It was bound to happen eventually. Anandtech pits boards from Asus, Abit, Biostar and Gigabyte sporting Intel's P965 chipset. Obviously, if you're looking for a lower-priced motherboard for your Core 2 Duo, this would be a good read to check out. After twenty five pages of information we can safely say that an Intel P965 is still an Intel P965 no matter which motherboard you place it in. This should come as no big surprise as the days of one motherboard manufacturer truly outperforming another one at stock clock speeds with the same chipset is over. The basis of competition is now on features, price, warranty, appearance, overclocking capability, accessories, availability, and reliability. If that sounds a lot like the motherboard being a commodity item, it is, as the consumer now expects or demands a certain level of performance and support from all motherboards. They will pay extra for the features that are deemed important based upon their needs. One only has to look at the fallout and consolidation of the motherboard suppliers over the past couple of years to realize this simple fact.
I was looking at the p965 boards the other day. I hadnt a clue which to go for untill I noticed that Abit AW9D Max was only £26 more. 975x chipset with ddr2 1066 support..... Thanks for the link, I'll definatly read through this one!
Its a northbridge chip from a motherboard chipset. Only the 965 and 975x support the core 2 duo so its all the chioce you have if you want a core 2 duo. The article is just a review of the boards with this chip. The northbridge controls CPU, RAM, PCI communications etc. Its also where the integrated graphics are on motherboards. The southbridge controls USB, IDE controller, DMA etc. I think they are changing a bit because ive read stuff about the southbridge controlling the PCI bus and the northbridge controlling an AGP bus or summit. Ive always known it as N/B does the PCI and AGP a multiple of that.... ViiV is intels platform.... which the 965 supports but its probably worth sticking with IBM PC. I could'nt find a picture of the 965 so here is one of the 975x Click on View Chipset Diagram Intel® 975X Express Chipset The 82975x MCH is the northbridge. MCH stands for Memory Controller Hub, another name for Northbridge. The southbridge is also know as ICH, the I/O Controller Hub.
Well, sorta. The P965 is the mainstream chipset, whereas the i975X is the high-end, uber chipset. From what I can remember, Intel wanted to have a chipset to release with Core 2 CPU's. The 975X was out, but not all motherboards conformed to the VRM11 spec that would supply the required lower voltage of Core 2 chips.The P965 is what the 945 was to the 955, basically. Intel has had 2-3 chipsets for different classes of PCs, excluding server ones.
oh thats why i was confused. i thought the article was about a processor. Man, excuse my ignorance, friggin college is eating me alive rate now. But yes its makes a lot more sense now, dang, lol seriously, my bad.
