965, 975 or NF5 mobo for conroe

[charleski]

I really am looking at a good stable board.
...
For example, if there happens to be an SLI board which is known to be very stable and a good performing board, I would mind paying the extra for that board.
...
I would not mind paying the extra to have a peace of mind mobo which performs well and is stable.

The board you are describing is the Intel D975XBX .
There are reports of people having problems with this board, but when you dig deeper, you find out that they have tinkered with it using one of the variety of 'mods' that have been described, which allow pushing the voltages out of spec (so no wonder).

Alternatively, one of the Asus 965 boards might be worth thinking about, though i've had problems with Asus boards in the past.

[Rys]

Except that 975 and 965 don't support SLI (unless it's a 7950 GX2, on its own). I'm a Bad Axe owner myself.

[charleski]

Except that 975 and 965 don't support SLI

If you really want to try SLI, there's a hacked driver that will allow it on the Intel board.

[uchiha_itachi]

The board you are describing is the Intel D975XBX .
There are reports of people having problems with this board, but when you dig deeper, you find out that they have tinkered with it using one of the variety of 'mods' that have been described, which allow pushing the voltages out of spec (so no wonder).

Alternatively, one of the Asus 965 boards might be worth thinking about, though i've had problems with Asus boards in the past.

Firstly, thanks for the reply charleski. Secondly, what would this 'mod' be exactly? I may go for the Asus board due to the name. Also I would really prefer a mobo with complete passive cooling which Asus seem to be making the 'norm' on their boards now.

[mallett]

im also tending to lean towards the asus board as it seems to have better OC properties and better passive cooling then the gigabyte, from looking at the pics (this is if i can read them right...) the gigabyte only has a heatsink on the northbridge, while the asus has one on both the north and southbrigde

however as i not an expert in these matters at all i would still like the input of people more in the know, and btw the boards im refering to are the asus P5B and the gigabyte 965P-DS3

[charleski]

what would this 'mod' be exactly?

They are detailed here. Obviously soldering new parts to your board to allow it to support higher voltages is a risky business .

[uchiha_itachi]

They are detailed here. Obviously soldering new parts to your board to allow it to support higher voltages is a risky business .

Ahh, right.... I think soldering anything onto a mobo and you're asking for trouble. But without this mod, these mobos run very well then?

[charleski]

Well I'm still waiting for Scan to deliver mine (grr), but Intel boards have a reputation for long-term reliability without some of the hiccoughs found in 'enthusiast' boards. From a limited review of postings I did I found far fewer people complaining of problems with the Intel board than with the PW5DH.