Which Motherboard for Core Duo 2 Conroe and DDR 400 ?

osl · Post by **osl** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:19 am

I have just bought a Core Duo 2 Conroe E6400 (my first Intel proc), but would like to reuse my 2 GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) memory. I have identified the following motherboard candidates, but which should I choose ? I will use it with a 7900GT PCI-E graphics card, so I don't care much about onboard graphics. Even though all the motherboards below support DDR 400 I still suspect memory compability could be an issue !

- ECS P4M890T-M2 (V1.0B) Socket T (LGA 775) VIA P4M890 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard (49.99$ at NewEgg)

- ASRock 775Dual-VSTA Socket T (LGA 775) VIA PT880 PRO ATX Intel Motherboard (55.99$ at NewEgg)

- ASRock 775Twins-HDTV R2.0 Socket T (LGA 775) ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:07 pm

Thanks for the tips. I'm looking for the same type of motherboard but I've only found VIA-options so far and I will never ever get VIA again. Had it once and never again. Buggy crapp is my experience.

They are probibly alright now but I will not have one.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:07 pm

The one from ECS looks like the best one on paper.

The second one have a limited PCIE bus, although some reviews says that it doesn't make any difference in performance.

I think the third one have single channel memory.

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:16 pm

I'm in the same boat you are -- would like to keep my 2GB DDR 400 PC3200 memory w/o having to spend $250-300 on DDR2. I'm leaning towards the ECS board as it's the only one of the 3 that has a PCI-E 16x slot, the others have 4x slots. I figure for $50 you can't go wrong and you can always upgrade to a better board and DDR2 memory later when prices are cheaper and there are more Core 2 Duo boards to choose from.

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:37 pm

Mats wrote:The second one have a limited PCIE bus, although some reviews says that it doesn't make any difference in performance.

That seems to depend on what graphiccard you're having. Anything above Nvidia 7600 (I think) seems to take a performancehit from that limitation.

The ECS is singlechannel (stated in the spec) while 775Twins-HDTV probibly is but it doesn't say in the spec
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA is dual

Setzer wrote:I'm leaning towards the ECS board as it's the only one of the 3 that has a PCI-E 16x slot, the others have 4x slots.

Are you sure? It's only stated on the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA that it has a limitation. Didn't say anything about it in a review I read for Asrock 775Twins-HDTV

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:04 pm

Wow.....my bad. It appears the ASRock 775Twins-HDTV R2.0 has a 16x PCI-E slot. I don't see that board at newegg.com but if you can find it then that might be a good alternative. Plus it supports DDR2 667, the ECS only has support for DDR2 533.

http://www.asrock.com/product/775Twins-HDTV%20R2.0.htm

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:06 pm

Also, what's the deal with most Intel motherboards not having onboard Firewire support? It seems like mostly all AMD boards do. This irritates me because I have to buy a seperate Firewire card.

osl · Post by **osl** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:11 am

Thanks for the replies. I decided to order the ECS P4M890T-M2 (V1.0B) from NewEgg

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:24 pm

Ordered the same one tonight. I also got the E6600 cpu. I would have gone with the ASRock 775 Twins R2.0 but it's not available here, in the U.S..

We'll see how the ECS performs....not really expecting much for $50 and I don't plan to OC with this board - the 6600 should do plenty for me at stock speed. My only gripe with Intel boards is that most don't seem to have onboard Firewire support which means I have to buy a seperate card. At least I'm not having to spend $250-$300 for new DDR2 800 memory!

osl · Post by **osl** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 2:33 am

Feel the same. When is the price of DDR2 expected to fall again ?

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:35 am

osl wrote:Feel the same. When is the price of DDR2 expected to fall again ?

It will drop in the next 6 months for sure. Not sure how much tho

pharoah · Post by **pharoah** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:59 pm

well i hate to do this on my first post here"drag up an old thread" my question is for osl.you say that you ordered that ecs board my question is do you like it,how reliable is it,and is there any issues with the ddr memory

edit:if anyone else can answer my questions about this board please do any info would be greatly appreciated

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:45 pm

Welcome to SPCR!

The thread is only a month and a half old -- not old at all, really. I'm a noob when it comes to Core 2 Duo...

pharoah · Post by **pharoah** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:58 pm

thanks for the welcome neil.i am a noob when it comes to the c2d as well unfortunately

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:21 pm

Hey can I join your C2D noob club? I can't even decide between a laptop and a desktop...

pharoah · Post by **pharoah** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:22 am

sure there is always room for more people in the c2d noob club lol. let me guess the person who started this thread "osl" doesnt frequent this place