rubbish.can Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 I am looking to buy a new PC but unsure which mobo to get. The mobo also needs to be Core 2 Duo compatible as I am getting a E6600. So basically which chipset should the mobo be based on? Although Leopard hasn't been released what type of chipset 945/965/975 has the best chance of being compatible? The ASUS P5W DH Deluxe is awesome but thats quite expensive. The 965 Gigabyte boards aren't too badly priced but not sure if it will run Leopard. Cheers in advanced for any advice. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZOleg Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 i975 is the best for OS X! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264435 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bikedude880 Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Running Leo perfectly so far on a 945G/ICH-7 mobo. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264450 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorosh Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 975X for OS X. You can get it running on other chipsets as well, but 975X provides very smooth experience (both install and everyday work). For E6600 I would definitely recommend P5W DH Deluxe, although it is quite expensive. Maybe you could try Intel Bad Axe 2, it' also good board, although I don't have any experience with it, so I can't really tell how would it behave with OS X (there are several threads on this forum where that motherboard is mentioned, try to search for them). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264483 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubbish.can Posted December 30, 2006 Author Share Posted December 30, 2006 Thanks guys for the advice. It sounds like the P5W-DH Deluxe is one of the best to get so I may just have to hold off for a while to save some more pennies. (or hope for a price drop) Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264498 Share on other sites More sharing options...
errandwolfe Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 You will definitly want to stay away from the Intel 965 boards. I was unable to get it to boot even using the existing 965 Gigabyte patch. I am VERY happy with my Intel 945GNT board, but you can't go Core with it. I have to tell you though, I can run Windows XP in a VM, Listen to iTunes, encode a movie in VisualHub and OS X is still pretty snappy. And that is only with a 2.66 Ghz P4 805 chip (course 3 gig of memory). Honetsly, why rush to Core 2 Duo...Wait until Leopard hits and see what the best hardware is then. Plus in a few more months we should see at least a small price drop in the C2D chips themselves. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264506 Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundboy Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Thanks guys for the advice. It sounds like the P5W-DH Deluxe is one of the best to get so I may just have to hold off for a while to save some more pennies. (or hope for a price drop) P5LD2 REV 2 (video or not) is one of the most commonly praised boards for stability and OSX... newegg had one for $50 open box and I snapped it up along with a video card and a e6600. Shouldn't be slow, I think. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264629 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 We know that Apple has at least a 965 based iMac in development and I am still expecting a 965 Conroe Mac mid-tower too (but don't hold your breath for that one). So this situation may change in a little over a week, at the biannual Steve Jobs show scheduled for Jan. 9 at 9:00 AM Pacific time (MacWorld SF): http://www.macworldexpo.com/live/20/events/20SFO07A/keynotes Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264642 Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedguy Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 I'd got experience with 965 and 975 boards. I highly recommend going 975 if you want to spend the money. My 965 (gigabyte ds3) works quite well with 10.4.8, but that could change with Leopard. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264961 Share on other sites More sharing options...
sg Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 you save almost $100 by going from e6600 -> e6400 which would cover the p5w-dh easily. my e6400 runs easily at 3.2ghz, but i keep it at 3ghz these days with my ram running at 930 something. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264993 Share on other sites More sharing options...
macwindows Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 sg, This is bit off topic, but how did you porceed with over clocking? My spec is P5W-DH, E6600, 2Gb and 7900GS OC. Was it thru preset OC setting in BIOS or changed the frquency manually? Thanks Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-264999 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 you save almost $100 by going from e6600 -> e6400 which would cover the p5w-dh easily. my e6400 runs easily at 3.2ghz, but i keep it at 3ghz these days with my ram running at 930 something. Ditto on the E6400 over E6600, unless you know for a fact that you can use the larger 4 MB cache, and almost nobody can. Otherwise, you should certainly get the "Xeon" branded Conroe variant too, for a few more bucks, here the Xeon 3050: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819117103 These "Xeon" Conroes are higher quality and can be expected to overclock better than the consumer version. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-265005 Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundboy Posted December 31, 2006 Share Posted December 31, 2006 (edited) I paid $275 for a e6600 and $52 for a p5ld2 board (newegg open box) That's pretty much faster than anything else at that pricepoint stock or with a mild OC. The cache has good effect... it's small in many cases but certainly some things will show as much as 10% difference. The higher the speed in mhz the more improvement the cache will make. Edited December 31, 2006 by soundboy Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-265244 Share on other sites More sharing options...
sg Posted December 31, 2006 Share Posted December 31, 2006 sg, This is bit off topic, but how did you porceed with over clocking? My spec is P5W-DH, E6600, 2Gb and 7900GS OC. Was it thru preset OC setting in BIOS or changed the frquency manually? Thanks i did manual OC'ing, but i did try the pre-set ones early on and it worked fine. to reach 3ghz i set my fsb to 375 (from 266). i think your multiplier is x9 so you'd have to set your fsb to 333. you can leave the rest auto until you can boot at whatever speed you want the tune it manually to get the best performance (memory speed etc). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-265308 Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundboy Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 I paid $275 for a e6600 and $52 for a p5ld2 board (newegg open box) That's pretty much faster than anything else at that pricepoint stock or with a mild OC. The cache has good effect... it's small in many cases but certainly some things will show as much as 10% difference. The higher the speed in mhz the more improvement the cache will make. I'm only @ 2.7G but I can crank it up to 3180 however it will crash sooner with Orthos prime, but never with single prime . This CPU needs a lot of voltage to get going faster it seems. I like a quiet computer. The point of this post is that the CPU and the noise I'm willing to live with stops me from a huge OC, not this inexpensive 945 system, CPU and board together $325. I think it's worth the extra $ for the cache and the multiplier. A simple 300mhz FSB keeps all the timings relaxed and so far rock solid. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-275117 Share on other sites More sharing options...
sg Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 (edited) I'm only @ 2.7G but I can crank it up to 3180 however it will crash sooner with Orthos prime, but never with single prime . This CPU needs a lot of voltage to get going faster it seems. I like a quiet computer. The point of this post is that the CPU and the noise I'm willing to live with stops me from a huge OC, not this inexpensive 945 system, CPU and board together $325. I think it's worth the extra $ for the cache and the multiplier. A simple 300mhz FSB keeps all the timings relaxed and so far rock solid. my e6400 at 3ghz is actually running at a lower voltage then the default so its actually cooler. its also really stable and has been for months. Edited January 14, 2007 by sg Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-275373 Share on other sites More sharing options...
aPpLeFrEaKpEePs Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 975 is where i wud put my dosh.. but wait for the 6x50 series core 2 CPU's with 1333 Mhz FSB.. shud be out soon.. plus hrd that 6300 and 6400 many also be getting a cache boost to 4MB L2 and rechristened 6320 and 6420.. so wait may b worth it Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/37177-945-vs-965-vs-975/#findComment-297064 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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