I mean the Gigabyte 780G ATX board.

On the Gigabyte website, the 9850 support is not available, although it does support the 9750 which is also a 125 W processor.

I am trying to choose between:

ASUS P5Q-E and Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R

Both have almost the same price.

So, which P45 board should I go for?

I am begining to change my mind. I may go the Intel route after all.

I didn't make myself clear: I use the PC for gaming, and I already have a very good and working PC (E8400, Gigabyte P35-DS3R, 2 GB DDR2-800, 8800GT 512 MB overclocked). The new system I am talking about is for my brother to replace the old P4 I am talking about.

If I go with the E8400, which motherboard should I go for? The ASUS P5Q-E or Gigabyte EP45-DS3R? Really, both are quite similar but I have never bought an ASUS motherboard before. So what do you think? And finally, although I can't find the P35-DS3R anymore, I can find the P35-DS3L, and it's selling very cheap. Do I need P45 or should I just go to the DS3L?

Thanks to all those who replied.

And by the way, I am not a fanboy for Intel or AMD. I just want something that is good for gaming, and offers good value for money. That's it.

I am thinking about AMD because I want a future-proof PC. Intel is changing their socket, so is AMD, but I can get an AM3 processor and plug it into an AM2+ motherboard. I KNOW that Intel is MUCH better now.

I don't live in the US and I don't buy online. I took a tour in the local computer shops and I am thinking about one of the following scenarios. Note that I won't buy a HDD or optical drive. I will use my old ones.

Rig 1:

Intel E8400, ASUS P5Q-E (or Gigabyte P45-DS3R), Gigabyte Radeon 4850, 2 GB DDR2-800

Rig 2:

AMD 9850 BE, GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H, Gigabyte Radeon 4850 (or I may stay a while with the built in Radeon HD3200 and wait till the price of the 4870 drops a bit), 2 GB DDR2-800

I am afraid that the 9850 won't work with the 780G motherboard I mentioned earlier because the processor is not officially supported by Gigabyte.

And which is the better board for the Intel system, the ASUS one or the GB one? Also, do I need to get P45 or should I just get a P35 motherboard (as I told you, I already own another PC with a P35 chipset and I am very happy with it)?

Thanks a lot.

By the way, the old motherboard has no blown capacitators or anything looking abnormal. The strange thing is that it sometimes work, but this is very at random, and manages to boot into Windows XP.

Oh... And if someone can help me with the old motherboard, I will be very grateful.

Can it be fixed?

My old system (2.4 GHz P4 Northwood, Intel 845 motherboard, GeForce 6600 AGP, 1 GB DDR RAM) is KIA. The motherboard appears to be faulty. It doesn't boot into the POST screen and it doesn't detect that I removed the RAM, processor and graphics card... I don't know what this is.

This is my brother's PC, so I am building a new system for him. I need ideas. I already have a good system (P35, E8400, 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2, 8800GT), I don't want to have the same thing again.

Is AMD a viable option? Is the 9850 Black Edition good for gaming?

Yes. I have the latest drivers.

It still doesn't work. The setting sticks and is applied. Now: I chose "nvidia scaling with fixed AR" and chose the resolution to be 1024x768, the native resolution is 1440x900. Instead of running in 4:3 AR with black bars in the sides, it gave me 16:9 with black bars at the top and bottom!!!

My monitor is a LG L194WT 19" WS LCD. I noticed that the scaling of this monitor looks better than the scaling of the video card (6600).

Yes. That's what I said in my original post. But it doesn't work for me.

Does it work for you?