[oceanclub]

I'm upgrading to Core Duo and PCIe and hence need a new motherboard. The
main choice is between 975X vs nVidia SLI, and I'm thinking of opting for
975X - while I'd love to have the option of adding another graphics card at
some point, I'm a bit wary of nVidia SLI boards, having read about their
instability, problems with SATA data loss, and having already had a nForce
(A7N8X-Deluxe) board that was a bit flaky (give me the ability to play a
game without crashing every half-hour, over a few more FPS. any day).

In order of importance, I'm looking for a a motherboard, for under ?150
(£110), which:


* ATX size
* Supports Core 2 Duo and Core Extreme processors
* Supports SATA II (aka 3.0) drives
* Supports at least 4GB memory, possible 8GB
* Known for stability
* 3 PCI slots - enough for audio card, extra USB port card, and wifi card
* At least 1 Firewire + at least 6 USB2 ports


Nice to haves, not that important:


* Onboard Wireless-G wifi
* Onboard audio
* Overclocking potential (but not at expense of stability)


If anyone has a favourite which matches that list, would appreciate a
recommendation,


Thanks,


P.

[christophicus]

As far as I know the 965's are better for overclocking.

[8T8]

Dual GPU support on Intel motherboards is only available via ATI's GPU's so keep that in mind.

Only NVIDIA motherboards support SLI.

I understand your wariness haven been party to all sorts of quirks on NV motherboards as well.

The 975X support dual x8 slots whereas the 965 have a x16/4 balance but this is not very well supported in ATI's drivers only Direct3D API is for x16/4 mode.

I'd have a look at the MSI 975X PowerUp version as it supports all the Core 2 Duo class CPU's and is fairly well stacked with features though it does not meet all of your requirements and finding a board that does may not be possible (review).

[oceanclub]

Well, as mentioned I've little or no interesting in overclocking. Sure, if I could do it in 5 minutes with no extra cooling and no impact on warranties stability for visible results, of course.

Thanks for the link, it looks promising. Only 2 PCI slots is disappointing though; if it had more USB ports or onboard WiFi, that wouldn't be a problem, but with the additional of an audio card and WiFi, that's both slots gone already.

Cheers,

P.

[d_advocatus]

Originally Posted by oceanclub

Sure, if I could do it in 5 minutes with no extra cooling and no impact on warranties stability for visible results, of course.

You can! You can push up the FSB on a C2D to 300MHz and it'll be stable, cool and faster.

[8T8]

Originally Posted by oceanclub

Well, as mentioned I've little or no interesting in overclocking. Sure, if I could do it in 5 minutes with no extra cooling and no impact on warranties stability for visible results, of course.

Thanks for the link, it looks promising. Only 2 PCI slots is disappointing though; if it had more USB ports or onboard WiFi, that wouldn't be a problem, but with the additional of an audio card and WiFi, that's both slots gone already.

Cheers,

P.

You could always just use a USB hub and a USB WiFi card there really shouldn't be any major difference.

This Asus 975X board has 3 PCI slots but if using dual GPU one PCI slot will be unusable due to it's proximity to the PCI-e slot.