Conroe mobos 975x and 965x chipset differences

andyroberts · 27 Jun 2006 at 09:18

I guess it would be right to assume that the 975x chipset is the better of the two, the only reason I ask is Ive noticed the 965x chipset is using an ICH8R controller whereas the 975x is still using the old ICH7R controller, can someone clarify this?

Thanks

Andy

iceman911 · 27 Jun 2006 at 10:49

965 is main stream and the 975 is the enthusiast. Thats what ive heard anyway. Someone else will know for sure on here

FirebarUK · 27 Jun 2006 at 11:03

Crossfire support?

WJA96 · 27 Jun 2006 at 11:11

975 is quite an old chipset and uses the ICH7R controller. 965 is the latest Intel chipset and uses a newer, better ICH8R controller.

All this stuff about 'enthusiast' and 'mainstream' is all a bit daft really as Abit are about to release a Conroe compatible motherboard based on the 945(i?) chipset. I think, the only requirement, other than being enabled in the BIOS to recognise the chip, is a slight beefing up of some voltage circuitry (PWM). Other than that I don't think there is any physical reason that Conroe won't run on any LGA775 motherboard. Obviously the 'beefing up' process is not something that can be done at home as it requires new, different specification components to be soldered onto the motherboard.

This is a bit like when the first dual-core chips came out. They only worked on 975 and then 955 chipset boards. Now pretty much anything except a 915 will run Dual-Cores. The manufacturers need to recover their R&D money by charging big prices for the first few boards, then the trickle down means that the later boards will be significantly cheaper.

But I am ready to be corrected on that.

trojan698 · 27 Jun 2006 at 11:50

^ That wouldnt surprise me tbh. You reckon it'd be worthwhile holding out to see if 945/955 chipsets would do the job?

iceman911 · 27 Jun 2006 at 12:50

Does the Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi support Crossfire? [965]

stoofa · 27 Jun 2006 at 12:55

According to the list at Intel - currently only the 945GT & 965 chipsets are listed as Core Duo compatible:

http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/express_flyer.htm

It has been accepted that the I975 chipset is up to the job so long as the motherboard in question is using Intel's updated VRM specifications.
Hence why some I975 boards do work and others do not.

Although in theory I945 & I955 chipsets should also be compatible as they can already cope with dual-core CPU's it is highly unlikely we'll see any support - manufacturers would rather sell a new motherboard for the new CPU's.

I've still got two fingers crossed about backwards compatability for the I955 chipset - mainly because during my last upgrade I spent that little bit extra on such a chipset as I was kind of led to believe the first revision of Conroe would be compatible.
It won't be the end of the world when I find it isn't as I'll buy something new - probably based on the 965 chipset so that I'm using the latest ICH 8R.

WJA96 · 27 Jun 2006 at 15:31

trojan698 said:
You reckon it'd be worthwhile holding out to see if 945/955 chipsets would do the job?

I reckon that any current board will almost certainly not run Conroe with a BIOS upgrade. Most likely you will have to buy a new version of the board with the beefed-up PWM bits.

The ASRock 775 TWINS R2.0 is exacly the same as the R1.0 but it has different coloured caps around the socket which are different values to those on the R1.0 board. They are highly unlikely to go to that kind of hassle if they didn't need to.

There will only be one way to tell, of course.

AWPC · 27 Jun 2006 at 17:07

WJA96 said:
I reckon that any current board will almost certainly not run Conroe with a BIOS upgrade. Most likely you will have to buy a new version of the board with the beefed-up PWM bits.

The ASRock 775 TWINS R2.0 is exacly the same as the R1.0 but it has different coloured caps around the socket which are different values to those on the R1.0 board. They are highly unlikely to go to that kind of hassle if they didn't need to.

There will only be one way to tell, of course.

Ive decided to wait until Conroe is actually released to see if the I955X can run it as even though Asus have told me that they do not even know until they get a final production CPU whether or not it will work. Even if it does I suspect that the features which lower the Vcore to reduce temps will most definately not function as the steps for Conroe are much larger (0.500 vs 0.025) than for the other 775 CPUs.

I have a good feeling that perhaps a 955X will do as long as its Bios supports the latest 9xxx & or D series CPUs. For the Asus 955X boards they do with a recent bios update.

My P5WD2Premium is not supposed to work with either the 955XE or new 965XE CPU but several people have it running fine with Bios 0709 even though Intel & Asus both say otherwise so I am really unsure if they are putting out the wrong info to increase new mobo sales!

Logic tells me that if your 955X mobo supports 1066FSB & can run a 9xxx CPU then it should run Conroe fine @ full speed so temps will be a little more than a new Conroe mobo but the full performance in theory should be available.