Conroe chipset : 945 vs 965 ?

ziphnor · Post by **ziphnor** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:35 am

Looking at Conroe atx motherboards, i notice that there alot of nice (and cheap) 945 based ones. They seem to have the needed onboard stuff, but i notice that the 965 boards say they can take up to 800Hz DDR2 memory while the 945 based boards list 667Mhz.

Does this mean that the 945 boards wont run memory at 800Mhz?

Considering that im these parts are meant for an HTPC not using onboard graphics, are there other issues to worry about if i go with an 945 board?

(i know im discussing a Merom based system in another thread, but that is for myself, while this is not).

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:46 am

I think you'll be fine with a 945 board. 800 MHz makes no significal difference compared to 667 MHz. The 965 chipset is better for overclocking, and they have better integrated graphics. The downside is that they are more expensive, have no IDE, and sometimes harder to find. The lack of IDE forces manufacturers to add another chip for that function, something that doesn't work well in all situations.

The only situation you need faster RAM is when you're overclocking.

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:53 am

965 is also very imature of a chipset. Lots and lots of early adopter issues. BIOS updates for the boards are happening on a weekly basis almost (Asus at least).

The bulk of 965 boards have Azalia, and a few (expensive ones) have DTS Connect.

Some of the 965 boards say they are ready got the quad core cpu's coming next year.

So it's really a toss up, if you are just looking for a stable board that won't give you too many headaches, 945 might be the way to go.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:44 am

Anandtech reviewed a 945P board today and have reviewed a few other 945 boards in the past.