suggest mobo and ram

[MattM76]

To pair up with a e6400.... Hearing both good and bad about every combination makes deciding difficult. I do not OC or game- so I need a nice stable configuration for computational biology/academic use.

I am leaning towards the Intel p965 board and some ValueSelect DDR2 667 RAM but am not sold on either.

Would I be better off with a different board- say the Asus P5B, Gigabyte DS3, or another in the same price range?
About the RAM- can I go even cheaper without sacrificing stability/performance (Yes, I read the AnandReview). Can anybody suggest an alternative?

Other components:
Seagate 7200.10 320GB
Cheap video card- probably some version of eVGA 7300
BenQ DVD/CD
on-board sound for now
Seasonic S12 400W PSU

 

[MattM76]

Anyone?

 

[Skott]

All current Conroe mobos have some kind of problem so take that into consideration. Overclocking, which alot of people are doing with these mobos, can also adds its own type of problems ontop that. The general concensus currently it seems is that if you want to overclock a E6300 or E6400 the Gigabyte DS3 is the better way to go. For E6600 on up the ASUS P5W DH is having better luck. However the P5B is now getting alot of attention now. The Intel BadAxe is another popular mobo as well. As the new BIOS updates come out these mobos are maturing. ASUS is probably the current leader in this area. Not that the other manufacturers arent updating its just that ASUS seems to be faster in getting them out. This one of the things that makes ASUS popular. Stability wise the DS3 and P5W DH seem to be the two best solutions. I'm going to buck the trend and combine a E6400 and a P5W DH and see how it goes. I like the features of the P5W DH over the DS3 personally, but thats just me. The P5W DH is more expensive than the DS3 but its not an issue for me at this point. You'll find alot of different opinions about whats best right now because these are all new mobos in their first revisions so everyone is a tester/Ginea pig. If you are just worried about price go for the DS3. Double check that RAM compatibility though. Corsair RAM works with it but not sure if that RAM you chose does. Alot of people using the PC6400 (800) RAM from what I'm seeing.