Core 2 Motherboard by X-Mas??

[digitaldose]

Been reading quite a bit over the last few days (some great information on here fellas, thanks!) Anyway, I haven't upgraded my system in almost 2 years (at least any major components) and have the itch. My current system is,

MSI K8N-Neo2 Platinum
Athlon 64 3500+
1 Gig Crucial Ballistix PC3200
XFX Geforce 6800 GT

I'm looking to upgrade to a Core 2 system and have the major components picked out except the motherboard.

Core 2 E6600 CPU
2 Gig Either Corsair or OCZ DDR2 800
Geforce 8800 GTS
Motherboard - ????

The 680i chipset seems a bit overkill for me, even though I'm a pretty big gamer I'm not a huge overclocker and such and would rather not spend $250 on a motherboard. The 650i seems like it would be perfect however with no MB's out yet I don't want to wait until potentially January. SLI capability would be nice however it's not an absolute must.

Any motherboard suggestions?

Thanks
DD

 

[Arkaign]

If you don't mind building once and then re-building, there are those dirt cheap VIA C2D mobos that actually aren't that bad. Stable, cheap, of course no realistic overclocking, but you could then hold out for 650i, and either resell the VIA mobo for most of what you paid for it, or keep it for a spare tester.

This is under $50 :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135027

Decent reviews, and if you have any existing DD1 on hand, you could also wait out the high DDR2 prices.

Just an idea

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
If you don't mind building once and then re-building, there are those dirt cheap VIA C2D mobos that actually aren't that bad. Stable, cheap, of course no realistic overclocking, but you could then hold out for 650i, and either resell the VIA mobo for most of what you paid for it, or keep it for a spare tester.

This is under $50 :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135027

Decent reviews, and if you have any existing DD1 on hand, you could also wait out the high DDR2 prices.

Just an idea

I had 2 of those. They actually did better on ddr, than ddr2. Good idea.

 

[myocardia]

Get the Gigabyte 965P-S3. You won't be sorry, and it's very inexpensive, for what you get, and the performance/overclockability.

 

[nyker96]

yes I agree with myocardia, get a S3 or if you want to spent a bit more for features: P5B-E 1.02G is very good.