Page 1 - Intel Core2 Recommended Boards : solely features "Asus P5W DH Deluxe."

Is this the only recommended Core2 board around from a silence perspective?
Are newer Intel chipsets too hot?
Are there other cool, silent Core2 motherboards around?

No, there are others for sure; I'll be adding a couple in a few mins but I (or one of the admins) can only add what I'm informed of or have personal experience with.

*EDIT*

Intel Core2 ready Abit AW9D-MAX, and AMD AM2 MSI K9NU Neo-V, Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3 boards added.

Yes, it would be nice to get the same information about:

Asus P5B-E, P5B Deluxe, P5B-E Plus (to be released)
Gigabyte DS3, DS4, DQ6 (these sometimes emit high pitch noise)
Abit AB9, AB9 Pro (these might emit too)

I'd also be interested in the following likely candidates:

Intel D975XBX
Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional
Asus P5W64 WS Professional

I have an Asus A8n5x and i've just fitted a Zalman ZM-NB47J passive heatsink to the board. Works like a charm Nortbridge temp is steady at 32 degree (idle) 34 degree (load). The cpu and gpu are also Zalman cooled I've got the massive CNPS7700-AlCu on my CPU and the VF900-Cu on my graphics card. As silent as a fan cooled board gets I gues.

I recently purchased the 939DUAL-VSTA by Asrock (the successor to the popular 939DUAL-SATA2). It's a socket 939 board with an expansion slot to add an AM2 processor and DDR2 memory, and includes a PCIe x16 *and* 8X AGP slot.

Requirements for "Quiet" Motherboards

- Stock passive chipset cooling. Check. I installed a Zalman 7700 AlCu and it clears the NB and RAM.

- Dynamic fan control for CPU and/or system fans either through the BIOS or software. Option for CPU fan control with a 4-pin fan header.
Enabled/Disabled, If enabled you get the following 3 menu items:
Target CPU Temp (C): 45-65
Tolerance(C): 02 (does not seem to be adjustable)
Target Fan Speed: Fast/Middle/Slow
No control for 3-pin fans. Has a 3-pin System fan header, I don't know if it's controllable or not yet.

- SpeedFan support if available for more control over fans in addition to BIOS control would be a welcome bonus. See above.

- CPU core under-volting option in the BIOS for reductions in power consumption and CPU temps. BIOS range from 0.8 to 1.45 V. My CPU is capped at 1.1 V. CnQ has an option in the BIOS, but I still haven't fiddled with much for quiet control.[/i]

**UPDATE**

I am now using Crystal CPUID to control multi/voltage and Speedfan for monitoring purposes. CnQ did work when I set Windows power management to Minimal, it downclocked to 1200 MHz (from 2600). Using Crystal, I have it set for the 3 settings of 5x/1.1V = 1 GHz, 10x/1.25V = 2 GHz, and 13x/1.375 = 2.6 GHz.

Running at ~35C with Zalman 7700 @ 1200 rpm.

I guess that is the temp reported by the onboard motherboard sensor.
Problem is that sensor is generally not reporting the temp of the northbridge but rather the temp inside the case.
If you don't experience weird freezes or crash you are probably fine, but touching the heatsink with a finger should bring a nice surprise to you (a burning one).

I'd like to nominate Abit KN9SLI for AM2

Passive stock chipsetcooling
although the BIOS controll of fans only extends to the 4-pin CPUfan header (and can't controll 3-pin fans) Atleast one of the other three (and I suspect all three) of the 3-pin headers can be controlled via Speedfan
Allows undervolting with CrystalCPUID down to 0.8V, although BIOS is limitted to default voltages.

Abit KN9SLI and Abit NF-M2 nView AMD AM2 boards added.

About the Gigabyte GA-M55plus-S3G and Cool'n'Quiet... AMD has it listed on their site as being recommended and supporting Cool'n'Quiet.

Link

Duly noted.

I checked the link and then checked to see other recommended motherboards.

I'm confused about the support of G1 steppings. Only very few motherboards support them (I count these 5). And I thought you could just pop in a Brisbane in the AM2 socket if you so liked...

Asus P5N-E SLI and MSI P965 Platinum Core2 boards added.

Hello, I would like to know if anybody on this forum is using MB Gigabyte 965 P - DQ6, as I intented to buy it for an Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU. I am very interested in silent computing, that is why I started to build my dream computer with an P180B Antec case.

any users opinion about Gigabyte 965 P - DQ6 mobo are welcome!!!

thnx

There seems to be a lack of info on which Core 2 Duo mobos support undervolting. I'd love to see more data on that. One thing I noticed is that most P965 mobos do not have fans on their chipsets and therefore are probably quiet out of the box. And checking the bios specs on the msi p965, it seems it only has overvolting, no undervolting. Very disappointing as I love to do overclocked undervolting.

what about epox motherboards

This is one of the reasons that's holding me back from upgrading to Core 2. I'd like to know about Speedfan support and undervolting. I am wondering if there is a LGA775 motherboard similar to my DFI Ultra-D, which can drop all the way down to 0.900V and has 3 Speedfan-controllable headers.

I know that the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 and GA-965P-S3 allow undervolting down to the 0.5V range. I don't think they have fan headers controllable through Speedfan, though.

The Abit NF-M2 nView motherboard does not allow undervolting via BIOS. The lowest voltage is the processor's rated voltage. (1.25 for 65w EE)

However, CrystalCPUID works fine with it. The core temp drops when i lower the vcore.

Another MB I can recommend for Socket 775:

MSI G965MDH -- microATX / 775 / Intel G965 + Intel ICH8DH -- fanless cooling of chipset -- 4 pin PWM CPU fan and two system fan headers -- Support for "desired CPU temp" in BIOS -- SpeedFan support unknown -- Fixed CPU voltage -- Integrated X3000 videocard (OpenGL 2.0 + DX9) -- Low power consumption

MSI G965MDH Review

I can report on the ASUS P5B (non deluxe), which isn't too different from the P5B-E.

The NB is passively cooled, although the small heatsink gets finger burning hot even at stock speeds, so I have replaced it with a larger heatsink. The heatsink has hoop clips and no holes through the board making DIY custom heatsink replacements a bit tricky. The SB with heatsink, also gets pretty toasty, but that can be replaced fairly easily as there are holes through the board.

The board supports Speedfan to control the fans, but the board does not seem to be able to control 3 pin fans on the CPU header and there are no evident options in the BIOS to enable/disable 4-pin fan control.

I'm am running a Core 2 6300 cpu - lowest available voltage in BIOS is 1.225V but I am down to 1.16V using Rightmark CPU Clock util.

The BIOS's automatic fan speed adjustment can control the CPU & two chassis fan headers. Manual speedfan settings do a better job.

Any opinions on the Intel D975XBX2KR "Bad Axe 2" board?

This seems to be a generally well regarded motherboard with passive cooling. I'm thinking of this board with a Xeon 3060 CPU.

Does anyone here have experience under-volting and over-clocking this board?

MSI G965MDH added along with a some minor edits.

I'd like to recommend a new mobo to the list.
Asrock ConRoe865PE http://www.ntamas.webzona.hu/AsrockConRoe865PE.jpg http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=ConRoe865PE

pros:
This is an AGP+DDR1 based motherboard mainly for Core 2 Duo E4XXX Allendale (800MHz) FSB processors, but in overclocking mode also supports 1066FSB Core 2 Duo (even quads) too.
-Passive well sized heatsink.
-Very low power consumption board (Intel 865PE chipset) compared to todays chipsets, only with essential components integrated.
-Through a bios function it's able to control PWM fans.
-No high frequency whine from VRM's.
-C1 halt state + EIST support.
-PAT support with dual channel&800MHz FSB

cons:
-no undervolting in the bios, only available with software

power consumption:
AC power draw with an old FSP 350PNPNF (65-70% efficiency) PSU, Asrock ConRoe865PE, Core2Duo E4400 (2GHz), 2GB DDR400 RAM, 2 Hitachi 7200RPM HDD, DVD Writer, X800SE AIW AGP VGA, SBlive, PCI tuner card
Win idle: 104W
Test Drive Unlimited 156+/-5W
3DMark03 152+/-5W
VirtualDub Xvid Compression 138W
SuperPi: http://www.ntamas.webzona.hu/superpi1m.jpg

NM wrong thread

I've got the GA-965P-S3 and it allows speedfan control.

All the new Gigabyte P35 series have lower power motherboard components along with bios settings to drop cpu voltage down to .6v or so. Looks like possible winners from both reliability and silence standpoints.

I will purchase a p35-based motherboard.

Where can I find info on what Asus mobo feature speedfan-controlable headers? Id like more than one...

Do I have to purchase a deluxe board with alle the crap that I dont need? I think the p5kc looks promising. Passive cooling and firewire for an ok price.

-k

Is there a list of Asus or other brand motherboards that support 3-pin CPU fan control?

Asus P5W DH Deluxe is one. Others?

Thanks.

The stock Intel cooler/fan has a 4-pin connector (no, not Molex; a 3-pin connector with an extra pin hanging off the side used for fan control). I'm guessing that almost every S775 board has at least a 3-pin connector and most have the 4-pin.

As far as controlling a 3-pin fan, most (all?) Asus motherboards have "Q-fan" in the BIOS, or you can turn that off and use Speedfan in Windows or pwm-config in Linux. I've recently bought an MSI AM2 board, a Biostar P965, and an EPoX 939, and all of those supported PWM on the CPU fan header.