Shall it be mobo Asus or Gigabyte

[RabidDog]

Which of these two motherboards is better and why?
ASUS P5N-ESLI or the Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4 ??
I'm not really interested in dual gfx cards but am interested in overclocking and expandability.
I'd like it to last and be as stable as my current ASROCK (overclocking notwithstanding)
initially to be used with Xp pro but at some point in time Vista.
Light gaming, heavy internet, heavy video conversion (mpeg2 to avi)
No raid whatsoever,never!
Noise is an issue, as is heat production and of course if anyone can tell me which of these boards will consume the least power (greener)
All opinions welcome...

I'm willing to be incentivized

[TBoneit]

Personal Opinion is Asus. As I remember from selling it that is a dual PCIe with Nvidia chipset motherboard. If you have a lot of IDE drives you want to use you may want a different Asus model. We sell one that has 3 IDE and 4 SATA connectors as well a 4 DDR2 slots and one PCIe slot Supports 8 USB2. I'm not trying to sell it to you as we do not do Online or phone orders.

You need to keep in mind that similar Mobos will use similar amounts of energy. Especially since the Processor is usually the biggest power user.

I cut my energy use down by reducing the amount of hard drives in use, I now only use the DVD burner and not a DVD burner, CD Burner, DVD Rom, no floppy and only two internal Hard Drives and a external Hard drive only when needed. And Using a modern lower energy Dual Core CPU. One screen for TV and Computer saving a seperate display for both. What else? Oh yes, by using a faster Dual Core I now do not have to leave it running overnight encoding.

I was interested in reducing my Electric bill nothing else.

Anyway Good Luck

[redwudz]

I've drifted away from Asus in recent years and have had better luck with the Gigabyte MBs. They just seem to have more 'extras' like gigabit LAN, 1394A, lots of SATA connections other features that Asus has on some boards, but usually at a higher price.

Most newer MBs are 'green'. But that has more to do with energy saving programs that ramp down the CPU speed and fans as needed. Having a power supply with a low speed large fan, along with 120mm case fans helps with noise. If you have a CPU that runs cool, you should be able to find a CPU cooler that is low noise. My favorite at the moment is Thermaltake TMG coolers that use the PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) signal from the motherboard to control the CPU cooler fan speed. Look for a four pin CPU fan connection. If the CPU comes with a PWM cooler, that's fairly quiet also.

With the right CPU and cooler, along with 120mm case fans and a quiet PS, you can have a near silent computer and still have good performance. Both the AMD Athlon X2 and the Intel Core Duo CPUs should be able to do this.

[CrayonEater]

The answer is like night and day: Go with the Gigabyte, don't even consider the Asus. Asus has been going downhill for several years now. The Gigabyte will be more reliable, less expensive, and probably much less picky about the brand of memory you need.

[rhegedus]

Both my current (P35-DS3P) and previous (8IEXP) boards are Gigabyte and I've not had any problems with either.

[budz]

I stopped buying Asus as well since their quality control has gone a bit sour. I recently bought my first Gigabyte P35-DS3R mobo which I'm quite happy with. I have a Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe 2.13ghz processor overclocked to 2.60ghz. Thanks to redwudz for informing me on how to access the Gigabyte secret menu in the Bios.

[Super Warrior]

Both are nice, but i prefer Gigabyte it is a good quality brand. Built my last two comps with Gigabyte boards.

[gadgetguy]

You can add my name to the Gigabyte supporters. Although my current Primary PC is using an Albatron, my previous Primary, which is still in use as a TV capture PC, is Gigabyte and it's been real solid.

[kimco52]

I have used both. My latest Gigabyte had problems resolving SATA and PATA drives but the problem sorta went away when the Gigabyte board started having random problems intermittently with recognizing disk drives and some files so I went back to my ASUS board I had previously used (going back to slower speed) a few months ago and have had no problems since. I will probably use Gigabyte again, though.

I will say that Gigabyte support appears to be good. They answered every question/email I sent to them within 1-2 days.

[RabidDog]

Yeah my thoughts are swinging to the gigabyte.. As tboneit said my need is for a fast encoding machine so I dont have to leave it running overnight (thus consuming electricity)and producing both noise and heat. I like the ability of gigabyte to overclock. Coupled up with a 6750, 2gb ram 1 dvd rom 1 dvd writer 300 +300 gb. should be good, but not PHENOMenal

Tboneit :I wouldnt be willing to pay the shipping and taxes even if you did online orders.

[lenti_75]

either...none is perfect.

[RabidDog]

Well I have gone for a gigabyte n650 mobo .. Hopefully it will be as good as reviews say it is . Its the one with two giant cooloing towers built into the mobo to cool the north Bridge

[TBoneit]

Good Luck.

Why not post a mini review of pros and cons after some testing and maybe a benchmark too.

[RabidDog]

I will prefer to wait a few(2 or 3) months before posting a review, as when you first get something you go thru three phases..(unlike the six-phase power supply). Initial wonderment, Steady usability, disappointment. The third phase is the important one as you then recognize important items that were either left off for lack of cash or design flaws that limit the products potential. Also after owning something for a few months people become more normalized about their purchase. Unless you are an Apple fanboy, allegedly.