Is 965 mobo recommended for e6600 gaming build?

this thread talks about this topic link
also this link ,it really depends on how much you want to spend

Thank you both. Puts my mind at ease. Choosing a mobo has been, by far, the most difficult component.

I hate to ask, but could someone point me in the direction of a good one that has an external SATA or firewire port? The DS3 dosent, but seems very good in other ways. Again, I dont want to use SLI/Crossfire, so I'd like to be able to keep the price down but I fear I'm really going to yearn for that feature.

Thanks again,

R

Edit: Meant external SATA, not PCI, of course.

Yeah, hard choice indeed.

I had to make a freak decision today on a 965/975 and which ever flavour it was in.

So, after some reading, I realized that they are nearly identical (965 vs 975) in performance. OC'ing used to be an issue on 965, but that's something of the past.

I was also looking at the DS3, but somehow the Asus appealed more (i'm a sucker for features). The DS3 does have all solid caps, all over the board, but 3 phase power as opposed the P5B with solid caps around the VRM's and normal ones else where and 8 phase power. Was a hard choice.... :roll:  

Ooops - Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi has an eSATA connection (1 external) and 1 close to PEG slot for who knows what reason. It's hard choice on the 965 chipset - but if you have a broad choice, look at Toms review on a bunch of 965 mobo's - I was stuck with Intel/Asus/Gigabyte today  

Yeah, the PB5-D was my top choice for a while, but then I read that it can difficult to get it up and running, especially for a novice (like me). Is this an accurate perception?

All of the pluses and minuses of these boards is really starting to get mixed up in my head. Having a hard to keeping it straight. One common problem seems to be that they wont natively support or properly utilize high-end DDR2 800 RAM. Is this true of the PB5 as well? Is it true of all 965 boards?

Also, If I remeber correctly, someone said that the ASUS manual is not very good. This scares me a bit since I don't have any experience with building a system from scratch.

I can tell I need to start my research over again (sigh) to refresh my memory. Right now my top 3 choices would still be the GB DS3, Asus PB5 and the MSI P965 Platinum (based on review from Anadtech, tho I read elsewhere that this is one that would not properly utilize good RAM).

Speaking of RAM, I've read in a few posts that, unless I plan to seriously overclock, 667 would actually perform better than 800. Is this true? That would be nice, save a little $$. Im definitely geared more towards better performance over sparing my budget, but doing both at once would be nice.

I've read a LOT of posts and reviews about mobos, but I'm sure I'm asking some of the same questions as many other people. I'm apologize for that. Again, I think its all starting to get muddled for me.

Thank you for bearing with me.

Download the manuals from the manufacturer's site - I got the P5B yesterday, and I thought it was quite good.

The reason people complain about manuals, is that it does not cover each bios setting in detail - so you are left to wonder what the heck it means in certain cases. Also, sometimes people want techincal docs, and once they get it it confuses them so much that we get a catch 22 situation.

The thing is, the pc is a sandbox - and you have to get in there and work things out for yourself, along with help from like minded people - that's what makes the pc so damn nice in my view... It's a proactive exercise teaching you as you go.

Mobo's can be hard to start up, if you are using a cpu that will be supported by the mobo, once the new bios is installed - or if you really don't know what's going on. I've ran into problems, but on hind sight you realize that human error is to blame here.

Luckily there's a forum like this, so if you should get stuck with whichever mobo you buy, pop back and ask! :wink:

No doubt! I don't think I would attempt this without such support.