650i vs. P965 based motherboards. What would you get?

[KDOG]

I'm very close to upgrading my machine and I'm having a hard time deciding between the 650i and P965 chipsets. If that EVGA 650i board would be available before payday, I'd be all over that just for the cost/benefit ratio. But I've narrowed it down to these 2 boards (so far):

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 1.3)
I believe this may be a new version?


ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i

Decisions, decisions. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[n7]

Too many issues with the DS3 when OCing...just go to XS & start reading.

GL finding people that like the DS3 over there.

P5N-E SLI would be my suggestion, or the P5B-E.

 

[SexyK]

I have the P5N-E SLI... it's rock stable and fast. No complaints here.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I'm building a machine today with an MSI 650i board.

 

[Genx87]

I own a DS3, nice board, very stable, but not much of an overclocker. They put the southbridge right next to the PCI-E slot with passive cooling. Needless to say with my 8800GTS right next to it, the chip runs a bit hot and doesnt like to run outside the envelope.

That ASUS board looks good, I didnt go with ASUS because when I built my system the P965 version they had used some audio chipset that was giving everybody nightmares. It appears the ASUS board you linked to uses Realtek. Yeah not the top end stuff, but it has worked for me in the past and continues to work fine for me currently.

 

[KDOG]

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
I'm building a machine today with an MSI 650i board.

Sweet, let us know how it goes!


EDIT: I just noticed that MSI board is the only one that specifically states (on the website) that it supports OCZ memory, which I have sitting here ready to go - I got the Titanium 2Gb (2x1Gb) pack.

 

[Mullzy]

Originally posted by: Genx87
...
That ASUS board looks good, I didnt go with ASUS because when I built my system the P965 version they had used some audio chipset that was giving everybody nightmares. It appears the ASUS board you linked to uses Realtek. Yeah not the top end stuff, but it has worked for me in the past and continues to work fine for me currently.

Not to derail this thread... but do people actually use onboard audio on their higher-end overclocked gaming rigs? I'm genuinely interested to know if that's now viable (it's been 3+ years since I built a system and back then it really wasn't an option without noticable performance hits.)

Anyway, good luck on your new build.