MSI 865pe Neo2 or MSI 875P?

[-Ever-]

I managed to blow my year old Gigabyte mobo while installing it in a new case. I'm looking to upgrade to either the MSI 865PE Neo-2 motherboard or the MSI 875P Neo motherboard. The only real difference is that the first is the 865 chipset while the second is the 875. While the 875 is theoretically faster, the 865 is confirmed to be able to run Intels PAT technology and seems to make it basically as fast as the 875.
Do you know of any other notable differences between the two? In this picture, you can see a plug in the optical jack. Is that an In-Out jack or just out? I'm not interesetd in surround sound, just interested in *recording* surround sound (hence it would be important for it to be an IN as well) They both have numerous extra options, and I think the same can be had for both.
Thanks guys
-T

also- The Asus P4C800 tops these two boards by a little in benchmarking all across the spectrum, but comes with virtually no extras. I don't actually have to have the extras but the optical I/O sounds nice. I've already got a firewire PCI expansion and an ethrenet card. It's just about the same prices as the MSI. Yes or no?


ps- the computer is for semi-heavy music production and some gaming. I'm already using a P4 2.3 and a gig of Rambus but I know I'll have to get new DDR ram with the board. I'm thinking of getting a gig (2x 512) of DDR400 ram and maybe a new processor that can do 800mhz fsb.

Links to the boards:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produ...ail.php?UID=528
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produ...ail.php?UID=434

 

[ericsson]

the 875P as it's supposed to have SATA RAID =)

 

[Judoman]

I`ve been using the 865PE neo2 since September, and have been very pleased with it. I could not enable the PAT mode with my first set of ram (generic DDR 400), because the ram must be set to "ultra" in the bios. I upgraded to Hingston Hyper X DDR400 @2-2-2-6, set at "ultra", and it runs great. PM me if you are going to get rid of your rambus.