[danjmilos]

HI all,

With nice weather or bad as the case maybe around here I have too much to do outside and don't get to a keyboard to often.

Here's a question for the builders, which of these motherboards for my new computer?

Gigabyte EP45-UD3L Motherboard - Intel P45, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0

Foxconn G45M-S LGA 775 Intel G45 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Foxconn ELA LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

I do lots of photo editing and music transfers from LP's and tape and plan to watch videos off the net cause I never had or wanted cable or satalite.
I will be checking back a few times by tuesday and see what's up.


Dan

[link590o]

I'm not thinking any of those are a good deal. I paid 85 dollars for my motherboard, and I got almost everything that those boards offer, and I got ddr3 support with it. And as it turned out, my motherboard is a pretty rock-solid board.

The first board looks alright, but the memory standards are a little whacky.

The second board is micro atx, which might be selling yourself short really. You're better off buying a full atx board.

The second and third board are also from Foxconn, and Foxconn hasn't really been known for their high quality. MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA, and a couple of other board names are better for quality.

I've noticed that you're trying to keep things to a $90 dollar range or so, but I think you'd be far better off buying this board and spending an extra $30 or so.

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP45C-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

The board is rated slightly lower than it should be because of people who got a DOA board, which happens all the time. But this board is pretty solid for your purposes. It should do you wonders. A lot of people have been happy with this board.

[Albert Lionheart]

If your choice is limited to these 3 boards I would go for the GB board anyday. I don't know what models you might get in the USofA but by preference I do like Asus boards, especially the P5 range for Skt 775 and value for money. Current series of P5Q should have something to suit your needs - and no I don't work for them!

[danjmilos]

Thanks guys,

I've been looking at parts for a few months now and I'm in no hurry.
The Foxconn ELA LGA has come down around $50 in the last three weeks which is why I included it. I've been leaning toward Gigabyte boards myself but am still looking. Been looking at reviews on Tom's Hardware, Hardware Secerts, and Motherboards dot org lots of information on the three sites makes the mind explode from info overload.
Thinking about Enermax for the power supply Liberty ECO series 550 or 650, think the larger. Still have a ways to go but it will happen.

Thanks again guys,

Dan

[Albert Lionheart]

I guess we all tend to stick to what we like and where things have gone well for us. I like Kingston memory mainly because the prices are competitive and the guys at Kingston UK got me out of a potentially expensive hole some years ago. I tend not to forget things like that - nor do I forget the suppliers who fail to provide a decent service either!

[link590o]

I definitely commend you on your choice of power supply. Any of the Liberty series will be a really solid and reliable supply. Spare no expense when it comes to that psu, especially with the Liberty series. They're a fantastic bang for the buck.

There are a couple of main things to look for when you're buying a motherboard. It really has to do with what you expect to do with it. If you're going to be gaming a lot, or be doing a lot of photo editing and things like that, you're going to want to look for a good Full ATX board with at least one PCI-Express 2.0 16x slot for starters. The PCI-Express slot is important to fit the most modern video cards available, as you will need a powerful one to do all of the graphical renderings for phhoto editing.

The next important thing to look for is that it's LGA 775 since those are the most powerful bang for the buck batches of processors out there for the moment. Intel's latest series is more of a fun and expensive tech toy, not really for mainstream purchase yet.

And the final important thing to look for in a board is the type of memory it supports. These days, the standard for most users is DDR2 1066. There are a lot out there that still use DDR2 800, but with the faster chipsets being less expensive, people are mainstreaming with the faster memory.

Make sure that your board also supports DDR3 type memory. This may not be for immediate use, although it can be. The main issue here is lengthening the life of your board. Replacing your motherboard essentially means you're replacing most of the other parts as well, so you'll want a board that lasts you a good number of years so that you can get as much out of it as possible. Buying a board that offers the most options for future endeavors is a smarter buy than just buying one that fits your needs now.

That's really all you need to look for when you're buying a board, aside from what kinds of ratings people have given it. It's important to look at the 1s and 2s because people who rate it that low could have just simply had a Dead on Arrival board. These are rare and unfortunate for some of the major brands and can lower the true rating of the board.

Hope that helps you with choosing the right board for yourself.

[danjmilos]

If you add a www. & .com this is where I've found the PS. It is a very good site with tons of reviews on everything computer. Power supplies seem to be the most reviewed part. They review digital anything cameras, phones, MP's, you name they may have a review.
As for the DDR3 support I'm still thinking about that.
I'm going over vid cards now since the better boards have no on board video.
Beautiful day here today, a little to hot for roofing but the garage needs done and I'm elected to do it. I'll finish tomorrow morning before showers move in.

Dan

[link590o]

What kind of a price range were you looking at in with your video card? If you'd like, I could offer a recommendation, as could anyone else reading this thread.

[danjmilos]

$100 or less, 512 to 1 gig with HDMI support missing anything.

Dan

[link590o]

The best card from Nvidia for that price range is a 1 gig 9600gt. I found one like that complete with an HDMI port. It's MSI brand so it's fairly high quality construction. I've purchased a lot of cards and a solid motherboard from MSI, and they haven't let me down. Final cost is $92.99 with free shipping, and you could even send in a $10 rebate if you wish to bring the cost down to $82.99.

Newegg.com - NVIDIA N9600GT-MD1G GeForce 9600 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

The unfortunate thing is graphics cards are never shipped anywhere with an HDMI cable. They only occasionally have adapters for DVI to HDMI conversion. You'll have to buy the HDMI cable separately if you don't already have one.

The only card better than the 9600 from Nvidia is the 9800GT. You may find a good 9800GT lying around at a similar price, but almost all of the ones I've seen were about $120 dollars and up. So unless you feel like shelling out the added cash, which I doubt, the 9600GT should do you just fine.

If you're a Radeon fan, the best you could go for is a single Radeon 4850 512mb. (They also come in twos in a crossfire configuration.) If you really want big bang for your buck at that price range, this is probably the better choice. It'll cost you $94.99 with free shipping. The best part is that the 4850 is comparable to the 9800GTX in performance. So it's about 40% more powerful than the 9600GT at about the same price.

The only downside is this model doesn't come with an HDMI port built in. It comes with an adapter though.

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

You probably won't find much else better than this at that price range. Hope this helps.

[danjmilos]

Sparkle GeForce 9500 GT Video Card - 1024MB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0, DVI, HDMI, Display Port

I found this card at Tiger Direct for $70. I saw the NVIDIA N9600GT-MD1G GeForce 9600 GT at Newegg for the price you mentioned. I think I'm getting closer to a final package to assemble. Cooler Master Centurion 5 - Silver ATX Mid-Tower Case with Front USB, Firewire and Audio Ports is my choice for a case simple, classy looking will go well in the TV room. Still deciding which Gigabyte board to go with might pick the dual ddr board.

Dan

[link590o]

Trust me, don't go with the 9500. It's an unstable card, it's far less powerful, and it uses DDR2 memory. All modern video cards use DDR3 memory. If you buy that card you'll only be holding yourself back.

[Albert Lionheart]

I have a pair of GeForce 9600 GTs (check the system specs!) and although I would be the first to agree that my system doesn't get driven the way it should be, they have been partly responsible for a 5.9 Vista score. OK so they are over a year old now and there are newer and better ones out there but I still think they represent great value for money.

[danjmilos]

What about a:MSI N94GT-MD512 GeForce 9400 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
128-bit Memory, Low Profile w/ Native HDMI Port?

Dan

[link590o]

I don't know why you keep going lower and lower in pricing to progressively weaker video cards. You said you had a budget of about $100 dollars, and I offered you the very best you could get for the price.

Give it to me straight. How much are you really willing to spend on a video card? If you're still willing to go with $100, then go with our recommendations because you can't go wrong. But if you're not willing to spend that much, then give us the new price tag to aim for and we'll see what we can do.

[danjmilos]

link590o,

The $100 is good I"m still looking. I want the best Zambelli pyros' for my money. The MSI card had one of the best resolutions of the cards I looked at. Your suggestion are still in my considerations. I'll be looking at all the parts I have listed before a decision is made. I'll keep you posted.

Dan

[link590o]

Ohhh. I see. My bad.

I guess I look at things in a much more black and white kind of way. I look at the very best there is for the money I'm looking to spend and I don't consider much else.

I'm assuming you're looking for less expensive options so that you can put some of the extra money into another part? If you want, you could list your total budget, and all of the parts you've added to your wishlist so far. We could help even further from there. For instance, if you feel that one part is lacking a little bit we could mix and match to get you something better and still maintain the quality of the design.

Let's say for instance you wanted a better processor than the one you selected. We could look around for other parts that are less expensive to provide you some extra spending room for a better processor. Don't think you're alone in your build! We can all provide you with input on areas that might or might not need improvement.

[Albert Lionheart]

Personally I don't like MSI kit as I think the component quality is consistently poor.
I have seen loads of MSI boards with "fat caps" - not as bad as some but bad enough to remember them!

[danjmilos]

Thanks for the info Al that will help me to an end.

Dan

[danjmilos]

Here it is:
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Enermax ECO 80+ 620W V2.3 80 PLUS SLI ATI Certified w/Magnetic Magma Fan Power Supply

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive


SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner LightScribe Support

CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5C

Kingston HyperX 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2LLK4/8G

SABRENT CRW-FLP2 All-in-one USB 2.0 Floppy Drive and 68in1 Internal Memory Card Reader & Writer - SDHC/VISTA

SAPPHIRE 100255U Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
Built in HDMI & PowerDVD / DVD Suite Bundled

This is a list of parts that have not left considerations:

GIGABYTE GV-N98TOC-512I GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT 620W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Antec EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7" Power Supply


Since I will be setting this up in the TV room so it needs to be as quiet as possible. Wheather the fanless vid card is the best way to go, don't have that answer yet. No DDR3 this time maybe next one. Still choosing mem size which is why 2 different ones are listed. I will be using 64 bit. Price comes in at under $650 not to bad I think less than my current Gateway a topline one three plus years ago. Improvements that keep it under 700 will be considered.

Dan

The 2 op-drives is what I'm use to for direct copying. When Blue-ray comes down I'll swap one out.