My quest to build an OSX86 box has been expedited by the frying of my current motherboard over the weekend when a fan bit the dust.

In checking the HCL and studying up on the forums, it seems that the two best choices for motherboard on a from-scratch system would be either the Asus P5LD2-VM or the Intel D945GNTLKR. Would folks here agree? I'd love to hear any opinions that would lean either way if anyone has any, or anyone with a third candidate?

I'm looking for maximum OSX compatability, though this box will also dual boot XP. I'm a current FCPro user on a G5 at work and would love to get the crossgrade version running on this new box.

The obvious differences I can see are that the Asus has two IDE controllers, while the Intel has only one. The Intel has onboard Firewire, while the Asus does not. Both firewire and 2 IDE controllers are important for me, so it appears I will have to buy a PCI card to do one or ther other depending on which way I go.

I am planning on getting an Intel D920 processor.

Sound appears to be sketchy on both boards, I haven't been able to confirm if audio input would work on either, anyone know?

Thanks from this grateful noob. . .

Pelagoram

asus works great for me but there is only one ide taht work the second is not list by tiger
but try sata it work great too
audio in not work for me but you can buy some cheap card

asus p5ld2-vm
p4 D820@3.22
g950
fcp 5 working waiting 5.1universal

I have the P5LD2-VM, audio works fine, as in audio out, everything works, only one ide channel in os x, but you can use sata, my specs below, bought just to run os x, and perfectly it does.

boubou31, would you like me to pm you details to enable audio.

If you get a P5LD2-VM make sure the ram you buy is compatible!

you can check here

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=14117

Ram incompatibility is just paranoia, any good DDR2 533/667 will work.

Yes its just if you penny pinch you will suffer, so go branded only, unless your unlucky like OPTik

Consider the ECS 945g-m3 as well. I like the board so far, runs rock solid with my Pentium D 820 @ 3.2ghz . The only thing that doesn't automatically detect is the sound, and all you have to do to get that working is copy a kext into your extensions folder. Look at my thread on this board for more details. This board is cheaper than any of the other options and even has onboard firewire.

Potential things you may not like: only 2 ddr2 slots , only 1 ide channel.

LOL I didn't penny pinch... my Geil ram cost me $140 CDN



Not true at all... I have GEIL memory and I'm having problems

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?sh...=p5ld2-vm&st=20

My cheap no-name RAM seems to be working fine at its rated 533Mhz.

Poor OPTik, i think its only the 667 thats picky

Well that's tru declan, then I must have faulty ram

Asus P5LD2-VM motherboard is the best I have tried sofar.. no installation probs...
in the hardware section I have posted a link
to intel motherboards with TPM chips compatible in operation to Apple TPM chips.

art...