2 mobos, $170 difference; why?

Hi. Me once again, and this could very well be my most noobish question here so far, please bear with me :)

I want a mobo that supports up to 16GB of DDR2 800 RAM in 4 RAM slots. These two mobos do that, but one is $170 more than the other:

ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX - $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319

ASUS P5Q SE LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX - $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131333

I'm building a monster and I don't want to cheap out on the motherboard, but I don't want to pay for things I might not need. Can anyone tell me what are the main differences between these two mobos? I'm guessing it's the amount of ports. Any help is welcome and appreciated :)

Hi. Me once again, and this could very well be my most noobish question here so far, please bear with me :)

I want a mobo that supports up to 16GB of DDR2 800 RAM in 4 RAM slots. These two mobos do that, but one is $170 more than the other:

ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX - $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319

ASUS P5Q SE LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX - $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131333

I'm building a monster and I don't want to cheap out on the motherboard, but I don't want to pay for things I might not need. Can anyone tell me what are the main differences between these two mobos? I'm guessing it's the amount of ports. Any help is welcome and appreciated :)

sergioalb64

more pcie slots(2xpcie16), better south bridge, more usb, support for esata and firewire, better onboard sound and comes with whole bunch of software that i doubt gonna be any useful

Yeah, and it has two ethernet ports which I'm sure I don't need either.

Is that $100 mobo good? Seems to me like $100 gets you a crappy mobo; yay or nay?

[QUOTE="sergioalb64"]

Hi. Me once again, and this could very well be my most noobish question here so far, please bear with me :)

I want a mobo that supports up to 16GB of DDR2 800 RAM in 4 RAM slots. These two mobos do that, but one is $170 more than the other:

ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX - $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319

ASUS P5Q SE LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX - $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131333

I'm building a monster and I don't want to cheap out on the motherboard, but I don't want to pay for things I might not need. Can anyone tell me what are the main differences between these two mobos? I'm guessing it's the amount of ports. Any help is welcome and appreciated :)

quocthai

more pcie slots(2xpcie16), better south bridge, more usb, support for esata and firewire, better onboard sound and comes with whole bunch of software that i doubt gonna be any useful

wrong the first mobo only support (2xpcie8) but single supports full x16

if you want a mobo that supports 2xpcie 16 then you should look at x38, x48 and upcoming x58 .

The layout of the second board is crap. The placement of the P5Q SE's 24-pin P1 connector is right next to the CPU, and just begging to contribute to overheating or even damaging the CPU fan/P1 cable. I have no idea why ASUS went with such a stupid layout on their new low-end boards. Seems their fine tradition of making dodgy sub-$150 boards is continuing I guess, but this is one of the stupidest moves ever. Even Foxconn and Biostar boards have better layouts on their budget lines. Hell, Jetway probably does too.

Bottom line, you don't need to spend $250+ on a motherboad, but nor would I get the P5Q SE (or vanilla P5Q for the same reason). Get the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L if you want a similarly-priced board that has a good layout and plenty of features for a moderate rig.

[QUOTE="sergioalb64"]

Hi. Me once again, and this could very well be my most noobish question here so far, please bear with me :)

I want a mobo that supports up to 16GB of DDR2 800 RAM in 4 RAM slots. These two mobos do that, but one is $170 more than the other:

ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX - $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319

ASUS P5Q SE LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX - $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131333

I'm building a monster and I don't want to cheap out on the motherboard, but I don't want to pay for things I might not need. Can anyone tell me what are the main differences between these two mobos? I'm guessing it's the amount of ports. Any help is welcome and appreciated :)

quocthai

more pcie slots(2xpcie16), better south bridge, more usb, support for esata and firewire, better onboard sound and comes with whole bunch of software that i doubt gonna be any useful

the more expensive one supports quad cores too