frankle Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 After good success with my P5E and Q9300 I am looking at building a small format computer to use as a web/ftp/torrent server, to check Mail and very basic net surfing. The primary objective is to get a micro-ATX (or uATX) board with on-board graphics working with an E5200 (Dual Core 2.5GHz). I already have the chip, RAM (4GB as it is cheap), 1TB drive, SATA DVD drive and case (Antec Minuet 350). I have had sucess with ASUS boards already and have compiled the following shortlist, although if there is a better board out there from Gigabyte, MSI or Intel please let me know: P5Q-EM - current top board from ASUS, issue will be X4500HD graphics not supported yet and apparently the highest res is 1920x1080 and so won't work properly with my 24" 1920x1200 screen. At about AU$200.00 it is quite expensive if it doesn't work. P5QL-CM - uses GMA4500 graphics, not yet working with OSx86, at AU145.00 is reasonably priced. P5E-VM HDMI - uses X3500 graphics, not sure if working 100% with OSx86, getting harder to find this board. Price is about AU$170.00 so getting expensive P5K-VM - uses GMA3100 graphics so should be fine, getting harder to find board now, price is about AU$130.00 so very afordable P5N-EM HDMI - not that I will use the HDMI, this board is very cheap compared to the above and might be worth a shot. Trouble could be with the integrated graphics, uses NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i and so I'm not sure if this is compatable at this stage. Price is AU$87.00 so won't break the bank I am leaning towards the P5K-VM but with new MacBooks coming out soon (so I hear) they might use the Intel 4500 graphics and so the top 2 boards would be better ... Are there any others that I should look at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krrr Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Very interesting info. and I wonder how are the mods keeping your sig untouched, My Signature has been chopped many times by Mods for going out of rules. . maybe someone here hates my posts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaaseyRacer Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 I have the P5K-VM, solid build easy to set up. Even though the board is a little old my system runs quickly and smoothly. I have 4GB of RAM, I wish I had sprung for more. I cannot vouch for onboard video, as I only have two DVI displays. I am running a PCI-E card. I have been playing with the set up of a similar build except with a Gigabyte board (GA-EP45-DS3R). The performance gains are minimal. All the headache that the 889a sound chipset has caused me I wish I had bought another P5K-VM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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