When I went shopping the place I use only had DS3Ls in stock so I thought what the hell. It seems certain components are very in demand. E2180s for isntance. I bought an E2160 unfortunatly it will only clock to 2700 but hell it's running at 25degrees 1.375v so I can live with that. If you do get one of these boards the only downsides I can see are, reports of max bus speed 450mhz (but I think thats high enough as far as I'm concerned) and it seems a little fussy with memory bought 800mhz 444-12 memory it runs at 555-15 but again it will do this at 900mhz default voltage no problem. I used kalyways disc to install and his 10.5.2 update, then just updated everything by software update. Results seem almost perfect, even X11 working. Xbench scores:

Good stuff man. My #1 priority for a mobo is that it is compatible with Leopard to the point of feeling like a real mac. I had it this way on my current system with Tiger, and I intend to get it back in Leopard with an Intel system. I honestly could care less about overclocking. I figure if I really cared that much about speeding things up, I'd rather just put another $100-$200 into a better processor or more RAM. Overclocking is fun and interesting, but I really don't enjoy it as much as others might. It's a bit tedious for me, and I'm constantly paranoid that I'm going to do something wrong. I just want a stable system. So the DS3L sounds like a perfect board as far as that is concerned. As far as a processor goes, I'm a little torn between getting a Q6600 or an E6850. I'm still not clear on whether or not the quad-core would even do anything for me in Leopard, and the E6850 is stock at 3.0ghz with a higher FSB. It's only a $20 difference between the two, so I'm a little on the fence there. Ianxxx, do you know if quad-core would be beneficial at all? Keep in mind OC isn't a concern for me...

As far as I understand it quads come into there own when doing things like converting video files etc. It's a tough one because you have to take into account each piece of software, can it use quad core? If I where you and I was going to spend that type of money I'd consider an E8400 you can get an oem for around £120 or a boxed version for £140, 3Ghz 6mb cache 45 nano tech.as far as I know there is no problem with OS X. I know you said you're not interested in overclocking but reports are that this processor will easily overclock to 4Ghz I think that says something about the processor overclocked or not.

Hi!

I have an intel system as well (GA-P35-DS4-E6850-4gb-7600gt) look my xbench, maybe this can help you.
I have leo installed in a software raid.

roisoft what make of hard drives are you using, I was just wondering wether to set up software raid or buy a better hard drive?

2 x 400 WD 16mb cache and 2x 320 Samsung 16mb , same performance +- (both)

@roisoft, your bench scores are absolutely sexy. is your DS4 board working 100% with full-features? anything not working? are you overclocking? is your leopard vanilla?

@Ianxxx, thanks for the advice. I'll check that CPU out.

roisoft how come your graphics scores are so high? You easily outscore my xfx7900gs?
Also could you tell me what kext you use to recognise all 4 sata ports?

yeah my 7900 gt/ko @ 580/1680 gets

Quartz Graphics Test 174.14
Line 132.96 8.85 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 180.65 53.93 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 148.21 12.08 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 139.63 3.52 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 572.67 35.82 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 108.79
Spinning Squares 108.79 138.00 frames/sec

E6850=3.4ghz( 24/7) +400mhz OC, 3.8 (stable), 3.95 my top score, but i don´t want to force too much and i don´t need it because the performance is awesome. All the P35-DS series are perfect for OS X, workig 100%, ethernet, 6+2 Sata2, E-sata works, Sleep/Reboot works, Shutdown 50%, 100% stable. Digital Out/In works perfect, and if you want 5.1 you need set up an agregate device in midi preferences and that´s all.

I´ve installed from retail dvd adding dsmos.kext, efi-strings for audio and Gfx, and deleting AppleIntelCpupowermanagement.kext .. that´s all you need.

I´ve enabled the QuartzGL and disable the Beamsync for do this open a terminal and type

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