Any reasons I should go with a P35 based board instead of a P965?

Imdmn04

Platinum Member
Jan 28, 2002
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So it looks like P35 is newest chipset from Intel for the C2D.

It is suppose to support DDR3, however the board I looked at (Asus P5k-deluxe) only supports DDR2? Not that it matter right now, as the DDR3 is uber expensive, but I guess for future upgradability, it is a concern.

Any other reasons to choose P35 based board over a P965 board if you were starting a fresh new build?

Also, any Nvidia chipsets that I should be aware of?
 

tungtung

Member
May 6, 2003
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Well the simplest answer would be that P35 boards offer supports for later (unreleased) generation of the Core2 processors.
This includes the upcoming processors with 1333 MHz bus, which the P35 "officially" support (some 965 boards do support this bus speed but it is not "official" support from Intel, ie. you're overclocking the bus on the 965 boards).

Otherwise in term of performance the difference is just minimal, and other than that I don't think there is anything else new that P35 brings to the table (of course DDR3 support, but many P35 boards still use DDR2 anyway).

In regard to nVidia chips, they have the 680i and 650i, with the later mostly used in "budget" boards. Performance wise as far as I can remember from most review it's pretty much on par with the 965 boards (or P35 for that matter). However they are usually priced a bit on the higher end of the spectrum (for the 680i), or usually the performance is just not as good (for the 650i). By the way also depending on your video card choice, nVidia boards won't support crossfire (ever I guess). While I heard the rumor saying P35 board can support SLI (I'm not 100% sure the truth on this), and it definitely support crossfire.

I would say in the long run, it would just depend on whether you're planning to upgrade your computer often or not. If you are the type that made upgrades little by little then most likely going the P35 is the best option. However if you're the type that upgrading means buying a whole new system, then probably going with the old 965 boards would still be ok (and saves you a bit money for other parts).
 

Elias824

Golden Member
Mar 13, 2007
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the P35 boards are not much more expensive give you a better upgrade future and a little bit overclocking. since the boards are pretty
similar to the 965's I think the bios's are fairly mature for being new.