Intel 965/975 mainboards for Core 2 Duo tested

Intel P965

When the Core 2 Dup was introduced a new chipset hit the market as well, the new 965 range is the successor to the ppopsular 945 series chipsets. As the 965 chipset is positioned under the high end 875X chipset we find that motherboars sporting the 965 are quite a bit cheaper. The new chipset does have advantages over the older 975, like standard support for DDR2-800 and an optimized memory controller. It is however not officially possible to run two graphics cards on the 965 chipset, but some manufacterors do promise that a CrossFire setup is possible.

The 965 chipset comes in three flavours: P965, G965 and Q965. The P965 chipset lacks a integrated graphics processor, unlike the Q965 and the G965. The Q965 is meant for business use, and offers the possibility to use two monitors. We have not seen many motherborads sporting these chipsets yet, so in this test we only used motherboards with the P965 chipset.

ICH8 south bridge

The 965 chips are paired with the new south bridges by Intel, the ICH8 or ICH8R. The difference with the 975X chipset is minimal, but most important are the 10 USB 2.0 ports (8 on the ICH7) and the six SATA 300 ports (4 on the 975X). Thsi means that a RAID array with more than four drives is possible on the 965 chipset. The ICH8 chipset also suppors external SATA ports, so hot swappable external SATA hard drives can be connected to the system. Intel has decided to not support any PATA ports on the new south bridge, so if manufacturers do wish to supply these connections they will have to implement a third party solution. Most motherboards will have a seperate PATA chip, as DVD drives with a SATA connection are still an oddity on todays market.