Which motherboard is for me? HELP!

[mmvelasco]

Hi everybody!

You might want to help me decide which motherboard is suited for me. The reason for upgrade is for heavy photo editing, graphics design, and video editing (not that much) purposes. Also, some games. I don't do OC.

For the meantime, I'll be using my old 80GB 7200RPM IDE hard drive just to cut cost.

So I'm choosing between Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P and Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H. Maybe you can recommend other boards of this level.

I'm looking for a board that has Firewire, Crossfire, Dual Channel, Native DDR 800 Support, Supports Quad Core, etc. If permits, eSATA also.

But definitely, all of things I want can not be all in one motherboard. If in case there's one, I'm sure I have to pay the price.

My planned setup is as follows:
- Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P or Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H or your recommendation
- 2GB DDR2 667
- My existing 80GB 7200 IDE
- 7600GS 256MB 128Bit DDR2 PCI-E
- Liteon LH-20A1S-11 DVD-Writer (20x) SATA
- and the rest

One more thing, is advisable to invest with Intel P35 chipset motherboards that supports the future 45nm processors? Reason why I asked, for future upgrade.

Thank you very much in advance! Sorry for too many questions.

Regards,

MILO
Philippines

 

[Tmagic650]

Go with Gigabyte!

 

[Mirob]

The best Crossfire support comes from the i975 and the x38 chipsets. The x38 will replace the i975 next month as Intel's top enthusiasts chipset. The i975 works with dual 8x PCIe slots and the x38 will have dual 16x PCIe. All the others have one 16x and one 4x PCIe slots. The 975 has better PATA IDE support than the 965 boards too.

The p35 and x38 will support the 45nm processors. I believe the x38 will be DDR3 only as well. I sure there will be revisions of boards with i965 and i975 for support of the 45nm chips too, but I don't think any are available yet.

I think that Foxconn would be a good choice (I know nothing about it.) I have a Asus P5W DH Deluxe and it is a very nice mobo with every feature you mention and more.

The Asus P5K has all those features and costs under $150
http://www.excaliberpc.com/Asus_P5K_Motherboard_LGA775_Intel/P5K/partinfo-id-579376.html:bounce: