The very best motherboard for Core 2

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Hello123

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Hello

i have now decided on an Intel Core 2 CPU can someone recommend me the very best motherboard to go with this CPU

Thanks for your help
 
"Very best" is based upon your needs.. My call is the Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional since it has PCI-X slots for SCSI controllers..

Para
 
Parabellum said:
"Very best" is based upon your needs.. My call is the Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional since it has PCI-X slots for SCSI controllers..

Para
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That sounds like an excellent choice. Also, the P5B Deluxe is great for Core 2 Duo chips as well. Though that same board isn't nearly as good for Pentium 4's or Pentium D's.
 
I think the MSI x975 has the most potential, I have it on the latest beta bios and its rock solid now. If your going to overclock it looks like a great choice just let the bios mature a bit more. Seems as though all the new 975/965 boards have their share of quirks, but the 2 ide ports and an awesome layout sold me on the MSI. Onboard audio sounds incredible too.
 
The Gigabyte P965-DQ6 seems to be very good as well, that's why I bought it. I doubt there's something like "the" best. My choice did exactly what I expected.
 
Parabellum said:
"Very best" is based upon your needs.. My call is the Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional since it has PCI-X slots for SCSI controllers..

Para
Click to expand...

Definitely, plus when you go through Froogle, it's only 300 at Ewiz versus 307 when you just go to their site. I'm thinking I may buy it to replace my Gigabyte 975 board, I have a few PCI-X SCSI controllers sitting around that I can put to good use. Or a I'll just throw in a Fiber Channel HBA and go straight to the SAN from my workstation. :p

Seriously, I haven't found any reviews on this board, but I'd like to pick it up. I'd like to make sure it can do a decent overclock first though. Anyone seen a review?
 
Hello

My system will be used for High Definition video editing so i want something that is going to be good

also i want a board if possible where i can put 2 x core to chips in it
 
DFI INFINITY 975X/G 975X P4/Pentium D/CoreTM2

I give it a 100% it is just Nice / no drama overclocking
It will run any x2 SLI or CF
 
I have had to (imo) read between the lines. The [H]ardster himself is using that slick gigabyte board.

I am still looking for a nice core2duo / sli setup. Not sure what is the "best" yet.

You did mention you want to edit HD video. You man not want to build your own box and go (dare I say it) with one of those new swanky MACs running intel hardware.

Gaming on the other hand . . . that would be a differnt story.

Good luck! Keep us posted as to what you decide. I am always curious to see what ends up working for people.
 
That board Kyle is using is, imho, not 'so great'. Read reviews on newegg...any current gen board has a boatload of incompatabilities and/or problems. Gigabyte especially with memory incompatabilities just reeks of immaturity.

I'll buy a board ASAP but I don't want one of the first released. I'm hoping for either DFI or ABit this time around...my abit ic7 was 'ok'; though I could never squeeze out a great o/c on that board, I always thoguht it was my processors fault not the board. Oh, and the active cooling fan sprung off on my ic7 too, but other than that the board and my sig sys. have been very good to me so I'm not at all opposed to abit stuff.
 
Just be aware that ABIT was almost out of business a year or so ago. They got bought out, or aquired by a company named Universal something-or-other, and the new ABIT products will say "Universal ABIT" on them. Not a big deal, since ABIT is probably more solid now financially as a company, but they have not been known for great support as of late.

Andrew
 
I believe that ABit was purchased by Houston Technologies sometime ago, the same company that owns PCChips, ECS, Matsonic, etc. I may be wrong on that, so don't quote me on it. ;)

I know of someone that acquired the AB9 and he absolutely hated it. He switched right over the Gigabyte P965 DS3 as soon as it arrived on his door step.
 
is there any difference between the p5wdg2 and the p5w-dh deluxe besides the pci-x slots? if not, and you dont foresee using pci-133 anytime soon, i guess you could pocket the $100 difference and get the p5w-dh, which is a fine board.
 
We didn't believe it to be a BIOS issue. The problem was with the JMicron controller refusing to install XP from the CD unless the F6 driver was loaded. That was the first time that I saw a motherboard making someone use an F6 driver just to use a CDROM drive. Forcing the controller to AHCI/Compatible mode did not work either.

The DS3 did not have this problem. One of my favourite retailers has been selling the DS3 and the DQ6 like hotcakes due to little problems or no problems with them.
 
fireluxx said:
We didn't believe it to be a BIOS issue. The problem was with the JMicron controller refusing to install XP from the CD unless the F6 driver was loaded. That was the first time that I saw a motherboard making someone use an F6 driver just to use a CDROM drive. Forcing the controller to AHCI/Compatible mode did not work either.

The DS3 did not have this problem. One of my favourite retailers has been selling the DS3 and the DQ6 like hotcakes due to little problems or no problems with them.
Click to expand...

I didn't have this problem with the P5B. The CD Rom worked fine, the main problem I had was with the JMicron controller not allowing me to put Windows XP on a normal IDE drive attached to it.

I was forced to use a SATA drive for the OS installation.
 
vanilla_guerilla said:
is there any difference between the p5wdg2 and the p5w-dh deluxe besides the pci-x slots? if not, and you dont foresee using pci-133 anytime soon, i guess you could pocket the $100 difference and get the p5w-dh, which is a fine board.
Click to expand...

If PCI-X is not needed than the P5W DH is a good alternative but I personnally want the PCI-X so the P5WDG2 WS Pro is the only one.

Para
 
fireluxx said:
We didn't believe it to be a BIOS issue. The problem was with the JMicron controller refusing to install XP from the CD unless the F6 driver was loaded. That was the first time that I saw a motherboard making someone use an F6 driver just to use a CDROM drive. Forcing the controller to AHCI/Compatible mode did not work either.

The DS3 did not have this problem. One of my favourite retailers has been selling the DS3 and the DQ6 like hotcakes due to little problems or no problems with them.
Click to expand...

I tried using the Jmicron controller on the AB9 Pro and I had blue screens trying to install WinXP onto a SATA drive with the CD on the Jmicron. I've heard using the floppy drivers fixes this, but didn't have a floppy handy to try it.
 
Yeah, it does work. After 6 hours with that board I told the guy to load the JMicron driver during F6. 20 minutes later, XP was installed. :rolleyes:
 
I don't see how this guy 'acquired' the new abit board. How is this possible unless he is an abit engineer or something? That story sounds weird to me. I'm talking about the new abit boards that haven't even been released yet.
 
Let's just say that I know the guy from a hardware review site that I was with for 3 years. Unfortunately he and I had a bad parting after I assisted him with the AB9. How could he get his hands on the AW9D-MAX? :rolleyes: That is not the board I am referring to.
 
fireluxx said:
Let's just say that I know the guy from a hardware review site that I was with for 3 years. Unfortunately he and I had a bad parting after I assisted him with the AB9. How could he get his hands on the AW9D-MAX? :rolleyes: That is not the board I am referring to.
Click to expand...

oh, i see. Thanks for clarification but not for rolleyes.
 
Parabellum said:
"Very best" is based upon your needs.. My call is the Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional since it has PCI-X slots for SCSI controllers..

Para
Click to expand...

Also the engineering seems a cut above and man mine overclocks like crazy.....
 
I have a Gigabyte DS3 and it has been absolutely flawless for me with my E6300. Easiest build ever, easiest overclock ever, etc... I hate to sound like a !!!!!!, but when I hear people dump on the board I've got to say something. All I did to overclock was raise the FSB to 400...wityh a multiplier of 7, that gave me 2.8GHz stable right off the bat (I ran dual prime for 12 hours with no errors). I could probably go higher with the overclock, but I have 667 ram and I'm already running it at 800. I'll wait until the price of DDR2 800 comes down and then buy some and try some more overclocking. I bought the Patriot 2GB DDR2667 kit from newegg and it works like people said it would....it gave me an easy 800.

I personally wanted the Gigabyte board because it had three useable PCI slots. I am a musician and all three of my soundcards are PCI, so I really needed that. I use my PC mainly for music and music recording and it is super fast for this application.

I came from a socket A machine, so this was a pretty big bump for me.

Lyquist
 
Anybody heard any rumors of ASUS releasing a "Crosshair" (NOT Crossfire!) MB for the Core 2 Duo/Extreme? It's a sweet looking piece for the AMD crowd. To tell you the truth I'm torn right now between the FX-62 on a Crosshair and a Pro2 Extreme on a DS3. Nothing is ever easy!!

thePP
 
PixPirate said:
Anybody heard any rumors of ASUS releasing a "Crosshair" (NOT Crossfire!) MB for the Core 2 Duo/Extreme? It's a sweet looking piece for the AMD crowd. To tell you the truth I'm torn right now between the FX-62 on a Crosshair and a Pro2 Extreme on a DS3. Nothing is ever easy!!

thePP
Click to expand...

If you're going to get a Core2 Duo Extreme, get a better board than the DS3. I'd get a P5W DH for that kind of CPU.
 
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