Motherboard for Core2Duo E6300

[aseemk]

The processor has been chosen to be E6300 (Unless it gets very late and E6320 becomes available)
But for the motherboard i am day by day getting confused.
Have been reading on the net for all the different boards (965 & 975) and from different vendors. Have gone through around 5 reviews on M/B, and everyone gives a different opinion with different figures.
My requirements are :
1) A M/B which has atleast 1 EIDE port. (b'coz i have a DVD writer that is IDE based)
2) A M/B which provide OC abilities (but i am not looking for a very high end one)
3) Should have SATA2 ports
4) Should be available in India (Delhi). Many high-mid end models donot get shipped here often.
5) If has an integrated VGA, so that it can be used for some time unless an external card is bought. But then this kind of M/B should not compromise on other qualities(much).
6) Should be a tested one, as otherwise if any problem crops up then getting it replaced is going to be very difficult.

Earlier i had thought to go in for MSI-P965-Neo.
Then thought of GigaByte GA-965P-DS3P (also could be GigaByte GA-965P-DS3)
Then Intel DG965RYCK.
But now totally confused, as read that ASUS board (ASUS P5B / Deluxe) is also gr8.

I wont buy 2 Graphics Card, so SLI is not in my list.
Neither do i have any for RAID

For the RAM i will go for 2GB-DDR2-667 2 Dimms ( I am preferring corsair, but other good one will also do , advice).
Will i get very much improvements if i opt for 2GB-DDR2-800 2 Dimms instead of above one. B'coz cost is also a factor i have in mind.
Also the M/B should have min of 4GB RAM support.

Thanks in advance

 

[aseemk]

I know that there are many post for the same topic. And i have also gone through a lot and lot of them.
What i am looking for is advice from someone who lives in India not in USA.
That's why i mentioned the location. B'coz what all items can be easily obtained in the US market are not that easily available here.

 

[vois2]

You can pick it to the death, but for your purposes with the E63x0, I would strongly suggest the GA-965P-DS3P . Please note the 'P' there after the 'DS3'. It has better cooling available than the regular DS3.

These 965 chipsets are perfect for your purposes. To expand your search into the 975 realm simply adds cost and confusion.

The GA boards are reasonable in cost (except the DQ6, which is not a board you should consider unless you have specific requirements that the DQ6 offers, or, if you are an expert in O/C'ing.)

For any GA 965 board, be sure to acquire rev. 2.0 or rev 3.3 only.

As for availability in India, it is not reasonable that you could not get any of these in India. I have found these in window shops in major cities such as Tashkent, Uzbekistan. So surely India offers them.

 

[aseemk]

Is there any other difference between a GA-965G-DS3 and GA-965PDS3P except for the integrated graphics.
As i was planning to get a graphics card after 2 months, so for the time being an integrated graphics can do.