New Conroe build: P5B vs DS3

[jandrade]

Hi,

I'm planning on a new Conroe E6600 build in the next few days. So far I've been leaning towards the Asus P5B mobo, but I'm wondering what the opinions are on whether it would be better than the Gigabyte DS3 mobo. For that matter, would you recommend any other board? I don't plan on overclocking (at least initially!) and I'm not a hardcore gamer either. I don't plan on running SLI or Crossfire. I would prefer to stay in the price range of $150-$160, unless someone can convince me I should spend more The other option I looked at was the new Abit Ab9 Pro, but I've read the board layout it not very good. Any suggestions?

 

[Raloth]

I plan on getting the Intel DP965LT. I've heard it doesn't overclock so well, and it has limited RAID support and no SLI/Crossfire, but it has everything else you could want in a motherboard, especially for $115.

 

[GreggyD]

I went with the DS3. Also look at this thread and check out the overclock he's getting with the DS3:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1902745

 

[jandrade]

Thanks guys. Nice link to the other thread, and very impressive showing for the DS3. Umm... what to do... Any other opinions?

 

[Roy2001]

I ordered a E6600. I also ordered OCZ plantinum RAMs. Next is DS3 board and 7600GT or 7900GT card.

I don't think you have many choices for MB at this time.

 

[TheSynth]

I'm getting the DS3. Will this ram work with it? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231073

I checked the compatibility list on Gigabytes site and it wasn't there?

 

[gobucks]

i ordered the ds3 as well because of the insane overclocks. i have heard a lot of memory won't work right off if it requires more than 1.8V to run stably. I believe the workaround is to take a cheap stick of 1.8V ddr2 and use it to boot into bios, then up the voltage and set the necessary timings manually. then you should be able to use whatever memory you like. hopefully this is just a bios issue and it will be fixed soon.

 

[yacoub]

I'm holding off any motherboard purchase for Core2Duo as all the currently available boards have rather significant problems or downsides. Maybe come September there will be hardware revisions released and new boards to research.

 

[Thor86]

There are already bios updates for the DS3 which solves most issues with Conroe.

 

[rflynn74]

Guys it's not hard to follow this link. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/Mem...ort/motherboard_memory_ga-965p-ds3.pdf