Core 2 Motherboard

[PatioFurniture]

I am looking at a good core 2 mobo for under $150 that will work well with this memory

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820227118

i dont know if DDR 667 will work in a DDR 800 mobo...

Thanks

[saphalline]

Well, there's the eminent Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012), of course. But if that's too close to your budget, Intel has making some excellent mobo's of late - BOXDP965LTCK (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121035). Albeit their mobo names still need work. :p

Yes, you can use DDR2-667 in a DDR2-800 mobo. The RAM speed listing for mobo's is merely the max speed RAM it can use, not the only speed RAM it can use.

[PatioFurniture]

lol hey thanks i was thinking the gigabyte from the start, but i didn't know about the ram.

So you think that 1.9v OCZ will work just fine...

[saphalline]

OCZ RAM doesn't always "work just fine", but if you can get it to work, then it will. Just be sure to crank up the RAM voltage before you expect it to work flawlessly.

[Zieman]

So, basically any mobo with the Intel P965 chipset & socket 775 is a good choice for Core2 Duo & 800MHz DDR2 ?
(Of course you have to consider price, cooling, expandability etc. too...)

[PatioFurniture]

yeah i know what you mean about the OCZ...but if i just keeping upping the voltage it should work even if it doesn't right off the bat

[rond36]

No you can't just keep upping the voltage if it doesn't work right off the bat.
If it won't POST you can't adjust the voltage.

The main problem with OCZ RAM is that they mess with the SPD chip that tells the BIOS during POST what the operating parameters are for the memory modules. By default the BIOS reads the SPD info and sets the voltage among other things.

If the SPD sets the voltage to high or the CAS latency and speed to fast the PC will fail to POST and if it won't POST you can't tell the BIOS not to read the SPD or set the RAM parameters manually.

A way around the problem is to install a stick of RAM (Crucial, Kingston, or Samsung) that will allow the PC to make POST and go to BIOS setup and manually set the RAM parameters then switch the RAM back to the OCZ RAM.

If you ever need to reset the BIOS to defaults you will need to repeat the RAM swap to get the PC to POST.

[PatioFurniture]

Oh that makes good sense

Thanks