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Santa Pig
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19/6/2008 Added the Asus P5Q P45 to the Intel ATX section.
Followers of this thread will know it's very much work in progress - such is the nature of the beast.
Please feel free to disagree or put forward your champion either in open forum or by a PM.
Some evidence of research or personal knowledge will be required.
Please also report any broken links.
*** INTEL ***
Legacy Upgrade aka "The Specials".
ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 PT880 Pro / Ultra, 8 channel audio, ATX £40
http://tinyurl.com/3476wm
The only motherboard with pci-e/AGP, IDE/SATA and DDR/DDR2 ram in the same package.
Also supports Quad core.
Turn your Celeron or Athlon into a mean machine for £85.
The Specials are (with good reason) particularly popular hereabouts and have their own stickies here and in the Overclockers Forum.
April 2008 and you can still buy them!
Micro ATX.
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H £47
http://tinyurl.com/2ymtj2
New NVidia 630i chipset featuring the best onboard graphics and Home Premium compatible.
HDMI, DVI and D-Sub
RAID, Gigabit, 7.1 sound, firewire, e-sata, Solid Caps, and a good overclocker (unlinked CPU and Mem).
I've singled out the Gigabyte as it ticks all the boxes, but all thenew NVidiasare worth a look.
Update - The Gigabyte lacks any memory voltage control, so make sure you buy ram that operates at 1.8v.
The Biostar has all the options.
GPU speeds - 7050=500 Mhz, 7100=600 Mhz, 7150=630 Mhz atlthough that's pretty academic 
Any board claiming 1333 should support Penryn and 1333 C2D, but check the CPU support list.
Where there is a ?in overclocking, it's because Ican't find a manual or online review.
However, all the BIOSes I've seen have unlinked overclocking available.
Some reviews show a limit on o/c of 360FSB, which bears out my experience with the Biostar TF7150U-M7 which maxed out at 333.
Still, that's enough for a Q6600 to hit 2.96Ghz (done that  ) or an E2180or E4500 to max out.
Can't be bad, especially with the Asus 5N-MX at £37.
b]ATX[/b]
Asus P5Q £80
http://tinyurl.com/6a56gy
Intel® P45 chipset / ICH10R with Intel® Fast Memory Access (FMA) support
ASUS 8-phase Power Design
Dual-channel DDR2 1200/800/667 MHz
100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
ASUS EPU-6 Engine
ASUS Express Gate - You Tube demo http://tinyurl.com/5k5fad
ASUS Drive Xpert
ATX SLi
AS-Rock PENRYN1600SLI-110DB £58
http://tinyurl.com/5mfj4v
Getting excellent reviews and it's an overclocker.
NVIDIA® 650iSLI (C55) + NVIDIA® nForce 430 Chipsets
Gigabit LAN, 7.1 channel sound, RAID, Firewire, solid caps.
Supports 1600FSB CPUs too.
ATX Crossfire
P35's, P45's or X38's from Asus or Gigabyte £75+
Watch the specs, especially in the overclocking and RAID areas.
You need X38 for pci-e 2.
Personally I think SLi and Crossfire are a waste of time.
The Forums debates on this subject either way can be found on many threads
However, if you get them for "free" like with the AS-Rock PENRYN1600SLI, then why not?
*** AMD ***
My knowledge is sadly lacking on AMD in all but one area now, so AMD fans, get contributing!
*** WARNING *** The higher end Phenoms i.e.9850 are blowing motherboards with 3 phase power.
Check the OEMs site for compatibilty before buying.
Micro ATX.
Asus M2A-VM HDMI, Ultimate Media Centre mobo £40
http://tinyurl.com/yosojq
Best o/b graphics - X1250, supports AM2+ up to 9600.
Plays HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs with HDMI Support
Bundled HDMI/AV/S/SPDIF module
Supports HDMI™ Technology with HDCP compliant with max. resolution 1920 x 1080p (It may not display 1080p smoothly when playing HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc due to current version player limit)
Supports YPbPr component TV-out with max. resolutions 1280 x 720p and 1920 x 1080i
Supports DVI-D with max. resolution 2560x1600 (@ 60Hz)
Supports RGB with max. resolution 2048 x 1536 (@85Hz)
Dual VGA output support: RGB & DVI/HDMI, DVI & HDMI, TV-out(YPbPr/AV/S) & DVI/HDMI (Simultaneous output for YPbPr, AV, S, and RGB is not supported)
The barebones version http://tinyurl.com/3bdw38 is excellent value at £78
I use Arctic Cooler Freezer Pros with any AM2 X2 and Samsung Spinpoints and they are as silent as you could wish for.
You have to turn off the CPU fan warning as it spins so slowly!
If only it overclocked
It seems Asus nadger the bioses on the barebones, why I don't know.
ATX
Awaiting your contributions
Thanks to VFM, Wiz, Retro, Keith and Mad Malc for their contributions for the current recommendations.
Plus many more Forumites that have contributed since it started - you know who you are
Dave R
XP Pro + various VMs: Q6600 @ stock, Asus V3-P5G33, 2GB DDR2 800, 7600GT
XP Pro: E1200 @2.4Ghz, GA-G33M-DS2R/S2, 2GB DDR2 800, 3450 on HDMI
Mandriva S 2008: SOA Athlon 2200, 1GB DDR, 9550
Windows Home Server: S3000, ASUS V2-M2V890, 512mb DDR2 667, 1TB
4GB USB Pendrive: Mandriva 2009 - my portable PC
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Pentium
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 21:19:19
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I have to recommend the Asus P5E-VM HDMI Dave. It's a fully featured mATX board that over clocks like stink! 
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1912&l1=3&l2=11&l3=584&l4=
I have a Computer... Try some MM Super Pi(e) here!
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Santa Pig
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Last Login: Today @ 18:50:12
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The reason it wasn't included and still won't be is the price / VFM.
It was >£100 and even at £78 it's still OTT for most peoples needs for MATX.
If you need to take an E7200 to 3.8Ghz, it is the only one that will do so though.
A £45 Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H will take an E2200 or E4600 to 3.5Ghz and includes e-sata and better o/b graphics.
ASUS P5E-VM HDMI backplate.
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H backplate
Asus + E7200 + Akasa 965 + 2GB DDR2 800 CL4 for 3.8Ghz = £205
Gigabyte + E2200 + Akasa 965 + 2GB DDR2 667 CL4 for 3.5Ghz = £135
Gigabyte + E4600 + Akasa 965 + 2GB DDR2 667 CL4 for 3.5Ghz = £160
For gamers the £45 price difference between the Gigabyte / E4600 and Asus / E7200 is most of the price difference between a 4850 and 4870 - £45 out of £60.
The extra £15 for a 4870 will have much more of a positive effect on gaming than the 0.3Ghz and 1mb cache differences of the CPUs.
For non gamers the price premium of £70 for the Asus is just never worth it whichever way you look at it.
I'm really not trying to peee on your parade, I just feel I need to point out the real world alternatives.
You have a really nice rig there, enjoy it. I know you will Edited for typos 
Dave R
XP Pro + various VMs: Q6600 @ stock, Asus V3-P5G33, 2GB DDR2 800, 7600GT
XP Pro: E1200 @2.4Ghz, GA-G33M-DS2R/S2, 2GB DDR2 800, 3450 on HDMI
Mandriva S 2008: SOA Athlon 2200, 1GB DDR, 9550
Windows Home Server: S3000, ASUS V2-M2V890, 512mb DDR2 667, 1TB
4GB USB Pendrive: Mandriva 2009 - my portable PC
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Pentium
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Last Login: Today @ 21:19:19
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Fair enough. Has more over clocking features than most ATX boards I have seen.
I have a Computer... Try some MM Super Pi(e) here!
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Santa Pig
Group: Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 18:50:12
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If overclocking is your goal, there is only one player - the one you've got!
Dave R
XP Pro + various VMs: Q6600 @ stock, Asus V3-P5G33, 2GB DDR2 800, 7600GT
XP Pro: E1200 @2.4Ghz, GA-G33M-DS2R/S2, 2GB DDR2 800, 3450 on HDMI
Mandriva S 2008: SOA Athlon 2200, 1GB DDR, 9550
Windows Home Server: S3000, ASUS V2-M2V890, 512mb DDR2 667, 1TB
4GB USB Pendrive: Mandriva 2009 - my portable PC
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386
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Gigabyte board is best value + features you can get, cheap dual cpu you can get near a £99 pc [well close!]
MrG
Mobo: Asus P5Q Pro | Cpu: Q6600 | Hsf: Arctic Freezer Pro7 | Ram: 4gb Geil DDR2 6400 | Psu: Enermax Hiper 580w | GX: Ati 4850 | Case: CM690 | HDs: 1x500gb
[ System Cooling by Fans ]
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Pentium
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Santa Pig
Group: Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 18:50:12
Posts: 10,200,
Visits: 11,213
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