Intel Chipsets

[Nitehawk]

I'm looking at building a new computer system and am doing preliminary work on what hardware to get. I'm wanting a Intel LGA775 processor and just don't know what chipset to go with on my motherboard.

I was looking at getting a Gigabyte Ultra Durable and can't decide.

Any recommendations for which chipset to go with?? Overclocking is not a priority. Just looking for something fast and stable.

TIA

[jdrom17]

Intel P35 or X38. Depends if you need Crossfire and/or DDR3.

The GA-P35-DS3L (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=25369&vpn=GA-P35-DS3L&manufacture=Gigabyte) and DS3-R (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=24650&vpn=GA-P35-DS3R&manufacture=Gigabyte) are both good boards. The L has no RAID and the R has RAID.

Seeing as your in Canada the above links are from NCIX. Also, you can price match as well by finding the lowest price with http://www.shopbot.ca/ or http://www.pricecanada.com/

[Skorp]

Another one to look at is ASUS's P5K line, also using the Intel P35. I'm sure you can find a P5K to suit your budget, from the P5K-C to the P5K Premium with an integrated Wi-Fi access point. That one seems to be a favourite of many. If you have a slightly bigger budget, the P5K3 has DDR3, the P5E uses the X38, and the P5E3 is X38 with DDR3 - I doubt you need any of those.

If you have a huge budget, consider their Republic of Gamers range. The Maximus, Striker II, and Rampage boards are the best of the best. The Maximus uses the X38, the Striker II has an nVidia 780i for SLI, and the Rampage uses the new X48. All are available in Formula (DDR2) and Extreme (DDR3) versions.

All Intel chipsets support CrossFire, though only the X38 and X48 will do CrossFire well.

DDR3 has little to no advantage over DDR2, and as you aren't overclocking, there really isn't any point to DDR3. Not to mention the stuff costs over twice as much.

Of course, I doubt you need anything more than the Gigabyte DS3-R or the ASUS P5K Premium. I'd go for the P5K, but both are awesome.

[Nitehawk]

Thanks for the help.

As was assumed, CrossFire is not needed and DDR3 would be a little strenuous on the budget for too little gain.

I was looking at ASUS as well, but decided that I liked how Gigabyte looked when stacked against them, but will take another look at ASUS. I did like the solid caps with Gigabyte, but are the polymer caps that ASUS uses solid as well? I looked around but can't figure it out.

Thanks for the links as well, jd.

[jdrom17]

Only the higher end ASUS models have solid caps I believe. My Maximus Formula does, but I don't believe the P5K series does.

[Skorp]

Only the higher end ASUS models have solid caps I believe. My Maximus Formula does, but I don't believe the P5K series does.

The P5K Premium uses the same PCB and solid state caps that you find in the Maximus. That's why the P5K is so awesome. :cool:

[Assimilator87]

Not to thread jack, but do Intel based motherboards need drivers? When I set up my friend's IP35 PRO I didn't see any drivers on Intel's website. It seems to just work perfectly out of the box, as is.

[chris000001]

it does work well, but there are chipset drivers

[AKHandyman]

Most of the time the motherboard manufacturer should supply the initial chipset drivers during the set-up ... Intel uses a proprietary Chipset Software Installation Utility depending on the operating system and motherboard/chipset ... you can check it out here ... http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=816
It is usually found on the set-up CDs that come with most Intel based motherboards ... I'd be surprised in NOT finding one ... ;)