Help an Intel newbie out

[Nate Finch]

I need a new motherboard for my HTPC. CPU is Intel LGA 775 P4 2.8 HT, (no idea what model number that might be). Looking for something reliable and don't care about overclockability. Must be able to accept a GeForce 6800GT PCI-X video card and have at lesat one gigabit ethernet port onboard. Don't care about onboard audio.

I'm not up on my intel boards (I'm generally an AMD guy, but I got a system from Dell for way cheap, and of course that means it's intel... now I want to use a PCI-X graphics card and it needs a new mobo... replacing the case and PSU too, so don't worry about compatibility there), so I'm kinda stuck.

Any help would be much appreciated. I don't have a strict budget, but it's just an HTPC, so I don't need some ridiculous monster, just something that won't crap out on me.

-Nate

 

[tiraides]

I need a new motherboard for my HTPC. CPU is Intel LGA 775 P4 2.8 HT, (no idea what model number that might be). Looking for something reliable and don't care about overclockability. Must be able to accept a GeForce 6800GT PCI-X video card and have at lesat one gigabit ethernet port onboard. Don't care about onboard audio.

Here is NewEgg's offering on mATX boards (based on your preferences), but you could also use the Advanced Search options on the Intel motherboards front page if you want to get a bit more specific.

Oh, and not to sound like a geek or anything ('cause I'm really not), it's PCI Express (often shortened to PCIe), not PCI-X. (Here's an article from arstechnica explaining the difference -- but it's a pretty long read.)

 

[Nate Finch]

Yeah, I meant PCIe... just was thinking "PCI Express" and my hands typed PCI-X. *shrug* I've even read that particular article before.

As for what newegg has... yeah, I can search, but honestly, I can't tell what the difference is, really. For example, what's the real difference between a 945G chipset and a 945P chipset?

I guess if it has all my requirements and is from a decent company, it's ok, I just try to make sure I know what I'm doing when I plunk down da cash.

-Nate

 

[tiraides]

Long story short, everything comes down to 1) what features you want on the motherboard (the chipset may play a role in this factor), 2) which motherboard has what you want (the specific chipset used can be secondary in this case), and 3) what compromises or sacrifices have to be made. Between the Intel chipsets, often the "P" indicates more and/or better features than the "G" (with the "X" indicating more/better features than even the "P" series). The 945, 955, and the upcoming 975 chipsets allow you to use dual-core processors (either the Pentium D or the Celeron D), which nowadays is a heavy factor in what you may want to get. (Here are info pages on the 945G, the 945P, the 955X, and the 975X chipsets, courtesy of Intel.)

The main motherboard players are ABIT, ASUS, Gigabyte, Intel, MSI, and SOYO. There are other lesser-known makers such as AOpen, ASRock, Biostar, ECS, EPoX, Foxconn, JetWay, and PC Chips. All that I can tell you is to look at the boards for the features that you want and then (try to) find multiple reviews online for the board(s) you are looking at.

 

[chrisf6969]

You can't go wrong with either, Abit or Asus. I've always used their boards, well except this last time b/c Albatron was the only one with s478 + PCIe.

 

[Nate Finch]

Yeah, I was making sure to have dual core support, just in case (luckily that's one of the things you can specify on newegg). I was probably going to go with the gigabyte GA-8I945P-G (945P chipset).

I'm kinda wondering now if I shouldn't just switch my HTPC over to AMD, though (if I'm buying a new motherboard anyway). A 4000+ San Diego is only $334... Problem is, I'll have to buy RAM, and then I'm pretty much just buying a whole new computer anyway. Sigh. Plus, I'll still have my old P4 sitting around (which isn't exactly ancient).. I suppose I could give it to a friend or something.

-Nate