I just ordered the Intel Q9450 CPU, and now I need a motherboard.
What I will use from old system.
Memory: Corsair 6400 (4-4-4-12) 2x1gb= 2gb total. Also have additional 2gb (2x1gb pc6400 OCZ) that I
May use in the new system for total of 4gb. (but will see how it affects the OC’ing. )
OS= vista 64 ultimate
ATI x1950 pro (current MS rating is 5.9 but may upgrade to Nvidia 8800gt)
2x sata seagate 120gb hd’s in a Raid 0 array (total 240gb hd space)
2x IDE DVD burners
1x sata 320gb backup HD
I run 2 monitors (1=22”w lcd@1680, 2= 19”@1280)
Also have 61” ws hd tv connected via component out to watch movies at 1920x
1 – 1394 firewire for my camcorder.

I am looking at several x38 boards, and trying to make a decision

Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 = leaning this way for now

Asus P5E = I just hate to even go to their site because it is so slow.

Abit ix38 quad

I want a MB that will handle reasonable oc’ing, has good bios updates and drivers.

Also…..would be nice to have a good OC software from the Mfg. that runs under vista64 so I can just set it and go.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Bow

Also…..would be nice to have a good OC software from the Mfg. that runs under vista64 so I can just set it and go.

Most people agree that BIOS overclocking is more stable. Also, overclocking is something that you should not just "set and go" with. You should progressively increase the FSB and run stability tests.

I love my P5E. I've posted this in probably 10 threads now. You seriously can't go wrong with it, though I'm sure the other boards are very close in performance/overclocking.

Not really that much money.....and this setup will last me for several years. By then, who knows what will be new. But thanks MrsBytch for your input.

P5E or DS4. I have used both, and they OC about the same. I like the DS4 because of the cooling.

Both can oc just about the same. Brands used to matter with the older chipset motherboards, but not the x38/x48. I'd say get the gigabyte board. It runs slightly cooler, and has duel bios. If you corrupt the primary while flashing, the second takes over and you're no longer screwed.

where did you get q9450?

He/she ordered ahead of time. Besides, q9450 is on shelves now.

on the abit you always have the ultimate option of replacing the socketed BIOS chip - can't do that on the Gigabyte as it's soldered.

whilst we all agree that for ultimate overclocking it should be done from the BIOS abit's uGuru can do reasonable overclocking in Windows at the click of a mouse.

The gigabyte board is rock solid.

no 8 gigs?

I just bought and installed a Q9450 in a P5E board; initial impressions - you have to upgrade the BIOS to handle the new 45nm CPU but that was seemless. I don't like the position of the 6x SATA ports on this board.. make sure you have a case large enough otherwise you'll be kinking cables. I choose a Antec P190 case and feel it's perhaps a little above average however they still need to work on their design. The board runs at about 36 degrees (C) which is OK I guess. I hav't seen the CPU do more than 26(C) yet which is impressive. At idle I've seen it drop to 19 using the Zalman 9700 cooler. Incidentally, this cooler doesn't quite fit the board. Well, it fits but the lever sticks out over 2 RAM slots so you can only get 4gb in the board!! useless - as I need 8gb I had them cut it off with tin-snips (much to the protests of the guy in the shop as it voids your warrenty).. so probably avoid this cooler/mb combination.

Personally I'll be happy to "e-bay" or even hold onto this board and upgrade to the Nehalem platform when it comes out assuming it's faster and AMD are still struggling. Anything I can do to improve speed (but at a reasonable cost) is great, my initial impression is my 8800GT is a little sluggish at 1920x1024 resolution and I've only plugged in one monitor so far! (of 4).

hope that helps with your buying decisions.

ps if you want some bang for buck investigate upgrading those old HD's. I used to have several drives including 4x320gb of the older generation (seagate .9 I think?) in a RAID 10 but have upgraded to much larger/newer .10 and first impressions are drives are much faster.. if there is interest I may post some benchies, although I'm sure you can find some somewhere.

cheers

I have just bought a similar system as Ewart:

Q9460 ASUS P5E with Corsair Dominator 1066 (2*2Gb) and zalman 9700 cooler. I also saw the cooler to be a little tight with all the components in the board. Upgraded they bios and it works very ok. Keep in mind the board only has 1 IDE, so there might be a problem if you have more than one IDE/ATAPI. And the SATA ports are not that well located. Hopefully i got a Coolmaster case so i have tons of space, although there is quite a bunch of cables.

Ewart: have you tried to overclock your system? using the windowa asus app or the bios? If you have any short info on this so that i can begin testing.

thanks