What is the best Core 2 board?

[OsamaBinAthlon+]

Depends whether you're looking for e6300/e6400 or e6600/e6700 because for the former get yourself a 965 chipset, for the latter get yourself a 975 chipset.

I love my Gigabyte 965p-ds3. I haven't hit the 500fsb mark yet but hopefully with the new ram I will.

[-CsA-TAZ]

Im telling ya if I have to RMA this board one more time its going on ebay and Im buying an infinity. Its much cheaper and the performance gain on the 680i are less than 5%. I thought I saw somewhere to where a guy set a OCing world record on an infinity I might be wrong though. I cant think of any benefits to get the 680i instead right now. SATA is terrible, not a single USB port worked on mine, countless memory errors, instablility when overclocking, and no good fixes in sight. Do yourself a favor and get the tried and true.

 

Hmm that’s the price you pay for rushing in Im afraid, I know im paying it now with Vista 64 lol, but remember that NVIDIA did not get there NF2 chipset quite right and the same with ATi's first chipset, it a new challenge for NVIDIA to take on Intel in the chipset market and Im sure they will get it right @ some point as the did with the NF3/4 on the AMD platform but here and now its the Intel that’s the more mature one, It seems to me that for the money you can pick up the DFI 975X/G Mobo for right now , it has to be one of the best buys around for £80 or less in the Uk if you can still get hold of one , with the choice of CF or SLi and decent OC'ing don't see how you can go wrong IMO! Good luck!

 

P.S what 3D/06 score are you get @ stock on that lot you have? my M8 has the same kit as me except he has the GTX and the Evga 680i Mobo and can only score 8600 which is only 100 more than me @ stock everything, and we are yet to find out why!!!

[Agent_Orange]

Yea I have to throw one in for the 975x/g... This was my first REAL OC experience and I am able to hit 3.6 with an E6600 on air easy. This board is old reliable. And these forums have the best guides on how to really get the most out of it.

[Angry_Games]

I'm going to get the Gigabyte DQ6. Angry has the S3 version and I think he likes it.

 

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16813128323

 

yep I have the $109 Gigabyte GA-965P-S3

 

it only has a single PCI-E 16x slot, but if you have a big vid card, you only need a single slot (like an 8800, or dual-gpu card etc)

 

It overclocks like a dream, very easy (see the OCDB)

 

The DQ6 is all that the S3 is and more (dual pci-e slots for Crossfire or hacked SLI lol).

 

 

This is the only non-DFI motherboard I've played with really in the last 4 years, and I love it. But we'll be playing with a lot more as time goes on! (ExRoadie is getting an MSI 965 version like mine, cheapo but should overclock like crazy for normal users).

 

 

ps: dont listen to Thraxz about the 965 being a poor performer. He's on crack. The 965 board I have performs awesome! And it only has an older 7800GT 256MB card in it!

[Master_0f_All]

is the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 any good ??

[Thraxz]

http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboard...-p965-975x.html

http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?p=32#post32

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showth...t=114998&page=2

[Chump]

I apologise now if this seems like a hijack but I have just recently purchased a DFI Infinity 975 (my first Intel board ever) & was wondering which CPU to put with it.

 

I don’t have a mega budget & I am from the UK where silicone costs more than gold because we don’t have a NewEgg.

 

I am going to initially build the system with a P4 630 & 2 x budget 512mb DDR2 800 modules I already have just till I get used to the board.

 

I have always gone for the cheapest/slowest CPU just for the glory of a mega over clock like my Opty 144 1800-3000mhz rather than an fx57 but reading this thread OsamaBinAthlon+ seems to suggest I would get a better over clock using a higher speed CPU with the 975 chipset has anyone else got an opinion on this or am I missing something.

 

P.S from what I had read on the net the DFI Infinity is the most widely used board for the C2D CPU & that’s why I got one.

[Smoken Joe]

To the original question RD600 does seem nice so far. It might be a little overpriced right now but it is hard to beat. The diffrence between the chipsets is small except for features and the individual boards ability to over clock.

 

The Infinity 975 is a pretty safe bet for overclocking. with a faster processor(multi) but some of the other bords do seem to get a faster FSB with less effort though at higher price and likly with not a direct improvement in memory performance.

 

 

Chump how much is the diffrence in price? If it is significant I would look into the E4300 it looks like it has a ton of potential. Right now the price is a little excessive in the US but it might be better in comparison there- if not now soon. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2903&p=2

[Chump]

Smoken Joe: I was just curious as to whether the 975 chipset likes a particular CPU as that is what I thought OsamaBinAthlon+ was getting at.

 

I had a look at the E4300 as you suggested & it does seem to make a good over clock here are good UK prices.

 

E6300 1.86GHZ 1066MHZ 2M Cache £120

E6400 2.13GHZ 1066MHZ 2M Cache £150

E6600 2.4GHZ 1066MHZ 4M Cache £215

 

E4300 1.8GHZ 800MHZ 2M Cache £110

[Retrospekt]

Rigth now i'd go for the gigabyte ds3. Great overclocking board, fantastic features. Many people have had great experiences with that board.

[-CsA-TAZ]

is the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 any good ??

Its not Bad thats for sure, and you need to read the rules and make a sig or you will get banned very soon M8

[Praz]

and you need to read the rules and make a sig or you will get banned very soon M8

[*]4. - Signatures: You are not required to have a signature.

 

HOWEVER,

 

if you are asking for help about your computer, it is probably a GOOD IDEA to make a proper signature.

 

Enough said