GA-EP45-UD3P unavailable in the UK? What about UD3R or UD3LR?

[vertew]

Hi, I'm looking to replace my Asus P35 Deluxe and use it as a spare for another PC.  So I need a replacement 775 board to stick my Q9550A in.  I'm really impressed with what I've read about the GA-EP45-UD3P - but, this board seems to be available in the UK.

Some of the main retailers (Kikatek among others) list the board as out of stock, so it must have been available at some point in the recent-ish past.  Seems to be widely available in the US.  In fact, the only board that is more widely available in this range is the GA-EP45-UD3LR -  which I could go for, but it's not quite as well spec'd as the UD3P.  I have found a few UD3R boards and this is what I'll probably go for it I can't find a UD3P -- it has the improved cooling and 'ultra durable' spec, but it doesn't have the 2x8 PCI slots.

So ... here goes with the questions ...

Does anyone know anywhere in the UK (or perhaps EU) that is still selling the GA-EP45-UD3P?
Or if not, would be just curious to know why not when this appears to be such a great board?

Finally, any thoughts on the practical differences between the UD3P, UD3R and the UD3LR?  Eg, are big differences in terms of reliability / oc-ability?  Would crossfire (which could be a great future option to extend the life of the system) with an ATI 5850 be much better with a UD3P board (and the 2x8 PCIe slots?)

Suppose I'd better mention usage too -- would be mainly for gaming, but is a family PC, so needs to be 24/7 reliable with a good overclock.  I'm running my Asus at about 430FSB with some mild voltage tweaks.  A safe 500FSB with the UD3P is certainly pretty tempting ...

Sorry for the splam of questions -- anyway, would be great to hear your views.
cheers.

[vertew]

A bit surprised there are no replies on this ... I'd thought there'd be a lot of people still using 775 and the UD3P got such rave reviews -- why has it disappeared from UK / Europe?   Is it because 775 is just too old and everyone has moved on?  Or am I just impatient? 

Anyway, I'm stuck with 775 given my E6750 and Q9550 (E0), so I ended up making a rash decision and bought a UD3P board from the US on ebay.  Good price, but I'll have to pay more for shipping etc.   But the promise of a much higher FSB (compared to my old P35 Asus P5K) and the possibility of future crossfire with another ATI 5850 may  (I'm hoping) extend my 775 based setup (with a Q9950 E0) for another 2-3 years.

cheers.

[oggmonster]

Yeah you made a great choice of board! ^_^ See here http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,615.0.html

Not too sure if you will get 500fsb with a quadcore...but i guess you'll have to give it a try! 

[Zeewulf]

I'm trying to upgrade my old Intel G31 board to a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P Rev 1.6 board but can't locate one anywhere. Only Gigabyte 775 boards ANYONE seems to have these days are the low end stuff which aren't worth buying as an upgrade.

Where can we get the goods boards from these days or have they just stopped supporting us 775 users now

[Fatman]

Yeh the EP45-UD3LR does not have e-sata ports, apart from that it is not a bad board at all....Just seems a little fussy with ram tho...I'm using G-Skill F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK  and it runs a treat as it is certified to run on this board. Also overclocks pretty well.

[Misfire]

   I'm pushing a Q9550 wiyh a GA-EP45T-UD3LR and have it bumped up to 3.4Ghz!  Great board! Thats funny! I replaced a ASUS P5ND with this Gigabyte!