The Mother Board

[bubs353]

Hello all i'm thinking of buying a new motherboard . And from what i had heard and seen Asus motherboards are the best out there as far i can see. And there are these two Asus motherboards that fits my budget and have lots of positive feedbacks from people who use them. The motherboards are Asus P5Q SE PLUS and Asus P5P43TD. The P5Q SE PLUS has P45 newer chipset but supports only DDR2 ram. But the P5P43 supports DDR3 ram but has the P43 chipset. i dont know so much about ram and chipset. So anyone who knows can you help me decide which one is better and why? Any comment is appreciated.

[thomas_w_bowman]

First of all

Next question that anyone has to ask - what are you planning to use this build for ? I'll try to help you evaluate the differences between these boards without knowing... First of all, they BOTH support 16 Gb Max Memory

Asus P5Q SE PLUS, as you note, newer and uses DDR2 1200(O.C)/1066. Mostly I see that it has no RAID Support (no big deal for a typical user).
Seems to want to use slower memory...but it would work just fine.

ASUS P5P43TD, DDR3 1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800, no RAID support eiher. Seems like a decent choice, best price.

ASUS P5P43TD Pro, again DDR3 1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800, SATA RAID onboard, south Bridge uses ICH10R (not ICH10 - newer chipset ?), also offers eSATA on back panel. Not much more money, looks like the prime choice - although you may never notice the RAID, etc. unless you like to tinker... I'd get DDR3 1600 even if I didn't want to OC... and Newegg has an Open Box on sale (act fast if you want it) for $66 - cheapest of all...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131395R&cm_re=Asus_P5P43TD-_-13-131-395R-_-Product

I'd suggest Min of 4GB, perhaps 8Gb (4x2), check product reviews for a nice 750w PS - for CPU - I have no idea of your budget - so:

$260 - Intel Core2 Q9400S Yorkfield 2.66GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Quad-Core Processor - Retail (6Mb Cache)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115209

or
$260 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550 - Retail (16Mb Cache)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

or - if money does matter:
$150 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q8200 - Retail (4Mb Cache)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115055

About $100 for 4Gb Memory - CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260

I gotta figure out when to quit - that should be enough said...
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[thomas_w_bowman]

Oh yeah - this might get more responses on Reccomendations Forum...
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[fussnfeathers]

Choice is also going to depend somewhat on the OS. If you're going to reuse XP or Vista 32 bit, DDR3 is pretty much a waste, as is any amount over 4GB. The OS will only recognize and use 3.4GB RAM, give or take. In that case, DDR2 will be more than adequate, and really, while I recommend 4GB as a rule, most users can run just fine with 2GB to start, and add more later.

However, if you're planning to upgrade to a 64 bit OS (XP, Vista, or Win 7) DDR3 would be a better choice, in as much capacity as you can comfortably afford. The OS will use all available RAM, and the speed difference will be noticable.
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[bubs353]

Sorry for little late reply. Thank you thomas_w_bowman and fussnfeathers for your thoughts and ideas, really helpful.