyte had ide connectors coming out of the ying yang.

my last 2 gigabyte boards have been equally good.
but my current one, is really starting to crap me off.

DS3 i think, for whatever reason (and apparently a common/known issue with the board)
It has this lovely habbit of getting stuck in a reboot cycle where it wont POST, because the Bios recovery thing dosnt work properly

now back on the old 440BX the Dual Bios was exactly that 2 bios chips, on these new ones i don't think it is they use some software that does it.

when its working its working fine, but when it f*ks up it POS to try and get it out of the reboot loop

I have not idea what motherboard i will get next they all seem to be throwing so much bling on and forgetting about the little thing.s