Galen Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 I am having a very challenging time getting a motherboard that's right for OS X. I would love it if anybody could contribute your thoughts as to which would be the best choice for 10.4/10.5 with a low end nVidia PCI-E video card. (Card confirmed working with natit under 10.4.x) I have searched the forums a bit, but comments are rather scattered and inconclusive. I've narrowed the field down to "contenders" that meet my needs technically: Reasonable price, Intel 965 or 975 chipsets, quad core support, gigabit ethernet, FireWire, four memory slots and 7.1 channel sound. Getting 5.1 channels of audio out working is important to me. It would be nice if the motherboard was friendly towards some air overclocking of my Q6600. I don't care about the number of SATA ports or PATA support. (I have SATA optical/hard drives for installation.) I'm hoping somebody might point out distinguishing factors in terms of Mac OS X compatibility or other factors I've not already considered - you know, those "Gotchas!" I am slightly interested in power management (OS X shutdown, restart, sleep) as that's not well documented. Compare Technical Specifications for all Contenders Side-By-Side Here are the models one by one... DFI Infinity P965-S $106.60 USD shipped http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813136034 DFI Infinity 975X $109.99 USD shipped http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813136168 ASUS P5B-VM DO $113.32 USD shipped http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131085 Intel BLKDG965OTMKR $121.32 USD shipped http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813121086 MSI 975X Platinum V.2 $132.13 USD shipped http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813130051 ASUS P5B-Plus $139.32 USD shipped http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131177 I hate to pester y'all with this kind of a question, but I've had terrible luck recently, always getting bitten by something non-obvious. The first motherboard I purchased for my Q6600 was mis-identified with the wrong chipsets, so it wasn't fully OS X compatible. I purchased another motherboard with the right chipsets, but it turned out to have some kind of a firmware/BIOS defect that prevented reliable booting. http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=63461 Now, I'm just looking for a motherboard that will work as simply and reliably as possible! Comments, suggestions, and ideas welcome before I make another stupid purchase! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synaesthesia Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Now, I'm just looking for a motherboard that will work as simply and reliably as possible! I like the DFI 975X. The wiki says it works great, as does this guy. It's a 975X chipset, which everyone knows works great, it's a good brand + it's cheap... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/#findComment-496753 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galen Posted November 6, 2007 Author Share Posted November 6, 2007 The DFI 975X was very tempting for the reasons you list. However, I'm unclear whether the ALC882 chipset supports 6 channel analog audio out. This is an important feature to me, and would easily cost $50-60 extra to purchase an external USB device to handle this kind of output - not to mention the general extra clutter. Most of the motherboards have some ALC882 variation, and other chipset options among the bunch of motherboards are ADI AD1988 and Sigma STAC9271D. Any ideas? I have been pleased with the ALC 883 drivers posted by skippyretard in the past and I have been eyeing up motherboards with ALC 883, as those are known to support 6 channel analog audio out. I have eyed up two more motherboards that are 965-based with 883 chipsets, compare them here. The Foxconn has great specs, includes FireWire. It's a 965 P chipset, although I had an absolute horror story with my last 965 G Foxconn, so I'm almost afraid of Foxconn.The Gigabyte lacks FireWire, so I'd need to add a card, which I'd prefer not to do really. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/#findComment-496790 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synaesthesia Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 OK, basically I think ALC883 is the only one for you now. So it's between the Gigabyte and the Foxconn. Well the foxconn looks like a brilliant deal, especially with the MIR. I can't find it on the forum though, I don't know how well it works...There's a pretty good chance it will work though, I mean many 965P based boards work...The Gigabyte is known to work well though, and you can find many resources on the forum for it. It's a good solid board, and adding a firewire card isn't too hard (just choose one in the wiki), although I realise it's not ideal. mmm...tough choice, I can't really say anything more. It's up to you now. edit: OK I recommend the Gigabyte 965P-DS3. You know it's going to work, it's cheap, (I don't like MIR's), it's a good board, and it has everything you need except firewire. And if that's critical, get a firewire pci card. They're cheap and work well. Just choose one from the wiki. The foxconn is a compelling choice, but I don't know how well it works...It might just work fine, or it might give you hassles like before Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/#findComment-496905 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galen Posted November 6, 2007 Author Share Posted November 6, 2007 I have purchased the gigabyte with a PCI FireWire card that is OS X compatible. We'll see what happens! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/#findComment-497277 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nampton Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 You've forgotten the Asus PW5 Dh Deluxe. It has quad core support with a modded bios from the Xtremetech boards, and is one of the most reliable for OS X (Tiger and Leopard) installations. There are a couple of extensive threads on this 975 board in these forums. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110193 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/#findComment-498378 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galen Posted November 11, 2007 Author Share Posted November 11, 2007 I went with the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 motherboard. I had ordered it by the time the last post was made. Performance and overclocking potential is very good! I have a revision 3.3 motherboard (supports up to 1333 MHz FSB natively), and I unearthed a most surprising thing. The audio chipset is specified on both the Newegg and manufacturer sites as an ALC883, but it appears to actually be an ALC888. (Yes, I looked specifically at the rev 3.3 specs.) Tthe ALC883 drivers I have tried were simply not working. I tried numerous different OS X versions, and the results with every single version was identical. I wasn't even getting stereo audio out. Finally, after countless hours of frustration, I tried the ALC888 6 port analog out audio drivers. Presto! All the channels showed up as expected, ready to be put together in Audio MIDI Setup, just like I expected! This suggests that they changed out the audio chipset on this motherboard silently! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/#findComment-502085 Share on other sites More sharing options...
neogeo Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 do u have a link to those alc888 drivers? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/#findComment-506914 Share on other sites More sharing options...
msantoso Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 works for Gigabyte 945GCMX w/ ALC888. haven't tried multi channel, but output and mic works http://rapidshare.com/files/79304042/945GCMX_Sound.zip Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/70033-help-me-pick-a-quad-core-motherboard-to-purchase-third-times-the-charm/#findComment-553367 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts