i have 2 *inexpensive* boards i'm looking at, and i hope to decide between them tonight or tomorrow.
it isn't really a "which is the better board" because the choice is obvious between them:
the $54.99 Gigabyte board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128079
the $59.99 AFTER $30 MIR Abit P35 board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813127031
i'm tight on cash, as are most students, but i just can't keep cluttering my workspace up with PC parts! this laptop is a POS and i'm not going to suffer on this crappy lappy with $1200 worth of components sitting next to me laughing at me. the real question here is this - is the MIR really going to make my life heaven or hell? if i actually get the rebate within a few months it'd be a great feeling knowing i spent the extra $5 between these two boards. the P35 chipset is much nicer than the one on the Gigabyte board, albeit neither of them have firewire. (to those who have read about the double booting problem on the Abit, it is fixed in later BIOS revisions)
either board would be fine to work with, but the nicer chipset would actually let me enjoy some overclocking and the P35 chipset.
help a guy make up his mind here?
