# What is the best budget G31 mobo Asus, Gigabyte or Intel?



## amolpatil2k (May 5, 2009)

What is the best budget G31 mobo Asus, Gigabyte or Intel?

I might be attaching an old scanner, Intel G31 boards lack a parallel port.

So basically the choice is between:

Asus P5KPL-AM/PS 

and 

Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L

Both cost INR 2500. 

Q1 - Which is the better of these two?
Q2 - Is it worth exploring the other choices?

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ASUS
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Here are the boards from Asus

*in.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=563

Curiously P5KPL-CM is missing. Discontinued?

It is there on the global site.

*www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=6nnVb6RBxd7PhGmt&templete=2

Among the ones on the in.asus.com site:

P5KPL-AM IN does not have Parallel port.
P5KPL/1600 does not onboard VGA.
P5KPL-VM is sort of low end.
P5KPL has lower RAM and FSB specs.

That leaves 

P5KPL-AM PS with Surge protection and burnt warranty

*in.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=563&l4=0&model=2507&modelmenu=1

and P5KPL-E with the high end features.

*in.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=563&l4=0&model=1895&modelmenu=1

I tried the COMPARE feature but it does not distinguish between what is same and what is different among the columns. Ideally, not only should the differences be highlighted, these should be shown in red and green to indicate which is better.

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GIGABYTE
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Here are the boards from Gigabyte

*www.gigabyte.in/Products/Motherboa...VenderType=Intel&CPUType=socket+775#Intel G31

GA-EG31M-S2    
GA-EG31MF-S2    

GA-G31-S3G    
GA-G31-S3L

GA-G31M-ES2C
GA-G31M-ES2L    

GA-G31M-S2C
GA-G31M-S2L         

GA-G31MF-S2    
GA-G31MX-S2    

How on earth can we understand the difference between these models. The COMPARE feature is equally bad.

*www.gigabyte.in/Products/Motherboa...aspx?CPUType=Socket 775&ChipsetType=Intel G31

According to 

*www.tomshardware.com/forum/250517-30-help-gigabyte-naming-convetion

*www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35-ds3l.html

GA  = Gigabyte
G31 = Chipset
M = Micro ATX ?
E = Easy Energy Saver ?
EG31 = Dynamic Energy Saver ?
S2 = Smart, Speed
S3 = Smart, Speed, Safe
F = IEEE1394 FireWire ?
X = Dual PCI Express ?
C = 10/100 LAN ?
L = Lite version only 3-phase power ?

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INTEL
---------------------------------------------------------

Here are the boards from Intel

These boards do not provide a parallel port

Intel® Desktop Board DG31GL

*www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DG31GL/DG31GL-overview.htm

Intel® Desktop Board DG31PR

*www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DG31PR/DG31PR-overview.htm


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## topgear (May 5, 2009)

I've used both asus p5kpl-cm & gigabyte g31m-s2l.

From my experience I would recomend the gigabyte Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L


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## saqib_khan (May 5, 2009)

Yes true, go for Gigabyte board.


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