About 9 months ago I put together a system with an E6600 processor and a Striker Extreme (SE) motherboard. I’ve had nothing but problems with the SE since then (took 3 months of RMAing and hair pulling to get it going, even when it’s running “OK”, the PC will shut itself off every once in a while (Google ‘Striker Extreme CPU INIT’ to get an idea of the hell people have gone through), and now it has gone into CPU INIT again and an RMA is in order.
1st Q: should I wait for the RMA and install the new board, or get a new mobo and sell the RMA’d SE on e-bay? The SE is a good card when it’s running, but is it worth the aggravation? That may be a question only I can answer, but I’d welcome opinions on what you would do.
2nd Q: If I do get a new mobo, any recommendations? It would have to work with my E6600 CPU (socket LGA 775) and my 4x1 GB DDR2 800mhz Corsair memory. I’d prefer something that is SLI or Crossfire capable, but I could be flexible on that since my current system is running games pretty well with only 1 8800 GTS video card. I’m also leaning toward a mobo that has been out for a while, so the tech has been broken in more and will be a bit cheaper, maybe something that was cutting edge 6 months or so ago. I’m thinking $150-$200 range, but I can go higher if there is something out there I really must have. Needless to say, I’d like to avoid ASUS.
Right now I’m looking at these 3 , and leaning toward the Abit . Anyting else I should consider or any good deals out there currently?
TIA
Bill