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Topic: Core 2 Duo (Read 6798 times)
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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Anyone got any ideas on a good motherboard for the C2D? I have been looking at the Asus and Gigabyte varieties, since those are the two brands I've had good luck with in the past. I'm also wondering if any of you know of good gamer chipsets for the C2D. My instinct is to stick with anything that's NForce, but I'm wondering if in this particular case it'd be best to do an Intel chipset instead.
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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MythicJason
Developers
Posts: 13
Mythic Entertainment
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Really not sure if there is an Nforce board out for C2D. Pretty much just Intel right now. I bought the P5W DH and so far really like it... kinda pricey though. And I found it odd that the bios version did not support the C2D.. had to use a Celeron to update Bios.
Anyways I have also heard good things on the Gigabyte. A site called xtremesystems (bunch of crazy overclocker types) has a good deal of C2D Motherboard info on their messageboards.
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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Gigabyte makes rock solid boards, but their tech support is teh awful. They are in taiwan, and their documentation is blech.
Beware the 'deal' on Newegg of the 6700/Gigabyte motherboard combo if you are at all interested in SLI. The board does not support it. Otherwise, it looks like a decent deal. I myself am waiting for reports on a good combo before I bite this particular bullet. I already bought myself a new case for this new machine I'll be building soonish.
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Koyasha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1363
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There's only a single nForce motherboard that states support for the Core 2 Duo right now that I've found, from ASUS. Others may support it, but would almost certainly need a BIOS upgrade. I started out looking for one that would support SLI, but wound up settling for an ABit AB9 Pro with an intel chipset and only one PCI-Ex16 slot. In my looking around, a major problem with SLI I've found is literally physical room. Pictures don't give a good idea of just how huge the 7950GX2 is, and there are no motherboards to my knowledge designed that can actually fit the thing without blocking off at least one other function. Installing 2 of those monsters unquestionably blocks several things off. I'm starting to get the opinion that a new form factor for motherboards is becoming necessary, one that's a few inches bigger in each direction. Blocking off nearly all my PCI and PCI-Ex1 slots, and in some motherboard designs, SATA ports, IDE ports, and more, is highly unacceptable.
If you're getting a big video card, I suggest you make sure the motherboard's design supports a card of that size without blocking off *too* much.
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-Do you honestly think that we believe ourselves evil? My friend, we seek only good. It's just that our definitions don't quite match.-
Ailanreanter, Arcanaloth
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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Considering that doubling up on 7950s doesn't quite work as intended yet (tom's hardware has a good review on that) I'm not too concerned atm. The 7900s SLI as intended. To be honest, I'm still fairly skeptical about the whole SLI process, especially with monsters like the 7950 out there. I mean, why bother?
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Koyasha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1363
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Yeah, I was primarily looking for one that would be ready to upgrade to Quad-SLI eventually, but not now. I don't have a monitor worthy of Quad-SLI at the moment anyway. If I eventually get one of those Dell 30 inch monitors that has 2560 x 1600 resolution, then I might have good reason to get a second 7950.
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-Do you honestly think that we believe ourselves evil? My friend, we seek only good. It's just that our definitions don't quite match.-
Ailanreanter, Arcanaloth
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23623
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23623
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Installing 2 of those monsters unquestionably blocks several things off. I'm starting to get the opinion that a new form factor for motherboards is becoming necessary, one that's a few inches bigger in each direction.
Well it's unlikely that motherboards will get wider anytime soon but there are plenty of workstation/server motherboards that are longer than your standard ATX size by about 3.5" (i.e. EATX or SSI EEB). Of course you'll need a longer/deeper case to fit such a board and you'll probably need a new power supply or at least an adapter to power the MB. Blocking off nearly all my PCI and PCI-Ex1 slots, and in some motherboard designs, SATA ports, IDE ports, and more, is highly unacceptable.
It's easy enough to solve the connector blocking issue with right angle connectors. The blocking of slots is a problem, though these days so much is crammed into the MB chipset which used to require separate cards (e.g. Ethernet and sound) that you rarely need to fill up all your slots. |
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