Biostar TForce 965PT, where did all of them go???

[cyberkost]

So ... I've been waiting for the April CPU price drops. In the meanwhile I've been thinking which mobo to use for my next build (a Ubuntu server / number cruncher). I narrowed my choice down to Gigabyte DS3, Asus P5B-E Plus and Biostar TForce 965PT. I don't think P5B-E Plus has ever been widely available, it's also the most expensive of the bunch. DS3 has ugly colors (somehow I do care about the aesthetics, and those 24 colors + golden werd-shaped heatspreaders really turn me away). Biostar is the cheapest, has good layout and color scheme (I will have enough USB ports on this board and I don't care about FireWire for the time being). One real advantage is that 965PT does not employ JMicron IDE controller and that makes life a whole lot easier. So, I decided to go for the Biostar TForce 965PT. It had been available from Newegg for about $110 shipped. Than it went out of stock for about 10 days in early March and then came back ... but then a bunch of reviews (I'm talking newegg user reviews here) popped up claiming various problems and the board disappeared from stock and has not been back since (for about 2 weeks now). Even more interesting, it does not look like newegg is planning to get it back in stock -- I signed up for "notify when in stock", but now if you search newegg.com for 965PT you'd only find open box for $64, and no new product page with greyed out "Add to cart" button like newegg has for the normal out-of-stock items. And even more interesting: if you froogle Biostar TForce 965PT, you'll conclude that no one on the net is selling them!!! DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? This is also a time-sensitive issue for me because I was going to take advantage of paypal's $15 off (of $30+ purchase), which runs through 03/31... ANYONE ANY IDEAS, FACTS?

 

[Zap]

Aren't motherboard manufacturers doing a product refresh to be able to "more officially" support 1333MHz FSB CPUs?

 

[cyberkost]

Hm-m, I doubt that is the case. DS3 is also going to have 1333MHz FSB with v3.3, but the earlier versions are still widely available.

 

[imported_yes]

You are looking at 965P-DS3 rev3.3, which is a good option too. It OC well & also gives you those bells & whistles just in case you ever need it.

 

[cyberkost]

Originally posted by: yes
You are looking at 965P-DS3 rev3.3, which is a good option too. It OC well & also gives you those bells & whistles just in case you ever need it.

My problem is that I have a window case (Lian-Li 7B Plus) and I find the colors and the shapes of heatspreaders on DS3 very UNpleasant (feature-wise, price-wise, oc-wise, etc. this is an excellent board) ... unless Gigabyte has changed that in v3.3 (which hasn't hit the stores yet, has it?) I'd like to still go with Biostar (also for the JMicron issue) ...

 

[vailr]

I'd suggest looking at the Abit IP35 series (IP35-Pro, IP35, & IP35-E), using the Intel P35 "Bearlake" and ICH9 southbridge.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38276
Or the Gigabyte version: GA-P35-DS3
http://translate.google.com/translate?h...2BICH9%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

 

[cyberkost]

vailr, those are some nice boards ... but:
1) they'll be probably be priced above $200
2) they may not be available before 04/22 (let alone before 03/31 when paypal coupon expires)
3) it'll be months after the initial release till there will be a good enough BIOS
4) some of the components/features may not be extremely well supported by Ubutntu

Again, I'm not trying to make this thread "what's best board to buy ifor the new build next month?" I'm more after "what's the reason behind Biostar TForce 965PT total disappearance from the market?" (with the hint that the latest batch may have had massive problems)

 

[tenax]

what i ran into myself and found about through some reading is a bunch of them with cold boot issues..(would not post..none of the "indicator" leds on board that are supposed to help with diagnosis lighting up ever) no matter what i tried ( i rebuilt the system 6 times in 2 days trying every trick i knew..pulling the battery, changing the battery, remounting the cpu about 4 times..using a different heatsink..turning off power to psu, unplugging pus..i finally gave up after reading about a high percentage of boards with cold boot problems..rmaed it express and got a gigabyte ds3..haven't looked back since)

 

[cyberkost]

That was more or less my suspicion, but it seems as though only the latest batch was affected. What bothers me though is that perhaps the issue was so bad that Biostar decided to pull everything off the market with no word when/if the 965PT going to re-appear ... my second choice would have been ASUS P5B-E Plus, but is has been talked about since Oct'06 only to never show up in stores. DS3 is an excellent board (except for the use of JMicron), but I cannot go with their color scheme and headspreader design (I know, I may need a therapy )

Also, newegg now lists 965PT as out of stock with and "auto-notify" option. Let's see what happens next week. I'll also try to remember to give Biostar a call.

 

[mcurphy]

there's one available here

 

[cyberkost]

Originally posted by: mcurphy
there's one available here

... or there's an open box @ newegg for $52. But I need something with a more solid return policy, should return be needed ... Again, I'm trying to focus this thread not on the fact that I need a 965PT, but rather on finding out what was wrong with the latest batch and why it totally disappeared from *all* of the online stores.

 

[tenax]

the other issue with biostar to keep in mind is they don't seem to have support..very little on website and i've heard not good at responding..fortunately, i bought my board with express rma so fired it back and let them deal with it rather than mucking about with support.

 

[tydas]

Bought my 965pt from mwave about a month ago and it seems to be working fine so far. I agree with the support issue, I cannot even find the programs on thier CD on the website...

 

[BladeVenom]

It's been relisted, like a new product all previous reviews are gone. Has something changed? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138039

 

[cyberkost]

Venom, thanks! I'm curious as to why they changed the name to P965 from 965PT ... hope they didn't make too many changes to the board to make it very different from the one reviewed by Anandtech. Well, it's only few days left for my wife to take advantage of Paypal $15 off $30 offer , so I guess I'm going to jump on this. Thanks again!

 

[cyberkost]

According to newegg specs,the new P965 supports Quad-core / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo / Pentium CPUs vs. Core 2 Duo / Pentium D / Pentium 4 / Celeron D that PT965 supports. The new board is also 0.1" narrower ... Anyone with actual experience with P965?

 

[cyberkost]

Ok, I think I may have gotten some clarity on the issue discussed here ... I just called Biostar tech support (626-581-1055) and got the following story from them: 965PT has audio codec that does not allow the board to be Vista-certified. They did some work on the codec and released the new board under the new name, P965. All hardware and overclockability are the same (according to Biostar's tech. support). P965 is a successor of 965PT in the market, so one should NOT wait for a new batch of 965PT to appear.

 

[HaskeAngel]

cyberkost..

Did you get the board? What do you think?

 

[cyberkost]

I did get 965P. However, I have not tried it yet, as I'm waiting for 04/22 C2D price drop to get the CPU. I rushed to get the board before 03/31 in order to take advantage of Paypal's $15 off $30 offer. I think it should overclock the same way as 965PT, as the only difference (according to Biostar tech.) is in the audio support and the title/box (they needed to add "VISTA certified" to stay even with competitors).