[jst42day]

OK. You helped me understand the pricing structure of Intel's E6750 vs 6700 etc..
Now I was hoping to get some more of your wisdom.
I'm building a new pc for my wife and me during the holidays.
I'll be getting the E6750. And will be using XP Pro and a 500 G. hard drive, Hitachi or Samsung probably.
It will be used for office type applications, music, pictures, surfing and no games. But heavy on the stereo.
There are a ton of motherboards out there and I don't have a clue what ones would be good for our use.
I'd like it to have 2 e-sata connectors for external back up but its not necessary because high speed USB is due out in a few months and that should do fine.
Thanks for any help.
J.

[Advertisements]

Hi jst42day, I personally have the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 and the exact processor you intend on getting (E6750).

This motherboard is very good because it has solid capacitors, good chipset cooling, and plenty of connections. It also comes bundled with an eSATA bracket, meaning it is perfect for your needs. All you need to do is plug in the supplied bracket and connect to the ports and it's good to go!

It also has onboard audio that is of high quality, I'm very happy overall with it.

There are other examples out there that also would suit your needs, but this is just one and I can personally recommend it as I have it!

[Troy]

Hi jst42day, I personally have the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 and the exact processor you intend on getting (E6750).

This motherboard is very good because it has solid capacitors, good chipset cooling, and plenty of connections. It also comes bundled with an eSATA bracket, meaning it is perfect for your needs. All you need to do is plug in the supplied bracket and connect to the ports and it's good to go!

It also has onboard audio that is of high quality, I'm very happy overall with it.

There are other examples out there that also would suit your needs, but this is just one and I can personally recommend it as I have it!

[SOORENA]

Yes that mobo is one of the cheapest and best at this stage. Also you wan to consider a lower end Video Card and go all out on everything else since your not gaming.

Soorena

[jst42day]

Thanks to both of you.
Troy-I see the GA-P35-DS3 and the DS3L and a few others.
I don't see the difference between them other than $25.00.
Any idea of the differences?
Also, what type memory can I use that won't cost a fortune.

Soorena,
Good idea for a few months from now.
What's a good video card for my general purposes?

J.

[Troy]

The GA-P35-DS3 does not come with onboard graphics, so you would need to purchase a video card to get some sort of display on your monitor A decent card (If you aren't doing 3D gaming) would be an ATI 2400 Pro or 2600 Pro series, these can be picked up reasonably cheap.

A RAM (memory) purchase from Newegg seems to be the way to go at the moment, they have very cheap prices and some really good rebates from the manufacturers as well. This link takes you to Patriot RAM, a top-quality example:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820220144

And differences between the motherboards are small, but they are there - try opening up the specifications page for each (on Newegg, for example) and play "spot-the-difference".

[Titan8990]

We recently used this on a non-gaming built at work and I believe it will suit your needs well: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127273. The selling point to us was the passive cooling. I am not trusting of the fans on low end < $50 cards.

[jst42day]

Thank you all for your help.
I hope to be starting in a few weeks and know where to come for some good advice.
Enjoy your holidays.
J.