VHanded lalala: Now is the Motherboard: ASUS P5B-E PLUS

Friday, April 13, 2007

Now is the Motherboard: ASUS P5B-E PLUS

Ok, I believe most people who read my blog knows that I am going to buy a new PC at next semester(end of June), and I had started to survey on price and hardware performance one by one, to ensure my hardware won't outdated in 3 years(like my laptop).

My future motherboard
Before I start choosing, I had to set a few criteria:

Overclockable
Quiet
Environmental friendly
Looks cool
Not too expensive
Support Core 2 Duo and SATA 3Gb/s
DDR2 800/667(so I can upgrade later)

Of course, when mention about overclocking, people will point to ASUS, and I think because of this function, the motherboards are much more expensive than other ordinary motherboard. OK, make it simple, I abandoned other brands, and just stick to ASUS. 3 motherboards were placed in my choosing box: P5B, P5B-E PLUS, and P5N-E SLI.

Funny, P5B-E PLUS sounds more advance than P5B, but the PLUS version is cheaper. 1 feature that make me included P5N-E SLI in my choices is as the name, SLI (Scalable Link Interface), which means can connect 2 graphic cards together to process a task faster. However, I am not a gamer, I don't need SLI, but that's not the reason I gave it up, is because the chipset that it use is NF650i SLI, I seldom hear that chipset, and worry about the compatibility with certain software.

The reason I choose P5B-E PLUS, is because of the overclocking feature, the prices, and the material. It uses 100% All High-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors to make the board, and it is cool(see the picture). Currently the price is RM590 at LowYat.

Other features of this motherboard is here:
Intel LGA775(Core 2 Duo socket)
Quad Core Ready(maybe 3 years later)
Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533
Fanless design(or Stack Cool 2)
6 SATA II socket
High definition audio
IEEEx1, USBx10

and other common features. Click here for the full specification.