Wenker Man

Its a tricky one this.

My current Asus board is on the fritz (its been rubbish in general since day one TBH), and I also want a new GFX card. I'm probably going to go for a Ati HD4870 as its the right price for my budget and is slightly shorter in size. Processor is Intel e6400 with 4gig DDR2 800MHz RAM

Problem is my case will not accept anything like a HD4870/9800GTX/260GTX in the normal position that is found on most boards for the first PCie-x16 slot which is located on what would be the 2nd slot from the right of the board (1st slot on the right usually being taken by a PCie-x1, blank, a power connector, or a huge heatsink ).

The card needs to go in the 3rd slot position or further left/lower, otherwise the length of the gfx card fouls the rear of my hard drives. I can't put the drives elsewhere, and I like to keep my case as its a very nice looking Silverstone case.

What I'm after is a layout withe the first PCie-x16 slot located like this: http://uk.asus.com/prog_content/midd...spx?model=2267

Thing is, after my current experience, I'm wary about going for another Asus

I don't really need or want crossfire/SLi. I just want a good solid rock stable board with good audio and capeable of minor overclocking, needs to have 4 Dimm slots, and of course with the gfx slot in the right place. I don't want to spend more than £80.

Any ideas?

Wenker Man

Ok, I think I narrowed it down a tad, seems a P45 based board is the only option. They range from £98 to £123, which has kind of screwed the budget.

Of which the options are

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
Asus P5Q-E
DFI Lan Party DKP45-T2R
DFI Lan Party DKP45-T2RS Plus

Any ideas?

I think I might opt for the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P or Asus P5Q-E as paying an extra £20 for a crossfire board may help futureproof it a little.

Which leads me back to the old Asus vs Gigabyte debate.

I hate picking motherboards! LOL.