How to Buy a Motherboard

Twisted29 · Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 7:53 pm Post subject: How to Buy a Motherboard

Well, its that time.

I'm going to build my first PC. (*gasp*)

I figured I'd start at the motherboard, seeing how everything else is going to depend on it. So, I'm wondering...how exactly do you go about selecting one of these...there are way too many to choose from! Any reocmmendations?

I know some of you have a lot of experience in this department, so help me out!!!

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Blown · Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 7:56 pm Post subject:

What processor first of all. AMD or Intel?

Dahak · Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 8:00 pm Post subject:

get an nforce. :p

YourPowersAreWeakOldMan · Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 9:02 pm Post subject:

I sent you a private message...also when you are decided on parts buy them cheap from here

http://www.newegg.com
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Usually Dead · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 6:54 am Post subject:

NewEgg is a great site for computer parts. If you're going for an AMD CPU (which I reccomend), then I'd go for a Tyan motherboard. My Tyan Trinity works great, so I'm not a paid spoksman.

But above anything else, get what fits your needs.
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Blown · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 9:30 am Post subject:

yup, newegg is great. I had great dealings with www.gameve.com also.

(+)ASSASSIN(+) · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 12:24 pm Post subject:

www.tcwo.com is where I got my stuff for my comp, only problem I had was they didnt send me one of my Rambus sticks of memory and for anyof you familiar with that you have to use them in pairs, but I called them and they fixed me up and sent me the correct stuff with no hassle.
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YourPowersAreWeakOldMan · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 2:00 pm Post subject:

I've had nothing but trouble from Tyan, I had 2 different Duel Socket-A motherboards freak out and crash alot, plus it kept burning out my RAM sticks.

I got ASUS at the recommendation of my friend who does freelance computer stuff for companies here in Houston, he used to do RMA for a computer company like 'newegg' and they kept getting tyans back with complaints.
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Verman · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 2:37 pm Post subject:

I've built a few systems in my days. Kind of partial to ASUS as well. Good performance and stable. Check out www.motherboards.org for review and commentary regarding the latest. #Robot

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Blown · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 3:26 pm Post subject:

Deathbringer has had his issues with asus. But that may have just been the one particular series mb he had, but it kept blowing caps.

Epox is great, and when you do have a problem they are awesome at taking care of you. To me that is the most important thing to consider. My epox board I have, and also the one Deathbringer has is great, and havent had any issues with it.

(+)ASSASSIN(+) · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 4:17 pm Post subject:

For personal systems at home ive Used Asus and my current Itel boards and havent had problems with either, as a matter of fact they both have been extremly cooperative with anything ive done. The problem with trying to find a reliable motherboard manufacturer is that they may make great boards but eventually just like anything ever created there are always bad batches. Your best bet is to figure out which one has the specs your looking for research them and choose the best one for you. And always keep in mind that sometimes buying electronics is like a crap shoot, what works for one may not work for another.
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BitterBeerFace · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 7:00 pm Post subject:

I'm assuming you'll want a gaming system... so AGP 8x will be important... that sucks since almost no P4 motherboards can do that

Do you want to overclock? Anything I suggest takes no notice of overclocking ability... I could care less if I can increase the FSB by 1 MHz increments, but some value that alot.

I'm really not happy with the motherboards available at the current time. The move to dual channel DDR is good, but I'm a big fan of stability, so major new things like that make me want to wait a few months. I think there's gonna be some good stuff coming out soon

On the AMD side, the choice is pretty clear: Nvidia NForce2 boards, preferably the Gigabyte or Asus offerings. The cas2 RAM they require is still pretty expensive in the DDR400 variety, but the performance is probably worth it. There are about half a dozen "gigabyte and Asus offerings", so you'll just have to compare what features are on each... typically the price rises in relation to the number built-in goodies you get. (firewire, serial ATA, onboard RAID, etc etc)

For P4 boards, I'd stay away from the RDRAM boards (intel 850E chipset)... the new dual DDR boards (intel E7205 chipset) are the ones most attractive to me... they also have 4 RAM slots, instead of the standard 3... but they'll need to be installed in pairs to work dual. I think they can do DDR266 and DDR333 so far, but I bet there will be support for DDR400 and hopefully 533 soon... The E7205 boards do support AGP 8x too, so you won't be stuck with "slow" 4x

PondScm007 · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 7:48 pm Post subject:

check www.pricewatch.com before you buy anything
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Blown · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 8:29 pm Post subject:

Twisted29 · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 4:53 am Post subject:

OMG this is all confusing!!

Thanks for the help everyone. I've realized that I don't know as much about motherboards as I thought....I think I'm going to spend some serious time digging around on all those sites you linked me to. I'll let you know what I come up with in the end

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I'm really quite Non-Twisted... (but don't tell anybody!)

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