Cheaper Core 2 motherboard.

[kingdingeling]

true, as this is an office PC, it would make more sense to get the onboard variant.

[fire_storm]

If your not going to OC you can get the GA-965G-DS3 and it has on board video so you will not have to buy a video card unless you just need one

 

 

true, as this is an office PC, it would make more sense to get the onboard variant.

 

I'll look into that board. I would get an on board video but he wants to do a dual monitor set up so I was going to get the EVGA 7600GT I looked into the 7300 but there about the same as price as the 7600 and the 7600 runs better.

 

So I guess I'll get this board then GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 same board just without video support.

 

Also I'm confused with the whole ram compatibility thing I mean I though that with 775 boards could use any time of ram as long as its DDR2 533 and DDR2 800 and anything higher.

 

But with that board it says Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets.

 

Does that mean I have to find ram with timings that are exactly 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 and run at 1.8v and the tras timing does matter or do they all have to be 5-5-5-5 or 6-6-6-6?

 

Like would these Muskin 2x512 sticks with timings of 5-5-5-12 or G.SKill 2x512 sticks with timings of 5-5-5-15 work with that Gigabyte board or would I have to get different types of ram besides those?

[road-runner]

I'll look into that board. I would get an on board video but he wants to do a dual monitor set up so I was going to get the EVGA 7600GT I looked into the 7300 but there about the same as price as the 7600 and the 7600 runs better.

 

So I guess I'll get this board then GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 same board just without video support.

 

Also I'm confused with the whole ram compatibility thing I mean I though that with 775 boards could use any time of ram as long as its DDR2 533 and DDR2 800 and anything higher.

 

But with that board it says Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets.

 

Does that mean I have to find ram with timings that are exactly 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 and run at 1.8v and the tras timing does matter or do they all have to be 5-5-5-5 or 6-6-6-6?

 

Like would these Muskin 2x512 sticks with timings of 5-5-5-12 or G.SKill 2x512 sticks with timings of 5-5-5-15 work with that Gigabyte board or would I have to get different types of ram besides those?

From what I have seen with the little experience I have with the DS3, DQ6 etc. if the rams voltage is like 2.1 like I have and you have the older bios the board may not boot the first time because you have to get into the bios to raise the voltage. I think the new bios fixes most of those problems but of course the boards do not usually have the newest bios and when there was not a new bios they had problems with ram. I have read where some people had to boot with 1.8v RAM and change the voltage settings then change the ram, when all they probably had to do was flash the bios. When I was OCing the DQ6 I lost the bios one time and it went back to F3 it did not boot because of my ram being 2.1v I just went in the bios and updated it, that fixed that problem.

[bigred]

my experience with lower cost boards of this type is actually to go INTEL. they're not as fancy, don't overclock... however they take a good beating and are pretty compatible with 99% of the ram you throw at them.

[spectrascope]

my experience with lower cost boards of this type is actually to go INTEL. they're not as fancy, don't overclock... however they take a good beating and are pretty compatible with 99% of the ram you throw at them.

[fire_storm]

Well thanks for everyones input after looking over the board choices I will probably go with an intel made board or that asus one (found the ram compatibility list). The gigbyte one was looked nice but I really don't want to be messing around with a ram problem though.