Solicitation for motherboard recommedations

[PetersCreek]

Well, I'm already looking forward to how I'm going to spend my dividend check in October and I've decided it's time to build a new computer. The current machine is about five years old, so it's about damn time. I haven't been keeping up with components since building it, so I'm a bit behind the times. I could use a jump start for my research.

I'm looking at building on an Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor. I'd like to plug it into an ATX motherboard in the $200-ish range. I'd like a decent feature set but I doubt I'll be overclocking. I could also use video card recommendations. I'm not a big gamer but I'd like the option of running flight sims and the like with good performance. Heavy Photoshop use is my main focus. If anyone has other ideas, I'd glad to hear 'em. Thanks in advance!

 

[chadth]

I bought a system with a Asus P5B SE in it a few months back and I am extremely happy with it. At the time, it provided the most bang for the buck. I have built every PC I have ever owned (roughly 30 now) but now that the cost savings for building my own system is close to negligible. If you don't mind shopping on eBay, there are a plethora of established builders who will meet most anyone's needs.

Tom’s Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/) has been around forever, I would start there for reviews on specific models, chipsets, and features.

Best of luck,
-Chad

 

[Mizicke5273]

Your best bet would be to wait till around the beginning of September before you really start to plan your build. As Intel's Nehalem should be out around then, along with a new socket type for motherboards. If your going to be building around that time I would suggest waiting until its release to see how it performs. Even if you dont want to go the Nehalem route, the Q9450s should be down in price by then. Going by the fact that your current PC is 5yrs old, you would be best off going Nehalem either way (as long as the performance is good) seeing as you most likely wont be upgrading soon.

For the motherboard, anything based on the P35 or X38 chipsets by Asus, Gigiabyte, DFI, and so forth is pretty decent and should do you well. But again I would wait until a closer time to really start to looking, as prices most likely will drop.

As for video cards, I wouldnt go anything lower than an Nvidia 8800GTS, again the new cards will be out around July. So if your looking to build in the fall, I would suggest getting an ATI 4850 at the time (depending on how it actually performs and costs) or Nvidia's equivalent.

Also dont get anything less than 4GB of ram.

 

[Seth]

Also dont get anything less than 4GB of ram.

Unless you are still running XP.


Seth

 

[BlindedByScience]

Also dont get anything less than 4GB of ram.

Unless you are still running XP.

Seth

...64 bit XP will address it just fine....

 

[Wurm]

64bit XP is brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... lets not go there.

64bit Vista on the other hand is surprisingly well done and has good driver and software support. To be honest I was shocked.

About the motherboard, Miz was correct about waiting till your ready to upgrade.

As far as brands go... I'm a MSI fan, never had a bad board from them. The one I'm running now is rock steady with a slight memory overclock and I haven't thrown a game or application at it yet that it can't handle. I've also never had a problem with Abit. I'm not a big fan of ASUS, but that's just a personal dislike from years ago, they are good boards now.

I'm going to wait as long as I can before upgrading, to see what the future platforms are going to be like..

 

[Mizicke5273]

Also dont get anything less than 4GB of ram.

Unless you are still running XP.


Seth

Doesn't matter either way, whether your using xp 32bit or vista 32bit. Still get at least 4GB of RAM. Its cheap and you will use it. What ever isnt addressed by windows will be used by your video card. And you will have it when you make the move to 64bit.

 

[PetersCreek]

Your best bet would be to wait till around the beginning of September before you really start to plan your build. As Intel's Nehalem should be out around then, along with a new socket type for motherboards. If your going to be building around that time I would suggest waiting until its release to see how it performs. Even if you dont want to go the Nehalem route, the Q9450s should be down in price by then. Going by the fact that your current PC is 5yrs old, you would be best off going Nehalem either way (as long as the performance is good) seeing as you most likely wont be upgrading soon.

This is actually the longest I've ever gone without upgrading but I hereby resolve to do better. Honest. I wasn't looking for a bleeding edge CPU but I do plan to see how far the new release pushes prices down. I just may opt for the Q9450 by then. The timing my be just right, too. Dividends come out the first week in October. I'm just doing my preparatory research to get a feel things.

Thanks for the video card recommendation, too. As for RAM, it was already on my list to chuck 8GB in the box.

64bit Vista on the other hand is surprisingly well done and has good driver and software support. To be honest I was shocked.

That's good to know. I've been really undecided about the new OS and was feeling leery about Vista.

Thanks.

 

[Mizicke5273]

Sounds like you got a pretty good grasp on what you want/need.

By the time your ready the Q9450s should be nice and cheap.

 

[Aeroscott]

I just had 3 computers built for my 2 kids and myself, we used:

ASUS P5L VM 1394 Mobos
Intel 6600 @ 2.4ghz processors
NVIDIA Geoforce 8600 GT video cards
4Gigs RAM
Viewsonic VX1940w 19" Monitors (these are the sh!t) :laugh:
XP pro sp3
no overclocking

I can play Flight Sim X with full graphics everything enabled and it doesn't even hiccup.
Call of Duty 4 with full Graphics no prob.
Vice City! you can see 4 blocks away!!
I have had no problems and been running good since January, my son had some spyware issues, darn kids...

I've had them since January but the newness hasn't worn off yet.


edit: I only have 2 kids not three