MSI G965MDH-FI - Motherboard - micro ATX - iG965 - LGA775 Socket - UDMA133, Serial ATA-300 (RAID) - Gigabit Ethernet - FireWire - video - High Definition Audio (8-channel)

Advantages: Easy overclocking, well laid out, packed with features
Disadvantages: One IDE port, expensive.

...Intel's Core2 processors have created quite a stir since they were released last year. Initially, finding a worthy motherboard for them, espcially one that could overclock the processors was a tricky business - they were few and far between and the really good ones were horrendously expensive. The boards have come down in price a little however you will still be looking at well over £100 for some of the best examples. So why pay over the odds for a socket 775 board when boards costing £50 or £60 have similar features? Well as most enthusiasts know, the Core2 Processors are incredibly overclockable. Their stock speeds are enough to blow anything AMD currently has out of the water which has meant they are very compelling upgrades - a good thing as we often hear about people spending hundreds for very little performance gain. The E... Read review

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Advantages: Fast FSB and support for DDR2 at 1066MHz
Disadvantages: Only IDE support for one HDD and one CD-DVD drive

...I swapped to this from a slightly older Asrock 775i65GV, because the Asrock had only an AGP slot and no PCI-E - which I wanted for a decent graphics card. I also wanted a P35 based board for future upgrade to a quad core and in the meantime to use my existing 3.00 GHz P4 dual core. The board supports 64 bit processors, which Linux makes use of, but XP Pro doesn't. There are 5 SATA connections, but only one IDE so there is only support for one HDD and one CD-DVD drive. I got a Sapphire Radeon HD2600 Pro to go with it and now all my games run smoothly with every option turned on, including Next Gen and full screen anti-aliasing (VSYNC only slows it down and I don't need it with the DVI digital input anyway). Tomb Raider Legend looks really good, but takes too long for good game-play at maximum resolution. The BIOS can be... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap...
Disadvantages: Core 2 Extreme?

...I have been using this motherboard with my Intel Core 2 E6600 processor for the last 3-4 months, and it's been nothing but trouble. It does not fully harness and utilize the power of Core 2 as it uses a VIA Chipset rather then the more advanced Intel Core 2 created Chipsets such as the Intel 975X, and it does not support Intel Core 2 Extreme (E6800 processor and above), which is a big negative for upgrading and shows it does not have the necessary abilities for the latest technology. ASUS P5V-VM DH Digital Home Series The main technical specs you will need to know to know include: The micro ATX - P4M890 - LGA775 Socket A PCI-Ex 16 slot and Integrated VIA UniChrome Graphics A UDMA133, SATA (RAID), Serial ATA-300 (RAID) An External and Internal Serial ATA 3.0 GB/s Built in Ethernet, 802.11b, 802.11g And High Definition... Read review

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