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Overclocking/GMA950 Motherboards


jimbo4
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I think I have decided on the pentium d 805 for the proc. and the intel 945 chipset for an hackintosh. but I need help deciding on which mobo. to get. newegg lists 3 chipsets for the 945 the Intel 945PL Express, the Intel 945P, and the Intel 945G. also many brands for all of them. I'm wanting to overclock the proc. some so I dont think I want an Intel mobo. also I want a board that is going to be very compadable with osx. Should I even be looking at the 945 chipset or are there more compadable boards out there? also out of the ones I listed which chipset and brand are the most compadable and still good for overclocking?

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I think you want a 945 chipset. There are several such boards with are good for overclocking. However, before you proceed, you need to make some decisions about graphics. The best choices are either to get an ATI x1600 card or a motherboard with a GMA 950 built-in.

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OK, the GMA950 limits your choices, but since I would take the same route I have been doing some research into the best GMA950 board to buy for overclocking. The Asus P5LD2-V would be a great choice, but unfortunately it is not availible in North America (where I assume you are located). As far as Asus goes, we are stuck with the P5LD2-VM which is not the best for overclocking.

 

EDIT: On closer examination, it appears that the Asus P5LD2-VM may be better than the Foxconn 945G7MA-8KS2 for overclocking and that the Gigabyte GA-8I945G Pro may be the overall best choice in North America.

 

The Foxconn 945G7MA-8KS2 is another choice for an overclocking GMA950 board in North America: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813186074.

Note that the price is great, however I am not sure if anyone is running OSx86 on it yet, so will want to check into the details of the LAN and audio chips on the OSx86Project Wiki's Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). Apparently, the only down side is that the Front Side Bus is limited to 165 MHz, for ideal overclocking you want to go up to about 190 MHz instead.

 

For this reason and others which include the overclocking benefits of 65nm process versus 90nm and twice as much cache, you may want to seriously consider going with a 920 or 930 instead of an 805: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...st=pricegrabber

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I have read in many places that the Asus P5LD2-VM can not fully overclock the 805. See Dark Scheinder's comments in this thread:

 

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=17328

 

However, it still may be that the Asus P5LD2-VM overclocks better than the Foxconn 945G7MA-8KS2. Dark Scheinder says the P5LD2-VM should overclock to 175 MHz on FSB while the Foxconn board is limited to 165.

 

I believe that the Asus P5LD2-VM's LAN and audio chips are also fully workable with OSx86 but again you should check out the details by searching this site.

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There are few better overclocking GMA950 motherboards that need to be looked at here:

 

First of all is the Gigabyte GA-8I945G Pro, it actually might the best GMA950 overclocker availble in North America: http://tw2005.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Pr...I945G%20Pro.htm

 

Next is the MSI 945G NEO-F: http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mai...ail.php?UID=673

 

However, it seems to have some overclocking problems as described in these external threads:

http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45005

http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/archive/i...hp?t-18143.html

 

Finally, the Abit LG-81: http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techsp...1&model=289

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The abit board looks a little expensive, and only suports 2 gigs of ram, I might want 4 eventually. i'm not wanting to overclock a whole lot (I want it to stay stable), but the Gigabyte GA-8I945G looks like its in my price range. do you know compatiable these boards are with osx?

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It is basically the same deal as before, we know from the chipsets that these boards a basically compatible. You just need to double check the LAN and audio:

 

Broadcom 5789 Gigabit Ethernet controller

Realtek ALC882 audio codec

 

Or just look for a report from somebody running OSx86 on a Gigabyte GA-8I945G Pro.

 

The other good thing about the Gigabyte GA-8I945G Pro is that it comes with FireWire. Note, you want the "Pro" not the GA-8I945GMF or GA-8I945GMH-RH.

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it looks like you could get everything working on the gigabyte board but it looks tricky. I think i'm just going to spend the extra money, and go with the pentium d930 and Asus P5LD2-VM, and not worry about overclocking right now. it seems like the Asus board has been tested more and the d930 seems like a better proc. anyways.

Thanks for all the help.

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