Shoutbox

Can someone tell me why this motherboard:

Intel DP965LT 965 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - Retail (£70.49 inc VAT)

is more expensive then..

Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard (£46.99 inc VAT)

because the cheaper one looks better to me I'm looking for a motherboard to support Core 2 Duo and I want it to be 'Vista ready'. Also the more expensive one you can't overclock and the cheaper one you can.

Thanks.

Because Asrock is a low-end budget brand, and Intel's boards are some of the more reliable ones you can get.

I'm not saying you should buy the Intel board, since ymmv.

Asus P5K (Deluxe or not) featuring the new P35 chipset.. if you really want to buy a computer right now..

As-rock never please

That Asrock one is using a VIA chipset..and it doesn't go to DDR2-800 memory either. It natively supports only up to 2 harddisks, for that matter. Most importantly, it features only AGP 8x graphic card slot which you'll soon find to be a pain in neck if you buy it.

I presume P965 chipsets are more capable of overclocking. I'd also suggest you buy a P35 one, I've read a review saying P35 makes better use of RAM bandwidth than P965 does.

Mnjul touched on the subject of overclocking. However, Intel board do not allow overclocking.

I would honestly suggest looking elsewhere if you want to overclock, otherwise take the Intel over the Asrock.

If you do look to overclock, the Vanilla Asus P5B would be my suggestion while staying in the same price range.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mnjul
I presume P965 chipsets are more capable of overclocking.

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975 are better for OC but there's a wider range of 965 motherboards with better specs And 965 is also reaaally good for OC anyhow

quote:

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Originally posted by Mnjul
I'd also suggest you buy a P35 one, I've read a review saying P35 makes better use of RAM bandwidth than P965 does.

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P35 are known as good overclockers (they hold FSB like hell, I've seen 500 Mhz many times) too.. The thing is, with the upcoming DDR3 memory (already available in a combo DDR2/DDR3 compability motherboard by Asus from the P5K series) and the PCI-Express 2.0 rule, which is yet to be released, wether it's a good idea or not to buy a new system right now IF YOU CAN WAIT  ..

quote:

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Originally posted by lizard.boy


If you do look to overclock, the  Vanilla Asus P5B would be my suggestion while staying in the same price range.

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Quite true, in that price range the P5B is a real knock out..

However I think you should never limit a budget for motherboards not greater than 150 Euros (100 pounds), as cheaper motherboards will come down on you eventually (and the same applies to cheap power supplies )

Thanks for all your suggestions.