MSI P45 Neo2-FR or Asus P5Q Pro?

[neekunj]

hi,
Processor: C2D E8400 (Boxed)
RAM: 2048MB GEIL Value PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL5
NT: ATX Netzt.BE Quiet! Straight Power 550 Watt / BQT E5
GPU: Club3D HD3850 512MB, PCI-Express
HDD: WD Caviar SE16 500GB SATA II 16MB.I think the recommendations for the E8400 speak for themselves.To access the choice of the motherboard back: MSI P45 Neo2-FR or would Asus P5Q Pro? I am therefore confident for MSI product may, or if I should take completely different model.

[Russell]

hi,
MSI P45 Neo2-FR doesn't come with S/PDIF port.
- MSI's BIOS flash utility doesn't work with 64-bit Windows ( MSI's Dual Core Cell board management software doesn't allow configuring the fan alarm RPM threshold, so it makes a nasty alarm beeping whenever Core Cell is running because my CPU fan is at 900 RPM - despite the fact that my CPU temp is perfectly fine! (finally, a good excuse to use Vista's per-app muting feature!)
- the manual is broad but shallow: it does a poor job of explaining BIOS options (but then again whose doesn't?) and especially the overclocking options

[Sebastian.j]

ASUS P5Q Pro for our new round of experiments. It is not a top product, but a solution from mainstream price segment supporting DDR2 SDRAM and featuring two PCI Express x16 slots.

Moreover, there is one more thing about this board that catches your attention. ASUS promises that P5Q Pro, just like all other mainboards from this series, supports CPUs with 1600MHz bus that are not officially supported by Intel P45 Express chipset. As a result, ASUS makes this overclocking potential of its mainboard semi-official promising its reliable operation in this mode.

[MattyBoy]

Actually, make two boards with nothing wrong, I would prefer the Asus, but also (because of better power supply).