Which P45 board and video card?

[kbunt]

If you were building an affordable/cheap system and getting a P45 board and video card, which ones would you get?

Gigabyte EP45-DS3R (2 x Realtek 8111C chips)
or
Asus P5Q-E (Marvell 88E8056/88E8001® Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET2)

I think the big issue is the LAN/ethernet chip in the boards. I am not sure which ones are most compatible in Linux and then it also depends on the performance even if it's supported.

Can anyone comment?

The other possibility would be getting a P35 board as there's a lot that are supported. But, do the P45 boards offer a cooler running board and/or better power consumption levels?

I think the video card would be nvidia. I think the majority of the newer Nvidia cards are supported, right? I thought I'd get the cheapest 8800 series card or whatever drops in price at the time. I wanted something that ran cool, though.

The audio chips could also be an issue but I haven't come across too many reports of audio problems/issues with either of the boards. Is that true?

My storage connections would all be SATA.

Does anyone here have a mb that has one of those LAN chips? How is your board in K/Ubuntu?

[NumericalMethods]

Re: Which P45 board and video card?

Hey,

Can't really comment on the compatibility of the ethernet chipsets but the Marvell chipsets on the two Asus boards I have run with Kubuntu have never given me any problems. I almost got one of the Asus P45 boards but what put me off was some reports of bugs in the BIOS and stuff. Being that it's a new chipset and not as many people will be buying one as they wait for 'Nehalem' to arrive instead I steered clear and dropped down to the P35 chipset. Then again I am 'enthusiastic' about overclocking and never gave a second thought to heat and power consumption.

But... I wouldn't get to worried about board heat and power consumption if you are thinking of a 8800 series card. I have a 8800gt but it idles at 55 C and tops out at about 90 C under load. Not what you could call cool but IMO you don't buy high end graphics cards (primarily aimed at gaming) for workstation power and performance. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend using a 8800 card in Linux, with the proprietary drivers install they perform excellently but if you want cooler temps then you need to look at a 8600 or lower, perhaps one of the newer 9500 or 9600 cards?

Oh, one last thing. I was put off the Gigabyte board you mentioned because I was immediately going to fill it's single PCI slot with a wifi card, leaving me no spare slots - not that I anticipated needing more but you never know . Hope that's some help. Cheers

[kbunt]

Re: Which P45 board and video card?

Thanks for the response. Any chance you got an Asus P5K-E board? That P35 board is a bit cheaper than the P45 boards and I was considering that board as well. I prefer more PCI slots myself. I need at least 6 SATA slots for storage and the extra PCI slots are for possible sound card and maybe a wifi card as well (depending on which usb wireless cards work or how well they work).

[dibl]

Re: Which P45 board and video card?

If you were ordering that graphics card today, here's a helluva deal:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130410

I have one of those -- I'm going to put it in a system I'm building for my grandson. It actually performs a bit better, on some tasks, than my 9600GT. But I paid $195 for mine (a year ago).

[NumericalMethods]

Re: Which P45 board and video card?

I actually got the P5K-Premium as it comes with the Asus wifi AP included on the board. I've found its soooo useful and has good range and software. It's also possible to push the fsb of that board to well over 500 MHz, which is unusual for a P35 board.

As for that graphics card. That is a great deal. The 8800 GTS has a lot more compute power than the 9600 GT, slightly hampered by the less RAM but only in high res applications. The one thing the 9600 GT has over the older 8800 series is H.264 acceleration which is useful if you watch high definition video on you computer as the graphics card will take a large load off the CPU if the acceleration is available. Great if you watch a lot of Bluray discs! Cheers

[dibl]

Re: Which P45 board and video card?

My 9600GT is the so-called "superclocked", and with the "coolbits" option in the Nvidia driver, I can even push it faster. It is almost as fast as the 8800GTS, and like you say it's a bit better on high-def.

[kbunt]

Re: Which P45 board and video card?

A (relatively) cheap 8800GT/S would be the ticket and that card at newegg IS a great deal. Unfortunately, I can only order from the Canadian side and I don't think everything available at newegg.com is for Cdn customers (including that card?).

If you get a 8800GT or 9600/9800 series card, do you require a full-size case/tower?

Perhaps, I'd just get any old Nvidia card to start unless a good deal like that comes around (that is available to me). However, I'd probably invest in a full-size tower so that I could put any card in it.

The Asus boards sound good for Linux. Perhaps, when I'm ready to get one, the LAN kinks will be worked out or I'll go with a P35 board (in which LAN/ethernet issues are minor, solved or don't exist).

[dibl]

Re: Which P45 board and video card?

Yep, these newer graphics cards are pretty huge. I have a big Antec P180 case, and the 8800GTS ends up shoved up against the end of a hard disk drive, or I should say, the power cable to it ends up against the end of the disk drive.