What's the best motherboard on the market in your opinion?

Question

In the future i'm thinking of building myself a new PC, obviously the first thing to do is to choose a good motherboard. I want one that will fit one of the best Intel Quad Core processors currently on the market.

I would want the option to fit at least 16GB of DDR2 RAM. With at least 6 SATA2 connecters, RAID 5 & 10 compatable. At least 2 PCI Express slots, 1 ATA IDE connecter, 2 PCI slots. (That would be the bare minium requirements. The more room for possible expansions the better)

I like ASRock for motherboards which 3 of their boards would your recommend to me, please? Link below-

http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp

Or maybe you would suggest another make of motherboard, if so please leave your suggestions and if possible links.

Thanks so much guys! -Paul

Answer 1

Only this one fit your criteria.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=X58%20Deluxe&s=

Answer 2

ASUS all the way....Foxconn are good also.



Thing is, I have to ask, what're you building?



the only o/s that'll be able to utilize that much RAM would be 64 bit linux, which is a great o/s but I just wondered what you wanted such a moster amount of RAM for.......

Especially since you have opted for a single cpu, yes I know it's quad core but if you were doing high-end video editing or something I would think you would have gone for a dual-quad core machine.



Given the cost of the rig you are looking at making, you might be better of with a Mac Pro.



I hate to say that, I favour pc's over Mac's but for what you need, the Mac would be best I think.

Answer 3

Seriously ASUS, keeps you stable and you can always find the drivers, All my built machines use ASUS, I sometime try others but I always come back to ASUS. New boards are out all the time so check what current from their website first before you buy.

Answer 4

I'd go with thr Asus Rampage II Gene



Chipset Intel® X58 /ICH10R

System Bus Up to 6400 MT/s with QuickPath Interconnection

Memory 6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory

Triple channel memory architecture

Expansion Slots 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 support at dual x16 speed

1 x PCIe 2.0 x4

1 x PCI 2.2

Multi-GPU Support Support NVIDIA SLI™ / ATI CrossFireX™ Technology

Storage Intel ICH10R controller

6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports

Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10

JMicron® JMB363 PATA and SATA controller

1 xUltraDMA 133/100/66/33 for up to 2 PATA devices

1 xInternal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port

1 xExternal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)







EAX® Advanced™ HD 4.0

X-Fi CMSS®-3D

X-Fi Crystalizer™

Creative ALchemy

Supports Optical S/PDIF out ports on rear

IEEE 1394 2 x 1394a ports (1 port at back I/O, 1 port onboard)

USB 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel)

ASUS Unique Features Power Design

- 8-phase CPU power

- 2-phase QPI/DRAM power

- 2-phase NB power

- 2-phase Memory power



Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x External SATA

1 x IEEE 1394a

1 x LAN(RJ45) port

6 x USB 2.0/1.1

8 -Channel Audio I/O

1 x PS/2 Keyboard port(purple)

1 x S/PDIF (Optical)

1 x Clr CMOS switch

Internal I/O Connectors 3 x USB connectors supports additional 6 USB 2.0 ports

1 x IDE connector for two devices

7 x SATA connectors

5 x Fan connectors: 1 x CPU / 2 x Chassis / 2 x Optional

2 x thermal sensor connectors

1 x IEEE1394a connector

1 x LCD Poster connector

1 x Chassis Intrusion connector

24-pin ATX Power connector

8-pin ATX 12V Power connector

1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS header

1 x Front panel audio connector

1 x CD audio in

System panel connector

BIOS 16 Mb Flash ROM



Accessories 1 x SLI Cable

1 x External LCD Poster

1 x 2-in-1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit

1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable

2 x SATA cables

1 x I/O Shield

1 x Cable Ties

1 x ROG theme label

1 x User's manual

Answer 5

Gigabyte EP45 - DS4P

held atomics hot award for almost 6months



however go with one of their X48 chipset boards to allow the ability for Xfire in the future

Answer 6

Hi think the best motherboard is the socket am2 motherboard you get so much more then the other makes checkout the link