help me choose please

[Vad3r]

I'm driving myself crazy try to pick one over the other. Don't know enough about the chipsets to really go one way or the other, the 650i and the P965. All I know is, one is nVidia, the other intel.

My main concern is it working with ubuntu linux. I've found people with issues with both, and others seem to have them both working fine. I use XP/Photoshop for my camera, ubuntu for near everything else. I would "think" the intel chipset better for linux, but nVidia supports linux really well on the video card side of things. So maybe there chipset is supported well too.

Not sure if I'll ever have the money to go sli once this is built. So I'll most likely only have the one card.
Reading up on the P5N-E, many say it's picky with ram. I have no idea what ram to be looking at for either board really. 2 gigs of something

Both m/b's say for ram, (ddr2 800), I take it this is the max supported, and it's what I should be looking for ?.

Built my last system with the intention of overclocking, I never did, so o/c'ing not important to me.

thanks for any help here, I'm going insane, I think I've read every review on both I could find.

 

[NXIL]

I do think nVidia supports Ubuntu with both their chipset and graphics cards:

"NVIDIA nForce Drivers

Open source drivers for NVIDIA nForce hardware are included in the standard Linux kernel and leading Linux distributions. This page includes information on open source drivers, and driver disks for older Linux distributions including 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Linux."

If you don't need the last 5% of super performance/speed, you might consider an AMD AM2 Nforce board, and an AMD X2 chip: also, note that their prices are going to drop in a week or two....

One of these boards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productco...34%2CN82E16813130067%2CN82E16813131013

One of these CPUs: and note, all dual cores, highly recommend that, it's cool..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productco...29%2CN82E16819103778%2CN82E16819103760

Low power, pretty speedy, dual core:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103749

RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productco...18%2CN82E16820146569%2CN82E16820146673

I think that unless you are a serious gamer, there is a not a huge difference between the RAM speeds--

You should be able to put together a very solid system at a very reasonable price, and even a bit better after the CPU price cuts that are coming....

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/MailH...datePublish=2007/3/23&pages=VL&seq=202

"Meanwhile, back in the present, despite several recent price cuts, inventory for AMD?s entry-level 90nm parts remains an issue for the company, according to a recent report from Thomas Weisel Partners. The report indicated that AMD will likely cut related prices 30-35% on average on April 9."

"Dhanda said the cuts would likely occur April 9 and will most likely cover the company's desktop products, including Semprons and Athlon X2s, with cuts ranging from 26% to 42%."

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38465

HTH

NXIL

 

[imported_Husky55]

I tried ubuntu on the P5B-E.

P5B-E uses the attansic ethernet chispset which does not have a ubuntu driver in ubuntu 6.10 so no internet access.

I also have the OLD 1.01 G version sent to me by the egg from NJ a couple of weeks ago. This is the second old version I got with VDimm max out at 2.1 V

 

[Vad3r]

thanks for the replies,

On the Video end, I know nVidia has it together, my ol TI4400 geforce performs better in linux than xp.

Anyhow, I guess I'm worried that the 650i chipset is still fairly new ?, and maybe not as stable as the intel P965. Just a guess here.

P5B-E uses the attansic ethernet chispset which does not have a ubuntu driver in ubuntu 6.10 so no internet access.

Yes, I saw a few mentions about this on the ubuntu forums. I hope I'm not getting the boards mixed up (reading so much on both), the P5B-E has two eithernet ports ?, and one works, the other doesn't in ubuntu. Have u tried that ?.

thanks for the heads up on the CPU price drops.

What I have so far,
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
Seagate Barracuda 7200 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R Burner E-IDE/ATAPI
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz

Need M/B and RAM. P5B-E and P5N-E SLI both sound good, but must pick one.

 

[imported_Husky55]

Originally posted by: Vad3r
thanks for the replies,

On the Video end, I know nVidia has it together, my ol TI4400 geforce performs better in linux than xp.

Anyhow, I guess I'm worried that the 650i chipset is still fairly new ?, and maybe not as stable as the intel P965. Just a guess here.

P5B-E uses the attansic ethernet chispset which does not have a ubuntu driver in ubuntu 6.10 so no internet access.

Yes, I saw a few mentions about this on the ubuntu forums. I hope I'm not getting the boards mixed up (reading so much on both), the P5B-E has two eithernet ports ?, and one works, the other doesn't in ubuntu. Have u tried that ?.

thanks for the heads up on the CPU price drops.

What I have so far,
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
Seagate Barracuda 7200 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R Burner E-IDE/ATAPI
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz

Need M/B and RAM. P5B-E and P5N-E SLI both sound good, but must pick one.

P5B-E only has ONE ethernet port P5B DELUXE has 2 ethernet ports