E6600 Core 2 Duo but what for motherboard?

[tromba]

Again I just looked at the Foxconn mention above and that has TWO IDE channels and this would help quite a bit with the optical drives and hard drives I already have. OK, so now that's probably the first choice. What about compatible memory for that?

 

[Crashman]

The board supports all non-defective DDR2 SDRAM. Updated BIOS (should be already installed on current boards) allows it to be set at speeds up to DDR2-800. DDR2-667 CAS3 is a better choice performance-wise than DDR2-800 CAS4, and DDR2-800 CAS3 cost too much.

DDR2-1000 and 1066 will operate at speed of 800 or below.

 

[yas]

The only difference is that the DS3 has solid capacitors which means its supposed to last more yet the S3 will last you long enough. ALso the 965 chipset has been out for long enough so almost any ram should work on your motherboard. The only problem you might experience is if the ram has a high voltage then you might have problems starting for the first time but then youll be fine.

 

[Crashman]

No problem installing higher-voltage RAM and starting the first time unless the RAM is defective: DDR2 is supposed to be bootable at 1.80V using default speed and timings, so it's often set to default to low speeds.

There were companies that screwed up the SPD values, but that's a defect.

 

[tromba]

DDR2-667 CAS3 is a better choice performance-wise than DDR2-800 CAS4, and DDR2-800 CAS3 cost too much.

The CAS3 or 4 is new to me. How can I tell which it is? Here is an ad for two gig OCZ Dual Channel for $205 after rebate. (OCZ is a new name for me, but seemed to have some good reviews...) That seems like a good price....

 

[tromba]

If I've narrowed it down to the Foxconn or the Gigabyte, I see two differences.... the 965 vs. the 975 and 3 PCI vs 2 PCI. The Foxconn has only 2 PCI slots, BUT it also has 2 IDE channels so I wouldn't need to add an additional IDE controller, so that amounts to the same thing, unless onboard IDE offers and advantage over PCI IDE....

Someone said 975 works better with the e6600? I think the 975 offers stuff like Crossfire, but that's not of interest.

Then there's the MSI -- that also has 3 PCI slots, but only 1 IDE channel, but has SLI (not sure what that is, but I think it's a video Crossfire like thing that also isn't of interest.)

 

[littlepea]

this post should be a sticky I was asking myself the exact same question.

Is there any mobo out there that also supports AGP X8 at the same time?

Thanks.

hey toastman, i've been wondering the exact same thing, since i want to upgrade to a core 2 duo E6600 but i'm not too keen on replacing my graphics card which i only got about a year ago - ATI Radeon x800 PRO. my current motherboard (an ancient ASUS P4B) doesn't support PCI-E so i got the AGP version of the x800 pro and i don't feel it's really necessary to upgrade the card yet. now that i'm looking to upgrade the processor and motherboard, though, i think i might as well get a motherboard which supports both AGP and PCI-E for when it does become necessary to upgrade the graphics card (hopefully a wee while to go yet).

anyway, after many hopeless searches on google for "motherboard agp core 2 duo" i suddenly remembered i could use the AND function and straight away i found this: ASRock 775Dual-VSTA.

i'm a complete noob at this (my brother usually does this sort of thing for me but he told me to find a motherboard this time) so i've no idea how to judge if this is a good choice or not. it's certainly not a top of the line mobo but it supports the core 2 duo along with AGP so i thought i'd share.