Penryn and DDR2

[Chemtec]

OK - I've been scouring the [H]ot deals forums for a bit now and I've picked up a nice case, power supply and 4GB of DDR2 Ram (Crucial Ballistix) - I was planning on waiting for Penryn processors in Q1 before buying a mobo and CPU - and for some reason I suddenly couldnt remember if Penryn will work with DDR2 capable MBs.

I was reasonably sure that Penryn was going to replace the current line of Quads and Duos - so it should work - no problems - but after reading all those Phenom reviews yesterday ripping on Intels screwey MB feature path (ie. no continuuity and yet another chipset in the X48) I suddenly got all concerened I had RAM I couldnt use.

So basically, I'm OK with DDR2 ram for a Penryn proc assuming I buy a current chipset mobo? Would you wait to buy a mobo in Q1 for DDR2 ram or is now about as good as its going to get? Reccomendations for a mid range quad penryn, 8800GT maybe with raid capability?

 

[BillParrish]

All the P35 and newer chipset boards should work, check for a bios update or go to the manuf product page and see it it says something like "supports upcoming 45nm cpus".

Some older P965's as well but its more iffy.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3138

 

[GreenGoose]

There are a plethora of P35 and X38 (and some P965s) motherboards out there that support DDR2 and Penryn. You made a wise purchase. No need to wait. Go ahead and make the purchase.