http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/865pe/

http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/875P/

Read all about it. I have no experience with either, so all I can add is the official blurb. But normally the manufacturer does that much better than I.

Make sure your recording software is compatible with the chipset (865, 875). Digidesign only supports certain chipsets depending on the type of system you use.->HD, MIX 24, LE. My mobo has the 845 chipset family and is solid as a rock. Its a bit older and uses sdram. I have 1000+ megs of ram and have had zero problems. It's an Asus P4B. There are several newer variations. I personally don't have experience with gigabyte mobo's, but I've read good reviews.
Caine

Both the 875P and the 865PE chipsets support dual channel DDR 400 and FSB 800. With the 875 you get PAT technology and ECC memory support, unlikely you will ever use either. The 848, is back to single channel memory and lacks a few other things. The 845 (as has been said) is also a very stable board, and pretty guaranteed to work with most everything but lacks the ICH5 controller, which means no SATA or Dual Channel Ram, etc.

There are six versions of the 865. The 865G - integrated graphics, 865PE for FSB 800 - no graphics, and the 865P - no graphics and FSB 400/ 533. All three versions can be specified with an integrated Serial-ATA-RAID via ICH5 Southbridge.

The 875 has only 1 other difference and that is the on-board Intel® PRO/1000 network connection, which is further enhanced by the Communication Streaming Architecture (CSA) bus – a special interface that is free from the bandwidth limitations of PCI and increases networking throughput. With the inclusion of the CSA on the Northbridge, it is theoretically possible for latencies to decrease by relieving the traffic congestion on the Southbridge ICH5 chip that can be caused by the flow through an Ethernet connection. This I doubt you will see as a benifit either.

And actually, the 875 is the older of the 875/865 chips. The 865 and 848 were derivatives of the 875P and are evolving chipset segments targeted for non-workstation environments.

ASUS as well as ABIT and GigaByte all have a good reputation. As for which is better? I don't think there is a simple answer. Clearly ASUS has the market share, but many others are equal.

I've used most brands by now. Always hoping that a clear winner would emerge. This hasn't been the case. Right now, I think the ASUS and ABIT boards are both very good.

My advice is to normally use either the ASUS P4P800-DELUXE or the ABIT AI7 or IS7 for the 865PE chipset and 1394 support because this is what most builders are using. I'd choose the ABIT only because there is a widley supported forum for them on line with heavy traffic, so support is available. Asus has killed their site for a unknown period of time.

If you must choose a 875 board, the ABIT IC7-G MAX2 is pretty good as is the ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe (not the P4C800-E Deluxe - UAY).

I have also used the Gigabyte stuff, and its performed pretty well and usually includes more stuff in the box than does ASUS. However, their updates for drivers can be lacking and sometimes the drivers shipped can be questionable. There's nothing perfect though. For instance, some ASUS boards don't give you the SATA "power" converter required of the drive. A $2 part that will cost you grief if you don't know you need it. They give you the SATA interface cable, but not the power one.

The Abit Is7 has a Texas Instruments firewire chip. :)

If you are thinking to use the Giga raid for just extra drive-ability, check the forums - many reports of clicks and pops when used with pro sound gear on the extra ide ports. The normal primary & secondary ports work OK.
I thought I had hit on the perfect setup for placing each drive on it's own port until I read about this problem. :)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jscott:
[QB

The 875 has only 1 other difference and that is the on-board Intel® PRO/1000 network connection, which is further enhanced by the Communication Streaming Architecture (CSA) bus – a special interface that is free from the bandwidth limitations of PCI and increases networking throughput. With the inclusion of the CSA on the Northbridge, it is theoretically possible for latencies to decrease by relieving the traffic congestion on the Southbridge ICH5 chip that can be caused by the flow through an Ethernet connection. This I doubt you will see as a benifit either.

I'm wondering if this would be an advantage with FXTeleport systems, proving all your systems connected ran the 875chipset. I'm finding with my current 10/100lan setup I'm running into limitations. Matbe I should decrease the track count and vsti load!! :p:

If you must choose a 875 board, the ABIT IC7-G MAX2 is pretty good as is the ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe (not the P4C800-E Deluxe - UAY).

why not the P4C800-E Deluxe - UAY???
I just ordered it based on a recomendation froma friend who does video and audio extensively... Was I duped??? :confused:

Originally posted by bencrud:
why not the P4C800-E Deluxe - UAY???
I just ordered it based on a recomendation froma friend who does video and audio extensively... Was I duped??? :confused:

In re-researching this issue, I noted that early on in the introduction of the P4C800-E DELUXE-UAY, there were erratic problems some listed in reviews claiming the onboard sound created problems and choice of memory was "iffy". However, in going back, I could no longer find these comments to draw from.

So I contacted ASUS with the question and as of this date, their response was that there is no difference in those coded with "UAY" vs no UAY suffix. The UAY suffix is a warehouse code they use, nothing more.

It use to be that Newegg.com and Mwave.com listed these boards as separate item numbers, and different reviews would accompany them. Prices were different, etc. Today, those two sites no longer list the "UAY" suffixed versions. So it may simply be that the "UAY" version was a early version and may actually had some bugs that are no longer present - I don't know. But it does seem that the "UAY" listings are a few dollars cheaper.

Because of what I "had" read vs what I can now find, I would refrain from buying the "UAY" suffixed boards, but according to ASUS, there is no difference. So this is all I can offer.

Yeh, you are right about the problems with the ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe, but this was only during the first few months of its release. These problems have been fixed. You will find this is normal when a brand new motherboard is released, especially with a new chipset. It takes a while to get the bugs worked out.

Make sure to check for the latest BIOS upgrade for the motherboard you use, upgrades will usually correct problems you may have.

The ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe is one of the first choices for guys working with audio and video (Multimedia Production). The 1G/b CSA LAN option frees up the PCI bus and allows video to stream directly to and from RAM at high bandwidth rates, this is just what you need when working with video from servers across a network.

This board also has SATA RAID and IEEE firewire. Great board if you need all the bells and whistles!!

I want one, just counting the days now.......

We use the Intel 865PERL motherboard in our systems. Rock solid and stable (The RL actually stands for Rock Lake). Though the 875 does offer some additional enhancements, few to none offer any significant performacne value to audio aplications. What we particularly like about the 865PERL is it has an on-board 1394 IEEE firewire port! - Bill

I too like Caine, have an older Gigabyte chipset (845E) and it's working flawlessly. I'm interested in finding how this 875 chipset works out though. If it's anywhere close to the performance of the 845, then I'll definitely consider an MB upgrade. But for right now, I'll continue to enjoy the fruits of cyber recording.