Ausus P5K-E or Gigabyte GA-P35 DS3P?

[iman]

Is one better than the other for primarily video/photoshop work? I do need firewire so the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R, which has also been recommended here, won't work for me.

I plan on using one of these MOBOs, the Intel E6850 processor, 2G Corsair XMS 2 ram, and the 8800 GT graphics card.

I know these components are frequently recommended here. Any suggestions?

[Jamie Nixx]

Get the Asus P5K-C.

The E doesn't support DDR3 memory whereas the C does, it also has more features thant the Gigabyte.

[iman]

Are you sure about the C??! I looked at it but the reviews on Newegg from customer were very mixed( some quite bad)! See quote below as example. That's why I looked at the E. Please advise

"Pros: Theoretical long-term flexibility with memory options.

Cons: Go do a search on the major memory manufacturers and see how many of them actually support DDR2 for this board. None. DDR3 only. There's a reason for that. DDR2 will not work reliably at any speed, even 800MHz. What's more is ASUS tech support appears to now be denying that it will work, even though their manuals and websites say it will... or at the very least ASUS is putting some VERY clueless techs on and calling them "Level3". Laughable. An absolute disgrace from a company that I've bought hundreds of boards from[/B].[/I]"
[/I]

[iman]

And this quote as another example from Newegg:
"Pros: Nice features and flexibility. There's no question that (per spec) this board gives you a lot of options into the future for expansion.

Cons: May the almighty have mercy upon your immortal soul if you pick this board up now. I have been a strong ASUS supporter for years, but this board is NOT ready for prime time. I've been banging my head against my desk trying to get RAM to work reliably in this thing, and have got it down to the point now where I can at least get it to boot about 50% of the time. Once booted, it's a rock, but normally it won't even make it into POST. I have to believe that ASUS will continue to release BIOS updates to address these problems, but I strongly recommend purchasing another board.

[Jamie Nixx]

NO, thats bull, i have this board and its flawless, just a bunch of noobs who don't know what they are doing, ALL Asus boards have memory problems due to the voltages being set too low, you increase your voltage while your in the Bios takes 10 seconds and any memory will run fine.

If you still worried, go for the Gigabyte, its a solid board and supports DDR3 memory as well, it lacks some features of the Asus board but its still a great board and very future proof.

[iman]

OK thanks! Do you have instructions for how to increase voltage through the BIOS?

[Jamie Nixx]

Go into Bios, go to Voltages, increase to 2.1.

Done.

[Spiffs]

I got the P5K-E and I used 2 x 1GB DDR2 RAM and it worked on the first boot up perfectly, idunno about the whole DDR3 thing, but DDR2 worked for me :)

so far I didn't change the voltages since it works using default settings and I don't know what to set it to anyways

this RAM:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/main.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=012573&cid=RAM.346.307

[Jamie Nixx]

Its hit and miss, 90% of the time you won't need to do a thing.