Four Intel P965 Motherboards Examined
PCI Express x16 socket LGA-775 motherboardsChipset P965
PCI Express / PCI
Intel's Core 2 Duo architecture have propelled the semiconductor giant to the spotlight again. High performance power and thermal efficiency plus lots of overclocking headroom have made the Core 2 Duo series of processors a darling among hardware enthusiast and gamers. Even hardcore AMD supporters can not deny this fact. So its only natural to see gamers and hardware enthusiast 'jumping ship' from the Athlon 64 to Intel Core 2 Duo, and with the move comes the need to get a new motherboard.
Of several offerings available, motherboards using the Intel P965 chipset perhaps offer the best all around platform for these processors. Sure, there are other chipsets out there, like NVIDIA NForce 5xx and 6xxi series, the hard to find ATI / AMD RD580 chipset and Intel's own i975 chipset. However, motherboards using the Intel P965 chipset are much easier to find, often cost less and are packed with just as much features as motherboards using 'enthusiast' level chipsets. Notably absent is the support for SLI, though Crossfire support have been around for quite a while and ATI have yet to allow OpenGL Crossfire support for the i965 chipset.
AMD / ATI might not like the situation, but at least they're making some money from licensing Crossfire to arch rival Intel. There's little else they can do. On the other hand, NVIDIA is quite aggresive with their Intel offerings. Though technically possible, NVIDIA chose not to license SLI to Intel and put out several chipsets such as the NForce 5 series and NForce 6 series. In addition to beefing up the features, NVIDIA is betting on SLI to drive demand. However small hiccups and problems have deterred some from using NVIDIA's newest offering, the NForce 680i chipset.
Naturally curious, we're going to look at several Intel P965 motherboards from different manufacturers - ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI. The motherboards are ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi edition, Gigabyte's P965-DQ6 and P965-DS3, and MSI P965 Platinum.
Overview
ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP
Intel Pentium 4 / Core socket LGA-775P965
PCI Express, PCI
Overall Score: 96 points
The full specification (taken from ASUS's website)
CPU
Intel® Quad-core CPU Ready
LGA775 socket for Intel® Core™2 Extreme / Core™2 Duo / Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 / Celeron® D Processors
Compatible with Intel® 05B/05A/06B processors
Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology ready
* Refer to www.asus.com for Intel CPU support list
* Please update the latest BIOS to support Intel Quad-core CPU
Chipset
Intel® P965 / ICH8R with Intel® Fast Memory Access Technology
Front Side Bus 1066 / 800 / 533 MHz
Memory
4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2 800 / 667 / 533 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory
Dual channel memory architecture
* Refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL (Qualify Vendor List)
Expansion Slots
- 2 x PCI-E x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x2 or x4 mode)
- 1 x PCI-E x1 (x1 or diabled mode)
- 3 x PCI 2.2
Supports ATI CrossFire graphics cards (blue @ x16 mode and black @ x4 mode)
Storage
Southbridge
6 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
Intel Matrix Storage Technology supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.
JMicron® JMB363 PATA and SATA controller
- 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices
- 1 x Internal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port
- 1 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
- Support SATA RAID 0, 1 and JBOD (by 1x External SATA & 1x Internal SATA)
Dual Gigabit LAN controllers, both featuring AI NET2
Marvell® PCI-E and PCI Gigabit LAN controllers
Wireless LAN
ASUS WiFi-AP Solo
54 Mbps IEEE 802.11g and backwards compatible with 11 Mbps IEEE 802.11b
- Software Access point mode
- Station mode : Infrastruceure mode and Ad-Hoc mode
ADI® AD1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Support Jack-Sensing, Enumeration, Multi-streaming and Jack-Retasking
- Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O
- ASUS Noise Filter
- ASUS Array Mic
TI® 1394a controller supports 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (one at midboard; one at back panel)
USB
8 x USB2.0 ports (4 ports at mid-board, 4 ports at back panel)
ASUS AI Lifestyle Features
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution:
- ASUS AI Gear
- ASUS AI Nap
- ASUS 8-Phase Power Design
- ASUS Fanless Design: Heat-pipe solution
- ASUS Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2
- ASUS Q-Fan 2
- ASUS Optional Fan for Water-cooling or Passive-Cooling only
- ASUS Noise Filter
- ASUS Array Mic
- ASUS Q-Connector
- ASUS O.C. Profile
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
- ASUS Power LED
- ASUS WiFi-AP Solo
ASUS MyLogo 2
Multi-language BIOS
Overclocking Features
Intelligent overclocking tools:
- AI NOS™ (Non-delay Overclocking System)
- AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner)
- ASUS PEG Link - Automatically performance tuning for graphics card
- ASUS AI Booster utility
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment
- vDIMM: 13-step DRAM voltage control
- vChipset: 4-step Chipset voltage control
- FSB tuning from 100MHz up to 650MHz at 1MHz increment
- Memory tuning from 533MHz up to 1066MHz
- PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to 150MHz at 1MHz increment
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
- 1 x PS/2 Mouse
- 1 x Serial port
- 1 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial + Optical)
- 1 x External SATA
- 1 x IEEE1394a
- 2 x RJ45 port
- 4 x USB 2.0/1.1
- 1 x WiFi-AP Solo antenna jack
- 8-Channel Audio I/O
- 2 x USB connectors support additional 4 USB ports
- 1 x Floppy disk drive connector
- 1 x IDE connector
- 7 x SATA connectors
- 1 x CPU Fan connector
- 5 x Chassis Fan connector
- 1 x Power Fan connector
- 1 x IEEE1394a connector
- Front panel audio connector
- 1 x Azalia Digital Header
- 1 x S/PDIF Out Header
- Chassis Intrusion connector
- CD audio in
- 24-pin ATX Power connector
- 2 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
- System Panel
8 Mb Flash ROM, AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, ACPI 2.0a, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash 2, ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
Manageability
WfM 2.0, DMI 2.0, WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE
Accessories
- UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
- FDD cable
- SATA cables
- SATA power cables
- I/O Shield
- User's manual
- USB2.0 port module
- 3 in 1 Q-connector
- IEEE1394 port module
- InterVideo® Media Launcher (OEM version)
- Optional Fan for Water-Cooling or Passive-Cooling only
- ASUS WiFi-AP Solo omni-directional antenna
- Array Mic
- Drivers
- ASUS PC Probe II
- ASUS Update
- AI Booster
- ASUS AI Suite
- ASUS WiFi-AP Solo Wizard
- Anti-virus software (OEM version)
ATX Form Factor, 30.5cm x 24.5cm
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