Motherboards (1 Viewer)

[Panda Bear]

howdy

im planning on building a new computer ..

the thing that stumps me most is the motherboard.

what do i buy?

i've been to websites like www.cworld.com.au and choose parts.

when i choose the mobo drag down menu, like 200 diff. things pop up.

what is the difference between all of them and what do i need to consider when buying a new mobo?

Im planning to make a new computer that is pretty powerful for computer games, and in future, also be able to upgrade my graphics card when neeeded...

so um.. any thoughts on the mobo selection in accordance to a gamer's needs

 

[jm1234567890]

howdy

im planning on building a new computer ..

the thing that stumps me most is the motherboard.

what do i buy?

i've been to websites like www.cworld.com.au and choose parts.

when i choose the mobo drag down menu, like 200 diff. things pop up.

what is the difference between all of them and what do i need to consider when buying a new mobo?

Im planning to make a new computer that is pretty powerful for computer games, and in future, also be able to upgrade my graphics card when neeeded...

so um.. any thoughts on the mobo selection in accordance to a gamer's needs

Depends what system you are bulding and what your needs are, there isn't a one size fits all mobo.

For athlon64, generaly Nforce4 is good

 

[AsyLum]

Wait for things to come out and stabilise?

I mean PCI-Express and 64 bit should become a lot cheaper and widespread in a few years right? (hasnt been in comps in a while correct me if im wrong)

 

[sladehk]

There isn't much point for the 64 ones yet because the 64 OS hasn't been released yet and there are not many 64 specific programs that can use the enhanced processor

 

[MedNez]

so um.. any thoughts on the mobo selection in accordance to a gamer's needs

I'd recommend a Gigabyte board - they're pretty damn good. Anything that has the following on it is what you should think about using as criteria:

- 8x AGP
- Dual Channel DDR Ram Support
- Serial ATA Hard Drive Support
- USB 2.0 Controller
- Supports a P4 with Hyperthreading

Have a poke around for the P4 Titan Series, they're pretty good for standard needs

 

[JimmyK]

i've got a giga-byte board with all the specs that MedNez talks about above. except the P4 - I've got an athlon 3000+. The board is pretty good and came with firewire, extra USB, and 6.1 audio brackets.
I think that i'll go back to a Intel processor next upgrade.. but it depends on who comes out on top on the 64bit. if your a gamer... get an Intel CPU - at the LANs I hold.. almost all the guys are on Intel cpus.
If you go Intel.. consider going to PCI - Express, but you might have a little trouble getting a good video card.. but within the next month or two that probelm should be remedied.

 

[Panda Bear]

i've read about PCI-express, but im still a bit stumped as to what it does?

i want to get an AMD athlon 3000+ coz its cheaper, but according to you jimmy, you want to go back to Intel? what's wrong with athlon?

@mednez: all gigabytes do the same thing or...? any particular model you can recommend?

 

[Arvin Sloane]

howdy

im planning on building a new computer ..

the thing that stumps me most is the motherboard.

what do i buy?

i've been to websites like www.cworld.com.au and choose parts.

when i choose the mobo drag down menu, like 200 diff. things pop up.

what is the difference between all of them and what do i need to consider when buying a new mobo?

Im planning to make a new computer that is pretty powerful for computer games, and in future, also be able to upgrade my graphics card when neeeded...

so um.. any thoughts on the mobo selection in accordance to a gamer's needs

Tom's hardware can help.

The evil elves are eating my post.

 

[Pharaohsam]

you need to consider...

whether your graphics card is PCI-express or AGP becuase depending the motherboard needs to have that slot,

it must have the same socket as your CPU

must correspond to your CPU - i.e AMDs have different motehrboards to INTELS

must have enough PCI slots for all the expansion cards you will be having...

have the same pseed RAM slots as your RAM

if you are getting SATA HDDs then it needs SATA support...

thata all i can remember off the top of my head.

 

[Pharaohsam]

BTW unless you are going to buy the parts and build it yourself i wouldn't go to Computer Wordl, i have hard bad experiences with them, their customer service is crap and a half.

They prices are cheap so if you can or know someone to build it for you go for it. Like the old saying goes...you pay peanuts you get monkeys...

 

[jm1234567890]

i've read about PCI-express, but im still a bit stumped as to what it does?

i want to get an AMD athlon 3000+ coz its cheaper, but according to you jimmy, you want to go back to Intel? what's wrong with athlon?

@mednez: all gigabytes do the same thing or...? any particular model you can recommend?

What is your price range??

If you looking at AthlonXP3000+ it doesn't really exist anymore, anything you get is left over stock. The athon XP series were all replaces with semprons.

The NForce2-400 was a good mobo for athlon XP's and semprons.

 

[JimmyK]

i've read about PCI-express, but im still a bit stumped as to what it does?

i want to get an AMD athlon 3000+ coz its cheaper, but according to you jimmy, you want to go back to Intel? what's wrong with athlon?

@mednez: all gigabytes do the same thing or...? any particular model you can recommend?

Panda.. I've just found the performance of my AMD processor lacks abit compared to a CPU of arround 3.0Ghz. It still performs pretty good, and it is pretty good value for money - but if i had an extra bit of money to throw arround at my next upgrade - I'll probally go for a Intel CPU - mainly cause of the performance.. but I dont mind my current AMD CPU considering the price i paid for it.
As jm just posted.. Athlons have been replaced with Semperons and I don't really know how they perform - if they are any different or not.
My mobo has an N-Force 2 chipset and it performs alright. I got it for arround $150 - its a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2. I haven't yet had any mobo related problems. It's a great board for gaming and fairly high performance machines - but I'm not sure if they make it now.. they will probally have replaced it with somthing better.

 

[Templar]

Why is everyone talking about Athlon XP? If building a new computer it would be Athlon 64. I'd recommend Asus motherboards, but whichever one you choose will depend on what functions you want.

Agree with McHectic, CWorld customer service is pretty bad.

 

[Panda Bear]

my price range for a mobo would be around $150-$200, though i might push it to $250 for a good one.

oh ok, athlon semphron's i've always trusted Intel, but it seems that AMD have been out performing them in a majority of tests, so that's why im choosing to go with AMD.

Which mobo should i be choosing for a semphron 3000+ mobo with the gigabyte brand?

 

[jm1234567890]

my price range for a mobo would be around $150-$200, though i might push it to $250 for a good one.

oh ok, athlon semphron's i've always trusted Intel, but it seems that AMD have been out performing them in a majority of tests, so that's why im choosing to go with AMD.

Which mobo should i be choosing for a semphron 3000+ mobo with the gigabyte brand?

a semporn 3000+ is really an entry level CPU, so spending $250 on a mother board isn't really justfied.

$200 can easily get you a top of the line NForce2-400.

However, I strongly suggest you consider an athlon64 system, it isn't much more expensive and there are significant performance gains with running 64bit code on a 64bit OS. around 20-30% at times.

 

[jm1234567890]

Panda.. I've just found the performance of my AMD processor lacks abit compared to a CPU of arround 3.0Ghz. It still performs pretty good, and it is pretty good value for money - but if i had an extra bit of money to throw arround at my next upgrade - I'll probally go for a Intel CPU - mainly cause of the performance.. but I dont mind my current AMD CPU considering the price i paid for it.
As jm just posted.. Athlons have been replaced with Semperons and I don't really know how they perform - if they are any different or not.
My mobo has an N-Force 2 chipset and it performs alright. I got it for arround $150 - its a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2. I haven't yet had any mobo related problems. It's a great board for gaming and fairly high performance machines - but I'm not sure if they make it now.. they will probally have replaced it with somthing better.

semprons are AthonXP's (thoroughbred core) rebranded, it is the same thing. No semprons are the barton core though.

the 745 ones aren't athonXP cores though.

 

[Templar]

Don't get a Sempron unless you're really on a budget. Its performance is poor in comparison with most other CPUs. It's the Athlon 64 that's outperforming Intel.