I've installed Fedora Core 5 on a PC using the motherboard Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 which uses the new Intel 965 chipset with a new Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

However I'm getting very jerky performance, such as temporary mouse freezes and slow responsiveness when playing videos or having large windows open.

Is anyone else using this motherboard or one with the Intel 965 chipset? Is your linux working smoothly and fast?

Try using a few live CDs and see what happens. If you find one that works well you can see what modules it has loaded and stuff like that.

It wouldn't hurt to reseat your memory and various device cables.

Check your /var/log/messages for errors.

OK, I reguarly use Knoppix. Everything does work smoothly using KNOPPIX DVD 5.0.0.

This uses 2.6.15 kernel. What's the command to see the modules loaded? modprobe something?

Is it worth a try to boot FC5 under this kernel?

I've checked /var/log/messages but it doesn't seem to report any errors.

Sounds like video drivers could be the culprit. Check /etc/X11/xorg.conf to see what drivers Fedora is using.

Before it was using the "vesa" driver.
I did install the nvidia drivers from rpm.livna.org and changed the xorg config to "nvidia". I'm using a Gigabyte Geforce 7600GS PCIe.

3D acceleration works with all the bells and whistles and the screen responds quicker than before. Unfortunately, I still get the odd mouse hang while the system is accessing something and desktop performance still feels the same as before.

Since the Intel 965 chipset is relatively new (throws a lot of unknown devices when doing /sbin/lspci), I'm probably going to wait till linux drivers have matured to support this chipset.

Hmm could also be DMA.
Where hda is your primary disk. What is the output of that one?

output of /sbin/hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 0 (off)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 48641/255/63, sectors = 781422768, start = 0