Well for everyone who has been helping me over the last month avem and shadow I think the most. Anyway, I am throwing in the towel and trashing the GA-EP35-DS4 Ive done everything I and others can think of and I got absolutely ZERO help in any way, shape, or form from the Gigabyte tech "support". I just cant handle the constant BSOD and error after error. I have resorted to using the local library computers while mine is down to conduct business....shameful.

Anyway, Now what I am doing is finishing my system by choosing the motherboard around the rest of the system. I want to overclock, I play highend games. i don't do video editing or anything like that...games, my business, internet thats about it...but I want first and foremost STABILITY!!!!!!! I don't want to have to stand on one leg while chewing gum and drinking a glass of water and hum the National Anthem to get BIOS to install properly. lol SO what we are building around:

Thermaltake Armor+
Q6600 (GO)
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme w/ Scythe 1600rpm fan
EVGA 8800 GTS (92) 512
and lastly Dun Dua Duhhhhhh....Vista 64 Home Premium...

I want to use at least 4 gigs of memory and am looking very hard at OCZ memory. The support I have gotten from them has been Grade A!!! And they were helping me with Crucial memory and didn't even suggest to swap until I specifically asked...thats a class act in my book, good business. So there ya have it. My budget is around 250 for the board, id like to go lower but meh...the Mainboard as I can now truly attest is the most important component by far. Thanks every one so much for your time!!! Any suggestions will be most appreciated!!!

Best for G0, in order,

ASUS Maximus Formula
ASUS P5E
ASUS P5K Premium WIFI-AP

Love my Formula. Don't forget a great PSU!

Thanks so much for the very fast reply!!!

yes I forgot to mention the PSU I am using a Corsair HX620W Modular power supply.

I will check out those boards right away! thanks again!

I've had absolutely no problems with the board in my signature. Rock solid board. I can OC my Q6600 to 3.6ghz on air, idle temp of 38 degrees but, I have no reason to go that high. Maybe the x38 is better to OC.

Unfortunately they all have their peculiarities. I don't think the problems you are having with your GA mobo are the norm, and mobo support always sucks no matter who you deal with. I do understand you wanting to change brands though, I know I would. When you get your new mobo, slap in the UBCD and test the RAM before you go through all the OS load BS. If you get any errors at all you have a problem.

Good luck

Do not be in hurry and just take a look at ABIT IX38 Quad GT.
It is rocksolid, powerful and had a great ability of OC.
Just check newegg.com and in the forums of it's users, and you can see how much incompatibility the Asus and GIGA boards have and how nice this ABIT one is. This ABIT board is wonderful but unfortunately is not as published as Asus and Giga.
I have searched for a REAL STABLE and POWERFUL board for around 1 month and at last I found that this ABIT board is a great one.
Price,Performance,Stability,OCability,.... whatever you need from a perfect Motherboard.
I have it and I really love it

Well so far I am really liking these mainboards:
ASUS Maximus Formula
ASUS P5E
ABIT IX38 Quad GT
EVGA 780i

Go Abit the OCers dream machine

Does anyone know a place where I can do my own research as to weather or not a board plays well with vista 64? I want a minimum of 4 gigs of memory also

I am happy that you have added the ABIT to your wish list.
I do not want to force you toward ABIT ,but as someone who has searched very much mostly toward STABILITY and COMPATIBLITY I prefer ABIT. You know in previous searches I have found that ABIT IP35 Pro and ABIT IX38 Quad GT are the most perfect boards that you can find.
The IX38 is prefered because it is more future proof.
Although take a look at it's wonderful OC. I have reached at 3010Mhz with my Core2Duo E6550 with no overvoltage and with it's original sink and fan. (Just set it at 7x430=3010)Isn't that good enough I will push it more when I will be in need for more speed but for now it works like a Porche for me.
I do not have enough information about EVGA 780i so do not say anything about that, but I have seen and heared really bad compatiblity issues about your ASUS choices. So be careful and if you are going to buy them search really hard and deep about the right memory and PSU for them.

I think in some how one of the good places for research about any device are the forums of the seller sites.Why?!!Because you can see many users who have used the desired device and tested it at real world not in some good but not enough environments. So they know good enough about some factors such as ease of use, compatibility, stablity and...
Although test reports of some known sites such as Tom'sHardware, Anandtech and... can be useful but I believe that their tests are mostly at the LAB conditions.
For real world tests take a look at the NEWEGG.COM forums and you will find many realitys about very wellknown boards which are really unbelievable and will see many positive aspects of some boards which are not very nameful.
I have done it for many times and I have seen the difference between realworld tests and Laboratory tests.

As far as memory goes, I am looking very hard at OCZ and GSkill.

What about DFI's boards? Their extensive features generally offer the best overclocking performance
and stability. Just be patient with the tweaks.

DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] %2bX38-T2R
DFI LP LT P35 T2R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813136039

(there are more expensive versions of both with crazy heat pipes)


http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews [...] herboard/5

I agree with the suggestion for DFI boards.

Intel also makes very stable boards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 3121090but Overclocking isn't great on this board and SLI isn't an option if that is something you are interested in. Quality and stability wise however Intel boards are the best in my opinion.

If you have a Fry's Electronics near by I'd suggest buying your board there along with a warranty from Fry's. Fry's is generally very good about providing a replacement board if you have problems, I've had to do that on more than one occasion and have always been satisfied.

Not much help but Im running two GA X38 DS4's, and they are rock solid here with vista home premium 64bit, the only issue I had was a (new) duff stick of ram causing stability problems. Luckily Ive got two pretty much identical rigs one was running great one was crashing horribly, swapped bits till I found the memory made the difference, then ran two sticks at a time to narrow it down to one pair then swapped indivual sticks to confirm which stick was a problem.

Pain in the neck, but the motherboard itself has been great ever since. All 8 sticks of ram I was playing with are OCZ. Oddly enough the windows vista memory test doesnt pull up any problems with the one stick although Ive been meaning to leave it repeating over night to try to find the problem

Still researching, will let everyone know what my thoughts are. I am still open to more suggestions as well. Thanks everyone!

Some MB's act up when you install 4 sticks of RAM...the voltage regulators for that path don't like the extra load. Sometimes a slight boost in voltage works,other times not.

Unless your doing large GFX file work there is no advantage to using more than 2 GB of RAM.
If your using Vista it will hog up RAM and if you install 4GB will take up almost 1 full GB.

Any "security" that Vista 64 may have goes away as soon as you run a 32 bit program with it.
-->Read about it or d/l the Security Now podcast on Steve Gibsons site www.grc.com to learn why this happens.

Using 32 bit XP is not only faster in all programs but has no driver problems.
It is also alot better with RAM usage.
With 2GB of ram and a fixed size 2GB pagefile I can run all 3 of my security programs,6 torrents and play Frontlines:Fuel of War at the same time and Asus Probe II shows no more than 59% of the RAM being used.

Rock Solid= Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Ram=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122
Less than $200.00 for both RAM and Motherboard.

Asus Maximus Formula Special Edition

Thoughts?