Please help me decide between these two mb's

[leeland]

They are both stable, both have a ton of options...both can over clock well...

HOWEVER...I am a little confused, After reading some reviews on both boards.


The P5W DH is an older board with an older chipset correct? That was supposed to be slower than the new chipset of the P5B Deluxe...

After reading Anandtech's Review of the two boards (although it is an OLDER review) it recommends the P975x chipset vs the newer chipset because it was faster regarding memory and some other things...

Does this still hold true today? I would assume new BIOS's for the P5B Deluxe has matured the board?. The price difference is only 20 dollars on newegg so money is not factor for me.


Which of these two boards is considered the winner based on the following needs of mine:

1. The P965 is designed for the C2D chips and the P75 is designed for the P4's ??? Correct?
2. Using Onboard LAN (One has a LAN chipset Marvell 88E8053 and the other apparently doesnt?)
3. Using Onboard Optical Sound (Does one have a better Audio Chipset vs. the Other?)
4. No SLI immediately, but possibly in the future (only have a 1600x1200 Dell FP2001 Monitor)
5. Would like to attempt to OC above 3.0 - 3.2 Ghz on Air Cooler (not stock cooler)

Any info would help me greatly!!!


Thanks in advance,

leeland

 

[leeland]

Can anyone comment on these two boards...please?

 

[gramboh]

The 975X is older. Some feel it is a more stable chipset and give slightly higher performance than P965.

P965 is better for overclocking and hitting high FSBs. I went with the P5B Deluxe and can max out my E6600 easily on it. I am very impressed with the board and would recommend it.

 

[leeland]

when you say "you were able to max out your E6600" how difficult was the over clock? Did you have to Over clock your RAM to reach your top speed? What Cooler are you using?

 

[moosey]

You mention SLI, Intel chipsets don't officially support that. If you need SLI, you need an Nvidia chipset. I wouldn't consider SLI if I don't need it and definitely not as a future-proofing measure.

Anyway, 975x doesn't have the Jmicron IDE controller issues people are having with the P965 boards. Performance wise, they're very similar. P965 will overclock to a higher FSB generally, therefore a lower multiplier CPU is better suited for it when overclocking. I have an e6600 and went 975X since the multiplier is higher at 9x. I was also reading how stable 975x was and I didn't want the Jmicron issues. I haven't had any troubles with it.

In the end, either board should do just fine. Depends on your o/c goals though with whatever processor you're going with.

 

[leeland]

I am more and more leaning away from SLI...I mean the concept sounds all great, but in reality I won't want to drop that kind of money to get the full effect..that just doesn't seem to be to economical (at least for me).

The hard thing is you read and read and read, and if you look hard enough you will find negative stuff on each side of the fence causing analysis paralysis. I do agree with you, that either board "for me" will do fine....


I have been reading more and more stuff on the P5B deluxe and it seems like a logical choice, I will be more than likely be heading in that direction...


Is there anything in the near future that will be trumping the P965 chipset?


Thanks moosey for the perspective!

Leeland