Welcome To Australia's No.1 Media Center Community!
You Are Currently Viewing As A Guest - you'll need to register in order to participate in our community and make this annoying message disappear!
By registering you'll be able to post & reply to questions, set up your own image gallery & blog, communicate privately with other members, create & respond to polls, access downloads and other "members only" features.
Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so why not join our community today - you'll be glad you did!
For any problems with the registration process or your account, please contact support.
Attention All Brisbane & Gold Coast Members!
Markc3012 has created a local user group for members living in Brisbane & the Gold Coast with the goal of creating a network of users to assist and support each other through information exchange and direct support.
Please see this post for more information and to join the group.
Help to understand Manufacturers' codes for MB selection
I would like to upgrade my HTPC. There are so many MBs out there, that I am bewildered by the choices available.
Can anyone explain what the product coding means, so that I can select a sub-set for closer review?
Alternatively, can someone just give me a list which fits with this requirement set:
I plan to re-use whatever I can, & buy what I can't, to build 2 PCs for a client/server approach to a home theatre "system". I already have 4 tuners & 3 HDD for the server (2 for data & 1 for the OS).
I have recently bought an ASUS EAH2600XT - HDTP graphics/VGA card, so I already have DVI/HDMI output sockets.
I hope that I don't have to spend a fortune, but I don't want to end up with an undersized system.
I think that the server needs good throughput speed, to be able to handle the 4 tuners.
The client probably needs fairly good throughput speed (bus, memory, ...), although the graphics card should do a lot of the work.
Only ASUS or Gigabyte (I am a sucker for big brands).
Only Intel CPU, probably quad for server; I am not sure whether I need multi-core for the client, but definitely lots of speed.
Only full ATX (for sockets & cooling).
Suitable for Blu-Ray.
In my naivety, I have probably left out some critical features...
So I will appreciate any help that may be offered.
Re: Help to understand Manufacturers' codes for MB selection
I have recently made a post explaining what most of the letters used in Gigabyte motherboards mean on a different thread. Will try to find the link later...
As for Asus, I find their model numbers a little annoying cause they seem to be inconsistent in naming structure. The P5 bit at the start is the part that tells you its for the current LGA775 Intel processors while the letter directly after it either refers to the chipset family (not the actual chipset as the same letter can be used for multiple chipsets or that letter refers to the generation of board.
Currently you will find P5Q to be the standard model of boards around. Most of those feature the P45 chipset which is a very good all-round sort of chipset. Asus usually have other bits added to the end of the motherboards such as SE, Pro and Premium. A board with SE on the end is usually at the bottom of the list in it's chipset family, a board with nothing on the end of it (plain P5Q for instance) is just the standard defacto board. They go up in features with Pro, and then the E models. Then Premium models usually add much higher end features usually suited to gamers, overclockers or for use as servers. Somestimes letters such as M and C and R are used as well in the same way Gigabyte use them, but it is not always present where it would seem logical.
There is no real way of knowing all of the specs and features of a board simply by looking at it's model number for either Gigabyte or Asus although I find Gigabytes method a little bit easier to follow (at least it tells you what chipset it is using straight up). Do some research on the actual chipset of the board first. Wikipedia is an adequate place for this. Then you will have to check out the specs of the boards individually to see which ones will give you enough slots for your cards and so on...
As far as a good board goes, the GA-EP45-DS3P board is quite a nice all-round board that is full ATX, has good on board audio, CrossFire support and decent cooling for the chipset and other board components. The P5Q Pro is pretty much the closest thing to it from Asus.
The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to bobafett_h for this information:
Re: Help to understand Manufacturers' codes for MB selection
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobafett_h
I have recently made a post explaining what most of the letters used in Gigabyte motherboards mean on a different thread. Will try to find the link later...
As far as a good board goes, the GA-EP45-DS3P board is quite a nice all-round board that is full ATX, has good on board audio, CrossFire support and decent cooling for the chipset and other board components. The P5Q Pro is pretty much the closest thing to it from Asus.
Hi Bobafett_h,
I would appreciate it if you could find that link for Gigabyte, although, as you said, the codes are only a general indicator.
Thanks for your informative response. I will take on board your suggestions for using Wikipedia for more detailed research.
Having looked on the websites of ASUS & Gigabyte, at the specs for the 2 mobos you mentioned, I can see that they are quite good for my proposed use. However, there may be one limitation: I am planning to change to MythTV (Linux based) & the drivers are typically 6 months or so behind, so I wouldn't be able to use the latest boards... Would you class these 2 mobos as recent?
Re: Help to understand Manufacturers' codes for MB selection
I personally find the Gigabyte model numbers lately to be a lot easier to understand than they used to be, and certainly easier than with other brands such as Asus.
You just need to know what all of the letters represent:
Bobaffet_h
Here are your comments on mobo name codes.
The M at the start indicates that it's for AMD and the A after it indicates that it is an AMD chipset. The 78G of course means it is using the 780G chipset while the M after the chipset number indicates that it is a micro ATX board. The P in the case of that board refers to the SidePort memory as far as I know.
The D means it is Ultra Durable (solid capacitors), the S is simply because it is an S series board which most Gigabyte boards have been for a few years now (other than the top end Q series boards). The number after that is the level within the S series. S2 is typically the bottom of boards with that chipset, then 3 is higher and 4 is even higher still. The H on the end of means it has HDMI support.
Other letters sometimes seen in their motherboard models are a P, C or R on the end after the DS3 for example. P means performance and usually indicates that it has better cooling on board and dual video card support. C indicates it supports combination RAM such as boards with DDR2 and DDR3 slots (I would never recommend these boards). R indicates RAID support which may not normally be included on boards with that chipset.
__________________
Bruce G
(No HTPC yet, but working on it. Probably will buy LCD first, and then modify existing home PC as a prototype HTPC, whch I will then morph into a proper HTPC case, etc. with new internals as needed).
The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to BruceG for this information:
Re: Help to understand Manufacturers' codes for MB selection
Hi GarryL
Yes, the EP45-DS3P is a modern good board with all the features you'll need, but, yes it is very recent. You could look at the EP35-DS3P, which is very similar but about 9 months older, although I strongly suspect that if you have issues with one, it'll be the same with the other, as there aren't much diff really between them, and your video card and audio will be similar anyway which is what myth may require attention to. Go newer and it'll be fine IMHO.
I'm not a big fan of Asus anymore. IMHO they used to be simply the best, but not any more. Audio issues, cost cutting and a number of unreliable models has ruined them in my eyes.
Intel (OK or Gigabyte) all the way for me. Don't forget that Intel sell more boards worldwide (either by OEM, third party or retail) than either Giga or Asus, they are simply rock solid, with a VERY low failure rate. In the old days they were slow or lacking in features, not the case nowdays. The P35-DPM is a great board, but being replaced at the moment, so may be hard to find. The Gigabyte DS series boards have also been very reliable for me (BTW, I sell lots of computers).
Dual Core or Quad will be more than fine for a server but Quad always impresses more doesn't it, overkill in reality though, but why not!! The Q6600 or the Q9400 are both good. But even something like the E7300 would be a perfectly good choice for both server and client.
I would go Intel P35-DPM, Gigabyte EP35-DS3P or EP45-DS3P.
Cheers
TiggerK
__________________ I believe life is all about Doing Things, not Having Things. (Except my MCE Box!)
The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to TiggerK for this information:
But thanks to all of you for responding to my request. I am much better informed now.
TiggerK, I don't think that I have ever noticed Intel boards in any shop (maybe I am not very observant), so I didn't realise that they made any. I will look around in future.
I still just need to match all of this info with whatever it is I am trying to do, but perhaps TiggerK's summary of the suggestions is the simplest way for me to go, so thanks for that.
