965 Chipset Motherboard

[TBSN]

I'm trying to decide between the plethora of Intel P965 boards for my (first) build. I am planning on OC'ing an E6400 a moderate amount, and I've read that this is a good chipset for that. I am just stuck, which one of these boards is better/ would you recommend?

Abit AB9 Pro P965
link

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 link

ASUS P5B-E link

ASUS P5B Deluxe link

Any other suggestions? I need a board that won't be really difficult to set up, and is stable.
What are the major differences in performace between these? Any help choosing would be great! (If you need more info on what I'm planning for the build please tell me...)

-B

P.S.: Firewire would be nice, but if a board is really good mut doesn't have firewire I could always add a PCI card or something... Thanks again.

 

[Cheex]

Well, IMHO, I would suggest that you go with the GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3.

Performance-wise...they are all pretty close to each other. So basically its up to you really.

 

[TBSN]

CAn you give some reasons for why you would suggest it (or any others)? That would really help in order to decide..
thanks!

 

[UMfanatic]

Gigabyte always makes quality motherboards, I am probably going to purchase the DS3 myself either that of the DQ6 but that is a high end mobo

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: TBSN
CAn you give some reasons for why you would suggest it (or any others)? That would really help in order to decide..
thanks!

I'll jump in and answer this for him. The DS3 is a proven design with a large number of enthusiasts having an incredible amount of luck overclocking this board.

The DS3 is also the "durable" version of the S3 board. "D for durable, heh" And it better be... I expect several years out of mine.

I don't work for secret corporations that supply me with unlimited computer parts without having to do anything but post on Anandtech about how much knowledge I have gained from my access to unlimited computer parts. :roll:

 

[Heidfirst]

all of them should perform very similarly at stock which means that the differences come down to price, features & overclocking.
e.g. the AB9 Pro has more features for a similar cost to the DS3 but isn't as good an overclocker with respective current BIOS.

The P5B DeLuxe is the dearest but also offers the possibility to run ATi gfx cards in Crossfire if you so wanted courtesy of it's 2nd physical (electricallly it runs at x4) x16 PCI-E slot.

You should be aware that there is a wave of 2nd generation 965 boards coming - Gigabyte has Rev. 2.0s of its existing boards plus a new DS3P model, abit has AB9 QuadGT etc. etc.

 

[The-Noid]

If difference in price on the S3 and DS3 is less then $25 I would buy the DS3. If the S3 is $25 cheaper (the new refresh of 965p boards is coming, as well as the 3rd refresh 975x boards) I would buy the S3.

There is simply not much difference between the two. Basically the DS3 has solid caps. You can actually use the DS3 bios on the S3 . Solid caps are supposedly good if you are going for super high overclocking results, but as others have proved the S3 is more then enough, and in many cases clocks higher then the DS3.

The new refresh boards will hit shelves in about 6-8 weeks, supply should be good though. I believe the older boards will clear out so you should get some pretty good deals. If you are not looking for 450+ fsb then I would buy the cheaper board and not wait for the new boards to come to market.

 

[TBSN]

Thanks for the replies! So far the Gigabyte DS3 sounds really good, but I am also still interested in the P5B-E/deluxe because they have firewire, but its not that big of a deal. Do you think that the prices are going to drop sometime in January, or should I just go ahead and get one after xmas? Thanks again.

P.S.:Two more questions: Are these refresh boards basically made to overclock really high, or do they fix issues that the current boards have? And, Do you know if any of these boards would be capable of a Core 2 Quad for the possibility of upgrading in the future? Thanks

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: TBSN
So far the Gigabyte DS3 sounds really good, but I am also still interested in the P5B-E/deluxe because they have firewire, but its not that big of a deal.

so does the AB9 Pro at a lesser cost.

And, Do you know if any of these boards would be capable of a Core 2 Quad for the possibility of upgrading in the future?

The Gigabytes certainly are - tbh I would expect that they probably all are.

 

[TBSN]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst

Originally posted by: TBSN
So far the Gigabyte DS3 sounds really good, but I am also still interested in the P5B-E/deluxe because they have firewire, but its not that big of a deal.

so does the AB9 Pro at a lesser cost.

Someone said earlier that the AB9 Pro does not overclock quite as well as the other ones, such as the Asus P5B E/D or the Gigabyte DS3... Hmmm, such a difficult decision. Any others who have used these boards?

Comparing some of the P965 motherboards, it seems like some have the ICH8 and some have the ICH8R chipset. Any differences, is the 8R much better? The Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 has some pretty attractive features, but that would put me in a new price range. So far, comparing the features, we have:

Gigabyte DS3: ICH8/ no firewire- $130
Asus P5B-E: ICH8R/ 1x firewire- $150
Asus P5B-D: ICH8R/ 1x firewire/ Crossfire- $183
Gigabyte DQ6: ICH8R/ 2x firewire/ Crossfire- $198

any suggestions? I can only read the specs; I don't really know which board has the better BIOS, etc...

 

[n7]

Asus P5B-E.

There are no known issues with it afaik, & it's incredibly easy to OC.

The same cannot be said of the DS3, as it has been the most bug-filled P965 to date.

If you're gonna go cheap, just get the S3.

But seriously, P5B-E is the best user-friendly OCing mobo right now for cheapish.

 

[TBSN]

thanks n7, thats the kind of info I really need right now. This is my first build, so I'm a little nervous about running into random bugs during setup and BIOS, so I think the 'user-friendly' P5B-E would be a good choice....

 

[FightTest]

Originally posted by: n7
Asus P5B-E.

There are no known issues with it afaik, & it's incredibly easy to OC.

The same cannot be said of the DS3, as it has been the most bug-filled P965 to date.

If you're gonna go cheap, just get the S3.

But seriously, P5B-E is the best user-friendly OCing mobo right now for cheapish.

The issue with the P5B-E is that you can't go beyond 2.1v on the memory voltage which not only limits overclocking, but also some memory comes with specs that require 2.2v to begin with.

That's the reason I got the DS3 after buying Asus boards for years.

 

[TBSN]

Does the P5B-D go above 2.1v? Depending on whether or not the RD600 comes out soon, I may just get a 680i board. they're just so tempting. But if the P5B-D doesn't have the same limitation on memory voltage, I may just get that.

 

[FightTest]

No, the P5B-Deluxe doesn't have the problem. I considered getting the P5B-D just so I could stick to using Asus boards, but I couldn't justify spending the extra $35 on stuff I didn't need (extra PCIe16 slot).

 

[TBSN]

How has your Gigabyte DS3 been so far? Have you run into any bugs? I'm new to building computers, and I just want to know generally what I'm up against...

 

[FightTest]

Nothing huge.

The SATA drivers for the Windows install off the CD didn't work. Had to remake the disk using drivers off the website.

My second optical drive didn't show up at first. For some reason disabling CD audio off it (not connected to a soundcard anyway) fixed it.

And last is that I'm not getting full speed off my SATA drives. Transfer is like 120 rather than 150. I think it's again an issue because I used drivers off the CD. Next time I format I'm just going to use drivers off the website because the included CD sucks.

Other than that no problems.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: TBSN

Someone said earlier that the AB9 Pro does not overclock quite as well as the other ones, such as the Asus P5B E/D or the Gigabyte DS3..?

it doesn't, typically in the 400-450 range whereas the others will do 500 (the Gigabytes might not if using Micron D9 RAM unless the latest BIOS fixes that). Again that may change with a new BIOS though.

Comparing some of the P965 motherboards, it seems like some have the ICH8 and some have the ICH8R chipset. Any differences, is the 8R much better?

the R stands for RAID - the standard ICH8 doesn't have RAID capability.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: FightTest

Originally posted by: n7
Asus P5B-E.

There are no known issues with it afaik, & it's incredibly easy to OC.

The same cannot be said of the DS3, as it has been the most bug-filled P965 to date.

If you're gonna go cheap, just get the S3.

But seriously, P5B-E is the best user-friendly OCing mobo right now for cheapish.

The issue with the P5B-E is that you can't go beyond 2.1v on the memory voltage which not only limits overclocking, but also some memory comes with specs that require 2.2v to begin with.

That's the reason I got the DS3 after buying Asus boards for years.

P5B-E revision 1.02G has up to 2.45 vdimm; revision 1.01G has only 2.1 vdimm.

Even if you end up with the original revision, any decent D9 RAM will work just fine @ 2.1V regardless of rating.
In fact, pretty much all D9GMH/GKX will do 1000 5-5-5 @ 2.1V.

 

[TBSN]

Do you think an online store like newegg would have the newer, 1.02G revision?

 

[Vette73]

I have a Gigabyte S3 and it has been great. Clocks better then my last POS asus. I will never buy Asus again.

 

[soydios]

I have the Asus P5W-DH Deluxe, and I'm quite happy with it. I've never so much as seen a P5B in person, but I should think it would do just fine as the P5W's little brother, plus I've heard almost all good things about it around the internet.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: FightTest

Originally posted by: n7
Asus P5B-E.

There are no known issues with it afaik, & it's incredibly easy to OC.

The same cannot be said of the DS3, as it has been the most bug-filled P965 to date.

If you're gonna go cheap, just get the S3.

But seriously, P5B-E is the best user-friendly OCing mobo right now for cheapish.

The issue with the P5B-E is that you can't go beyond 2.1v on the memory voltage which not only limits overclocking, but also some memory comes with specs that require 2.2v to begin with.

That's the reason I got the DS3 after buying Asus boards for years.

P5B-E revision 1.02G has up to 2.45 vdimm; revision 1.01G has only 2.1 vdimm.

And where can you be sure of getting a 1.02 board?