MoBo search. 2

[jlockley]

In the process deciding to buy or build, I have come to the point of finding a mother board, and each time I find one I like, I find something missing..need a few suggestions here, if you would be so kind.

Also, if there is something important I didn't consider, please let me know. (I told central computing that I wanted to buy bare bones..and they neglected to tell me that the board they proposed had no ide connectors, for instance).

Here's what I need.
General description: Office. Not gaming/much video. Not really networked. Most important programs office suites, data bases, scanning and internet communication. I realize that some small apps will be lost.

64 bit, Vista compliant.
PCU: Thinking Athlon 64 bit 3200, since upgradable to core duo if I go nuts later. Looking at some socket 939. Other thoughts? Not opposed to Celeron. Probably not P4.
XP pro (will get with or without parts, depending)
Micro or or at most mid case.
4 Dimms (so I can begin with a mg and expand to2mg)
Should support two ide drives, but would also like Sata support.I was looking at DDR2, which doesn't seem much more expensive than DDR. Great difference?
Desired but not absolute: onboard video, onboard audio. I have video cards, but right now I would like to focus on basics.
Chipset: ???? I've always had Nvidia chipsets..any thoughts? Whatever works. Energy is not at this time a problem, but heat is. Energy may become important if I move into a home office.
PCI express
Firewire would be nice.
The givens: 10/100 connection, USB 2 (the more the merrier.)


I have my eye on a CoolerMaster Centurion 541 case.

http://www.centralcomputer.com/itemdetail.asp?item=CASCM-T0505R

Small, cheap and lots of air flow. Opinions on that would be appreciated as well, as well as psu.

I started this by thinking I'd buy off the rack, which is relatively cheap, but it looks as if it's going to be piece by piece. My favorite geek stop in SF has gone out of the parts business, so I am pretty much on my own this round.

 

[paparazi]

Just to clear any confusion:

Core Duo or Core2 Duo, are Intel CPU's so any platform supporting an AMD Athlon would not be upgradable to these processors which use Intel's completely different 775 platform.

You said you are looking at DDRII well that excludes any socket 939 board for AMD because they all use the original DDR ram eg: PC3200 etc.

Look at socket 940 for AMD's AM2 range, these boards are the latest socket from AMD and nearly all use DDRII

Intel Core2 Duo's and Quads are the best there is at the moment but I suspect your budget is below the entry level E6300 so your next best option would be an Athlon 64 3200 or similar but in AM2 940pin for one of those AM2 DDRII motherboards I mentioned above.
As you are not gaming and might be using a smaller case then a budget board based on Nvidia's 6150/430 chipset would offer good perfrmance at reasonable cost as it has integrated Nvidia graphics.
Something like: the Asus M2NPV-MX

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=296&model=1169&modelmenu=1

or MSI's K9NGM2 Series which uses the same chipset.

http://msicomputer.co.uk/Products.aspx?product_id=703731&cat_id=77

Which will give you the option to upgrade to an AMD dual core X2 Processor in the future.
It has 2X IDE connectors, loads of SATA1 and SATA2 ports, Geforce 6 built in graphics with model shader 3.0, Gigabit lan, HDD Audio, Dsub and DVI out plus Vista ready, pretty much everything you could want at a very affordable budget price.
Martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[jlockley]

Well, I am picking up a case, too. Mine is old, ugly and really rickety, so I can choose size. I wanted small, but I've always gone for large to accomodate things you hardly need any more. I will look at all options. Thanks.

 

[jlockley]

paparazi..pretty too. (The msi). somehow they figured out that plastic comes in colors on all fronts. Nice.
Ummm. what't the word on pci express. I notice that most interesting boards come with one, a few with pci express2..
and what is sli?
I like both of those boards a lot. Thanks.

 

[cdogg]

SLI is Nvidia's technology that allows you to run two graphic cards in parallel with one another. Each card draws half the lines on the screen. So in theory, they are splitting the workload. However in actual practice, they are nowhere near being "twice as fast" as a single card. To run SLI, the motherboard must support it (two x16 PCI-Express slots) - every board that can run it will advertise it in the model name.

PCI-Express is AGP's replacement. The goal of the technology is to integrate everything outside of memory & CPU onto a single, fast interface. The idea is to get away from old PCI and then having a separate bus for graphics (AGP). Although an x16 PCI-Express slot has a much higher bandwidth capacity than AGP 8x, very few graphics cards can take advantage of that.

So the move away from AGP is more about convenience and not performance...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[paparazi]

Not wishing to repeat cdoggs good info but:
PCIe is a new slot interface, both the boards I mentioned and any up to date replacement will have at least one 16X PCIe slot for an addon graphics card
SLi = Two graphics cards running in tandum (certainly not needed for anything other than the ultra high end gaming)
Not sure about PCIe2? I guess that must be a slightly newer standard.
To answer jlockley, a midi case is usually the best option as it allows for a full size ATX motherboard but still is fairly compact.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[jlockley]

Thanks. I assume I need a new mother board,then.

So, changing topic a bit, a question. I need a new system. It's probably good timing. What I see out there is that I am relatively early in the need upgrade absolutely everything.

Assuming that everyone is sooner or later forced onto Vista, everyone in the computing world (except mac/open source users) is going to have to make the change..let's say in a year or two. That means that software and equipment have to be upgraded. Who, aside from Microsoft, stands to gain the most from this? Nvdia? AMD? The market impact has to be enormous.

 

[jlockley]

sorry..getting new mother board. Need new video card.

 

[cdogg]

I imagine that neither ATI or Nvidia stands to gain more than the other. The two have been duking it out for the past 5 years in heated competition. Back in the mid 90's, ATI ruled the market but then just kind of disappeared off the map for a while. Nvidia then took the helm with its RIVA TNT and first GeForce video cards. After a few years, ATI decided to get back in the game starting the back & forth struggle between the two that has been about as evenly matched as Intel vs. AMD. Which is a perfect segway into saying that I don't think there is a clear winner either in the processor market just yet. Intel has finally found a way back to the form it once held in the days of the early Pentiums, giving the once untouchable Athlon 64/X2's a run for their money.

There's a lot of good articles around on the net. I always encourage searching on Wikipedia.org when you have time. Although the info isn't always the most accurate, just about every article I've seen has valuable external links. Also whether accurate or not, the articles on there make every attempt to gather and sort the latest news on the subject you're viewing. In addition, computer sites like Anandtech.com and TomsHardware.com are great too.

Here's a few recent articles on DirectX 10 (an important feature in Vista):

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/21/the_graphics_state_of_the_union/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directx_10#The_future_of_DirectX

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct3D#Direct3D_10

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[jlockley]

Thanks. Interesting.
Nvdia bought out ATI.

 

[cdogg]

Whoa, wait a second! Check that again. It was AMD that bought out ATI, not Nvidia.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[jlockley]

Yes, it was. Braindead.