Help wtih motherboard for Core 2 build

[JE78]

I'm going to be upgrading to a Core 2 Duo system either before or after the holidays but i'm having a heck of a time deciding on a motherboard. Here are the one's i've been looking at.

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3

GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3

MSI 975X Platinum V.2

ASUS P5B-E

I'm not looking to overclock that much. I'd like to a little but nothing too extreem or on the verge of killing the CPU. I'd like something stable but with some flexability

As of now I don't have any SATA drives which is why I was leaning twards the MSI board with the 2 IDE connections. But I'm almost out of space on my 2 200gb IDE drives so a SATA upgarde is in the near future, plus I could always get a IDE controller card so I could still use the 2 IDE HDD's if I wanted. Also, since i'm new to SATA can I get a SATA HDD and still use my 2 IDE drive as slaves and the SATA as the master? Or how does that work?

I have a n Enermax 460 watt PSU (20pin connector) but have been told that it would work fine on a 24pin board.

Any info on these boards would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[JE78]

anyone?

 

[jonesthewine]

You should find some good advice here.

 

[Karsten]

I have the Asus P5B-E. It is a fine motherboard and I have really no complaints other then I miss some OC features. That being said I am overclocking successfully right now by 800MHz.

I did however just get the new NVIDIA board with a 680i chipset.

 

[you2]

I'm happy with the p5b-e but i'm using it with linux and I'm not overclocking. System been up for a month 24/7 - no problems yet.

 

[JE78]

Thanks. I don't plan to OC that much. I'm not a huge OCer. I want something stable but with some flexability.

 

[trOver]

whats your budget? iw ould go for the new 680i chipset, and i myslef am planning on getting myself the evga mobo w/ the 680i chipset

 

[JE78]

I want to keep the motherboard between $100-$150. The total build under $600 for CPU, mobo, RAM and a SATA HDD.

 

[trOver]

then your looking at an asus prob.

 

[Crochammer]

I have been looking for the P5B-E Plus. If you check the Asus Global site it is a new motherboard that has almost all the capabilities of the P5B Deluxe and looks to be a more feature rich board than the original E with an almost identical bios to the Deluxe. I don't care about Crossfire or SLI but would like more overclcoking/memory options so I was hoping to find this board but it looks like it is not available yet in North America. It is showing up in Australia though.

I posted a thread for it and hopefully someone will know when it's coming.