Maximum Stability Core 2 Duo Board

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Calefaction

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 1, 2004
Messages
335
So heres the deal. I did the OC'ing thing with my last upgrade, watercooled, etc, etc. It's nice, but it's always had little stability quirks that drove me nuts. I recently bought a Core 2 Duo notebook with a T7600 and flat out, I love it. It's fast with no OC'ing, runs like a dream.

I am about to overhaul my desktop to be a Core 2 Duo setup as well. I am going to keep the watercooled case (I paid for it, I might as well, right? :p), but I don't plan to overclock, or if I do, it will be extremely light. What board should I look at for maximum stability on an E6600? I was going to just go with the Intel 865P Express board, as Intel tends to err on the side of stability, but I haven't bought an actual Intel board in forever. I've heard the Gigabyte DS3 is a great OC'ers board, but has it's issues. I haven't done much research on the Asus offerings, but my current Asus board for my Opteron 165 seems to run well enough.

So which direction should I head?
 
The Intel Badaxe is stable, silent, and cool.

You pay for it . . .but it's all those things. No sli . . though.
 
My only concern there is that it's the 975X, which doesn't officialy support 800mhz DDR2. Only the 965 series does. Also, does the southbridge on the 975X support AHCI and NCQ? I can get a 965P that has the ICH8R that does. I can't seem to find what south bridge the Bad Axe uses.
 
I have a Gigabyte DS3 and it has been completely stable since the day I bought it.
 
So I am thuroughly confused. Been reading alot of literature, and I really can't decide which is "better", the 975X or the 965P. I know the 975X is supposed to be the enthusiest board, but it doesn't officially support DDR2 800, which seems very odd to me. Alos, the 975X isn't the "official" board meant to support the Core 2, although I know it does. Should I go the 975X route or the 965P route? I plan to use DDR2 800 in the machine, so I don't want to buy a bunch of RAM my board can't use.
 
I had the Gigabyte 965P-S3 but wanted to get a SLi ready board so I upgraded to the Gigabyte DQ6 which is a TOP OF THE LINE board...
 
dVeLoPe said:
I had the Gigabyte 965P-S3 but wanted to get a SLi ready board so I upgraded to the Gigabyte DQ6 which is a TOP OF THE LINE board...
Click to expand...

The DQ6 has two PCI-e x16 slots, but it's not SLi ready :p The 865P chipset doesn't support SLi or CrossFire, that 975X does...at least according to this firing squad article *shrugs*
 
Calefaction said:
I've heard the Gigabyte DS3 is a great OC'ers board, but has it's issues.

So which direction should I head?
Click to expand...

Most of those issues have been worked out with the last 2-3 BIOS upgrades. And the main one ("memory incompatibility") wasn't their fault. The memory makers are selling "overclocked" ram, that can only do the SPD timings & speed when you overvolt them up to 2.1v+ from the stock 1.8v.

It would be as if Intel was selling processors that required 1.5v to boot but the motherboards would fail to boot with the processor, b/c the stock voltage is 1.325v.

IE: the memory makers set the SPD timing/speed to what the ram can do at default voltage. Then you can raise voltate and lower timings manually to get the better pre-tested overclocked speeds.
 
I just saw on Intel's web site that they just announced D975XBX2, which supports ddr2 800. Don't know when it's available tho. Hope this may help.
 
Hmmm, can't find that on Intel's website. I might wait for this board instead of jumping the gun on a 965P.
 
Its was on there web site 5 minutes ago. Go to motherboards, desktop motherboards. Its at the top of the list. I'm going to wait for it also! I talked to the intel rep., but he said he didn't have the release date.
 
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