Pros & Cons of Core 2 Mobos

[Corren]

I'm really struggling on which motherboard to get for my E6600. As a result, I've come up with this list of pro's and con's for each motherboard. I didn't include the DQ6 from Gigabyte as it has some heat thing on the bottom which makes mounting a good quality heatsink like a Sycthe Ninja impossible.

Some of my priorities: clean cabiling, e-sata for future easy expansion, quiet.

I'm leaning towards the DFI Infinity board, as it's simple, has what I want, but the power port location really scares me for cooling purposes. Your thoughts?

Intel Bad Axe:

• Pros
  • Intel Board, Stability, Enough Said
  • 975x Chipset
  • Passively Cooled
  • Good Overclocking Results
  • Great SATA/Power/IDE/Floppy connector locations

• Cons
  • Price
  • Availability
  • Revision Specific Needed (304)
  • No SLI Officially Supported
  • Front Panel Sound, CD Audio Connetor location
  • Slower for 975 board
  • Hard to overclock
  • No e-Sata port

GigaByte DS4

• Pros
  • Passively Cooled
  • Good performance and overclocking
  • Great SATA/Power/IDE/Floppy connector

• Cons
  • Price
  • Availability
  • No SLI Officially Supported
  • Front audio, CD Audio Connetor location
  • No e-Sata port

GigaByte DS3

• Pros
  • Price
  • Availability
  • Passively Cooled
  • Good Overclocking Results
  • Great SATA/Power/IDE/Floppy connector locations

• Cons
  • No Second PCI-X VidCard Slot
  • Front Panel Sound, CD Audio Connetor location
  • No e-Sata port

Asus P5W-DH:

• Pros
  • 975x Chipset
  • Passively Cooled
  • FAST! OC and Stock
  • Great SATA/Power/IDE/Floppy connector locations
  • e-Sata port

• Cons
  • Price
  • Revision needed (701)
  • Availability
  • Insane SATA/RAID implementation
  • No SLI Officially Supported
  • Front Panel Sound, CD Audio Connetor location
  • Excessive features (wifi?, remote)

DFI Infinity 975x:

• Pros
  • Price
  • 975x Chipset
  • Passively Cooled
  • Great Overclocking Results
  • Great Performance Results
  • Great SATA/IDE/Floppy connector locations
  • E-Sata Port

• Cons
  • Availability
  • No SLI Officially Supported
  • Horrible Power Location
  • Front Panel Sound, CD Audio Connetor location

 

[The Pentium Guy]

I'm leaning towards the DFI Infinity board, as it's simple, has what I want, but the power port location really scares me for cooling purposes. Your thoughts?

Honestly, the last thing I'd worry about is a port's location. You should be able to find your way around it without obstructing airflow too much, just be a litttle creative.

 

[Corren]

Well, after reading that DFI mobos and Seasonic PSUs don't play nice, I'll be going with the BadAxe. Above all else, I want a setup that works, the first try, out of the box, and I think the Intel stuff, even at a premium, gives me the best shot of that.

Plus, i found a retailer with the 304 revision in stock

 

[rklaver]

one of the cons to the Intel board is it only supports DDR2-667, not DDR2-800. Provided you think that's a con.

 

[Firebert05]

Not so much a comment, but more of a question. Is the Asus P5B just like the deluxe model but just without the excessive features and $90 less expensive?

 

[Corren]

one of the cons to the Intel board is it only supports DDR2-667, not DDR2-800. Provided you think that's a con.

Are you sure? If so, that's a major bummer, as I bought DDR-800. Suggestions?

 

[sweetrugger]

Originally posted by: Firebert05
Not so much a comment, but more of a question. Is the Asus P5B just like the deluxe model but just without the excessive features and $90 less expensive?

965 chipset, only 1 x16 slot, several other differences.

 

[Corren]

Originally posted by: rklaver
one of the cons to the Intel board is it only supports DDR2-667, not DDR2-800. Provided you think that's a con.

According to the article, they tested it with DDR2-800, and DDR2-1067

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797&p=4

I've sent an email to them for confirmation however, as it's listed as DDR2-667 on the website for intel.

 

[Some1ne]

Asus P5W-DH:

Pros

975x Chipset


Passively Cooled


FAST! OC and Stock


Great SATA/Power/IDE/Floppy connector locations


e-Sata port





Cons

Price


Revision needed (701)


Availability


No SLI Officially Supported


Front Panel Sound, CD Audio Connetor location


Excessive features (wifi?, remote)

Add to cons: Insane SATA/RAID implementation (one SATA channel from the ICH7R is split into two channels for the SiL, one of the Jmicron channels is internal while the other is external, it is impossible to do a RAID-5 with 4 disks on this board coupled with a RAID-0 of 2 disks, despite the fact that it claims to have 6 ports, etc...really they should have just used the ICH8R, or at the very least no split the channel from the ICH7R to hang the SiL controller off of).