Basic Guide to Motherboard Selection for Core 2 Duo Cpus ( expansion and additions to be added as i find time)
 
Basically, This (I Hope) will become a simple guide for those who are interested in buying a Core 2 Duo cpu & Motherboard. Anybody is allowed to contribute; infact, it's highly recommended (constructive contributions mind you) as i by no means know everything there is about these new cpus. Prices will be ball-parked and be based mostly on online e-tailers. Well Here goes...
 
Well for starters, the market is still developing/maturing thus the selection of boards are rather limited. However, the goal is to have this guide be updated to include new products as they come to market (and availability).
 
The most obvious place to start would have what all the boards have in common. For Starters, due to power requirements, older chipsets will not support Core 2 Duo and some board (namely the 975x boards) will only support the new cpu if they have the proper revision. All boards requires support for a FSB of 266mhz and Bus speed of 1066 (may soon change with quad core). Also, the Majority of the boards will require new DDR2 Ram. Also (with the exception of nForce boards and 975x Chipset) S-ATA drives will almost be required as the single Ide Channel Built into the boards will most likely be reserved for CD-Rom Drives. Anyways, without Further Adieu, there's a break down of the Chipsets.
 
Chipsets:
     INTEL:
          945
             945G
             945P
 
          946
             946GZ
 
          965
             P965
             G965
             Q965
 
          975
             975X
 
     NVIDIA:
          nForce4
          nForce570 SLI
          nForce590 SLI
          nForce680i
 
     OTHER: Comming Soon (too many to list/think of right now)
          VIA P4M800
          VIA P4M890
          SIS something something something...
          Some ASRock Board that does everything
          Some other company i missed...
           
 
  Intel, the maker of this new cpu, also makes their own chipsets. Namely, the the 9xx Express Chipsets. While the newer ones such as the 945/965 are custom tailored for the new cpu, the 975 as adapted to support these chips and some may require a bios flash to fully recognize the New Core Duos.  
 
  To put it simply, the 945 line was designed with the entry consumer in mind, They are primarily priced at under $100 (All Currency based on USD) and are mostly of micro-atx design. (May add more to this later)
 
  The Next step up would be the mainstream 965 Chipset boards. The 2 flavors differ by 2 factors, integrated video. First, P965 doesn't have integrated video while hte G965 Does. Second, The P965 supports the Core 2 Extreme Cpus while the G965 doesn't. The Primary contenders for this board include:
 
Gigabyte
     GA-965P-DS3 $145 (Mainstream Recommendation)
     GA-965P-DS4 (Mainstream High Recommendation)
     GA-965P-DQ6 $200 (Upper Mainstream Recommendation)
     GA-965P-S3 $115
     GA-965P-S4  
 
Asus
     P5B $135 (Mainstream High Recommendation)
     P5B-E $150 (Mainstream High Recommendation)
     P5B Deluxe $180 (Upper Mainstream Recommendation)
 
MSI:
     P965 Neo-F $90
 
Abit:
     AB9 $125
     AB9 Pro $145
 
Pros:
HD Audio
Use of New ICH8(R) for South Bridge.  
Natively supports Core 2 Duo.
Supports up to 8GB of Ram
 
Cons:  
Chipset VERY picky about ram. Those made with Infineon have no problems with the board while those by micron have been mostly nothing but headaches. Speaking from personal experience, Asus P5B, Gigabyte DS3, DS4, DQ6 and Abit AB9(pro) boards will work with Corsiar and G. Skill without a hitch while those by namely OCZ with gigabyte will require a bios flash with the use of cheapo (dell   ) ram before they even post.
 
Board Specifics:  
DS3- northbridge can get VERY toasty using stock cooling. The "D" in their product line represents "durable" solid caps which theoretically mean longer life.
DS4- Has Heat-Pipe cooling solution resulting in a cooler Northbridge over the DS3
DQ6- PQI memory company has been confirmed to work with the series
 
***I have no exp with MSI/Abit boards, suggestions welcome
 
Next in intel's line up is the 975x chipset. 975x boards are considered enthusiasts boards and thus command a high premium. Those boards include:  
 
DFI:
     Infinity 975x $185
 
Intel:
     D975XBX (Bax-Axe)  
 
Asus:
     P5w Deluxe $270
 
Abit:
     AW9D-MAX $240
     AW9D
 
Pros:
support of 2 x 16x PCI express lanes (Originally slated for Cross-fire, they will most likely support SLI as ATI has been bought out by Intel's arch rival AMD)
2x IDE channels (for those who are willing to spend the money to keep their existing IDE hard Drives)
 
Cons:
revision issues (bios flash may be required before Core 2 Duo could be used)
utilize ICH7 and ICH7R.  
 
Board Specifics:  
^^opinion^^ D975XBX potentially best onboard integrated audio
 
***I have no personal exp with any of these boards, suggestions welcome
 
Last but not least, would be nVidia. With the introduction of the 680i chipset, the nForce5x0 can finally rest in peace. Unable to compete with intel chipsets in overclocking, its only benefit was SLI but now that the 975 boards support SLI, there is no reason to get them anymore.  Those that are currently being offered include:
 
ASUS:
   P5NSLI  $120
   P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe $240
   ASUS P5N32-E SLI $300
 
 
ECS:
   NFORCE 570 SLIT-A (5.1) $100
 
EVGA:
   eVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR $270
 
Pros:
nForce5x0- Native Core 2 Support, Native SLI support
nForce680i- Native Core 2, Native SLI, Rumored to hit 1ghz+ FSB.
 
Cons:
nForce5x0- Poor overclockers compared to intel Chipsets
No Cross-Fire Support
Very scarce
 
Board Specifics:
P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe- supports conroe with bios flash and supports dual 16x pci-express lanes for SLI. Still based on nForce4
 
Here's a basic skeleton, ill add to this tonight or tomorrow when i find the time.
 
Edit: Added 680i, Changed prices to reflect market (11/11/06)
Edit: minor corrections, added Q965 chipset, added Abit AW9D boards (9/23/06)

that post was rape. i personally am thinking of getting a DQ6 as it owns

waiting for fanboys and forum vets to tear it apart... until then, im just editing grammar/spelling/stupid mistakes.

yeah thats usually what happens 8O  but anyways i thought it was good. I think an improvment you could make would be to include the prices of each board off a popular retailer like newegg.

Yeah that would be nice, or a simply froogle link to the search results of each.  Nice job otherwise.

Good job!
There is more than the onboard graphics difference on the P & G 965 chipsets. P965 supports Core 2 Extreme while G965 does not.
Intel
BTW- have you been able to locate a Gigabyte GA-P965-DS4?
I've had no luck in this quest.

core 2 extreme added thx
 
as for DS4... i cant find it either... thats y it has no price next to it.

Does anyone know anything about Biostar's TForce 965 Deluxe mobo?

Thank you, thank you, thank you...It's murder trying to find solid or up-to-date info on mobo's for the Conroes & many people on the forums seem hesitant to offer up too much knowledge. My guess is it's because everything is so new that not enough people have a lot of experience with it.
 
One question I had was what benefit do the new SLI boards have over the 965's?

GA-965P-DS4  $315
 
A bit pricey they are

 
its so true! not much boards are out on the market too.. not much choice still..
 
very informative thread though..

Abit's AW9D & AW9D-MAX 975X boards should be on sale this Friday with the Fatal1ty version to come later.

k will add when i see how prices/performance/availbility works out

 
A bit pricey is right. I noticed they want $499 for a e6600. But at least we have a place to buy it. Thanks

Hi all I will buy a conroe mobo and was wondering what mb has the best integrated sound card?

I thought that the 975x boards supported up to 8 gigs of ram?
Its listed as 4gb in the OP currently.

 
Intel 975xbx

Good job so far.  
Hopefully you can field all the questions that will be thrown your way.
Updates for best in stability would be nice. (That could take awhile)

Nice job.  Does anyone know why it is nearly impossible to find on oof these boards that has onboard firewire without SLI?  If you're doing video, you want firewire to connect a camcorder but from what I understand you really don't need SLI

Right now the Intel DP965LT is the only mobo readily avaiable under $150 with onboard firewire and no SLI. I just received this board yesterday and am about to start my build in a few minutes. I use Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus and capture alot of video from my mini DV camcorder so the onboard firewire was very important because I don't want to use a PCI slot for that.