mogster500 wrote:
Asus P5N-SLI nForce 570 SLI Chipset LGA775 or Intel DP965LT P965 Chipset LGA775?
Is there that much of a difference? Worth the extra 20 bucks for Asus?
Bah. (Sorry about that).
I don't particularly like the LGA775 formfactor, just because the pins are on the motherboard. That means that it's rather fragile and (quoth CPU magazine) "the socket's official lifespan in a meager 25 insertions".
If you already have a LGA775 processor, okay, but if you don't I suggest going for something else (esp. if you plan to stick with the motherboard for a while). However, I'm just assuming that you're building a PC right now.
If you have to pick a motherboard, I'd prolly go for the ASUS. In my opinion, it has better expansion capabilities (and I particularly like the way ASUS handles SLI). If i'm looking at the right specs for each board, the Intel board's memory capacity can go up to 8GB, while the ASUS can go up to 16 GB (I have no idea what you would _do_ with all the RAM, but each to his own). You get the same amount of each type of PCI-E slots available, but the Intel has 3 PCI slots compared to ASUS' 2. The new standard is PCI-E, so i don't particularly think that the PCI slots are that useful.
Of lesser consequence are the USB ports. The Intel has 10 compared to ASUS' 8. I personally, won't ever have the need for 8 ports, much less 10, so I'd lean towards ASUS (I have a USB hub anyways, just cause i'm too lazy to crawl under the desK).
I have a good experience with ASUS (I like the nForce series), so for that extra 20 bucks, go for it.