Durable C2D Quad Mobo

M

Mnx4

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 29, 2005
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My mom's computer is dying and my dad wants me to build her a new one. I'm looking for a very stable motherboard that would last 5+ years. The only set specs I was given was my dad wanted it to be a quad core processor, I'm guessing to "future proof" it. I'm thinking a q6600 will do fine. I'll probably be getting 2GB DDR2 ram, a cheap pcie graphics card, 1 SATA hard drive and 1 DVD/CD burner drive.
Onboard audio and lan would be great. No huge frills. This will not be overclocked. Not looking for cheap, but nothing extravagant. What do you guys recommend as a long term, stable mobo?
 
I'm pretty happy with my Asus P5E-VM HDMI board. It's been really stable, has onboard audio, gigabit, 6x sata, hdmi, and has run solid at 425MHz fsb (Q6600 @ 3.4GHz) for months now without problems. Since ram is so cheap, spend the extra $30-40 and get 4 gigs of ram, it makes a difference in vista. I think this board is around $130, not too expensive but definately a solid mobo, imo.
 
To get 5 years out of it trouble free I would want a board with all solid caps and since you mention a quad I would want heatsinks on the mosfets around the cpu area. Good case airfow would be a +, 120mm fans front and back for the case.

Wonder what "mom" does that needs a quads horsepower tho... Even gamers have trouble maxing out a quads capacity.

Like the 4GB memory idea, DDR2 will likely never be cheaper.

First question I would ask myself is "Why is the older computer dying ? "

Heat ?

Dont forget a decent power supply, cant go wrong with a Corsair, 5 year warranty .
 
Thanks for the replies so far.

Yeah, i've tried getting my dad to go with a dual core processor, but he won't budge on the subject. I guess he's future proofing it for whatever windows operating system comes after vista.

The old computer isn't exactly dying, but it's just getting too slow. It's an old gateway p4, 1.3ghz, rdram, and we've upgraded as far as it can go without overhauling the mobo and processor.

5+ years was a conservative estimate. She's had that computer before I went to college, so it's more like 8 years old.


As for phenom, I'll draft another build up and propose that to my dad. I hadn't really considered it as I wasn't familiar with AMD's recent chips.
 
A Phenom system should be fine if all your mom is using it for is internet and some word processing.
 
ASUS P5Q board for $130 @ newegg: Solid Caps, heatsinks on NB/SB and surrounding mosfets, PCIE 2.0, as well as an 8pin +12v powerplug.

Simple and looks built to last.
 
Thanks. That mobo does look solid. I was going to go with the one I currently have (Gigabyte P35-dS3L) because I had noticed it also had solid caps, and decent board chip cooling.
 
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