I've recently been trying to rebuild my infrastructure at home, to replace some ill-concieved decisions.

Part of this involves 64-bit 133MHz PCI-X.

I've obtained an LSI MegaRAID 300-8X 8-port SATA2 Hardware RAID controller, as part of it. The plan is to stick it into an affordable 64-bit dual-core system - and the only choice here, by several hundred quid, is Intel.

I need:
* 1x PCI-X slot
* 3x PCI slot
* Graphics (onboard, or another slot of some kind for an expansion card)
* Onboard GigE
* Compatible with Intel Pentium-D 8xx-series

I've tracked down a choice of three boards which fit the bill - two based on Intel E7230, and one on Intel i975x. All three boards are similarly priced. The E7230 needs ECC memory, whilst i975x doesn't.

1) Gigabyte GA-4MXSV


* Intel E7230 (NEEDS ECC)
* 2x Onboard Intel EtherExpress1000
* Onboard ATI ES1000 Graphics
* 2x PCI-X
* 2x PCI
* 1x PCIe8X
* £177.32 from Scan

2) Asus P5WDG2-WS


* Intel i975x
* Onboard Marvell Yukon
* No Graphics (NEEDS PCIe GFX CARD)
* 2x PCI-X
* 2x PCI
* 2x PCIe8X
* £188.58 from Scan

3) Intel SE7230NH1LX


* Intel E7230 (NEEDS ECC)
* 2x Onboard Intel EtherExpress1000
* Onboard ATI ES1000 Graphics
* 2x PCI-X
* 2x PCIe1X
* 1x PCIe8X
* 1x Combo PCI/PCI-X/PCIe8X (THIS BOARD STILL LEAVES ME 1 PCI SLOT DOWN)
* £191.37 from Pyramid.com

Any comments? How do E7230 and i975x stack up?