At the bottom of the LGA775 Core2 scale, are the overclocked chipsets.
These are on the cheaper boards, and VIA chipsets tend to be the
overclocked ones. Basically, they take an older FSB800 chipset and
run it at FSB1066 for the Core2. Using such a board, means there is not
a lot of headroom left. So the cheaper boards are limited to "stock"
operation. You'll also find some Intel 945s used that way.
This would be the cheapest of the 965/975 Intel boards I would
look at. Like previous Intel Southbridges, there are several Southbridge
types. Vanilla ICH8 with four SATA and no PATA, and no RAID feature
(RAID driver won't install). Up to the ICH8R with six SATA and no PATA,
with RAID capabilities enabled. To compensate for the lack of PATA
ports, a second controller chip is used (a JMicron 36x ?). It has
two SATA and one PATA port (
http://www.jmicron.com/Product_JMB363.htm).
Giving a total of six SATA and one PATA on the motherboard. If the
PATA situation is not sufficient, it can be fixed with a PCI IDE
card, like a $40 Promise UltraATA TX2 card. Also, note the
warning in the Newegg advert - DDR2-800 RAM should be the 1.8V type,
as many RAMs recommend higher than normal voltage at this speed, and
most BIOS don't deliver the volts unless manually set up (a potential
chicken vs egg situation). In the case of this board, you'd want
the latest BIOS installed in there, as soon as it is convenient to
do so.
GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX - Retail $109
http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?item=N82E16813128017
The Asus P5B at $126 is similar, only one SATA port (a RAID port)
is an ESATA and the connector is mounted on the back of the computer.
Also, the Gigabyte S3 has a better slot layout, and would allow more
of the PCI slots to be used. (Slot layouts either make the PCI
or the PCI Express slots more accessible, and the issue is dual slot
thick video cards, that block a slot.)
Asus P5B-E at ~$150, has six SATA ICH8R and RAID is possible with it.
The Newegg reviews seem reasonably happy with that one.
There are some 975X motherboards but the price of those is higher still.
The Asus offering here, has a SIL4723 chip connected to the Southbridge,
which spoils the "regularity" of the Southbridge ports. Since ICH7R is
used on these boards, you get a PATA port on the Southbridge (means
a potentially more compatible port for optical drives).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...80+1070509908&Subcategory=280&srchInDesc=975x
The Nvidia chipsets seem to be focused on SLI. Cheapest is $150.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...10200280+1070509908+107171927&Subcategory=280
There are a few more boards out there, that Newegg isn't carrying
(or I didn't see them when I waw searching).
You might try here, as these guys have the money to test all
this stuff. Hours of reading material available:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59
Paul