Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R ATX Intel Motherboard

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ZipZoomFly Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz 8MB LGA1156 Processor $175 Discuss (2)

Newegg AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Quad Core CPU $231 Discuss (4)

Newegg ECS ATX Motherboard w/ ECS GeForce 8400 GS 256MB $84 Discuss (2)

Newegg ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 nForce 750i Motherboard $95 Discuss (0)

Recent Gigabyte offerings have been quite solid. This board is usually well received in all reviews.

I agree #1...
This product (GA-EP45-UD3R) and its brother (GA-EP-45-UD3P) both are good products. I'd personally prefer the dual PCI-E slots over the extra PCI slot. Both are also good overclockers (depending on your CPU choice). The Q9550 seems to be favored for price vs performance if you can receive the E0 stepping when you order. NewEgg seems to have been regularly selling the Q9550 with E0 stepping (according to those who have responded).

I'd recommend everyone also check out some potential memory compatibility issues. Choose your memory carefully. Seems several on the NewEgg forum prefer the G.Skill brand...but note there are some BIOS edits to stabilize the system.

I'd also review issues with the rebate system. As several have noted in their NewEgg reviews, they have never received their rebate or have waited a long time to receive it. Plus, it seems that several have noted they are now receiving cards with the amount credited to it instead of a check.

Buy it for the best price and NewEgg's return policy. Once you've cut the UPC off, your stuck.

FYI, there are variants of this board with DDR3 support (GA-EP45C-UD3R and GA-EP45T-UD3R)...but again, review the stats as there are limitations with each.

One last suggestion...since DDR2 is getting a bit old, one might consider an I7 board (if you can spare the extra cash) or wait for the newer I5 / I3 next month. All of these sales, rebates and price drops are surely in prelude to the release of the new I5 / I3 chipsets (ie, clearing stock).

If you go for the i7, as #2 suggests, here's my oc experience with the 920. I've had the i7 920 running at 4.0 ghz on the Asus rampage II extreme since November. It just kicked the bucket and I'm pretty sure it's the CPU. The CPU was liquid cooled with overkill of a system, and never got above 55C in temp. Moral of the story: if you want close to 4ghz speeds, I would either splurge for the i7-975 extreme edition or go for one of the Q9660 or better. The latter will save you $700, but you give up triple channel ddr3. I'm not sure how much of a boost my i7 was over my previous dual core system honestly.

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