Techno-Geeks: GO! (Help with part selection)

[Epincus]

Okay, I'm indecisive as all hell, and it's driving me insane. I need to choose a motherboard/CPU combo and these are the decisions I've gotten it down to:

-Core 2 Duo Processor (Don't know which, 'not' over E6600 due to cost)
-Motherboard preferred under $200
-PCI Express x16 x2
-At least 8GB RAM capacity (hey, ya never know, it may get cheaper someday)

No size limitations, I have a full tower waiting for it. Just looking for input on a good model to work with because I can't quite decide on my own. Any help is awesome, thanks in advance.

[SephYuyX]

If you dont want to fork over another 200$ for the 6700, go with the 6600 then.

Mobos: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... atId=2438& Id recommend the EVGA one, but it's a bit pricey. Gigabyte had a great mobo listed.. but I dont see it anymore.

[Shuemue]

Gigabyte make really sexy boards.

[Epincus]

So you guys would say to go with Gigabyte for mobo? I have heard great things about Foxconn and Asus as well.

[SephYuyX]

Asus is ok, Foxconn.. ive never heard of.

I know Gigabye has a board for Core 2's, but I dunno where it went, maybe TG direct took it down, you can check out Gigabyte's site or try Newegg is well. Ive alays used Gigabyte and never had problems with them.

[Shuemue]

My last two boards have been Gigabyte and Asus, I've been happy with both, but the Gigabyte had a better vibe to it. Just remember, any system is only as fast as it's slowest component, so don't scrimp on anything. A machine with a slightly slower CPU but high quality ram and mobo will run better than a faster chip with garbage generic ram and mobo.

[netz]

Last Core 2 Duo board I recommended to a friend was an ASUS P5B-E. It came with a corrupt BIOS. I had to do some hunting around to find a BIOS it wanted to use, since the automatic reflash choked on the ROM image supplied on the driver CD. I don't expect that that's the norm, however. My only other complaint is that the placement of the SINGLE parallel ATA connector on the board couldn't be worse for reaching CD-ROM drives at the top of large cases.

This is the first time I've had a negative experience with an ASUS product, but it wasn't bad enough for me to advise you look elsewhere.

[levish]

Foxconn makes a ton of parts for companies like Dell they are established but their parts are not established with regards to overclocking

you understand that to use 8GB of ram you need to use win xp 64bit or vista 64bit?

otherwise you'll be limited to somewhere around 3.5GB

if you want pci-e x16 with 2 slots at that speeds your choices are very limited , afaik everything p965 based is 2x 16x pci-e slots but in SLI/Crossfire mode it's 16x and 4x not dual 16x

SLI 680i and 975x based motherboards are what you should be looking for

[Brandson]

I've had good experiences with Asus motherboards w/ Nvidia chipsets. Although I don't have a 680i mobo, if I was building a PC today I'd prolly get the least expensive Asus 680i mobo that I could find that had all the other features I'd need in my system. Btw, if you're buying a gfx card too, it might be a good idea to wait a month for AMD to announce its new DirectX10 card. Whether or not its any good, it should affect pricing of Nvidia and AMD gfx cards in a big way.

Oh and I think it's still too early to be going for a 64bit OS. Game and driver support is going to be severely lacking for at least another year or two.

[Epical]

I've always been an fan of ASUS mobos, and always built my PCs with them inside. E6600 is the best processor for the price on the market right now, and 8GB of RAM seems a bit excessive >_>. Spend the money that you would be spending on that some other upgrades and you'll have a pretty deadly machine (big HDD/good optical drive/the extra "oomph" on your mobo/the next step up in video card/etc). Right now I'm using a ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe, and I'm very happy with it. Very flexible BIOS, nice OC capabilities, excellent features, Crossfire ready, dual channel DIMM slots, superb NB and SB cooling (those zones are already hot as it is), two ethernet LAN ports, WiFi adapter built in, etc. Cost me CDN$259, which will just go over your $200 limit, but it's a really nice mobo.

Shoot for something like this (just a guideline for future-proofing yourself):

- Dual core processor (quads are WAY too expensive right now)
- 2GB RAM
- Decent mobo with compatibility of recent parts
- Video card in the $100-$300 range (and if you get any high-end Radeon, get a Zalman VF-900 and replace the useless jet turbine they have coming stock)
- A GOOD CPU FAN, not the stock shit that it comes with (I use a Scythe Ninja, CDN$59)
- Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (gets your temps down another 3-6 degrees over the shit they ship with)
- ~320GB HDD
- DVD-RW/CD-RW (Blu-Ray burners cost your left nut and sister's virginity)
- Antec case (they make really solid cases, I have a P180 and it's sexxxxxx to maxxxxxx. Cool and quiet)
- Power supply that supports everything (nothing like not having enough 12v support or SATA-Molex power connectors!)

If you play it smart, and not buy a Ferrari to drive in a school zone (buying more than you need), a good PC shouldn't cost you more than what you're expecting to spend (within reason).

[Raineer]

Asus used to make very good mobos. I absolutely can't recommend them now. I don't know what happened but their out-of-box New-Defective rates have skyrocketed. I've personally had 2 bad ones in a row that newegg had to swap out for me.

Foxconn is new-ish but I've heard some good things about them.

I'd still stay with Gigabyte for now. Their dual-bios thingy has saved me quite a few headaches. Hard to recommend a specific board since there are so many options, just pick out what you feel you need without overpaying for stuff you don't.

[Epincus]

So Gigabyte and E6600 look like the winnars? Thanks for the input guys. =)

As a note, I have NO intention of buying 8GB of ram, that would be just excessive. I'm simply looking for 8GB 'capacity' in case the need for it comes up down the road, but this should hopefully help a lot. Thanks guys. =)