LG775 Socket - Which board 975x or P965 ??

[nesso]

Hi guys .. i´m new here .. and i´m not expert in hardware.

I´m buying a new computer for me, and i choice the E6600 Core 2 Duo Processor for me, and after read some articles from TH i have some questions.

First, the boards with P965 technology is cheaper than 975x technology, so 975x tech is better then P965 ??

Second, i´m looking up for a medium-cost board, so i really like Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe, what u guys can tell me about that ?
I will just use on PCI-E x16 port (dont need cross/SLI) and 1 Gb DDR2 RAM.

Oopsss.. other question what is "Voltage Regulator", this make too much difference ? because i saw 3/4/12 phases.. which is better ?

Thanks ...
[]´s

 

[JuiceJones]

The 975 boards will typically be more feature-rich, but for 90% of users the price premium isn't warranted. The P965 is a great chipset and all you will probably need; I went with one myself and am very happy. Thumbs up to the Biostar.

As for the voltage regulator, I'm no expert, but a higher phase is needed for CPUs with higher power requirements. I think 4 phase is necessary for only the quad cores, but still good to have anyway.

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

Phase power is always needed on CPU's - but 3 phase vs higher does not directly translate into CPU support right now.

Currently, the higher the phases, the better current and voltage is allowed to the CPU which equated into stability and better OC.

If you intend on buying now, higher phase power is recommended, along with solid caps around the VRM's as a minimum - this just allows higher and more stable operation.

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

975 = 2x8 PCIx lanes (ICH7R)
965 = the second lane will only work at 4x PCIx (ICH8R)

The 975 is supposedly the better from the two, but benches point to no noticable difference. The 965 has the ICH8R southbridge, and allows for 10x SATA, along with memory tech that allows lowers latency. With the 965, all PATA support was dropped aswell, but most mobo's have 3rd party chips for PATA (IDE aka CD-ROM) devices.

The 965 used to be not very OC friendly, but BIOS and revisions has changed this.

The 975 had a few revision, and thus some of them won't support quad core.

From the above, I'd say go with the 965 as it's the first target chipset on Core 2 and Core 2 Quad

 

[triggerhappy]

I really don't know much about the difference of the 2 chipsets as i did not really read up on them much. i just bought a ga-965p-ds3 and a core duo 6600 for a really good price and i think it's great. so far i have the 6600 running @ 3.45 on 1.4v. to me the second pcie slot is useless unless its for sli or c.f

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

I'm also not a fan of CF or SLI. I prefer one monster of a card, and then some money for food and games... :lol:

 

[nesso]

I'm also not a fan of CF or SLI. I prefer one monster of a card, and then some money for food and games... :lol:

Me too, i really don´t like it.
So a motherboard with only 1 PCIE x16 slot for me is ok !

And i don´t OC because i´m newbie in this stuff..
so 3 phases it´s ok for a Core 2 Duo ??

[]´s

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

Phase power, to be honest, is just a nice selling point if you're not into OC'ing your PC.

So, 3 phase will be a-okay in your case!

 

[nesso]

Phase power, to be honest, is just a nice selling point if you're not into OC'ing your PC.

So, 3 phase will be a-okay in your case!

thx dude... any recommendation of MB for me ??
i will not OC, i will not use SLI/CF, i need ddr2 slot and some PCI plugs
i really would like a 7.1 sound and gigabit lan

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

I wish I could give you a reccomendation, but on such choices I'm as undecided as a 5 year old kid in reggies two days before xmas....

What I looked at this week before buying, was:

Asus P5B Deluxe / P5W Deluxe / P5B Wifi
Gigabyte DQ6 / DS4 / DS3P
Intel's 965 range

The Asus P5B Wifi came out tops for me, because a.) the P5B Deluxe non wifi was not available, and the closest I got in that region was the DQ6 and P5B wifi b.) Asus won, cos I saw the functionality my dad's P5W wifi had and liked it alot.

From Tom's feature, MSI and BIOSTAR seems the better though, so it will come down to your choice. If you don't intend on OC'ing, or Xfire/SLi then you could get away with a very low cost m/b. BUT, i'd recon that if you go the proper 965/975 route, you'll end up with it in any case.

Most mobo's have PCI, PCIx x1 and PCIx x16 included. So it's a tough call.

Right now, I'd say MSI/BioStar/Gigabyte and Asus is on the hot list for you. I'd also recommend 965 chipset aswell as good PCboard layout.

Check each mobo manuf website, and have a look at the complete spec of each, and weigh them against each other. Then look at pricing, and what suits your pocket best.