Need to decide.

[Capper]

I'll never recommend an ABIT product....to make a long story short, I was reviewing on of their video cards with a jumper on it that ran stock/overclocked......went through three cards, they kept crapping out during testing......on the third card I was able to finish the review before it died.

Abit called complaining about the results, so I told them to test the card themselves and see what happened, my results were better than theirs.....but instead of an apology or anything classy, they simply decided the best way to handle it was to not work with me and ignore my phone calls and emails.

DFI, again, I won't recommend their stuff......they are a company that tweaks so much BIOS stuff that they have all kinds of issues with supporting hardware....and are always quick to pass off the blame to everyone else (Awhile back they took to calling Corsair crap memory). They seem to have regained their touch with their latest boards P35s, but until I actually test one with a variety of memory kits, I won't recommend them.

ASUS has top notch quality control, and uses quality parts....but their customer service and support are problematic....but getting better.

Gigabyte makes some great boards, with honestly what I believe are the best parts you can get.....I've gotten DOA hardware from EVERY SINGLE COMPANY in existence......don't let one experience sully it for you.


As to the EP35C-DS3R, I have it on the bench right now, and its a damned good board.....for DDR3 the limit seems to be 1740-1745FSB, which is fine...its a good board with a good clean layout (I reviewed the non EP version a few months back and liked it, even with a small voltage issue.

[BiteMe1MoreTime]

You might want to give MSI boards a look, I've been running one of their P35 Platinum Combo (DDR2/DDR3) boards for sometime now, it works flawlessly with either type of memory and provides for a easy upgrade path to DDR3 if and when you make the jump.

As a company MSI has great online support (normally answer with a day) and their forums are fantastic.

Newegg.com - MSI P35 Platinum Combo LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

I myself won't own/buy a Ausu board, only because their support and care of end-users completely and totally sucks.

[screwballl]

and I have a hard time suggesting gigabyte boards due to shady UL practices.

The Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 started just like almost any other motherboard. A reference design was sent from Intel to Gigabyte's design center in Taiwan. The test boards were wave-soldered outside of Taipei and production boards were shipped to channels as soon as physically possible to snag some of those "first-to-market" sales.

Even though the motherboard boldly wears CE and FCC markings, this device became one more component that slipped through the cracks. It was later discovered that not only did this motherboard fail European and U.S. electromagnetic interference regulations, but that tens of thousands of the motherboards shipped months ago.

[BiteMe1MoreTime]

As a rule I like Gigabyte products, mainly due to their use of quality components. As for the UL issue, I'd be willing to bet that if they tested all the other vendor models to the same standards, they would come up with like results, every vendor takes as many short cuts as possible to increase their bottom line. No company tests every board in every model line to see if they pass the standards.

[Parker]

I like EVGA, ASUS, DFI and Gigabyte boards.
There all good company's, they supply good boards, and have pretty good customer service (from my experience anyway)

Keep us updated Carl!

[Tech Geek Deluxe]

Heya Carl ... that Abit IP35 Pro is the best board I have built on ... bar none. I have done 6 builds in the last 9 Months ... 4 on P965 ICH8r ... 2 on P35 ICH9r [$150 + Mobos] ... and I have done 50 or so new builds and about 200 re-builds of various types.

The Abit IP 35 Pro ... is the top in every category over the other Gigabyte and Asus Mobos I have recently built on.

There is only one con I can come up with.
The board has hardware U-guru that the drivers must be installed or it shows in the device manager as an uninstalled device.

I do not use the software part of U-guru tho it actually has great features.

So that is it ... not much of a con ... but when I install mobo drivers ... I only install the drivers and only the bare minimum software that I absolutely have to ... I'm a stickler for super skinny systems with the lowest overhead possible.

BTW: I do like the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35 ... which I have one of ... very nice ... I just don't like the bios as well as the Abit ... nor the onboard fan control options ... or lack therof.

[Carl Martin]

I'm sure I'll be happy with it. Like I said, my AT8 32X has been an excellent board, and this is supposed to surpass that.

Now I'm just going crazy waiting for it to arrive. It's supposed to be here tomorrow...

Carl

[Capper]

Originally Posted by screwballl

and I have a hard time suggesting gigabyte boards due to shady UL practices.

C'mon dude.....almost every board comes from the same group of factories in Taiwan or China....You'd be surprised......back when I was in China this last summer, walking through the ECS factory I saw boxes going to no less than 4 major motherboard companies and no less than 3 major OEM companies.

MSI makes some good boards, my issue with them is their support for their products (If you notice its my issue with many of the companies I complain about). MSI will release a great board, then release 1-2 BIOS updates, then stop supporting the board.

[screwballl]

true but with issues of my own with this P965-DS3 Rev 3 board... just my own personal issue with this series... the P35s hopefully have changed enough so that this is not an issue.

[Capper]

I guess what I'm trying to say is most of these boards are made with the same parts....they all come from the same place.....and that you are going to find DOAs and FUBAR'd board with any company.....instead of focusing on that, focus on what a company DOES ABOUT that.......meaning their RMS and warranty policy, support, etc.

there are exceptions, both Gigabyte and ASUS use high end caps and mosfets, others skimp on those parts......and occasionally a company will try to save some money and buy from unknown vendors, like Abit did with caps a couple years ago.....and that almost put them out of business.