[arborphile]

Hi
I am building a computer and am trying to choose a motherboard. I am on a pretty tight budget but want a pc that is able to play most current games. I have decided I want to use a AMD Athlon XP 3800 dual core cpu with AM2 socket.

Can you recommend a good (yet modest priced) motherboard? Or perhaps suggest some criteria I should use when selecting a motherboard. I know I need PCIE, SATA and DDR2....anything else I should have as criteria?

Thanks
Arb

Edited by arborphile, 15 September 2006 - 05:46 PM.

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Hi
I am building a computer and am trying to choose a motherboard. I am on a pretty tight budget but want a pc that is able to play most current games. I have decided I want to use a AMD Athlon XP 3800 dual core cpu.

Can you recommend a good (yet modest priced) motherboard? Or perhaps suggest some criteria I should use when selecting a motherboard. I know I need PCIE, SATA and DDR2....anything else I should have as criteria?

Thanks
Arb

What exactly are you wanting??? What parts do you already have if any??

If you went with an amd am2 mobo they have ddr2 support but the older socket 939 boards do not support DDR2.

If you have a decent budget of atleast $1300 for just the pc and all the components inside with no monitor you can get an INTEL Conroe core 2 duo machine with a E6600 cpu. The Intel Conroe core 2 duo series are the fastest chip on the market right now. This generally goes for the E6600 and above processors.. The intel conroe e6600 at 2.4ghz will beat amd's top end cpu which is the amd fx-62 and the Intel conroe costs less than half the price..

Id go with the INTEL conroe like I said if you have the budget that is.

[jrm20]

Hi
I am building a computer and am trying to choose a motherboard. I am on a pretty tight budget but want a pc that is able to play most current games. I have decided I want to use a AMD Athlon XP 3800 dual core cpu.

Can you recommend a good (yet modest priced) motherboard? Or perhaps suggest some criteria I should use when selecting a motherboard. I know I need PCIE, SATA and DDR2....anything else I should have as criteria?

Thanks
Arb

What exactly are you wanting??? What parts do you already have if any??

If you went with an amd am2 mobo they have ddr2 support but the older socket 939 boards do not support DDR2.

If you have a decent budget of atleast $1300 for just the pc and all the components inside with no monitor you can get an INTEL Conroe core 2 duo machine with a E6600 cpu. The Intel Conroe core 2 duo series are the fastest chip on the market right now. This generally goes for the E6600 and above processors.. The intel conroe e6600 at 2.4ghz will beat amd's top end cpu which is the amd fx-62 and the Intel conroe costs less than half the price..

Id go with the INTEL conroe like I said if you have the budget that is.

[arborphile]

Thanks JRM
I have monitor, dvd r/rw, cd r/rw, keyboard etc. I also have:

450w power supply
200gb hdd
ATI Radeon x800 pro vid card

I agree the conroe looks like good value. Unfortunately it's outside my budget.

I am planning to spend about US$700-1,000 on the rest - I can get a amd 3800 for about US$150 so I reckon this is good bang-for-buck value. 2gb of memory is going to cost me about US$250-300.

I need to know how to choose a mobo. This to me is the hardest thing to research as there seem to be so many variables.

Thanks
Arb

[jrm20]

Thanks JRM
I have monitor, dvd r/rw, cd r/rw, keyboard etc. I also have:

450w power supply
200gb hdd
ATI Radeon x800 pro vid card

I agree the conroe looks like good value. Unfortunately it's outside my budget.

I am planning to spend about US$700-1,000 on the rest - I can get a amd 3800 for about US$150 so I reckon this is good bang-for-buck value. 2gb of memory is going to cost me about US$250-300.

I need to know how to choose a mobo. This to me is the hardest thing to research as there seem to be so many variables.

Thanks
Arb

You could get a conroe system in your price range, especially since you have alot of the items already..


Is your video card pci express??
Is the harddrive a serial ata or is it ide?
What kind of power supply do you have? Is it 20 pin or 24 pin connector? If its a cheapo it wont be sufficient for a dual core machine.

[arborphile]

video card is pci express
harddrive a serial ata
Power is 24 pin

The lowest I can find a conroe 6600 here in Australia is about US$400. What can you get them for?

I also suspect its overkill for what I want and what I want to spend.

Any tips for selecting a mobo?

Thanks
Arb

[jrm20]

video card is pci express
harddrive a serial ata
Power is 24 pin

The lowest I can find a conroe 6600 here in Australia is about US$400. What can you get them for?

I also suspect its overkill for what I want and what I want to spend.

Any tips for selecting a mobo?

Thanks
Arb

I saw a conroe 6600 for $329 at newegg.com but that is in the USA though and is probably the cheapest you can find it. Its better to get what you can now "if you have the budget that is" so the pc will last longer and you dont have to upgrade as soon..

I dont know how good the selection is over in Australia but over here in the USA they have a pretty good selection of the core 2 duo motherboards.. Most are expensive but some you can find over here for $100 on a gigabyte mobo that has everything...

If you know of a good australian online computer store that doesnt overcharge then that would be the place to look.

[Longhorns242]

i would suggest a ABIT-USA KN9 SLI Mobo. I recently bought one with a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Processor 4000. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813127236

Edited by Longhorns242, 16 September 2006 - 05:52 PM.