Asus P5B i965 LGA775 PCI-E Motherboard

[Uninvited Guest]

I've been quite out of the loop when it comes to computer part, I've about 5 years of catching up to do.

This card here has really stuck out amongst others I've seen, mostly because of its price, $189 Canadian.
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1178&l1=3&l2=11&l3=307

Comparing it to other higher priced cards doesn't seem to yield much improvement. From what I've looked at, a higher priced Asus card has 1 or two firewire connections, maybe an extra pci express slot, fewer usb connections, and lower frequency ram support.

For example, this one, for $254:
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=227&model=745&modelmenu=1
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition
Form Factor: ATX
FrontSideBus: 533-1066MHz
RAM Support: DDR2 533-667MHz
CPU Socket: 775
On-Board Features:

* Integrated 7.1 Audio
* 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN
* Dual DDR-RAM Support
* SLI Dual PCI Express 16x
* 4x SATA Connection
* USB2.0 Connections (4x External / 2x Internal)
* Integrated SATA/IDE RAID
* 1394 Firewire (1x External / 2x Internal)

or this one, for 289:
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=248&model=981&modelmenu=1
Chipset: i975X
Form Factor: ATX
FrontSideBus: 1066-533MHz
RAM Support: DDR2 800 /667 /533
CPU Socket: 775
On-Board Features:

* Integrated 7.1 High Definition Audio
* Dual 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN Controllers
* Dual DDR-RAM Support
* 2x PCI Express Slots
* Support ATI CrossFire graphics cards (both @ x8 mode)
* 4x SATA Connection
* 4x USB2.0 Connections (4x External, 2x Internal support 4 connections)
* Integrated SATA RAID
* 2x 1394 Firewire ports

I intend to use a E6600 cpu and single 7900GT video card, 2 gigabytes of DDR2 ram, though what type I'm unsure of yet. And advice would be much welcome, thanks.

 

[nitromullet]

The P5B looks like it is a decent board for the money, primarily what it lacks over more expensive options are RAID and the good looks of the black PCB'ed P5B Deluxe.

The second two boards you listed are not compatible with the Core 2 chips. If you want to get an nForce4 SLI board you will want to get the Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe, whch is basically a P5N32-SLI that has been modified to support Core 2. It looks to be a nice board, but with slightly less OC'ing potential than the 975X chipset boards. Most people who want Core 2 and SLI are waiting for nForce 570 or 590 SLI boards to come out. The main difference between 570 and 590 is that 570 supports SLI in 8x/8x PCIe, while 590 supports SLI in 16x/16x PCIe.

AT did a nice preview of nForce 590 SLI IE a while back:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2786

 

[Uninvited Guest]

Thanks. What does RAID do for me, as the deluxe costs $80 more.