975X or P35 or X38

[Burette]

Hi all,

I am finally ready to change my PIII. Some may wonder how I was able to withstand it for that long. It's a mystery even to me.

I just want a workstation with as much passive as possible.

I am not much of a gamer so don't care with crossfire and SLi.

I kept my PIII for 10 years and I like to keep my next PC for as long as possible so upgradeability is a must. I get a Quad ready Mobo would help upgrade so that's ok. Quad ready it is.

Because upgradability is a must, is it primordial to get DDRIII ram or DDRII would be ok. I noticed since my AT286 that new memory standard always comes cheaper than old ones. It is now cheaper to get 2 Go of DDRII than 512Mb of PC133. But as in term of performance for a non gamer. Should I absolutely get a DDRIII Mobo

My problem is I can't figure wich chipset to choise between X38, 975X and P35 because I don't totally figure what are benefits of each.

Can anyone please synthesize this for me and advise me?

Thanks a lot

Nicolas

[MikeC]

975x is basically on the way out; too old, and its performance already is not as good as the others.

P35 seems to be on par with X38, which overpromised performance. P35 is also better value, and at this time, DDR2 is much much cheaper than DDR3, and there's little or no performance gain. The main reason they're pushing ddr3 is so ram makers can make more profit, and mobo makers can justify pushing yet another change.

imo, P35 is the best choice.

It's too hard to try and "future-proof" your buys. I always recommend getting what's best for you today. Mobo development is so accelerated these days - the lifecycle of a chipset seems to be max 6 mos; ditto graphics cards, which might be even faster.

[Burette]

Thank you Mike for such a fast answer.

I was thinking 975x but the P5W DH deluxe have been retired.

I will go with P35 then.

My only problem is that the Abit P35 has no ATA133 and that would require me to buy a new HD and DVD burner and I am happy with them for the moment.

Are you aware if Asus P35 are good choice or Gigabyte better?

Thanks again

Nicolas

[awolfe63]

I have P35 and 975 systems running side by side (both Intel branded MB). There is not a big difference. I would get whichever you can find with the features you want.

[Arvo]

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R has support for both DDR2 and DDR3. It doesn't use electrolytic capacitories (better durability and somewhat less power consumption). It supports all current Core2 CPUs (and should support 45nm ones too). Most probabaly it supports ATA133 (not written on Gigabyte site), ATA100 is sure.

This board would be my first choice if I'd buy motherboard today. My co-worker is fully satisfied with it

[JazzJackRabbit]

Go with P35. 975 is outdated and not all motherboards based on it can support penryn. x38 is overrated as it provides no performance increase with DDR2 and only marginal gains using DDR3 (which is really expensive right now). I know you said you want computer that could be upgraded, but let me disappoint you, intel will be changing sockets after penryn so whatever you buy you won't be able to upgrade, so just go with P35 which provides excellent performance right now and cheap DDR2 memory while the prices are low.

Also Abit IP35 Pro and IP35 have a single IDE channel so you don't have to buy new burner as long as you don't have more than two IDE devices. I'm not sure about IP35-E and IP35-V, but chances are they have IDE port as well.

[Cerb]

Choose based on features and cost, between the popular three makers.

The Abit, BTW, appears to have a PATA, to me.

We've got our brand loyalties, and you'll probably be happy with most any of them, as long as they have what you need. I like my Gigabyte, but I've been partial to Gigabyte since before they fixed their coils.

Like anything else, the overall character imparted to the products does make some bit of difference, as does how they lay out their options for the levels of board. The GA-P35-DS3R could only be made better for me with a SPIDF that was known to work at 44.1kHz. I probably have needs and wants and work flows that aren't like yours, though, and there are several other good choices.

I know that doesn't make it easier to choose, but if you're stuck between an Asus, Abit, and Gigabyte, you're not doing badly at all, and you're not alone in having trouble. I flip-flopped many times between the IP35-E and DS3R, until I found the DS3R came with the eSATA bracket, and Newegg was shipping rev 2 boards.

[Dutchmm]

I bought the DS4 - specifically so I could mount my old PATA-133 hard disk to copy files onto the new SATA hd. And it has passive cooling for all the on-mobo components. You only get one PATA connector, mind.

[beoba]

X38-based motherboards can also support DDR2.

I'm still unsure between X38 and P35 due to X38's support of pcie 2.0. Probably going to replace the video card before anything else on the system.

But I'll probably go P35 anyway, as that one feature isn't worth the current price premium and relative instability of current X38 motherboards.

[Cerb]

I bought the DS4 - specifically so I could mount my old PATA-133 hard disk to copy files onto the new SATA hd.

They all have the PATA--even ECS' board does.