qeku Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 the ultimate "chipset dilemma" when choosing a motherboard to buy. The 975 equiped motherboards are expensive. the 945 equiped motherboards are beggining to get old, just a few support core2duo and SATA2, and some have 2gb ram limit. but they have great compatibility and run out of the box. i´ve been reading about the 965 and some problems apear.. today i´m looking for simple install and most stable os, so i wish i dont have to go back to windows any more, do you recommend the 965 or should i stick to the good old 945? i was thinking abaut the ASUS P5L-MX (i wish it had 4 ram slots) any recommendations?? greetings from Argentina! (sorry for the bad english) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hurt Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 First of all , most of the modern 945 motherboards support Core 2 Duo and Sata II and it's dirt cheap. As for the 965, it is starting to have reasonable support but it still is a little messy to get it to work properly, but if you want something professional then get it. The 975 has the best of both sides, good performance and compatibility but it's very expensive . As for the 2GB ram issue, I don't really think that anyone will need more than that. 2GB is enough to make Vista and OS X fly. So which one should you pick? I still prefer the 945 series because personally, I care more about the compatibility rather than performance and a 945 board with a core 2 and 2GB of RAM gives very decent performance. PS: Don't get the P5L-MX because it has an attansic ethernet which does not work with OS X and it's sound card will not work properly either. I suggest that you get a gigabyte ga-945gcmx-s2 since it's become very popular and has very good OS X support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BJMoose Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 If you're looking to build a good PC that will upgrade to a quad, and still want excellent compatibility with OSX86, I'd go with the 975. It is worth spending a little more on the MB and have future expandability. If you're just building a Hack to play around with and optimal performance isn't of great concern and Windows isn't in the picture, I'd go with the 945. I've had 2 965s working but I don't think they are for the feint of heart. As Ahmed said, 2gb should be fine for most applications. If you're planning on running Parallels, you might want more ram to maximize both systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azurael Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 I don't see what you guys think is the problem with ICH8 (and hence 965) - everything chipset-supported that needs to work (audio, SATA AHCI and ethernet) works fine with any recent install disk; they overclock much better than 945 and have dropped in price tremendously since P35 came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qeku Posted September 7, 2007 Author Share Posted September 7, 2007 oh i see.. i´ll go for the 945 since i want the easiest and most compatible install and i cant afford the 975 boards right now.. i´ve been looking asus and intel because other bransd are not easy to get down here.. what do you recommend with the 945, sata2 and full video lan and sound support?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenaciouscree Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 Hey qeku, I've just recently finished my Hackintosh on a budget and it was very, very easy to get set up. Here are the components I used - Gigabyte GA-945GZM-S2, 1GB Corsair PC2-4200 RAM, 1.8GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2160, a 40Gb Western Digial Caviar, Lite-On DVD-RW. I mean, this was my first Hack attempt and it was very easy and very cheap. Using the Jas 10.4.8 DVD, it installed fine with just the 950 support and Intel patches. After this, all I had to install was a driver for the gigabit ethernet and audio, both of which are easily available from the project wiki. Don't quote me on the SATAII support because I haven't used any SATAII drives. For general usage, I must say that I find it to be as quick as my 2GHz Core 2 Duo Macbook with 2GB RAM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nirvanaguy19 Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 consider the asrock conroe 945g, it comes with the dvi card free , you just have to plug it in the pci-e slot, gets a decent overclock too, i have been able to get my e4400 to 2.75ghz in osx , everything is working and well supported, just sleep is a problem for me right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nargot Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 i have no problems with 965 mobos, i run two all work with full sound out and sleep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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