Something Else To Keep In Mind . . .

Within a month, mainstream motherboards meant for Conroe are supposed to make their debut. Those based on Intel chipsets will be based on the 965 chipset.

One easily overlooked point about this chipset is that it gets rid of PATA support. That means unless the mobo maker adds a PATA chip to the mobo, no PATA hard drives, no PATA CD/DVD drives.

In all likelihood, at least the third-party mobo makers will, but Intel may well not (if they were going to do that, why eliminate the chipset support)?

It might not affect the average person reading this, but it’s the sort of thing one of your Sixpack friends would certainly overlook while buying a Dell, and if it turns out he finds out there’s no place for him to plug in an old hard drive or new DVD writer of his, then you’ll hear plenty about it.

So keep it in mind, if not for yourself, then for your loved and liked ones.

Ed