Looking for a Pentium D mobo

What I need is a Pentium D mobo for my system, with support for C2D for future upgrades. The only requirements being that it supports at least 2xpata, supports dual channel ddr2677, and has a full speed (not 4x) pci-e.

What I've found is a MSI P6N SLI-FI but some of the reviews make me nervous, i.e. usb port over-volting and frying devices attached (sucky way to loose an IPOD).

Anyways... any thoughts, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Already owned
Pentium D 820
Mushkin HP-580AP PSU
2x WD pata 250 HDs
Samsung Lightscribe 18x DVD writer

Buying
PNY 8800GTS
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 675

and the above listed mobo, withstanding any good suggestions.
Total budget for upgrade, No more than $500 USD.

My goal is to built a good gamer that I can get a good year or two out of. No overclocking. No problems, now or in the future. Reliability is critical. I was thinking Asus, but I don't think so now. Seems like their QC has gone to hell form all the reviews I have read on their sub-$200 mobos.

I will be ordering these parts on Sunday night 4/22, so after that thanks for the advice but I would have already made my choices.

Lastly,
thanks in advance. Even if it's just saying you don't think I can get any better for the money.

Given your PCI-E, memory and device requirements, you've ruled out any motherboard with an Intel chipset. I'm not sure, but the Nvidia 600 series say they need DDR2 800 memory so you may have ruled out the mobo you've suggested too.

That seems to leave you with Nvidia 570 chipset mobos.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...rce+500+series
Ignore the Asus 590 chipset board.
There's one DFI board with SiS chipset, but from what I've read about the chipset I'm not convinced it will handle C2D as claimed.

I suggest you consider DDR2 800 memory instead. You will have a much better choice of motherboards.

According to the manufacture, the motherboard I am mainly considering at the minute, MSI P6N SLI-FI supports dual channel DDR2 533/667/800, using up to four 240-pin DDR2 DIMMs. I knew i checked it before but I went back and looked again, didn't want to make a shit-head mistake like that.

I checked out the board you suggested lynx, and thank you.
The jetway board is not an option because what i have read on the net is that they manufacture nothing but garbage, bad reviews all around. The $200 dollar Asus board is great! I would love to have it, but it's out of my price range. And the other Asus board is one of those models that QC seems to have forgotten from the reviews.


Unless someone can point me to a better (cheaper) that I've missed, looks like I am locked into the MSI by default. Newegg is great, but I am just as open to tigerdirect.

Yes, sorry, I should have looked at that board in more detail.

That means that any board with the Nvidia 600 series chipset may suit your purposes if the other conditions match.

If you get in there quickly and don't mind open box there are a couple of good deals here and here.

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding some sites at the moment, looks like a major DNS server may be down somewhere, so I can't look up the full specs of the Asus boards.