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If I am going to build one of the Core2 Intel machines rather than an AMD machine (I can't be bothered to hang around for the AMD chips anymore).

Can someone recommend me a MoBo that will work (i.e. no flashing) out of the box and has PCIexpress supported?

Thanks in advance!

Either intel's 965 or 975 line will work out of the box

king_kilr wrote:

Either intel's 965 or 975 line will work out of the box

are they any good? are the DDR2?

both support DDR2

king_kilr wrote:

both support DDR2

Am I going to be at any disadvantage to build the Core2 machine over the AM2?

Any other pitfalls to be aware of with the Intel machine?

pjd123 wrote:

king_kilr wrote:

both support DDR2

Am I going to be at any disadvantage to build the Core2 machine over the AM2?

Any other pitfalls to be aware of with the Intel machine?

No. Just make sure that the baord you get is compatible with the ram you get.

pjd123 wrote:

king_kilr wrote:

both support DDR2

Am I going to be at any disadvantage to build the Core2 machine over the AM2?

Any other pitfalls to be aware of with the Intel machine?

No...

But what are your requirements? SLi, CF? If no CF or SLi you should get P965 based (It still supports 7950GX2). Pitfall might be DDR2-800 memory, since P965 actually supports it and boots it at 1.8V. So if you get DDR2-800 it wont work until BIOS is confed with a 1.8V stick to 2.1V

Bonus with C2D over K8 is that it gives a rats rear part to both timings and bandwidth.

But it depends abit, whats your goal to get? And you wanna OC?

Shintai wrote:

pjd123 wrote:

king_kilr wrote:

both support DDR2

Am I going to be at any disadvantage to build the Core2 machine over the AM2?

Any other pitfalls to be aware of with the Intel machine?

No...

But what are your requirements? SLi, CF? If no CF or SLi you should get P965 based (It still supports 7950GX2). Pitfall might be DDR2-800 memory, since P965 actually supports it and boots it at 1.8V. So if you get DDR2-800 it wont work until BIOS is confed with a 1.8V stick to 2.1V

Bonus with C2D over K8 is that it gives a rats rear part to both timings and bandwidth.

But it depends abit, whats your goal to get? And you wanna OC?

When you say it supports the 7950GX2, isn't that pci?

pjd123 wrote:

When you say it supports the 7950GX2, isn't that pci?

PCIExpress....

Shintai wrote:

pjd123 wrote:

When you say it supports the 7950GX2, isn't that pci?

PCIExpress....

lol ok ok

pjd123 wrote:

Can someone recommend me a MoBo that will work (i.e. no flashing) out of the box and has PCIexpress supported?

Thanks in advance!

Yeah, all of them if you stick with the STANDARD voltage ram. DDR2 standard is 1.8v if you get 1.8v ram it will run.
*edit well technically all of them that have pcie since you specd that... be careful to make sure that is has full 16 lanes of pcie available if thats important.

Now, however if you are going to be an early adopter and don't want to flash bios, that really makes no sense. My board is a dependable, flexible one that uses ddR1, ddr2, agp, and pcie, and guess what there have been 6 bios updates in the last 48 days. With 2 updates in the last 3 days.

Get standard DDR2-667 and any 975/965 should work fine, especially if you don't overclock. It should work out of the box.

The only disadvantage of going Conroe now is price gouging and low stock from retailers. If you are on a very tight budget then you may not be able to get in on all the Conroe/DDR2/PCIe fun. But that AsRock board looks cool.