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P965, 975X, or 650i I Can't Seem to Choose

F

Froid64

Member
I have purchased a C2D 6400 processor and am looking for a good motherboard. I do a lot of video work and therefore have heavy rendering workloads. I do some gaming, but nothing serious. I have built quite a few machines in the past, am capable of overclocking, but I probably won't try to push my system to the limits.

Here's what I have:
Intel C2D 6400 retail
BFG 7600GT OCE 256MB DDR3 PCI Express x16
Thermaltake 560W PS
memory: Still looking
mobo: still looking
2 NEC 3550 16X DVD burners
2 WD IDE 300GB HD
2 Seagate SATA 250MB HD

I have already purchased an internal ide controller card to give me the additional ide support I will need if I get the 965 or 975 chipsets.

QUESTION: Which chipset will work best in my situation. My gut says get a good solid P965 mobo such as the Asus P5B-E, but my mind wanders towards the lower end of the 975 chipset like the DFI Infinity 975x. If I understand what I am reading, I won't see much advantage with the 975 chipset with my 6400 C2D. Just when I think it's safe to move forward, the Asus P5N-E SLI 650i mobo hits the market. This looks like a screamer at a very attractive price. Note: Activating SLI is not big on my to do list.

So, help out an old man with some advice that will clear up this choice for me. Also, good affordable memory recommendations are certainly welcome.

Thanks!
 
Getting no response... I wonder if I was too wordy, are others confused about this, or it is really not that hard of a choice? I have had great luck with Nvidia chipsets with AMD processors. I have always built my Intel systems with Intel chipsets. So that is why my gut says P965 or possibly 975x. However, I am curious about the 650i.

Thoughts anyone?
 
Like you said, I've always built Intel with Intel and I got a 975x this time. However, nvidia now makes good Intel chipsets so there should be no problem with getting one...seems like the major initial issues with 680i were worked out. 650i should also be fine if you don't need all the additional features, and $$, associated with the 680i.
Don't know if you saw this or not...
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2894

Also, the P5B is a nice choice

Edit: There's also this... http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/19/intel_or_nvidia/
I didn't find it all that great though.
 
I second that - P5B-E is a good choice. Intel also has a P965 board, but no overclocking: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121035. Should give you stable performance and reliable service.

Intel 975x chipset stability and performance should be great, and the cost isn't that much higher from quality 965 chipset boards.

I suggest stay on the Intel boat and skip Nvidia offerings this time; not to say that Nvidia products are bad in any way, but Intel chipsets are reknowned for their excellent stability, compatibility, driver support etc. Both P965 and 975x are also pretty mature chipsets.







 
Moosey

I have to admit, when I put money aside, the badaxe2 seems like a good choice. At $199, it is certainly within the range of the good P965 boards. I assume I am not much different than many of you in that I am still having a tough time adjusting to $200+ for a decent mobo. You have to admit that the $129 price of the Asus 650i board is aggressive enough to confuse the issue.
 
Originally posted by: Froid64
Moosey

I have to admit, when I put money aside, the badaxe2 seems like a good choice. At $199, it is certainly within the range of the good P965 boards. I assume I am not much different than many of you in that I am still having a tough time adjusting to $200+ for a decent mobo. You have to admit that the $129 price of the Asus 650i board is aggressive enough to confuse the issue.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. I was going back and forth for a month or so. I finally decided on the BadAxe2 because of the Intel stability and the fact that the 975x performs very well. I wasn't quite ready for the nvidia chips yet after the initial 680i problems. Plus the $200 price sealed it for me (much better than the $260 Newegg wants for the same board).

If you still want cheaper with an Intel chipset, there are some lower priced 965 boards.
 
P5B-E

I am not sure if the nF 650i will be okay with SATA RAID, something that has been a horrible issue with the 680i ones.
 
Boxed version of Bad Axe2 for $200 is very sweet indeed.

IMHO nF 650i isn't that much great compared to P965 except SLI support.... (which you said you're not interested in anyways).

 
Thanks to all for the input.

I'm thinkin that I will go for the badaxe2 and move on with my life. I have read so many articles and threads that I am honestly getting sick of it. I get the impression that there are many of us wandering around trying to choose the best mobo for the C2D and our needs. And for those that are confident on their choices, I think they are tired of giving us wanderers advice.

Thanks again... Happy New Year
 
Originally posted by: Froid64
Thanks to all for the input.

I'm thinkin that I will go for the badaxe2 and move on with my life. I have read so many articles and threads that I am honestly getting sick of it. I get the impression that there are many of us wandering around trying to choose the best mobo for the C2D and our needs. And for those that are confident on their choices, I think they are tired of giving us wanderers advice.

Thanks again... Happy New Year
Click to expand...

Nice choice, I was in the same situation. Now I'm just waiting for my BX2 sometime next week.
 
Help me out here guys. I'm just not seeing the advantages of the 975x over P965. Is it maturity and stability? In that case, I see your point, although with the latest BIOS releases, most of the bugs appear to be worked out for the P965. Is there something else I'm missing?

Performance at stock speeds seems to be a toss-up with both chipsets performing very comparably in most benchmarks. The P965's ICH8R southbridge is newer and probably has a slight advantage in disk access speeds, although the lack of IDE support and consequent use of the JMICRON IDE controller in most MB's is a definite weakness. However, this probably won't have a big impact on most users. Even overclocking seems to be a toss up with the P965 possibly even having a slight advantage on some boards.

Sure, the high-end 975x MB's have some extra features (eg. crossfire support, dual ethernet, etc...) that you may not find with most P965s, but if your not interested in those features is there really any reason to put up the extra $$$? What am I missing?



 
Originally posted by: cougar1

Sure, the high-end 975x MB's have some extra features (eg. crossfire support, dual ethernet, etc...) that you may not find with most P965s, but if your not interested in those features is there really any reason to put up the extra $$$? What am I missing?
Click to expand...

Doesn't look like much....

Since high end P965 boards are price nearly the same as some 975x boards (and come with same bells and whistles i.e. dual ethernet, firewire, 8 channel sound, RAID), it's more of a personal preference when it comes to choosing a board (assuming 2 * PCI-E x8 Crossfire isn't a factor).
 
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