December 5, 2009

For system builders, one of the most critical components to get right is the motherboard. Once you’ve selected or at least have a good idea of what type of processor you would like to build your system around, the next step is to find a motherboard that will support the processor and meet all of your other needs. The motherboard is the single component that will have the largest effect on what you can do with your system, so it is important to have a good idea of what you would like to be able to use your computer for, and thus, what components you expect to use either now or as future upgrades.

At MyPCReborn.com, we are big fans of the P5Q Pro (and now there is a Pro Turbo) motherboards from Asus. The P5Q is a great versatile board that can be used in a variety of systems and configurations. This is an LGA 775 socket board and features Intel’s P45 chipset which is solid for most applications. The front side bus can handle speeds up to 1600 MHz without overclocking, and the board can accommodate Intel’s 45nm chips. The BIOS is intuitive and easy to use and the built-in OC profiles are handy if you like to mess around with overclocking. The Asus C.P.R. feature is extremely nice in that it automatically resets the BIOS to default settings if you screw something up overclocking; there’s no need to crack the case and mess with jumpers to reset the BIOS. Hardware-wise there are plenty of USB ports, two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots for Crossfire, on-board gigabit LAN and 8-channel audio

However, it is very important to note that this is an LGA 775 socket board, which means that it will not accommodate the latest Core i5 and i7 processors from Intel. It will, however, work great for the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors, which are by no means outdated yet. Still, if you are looking to build a system with the most bleeding-edge components, this board won’t give you that capability. Additionally, while it can handle ram up to 1600 MHz, it does not support DDR3 so you are restricted to DDR2. Finally, don’t be tricked into trying the in-OS overclocking utilities. They’ll just mess up your computer and make it harder to recover if your system goes down from your tweaking. This is a rock-solid board that has excellent overclocking potential, but you want to do it in the BIOS

The Asus P5Q Pro is a great versatile board from a reputable company. It should meet most system builders' needs and gives good upgradeability for a few years. If you’re in the market, you can check it out at Newegg here.

And Asus has detailed specs and information here.

Need a recommendation on a motherboard for your configuration? Have any questions or anything to add? Leave a comment or drop us a line.

(Image courtesy of Asus.)

Foremost among these innovations is the elimination of the front-side bus and the integration of the memory controller on-board. This allows for bandwidth rates up to 38.4 GB/s using three channels at 1600 MHz, compared to 12.8 GB/s on a Core 2 with a 1600 MHz FSB. These chips also boast improved performance when handling multi-threaded applications, using such technologies as Intel's TurboBoost and Hyper-Threading.

Is it worth trading in your Core 2 Quad for the latest processors? Probably not. However, the advances made with these chips are impressive enough that they are probably worth the extra money when it comes time to upgrade again.

The folks over at Tom's Hardware have an excellent in-depth review and analysis (with benchmarks) for the Core i5 and i7 brands. Read it here. And TechReport.com breaks the new tech down quite well for those of us without Doctorates in Electrical Engineering. Here.

Here are Intel's official pages:
Core i7
Core i5

And you can always count on Newegg for all of your shopping needs.

(Image courtesy of Intel.)