Mobo: 975 or 965? With SLI or Crossfire?

[pengtzu]

I want to build a new system around the new core duo Intel processor. Boards out there that support it seem to include either Intel's 965 or 975 chipset. Is one better? Should I wait for nForce5? Also, I would like a board that supports multiple video cards. What's the current thinking on ATI or Nvidia? Is there a good 975-based board that supports either? Thx!

 

[MrPaladin]

It depends on your budget. There currently aren't any Intel chipsets that support SLI, but both the 975X and P965 now support Crossfire.
Check the Link: XFire Benchmarks
I personally got an ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe for my first build and was astonished by how easy it was to work with. If that's out of your price range and/or you really don't care about all the bells and whistles try the P5B Deluxe
Asus makes the best overclocking boards on the market, at least for now. But if dual gpus are your thing, wait for the nForce 590 boards, they run at 32 lanes --not that its a huge deal-- but SLI is easier to work with than Crossfire. A driver update would likely create SLI compatability on 975X and potentially P965, but Intel hasn't announced any plans of SLI compatability, so don't rely on or expect one.

P.S. You did mean Core 2 Duo, right? If not, why are you trying to run two video cards on a laptop processor?

 

[pengtzu]

Thanks! Very helpful. And yes, I did mean Core 2 Duo.

Two last points of clarification -- there are no meaningful differences between the 965 and 975 chipsets, i.e., no clear preference? And, any idea approximately when the nForce 590 boards will hit the market?

 

[BUFF]

If you are overclocking then currently Allendales seem to do better on 965 & Conroes on 975.
There is also a new C2 stepping of the 965 chipset about to hit.

Both 965 & 975 support Crossfire but on 965 1 of the slots will only run at 4x so you may lose about 5% performance (Anandtech have reviewed this).
You can run SLI on 975 using hacked drivers - Abit's AW9D even ships with an SLI bridge as part of the bundle.

Asus already have an nF590 board out but the current version using the C19 northbridge is a poor overclocker topping out ~330.
DFI recently cancelled their board based on that in favour of the upcoming version using the C55 nb but that's a few months away.

 

[MrPaladin]

As BUFF said, the 965 overclocks better than the 975X boards, due to recent BIOS revisions -- it's also a good $80 cheaper. The 975X boards perform better with dual GPU setups, which aren't really all that useful for the vast majority of users: one high-end graphics card will almost always outrun two mid-range cards and two high-end cards aren't really viable unless you're running at uber high resolution. If money is absolutely no object, buy a 975X or nForce 4 board now, pay the $1000 for a Core 2 Extreme, and drop in two 1950's or 7900GTX's; if time is no object, wait for nForce 5 and choose then. If you're like most people and don't have a spare $2500 burning a hole in your back pocket and want a good motherboard now, buy a 965.