Need motherboard recommendations 3

[kmcferrin]

Hey all, I'm finally at the point where I have decided to bite teh bullet and upgrade my old PC to something a little more current, and I'm having trouble deciding on a mainboard. Right now I'm running an Athlon 64 3000+ (754), 6800GS video card (AGP), and 1 GB of DDR400 RAM (2x512).

So after years of being AMD-only, I'm probably going to go with Conroe. My thinking is that I can get a little more performance for the same amount of money going with Conroe instead of Athlon 64 X2. But also am thinking that it looks like socket 775 has a little more life left in it than AM2 does. If I'm not mistaken the Barcelona line of AMD CPUs will be using socket 1207, which means having to upgrade motherboards to go from dual to quad cores. If I go with Intel and pick my mainboard carefully then I should have an upgrade path to quad cores without buying a new board. So that's my rationale.

At any rate, I was thinking initially of going with the Asrock 775Dual-VSTA, or possibly waiting for their 4CoreDual-VSTA. That would allow me to get the new CPU and mainboard now, then upgrade piecemeal as I needed to. But now I'm thinking of just biting the bullet and getting a new video card and memory at the same time, in which case I could opt for a less flexible but better performing mainboard, maybe something with an Intel chipset. Looking at NewEgg I've seen boards that are supposedly Core 2 Duo compatible using Intel 945, 955(?), and 975 chipsets, as well as G965 and P965 chipsets. I have no idea what the differences are.

What I'm looking for:

1. Support for Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad (Kentsfield)
2. Kentsfield support means that official support for a 1066 MHz FSB is required.
3. 4 DDR2 slots supporting DDR2-667 or DDR2-800, and at least 4 GB of RAM.
4. 4 SATA 300 ports and RAID support.
5. At least one ATA100 or 133 port.
6. Overclocking isn't important to me, neither is SLI.
7. I don't want to spend more than $130-ish.

Anyone have any suggestions? Or maybe someone can just explain to me the difference between the different Intel chipsets?

 

[kmcferrin]

#2 above should read 1333 MHz FSB, not 1066 MHz.

 

[wahnula]

Intel has a de-scrambler here:

http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/

945:

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/945g/index.htm

955:

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/955x/index.htm

975:

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/975x/index.htm

975 is the latest and best, very stable and fast.

Tony

 

[wahnula]

...and they have a comparison section:

http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu/default.aspx?familyID=10&culture=en-US

Hope this helps.

Tony

 

[paparazi]

In this price bracket I think that an Intel 965 chipset board is best value.
Feature packed and with rock solid performance

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121036

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[cdogg]

Here's a good review that also shows a 965 mobo from Gigabyte that is ready for Quadro:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/10/four_cores_on_the_rampage/page3.html

Here's a cut-down version of that mobo that should satisfy your requirements:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128017

and a pic (click the 3rd one for labels):
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.asp?Image=13...[/url]

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[wahnula]

above should read 1333 MHz FSB, not 1066 MHz.

If you are looking forward to a 1333 FSB, you will need to look at the nForce 650i or 680i, they "unofficially" support Kentsfield CPUs at that FSB.

Here's a 650i in your budget:

http://www.directron.com/p5nesli.html

I will let the others discuss the pros/cons of this chipset as I have no personal experience. This chipset never got much attention.

If you change your MB on the long cycle it's just pennies a day for the 775 you really want or the 680i. Doubt you'll find one in your price range. I would spend the extra cash on a 680i or 775 w/ 1066 support, lots of good RAM.

Tony

 

[kmcferrin]

Thanks for all the replies. After looking over the specs I'm not seeing very much between the three Intel chipsets (as far as feature sets or CPU support) that is different between them. Looks like a 965 will probably do.

Between the Intel and Gigabyte boards specifically mentioned, it looks like the Gigabyte has a bit of an edge. It has two extra SATA300 ports that (according to the Gigabyte web site) can be used for RAID 0 or 1. It also appears to be able to run with 8 GB of DDR2-800, as opposed to only 4GB on the Intel board. Funny how they both use the same northbridge though.

I did a little more digging and it looks like I was mistaken on the Core 2 Quad requiring 1333 MHz FSB. The only one that I can find now appears to run at 1066 MHz, so either of these boards should work.

Thanks again!

 

[kmcferrin]

So after years of being AMD-only, I'm probably going to go with Conroe. My thinking is that I can get a little more performance for the same amount of money going with Conroe instead of Athlon 64 X2. But also am thinking that it looks like socket 775 has a little more life left in it than AM2 does. If I'm not mistaken the Barcelona line of AMD CPUs will be using socket 1207, which means having to upgrade motherboards to go from dual to quad cores. If I go with Intel and pick my mainboard carefully then I should have an upgrade path to quad cores without buying a new board. So that's my rationale.

Looks like I keep finding mistakes in my original assumptions. I've done some more digging, and it looks like even though the AM2 socket is slated to be phased out later this year, it will still support future CPUs. Apparently the next AMD desktop socket will be called AM2+, and AM2+ CPUs will work in AM2 sockets. Then there will be AM3 (supposedly next year), and those CPUs will work in either AM2+ or AM3 sockets, though not AM2.

So I could potentially get a well-supported AM2 board today, then be able to upgrade to an AM2+ CPU down the line to get quad cores (assuming that the quad core AMD desktop CPUs aren't AM3). That muddies the waters a bit, but I didn't want my previous assumptions to incorrectly color someone else's decision.