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Help Decide Mobo and CPU

P

PTNL

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
4,214
I'm spec'ing a new rig, and am having trouble deciding on a proc and mobo... So I thought I'd open this decision to forum discussion.

Here's my scenario:
- Required: Dual or Quad core Intel proc (Quad preferred)
- Required: Asus or Intel mobo
- Micro ATX mobo is preferred (potentially for large HTPC case later on)
- Will not be overclocking
- Will be gaming with occasional video encoding
- Not interested in SLI/Crossfire multi-graphic card configs.
- Onboard optical/SPDIF output is a plus, but not required.
- Trying to keep maximum dollar amount around $300 (proc and mobo combined)

Please pass any suggestions/questions along. Product links to Newegg is preferred, though I've bought plenty from other sites.

Thanks!
 
Great suggestions thus far, keep 'em coming!


Edit:
@ Zero82z -- Would jumping from the Q8400 to the Q9400 be worth the extra $40? I'm trying to stay around $300, and I was thinking about the Q9400 you mentioned with the P5QL that Impulse linked to...
 
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For a few bucks more than the Asus P5Q VM, you could pick up the:

Asus P5Q EM for $124.99

This motherboard has HDMI out and optical out and is still based on the G45 chipset.

While this may or may not be relevant, I have an Asus P5E VM HDMI that has a coaxial (SPDIF) output and I am unable to get more than 2ch audio. I don't know if I am doing anything wrong but from the Google searches I made, it seems that the digital output will only be 2 channel. Just pointing this out so it won't be a surprise when you try to get more than 2 channels out of the digital audio port (if you didn't already know).
 
apcviewer said:
For a few bucks more than the Asus P5Q VM, you could pick up the:

Asus P5Q EM for $124.99

This motherboard has HDMI out and optical out and is still based on the G45 chipset.

While this may or may not be relevant, I have an Asus P5E VM HDMI that has a coaxial (SPDIF) output and I am unable to get more than 2ch audio. I don't know if I am doing anything wrong but from the Google searches I made, it seems that the digital output will only be 2 channel. Just pointing this out so it won't be a surprise when you try to get more than 2 channels out of the digital audio port (if you didn't already know).
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion and details. I've also had similar problems in the past with only getting 2-channel stereo coming out of the optical/SPDIF connections. Haven't messed around with that in a while, but I remember the solution involving codecs, AC3 plugins (or something similar), and tweaking some sound settings.
 
PTNL said:
@ Zero82z -- Would jumping from the Q8400 to the Q9400 be worth the extra $40? I'm trying to stay around $300, and I was thinking about the Q9400 you mentioned with the P5QL that Impulse linked to...
Click to expand...
Eh, not really, unless you'll be running applications that benefit from the extra 1MB of cache per core. That is literally the only difference between the two.
 
Zero82z said:
Eh, not really, unless you'll be running applications that benefit from the extra 1MB of cache per core. That is literally the only difference between the two.
Click to expand...
This helps a lot with my decision. I'll go with the Q8400 proc.

I haven't quite decided on the mobo yet, but that will happen soon. If anyone's got another good Intel/Asus mobo to suggest, then please do so!
 
If you're not gonna OC, there's probably not gonna be a major difference between any of the mATX boards mentioned in this thread. Two are G45 based (P5Q-EM & P5Q-VM) and the one I linked is G43-based. The difference between the two G45 boards is basically $6 and the fact that the costlier one has Firewire and uses ICH10R (RAID) instead of ICH10 for the southbridge.

The G43 board (P5QL-CM) has less memory slots (only two) but the same number of SATA ports and the same on-board video (which I think you might not even be using no?), it also uses a Via on-board sound chip rather than Realtek (pick your poison imo). Oh and the costlier of the two G45 boards (P5Q-EM) is the only one with optical SPDIF out, it also has an e-SATA port FWIW but you can always get e-SATA with a simple bracket.

Knowing all this the choice should be pretty darn simple... These are Intel's newer mATX chipsets for C2Q, not sure what else you're looking for if you want an Intel/ASUS board. Newegg pretty much carries ASUS' entire line. There's two other boards on Newegg besides those three, the G41-based P5QPL-VM uses the much older ICH7 southbridge but oddly enough does have optical out (Realtek audio) and costs the same as the previously mentioned G43 board, two DIMM slots as well, 2 less SATA ports than the rest (4 total).

Then the last one's the G43-based P5QPL-EM which costs $100 (vs $80 for the aforementioned G41/G43 boards or $120-ish for the G45 boards) and doesn't have optical audio but it does have four DIMM slots, firewire, and two e-SATA ports I think. Realtek audio on that one. Same on-board video, ICH10 and 6 SATA ports as all the rest (w/the exception of the last one I mentioned). Honestly, just look at Newegg's spec page and decide what you need based on that and price.

For optical out I'd just go with the costlier G45 board rather than the one w/the old ICH7 southbridge... Otherwise if you decide to use a discrete sound card (probably a good idea for an HTPC) then the one I linked is probably good enough provided you're fine w/two DIMM slots.
 
Bleh, I could've broken that a lil' more elegantly than by blabbing on but yea, just PM me if I hopelessly confused ya, or take a look at ASUS site... They have a pretty nice comparison tool for their mobos that lays out all the specs very clearly.
 
Great summary, Impulse. And yes, it was still very understandable :) This helps a ton in my mobo decision. FYI, I will be using an independent graphics card (looking at a ATI 4850 for now).

Off-hand, I noticed that some of the mATX Asus mobo's do not have a floppy connection. The only caveat I can think of is in case Windows XP's installer CD would not recognize the SATA controllers during the installation (and consequently require a floppy with the right driver). I'll eventually get Windows 7 (going to skip Vista), but I wanted to see if you, or anyone else, knew anything on this topic regarding the Asus mATX mobo's.
 
You can install XP on SATA drives by placing the appropriate SATA driver onto the CD ISO using a program such as nLite. You don't need a floppy drive.
 
PTNL said:
Great summary, Impulse. And yes, it was still very understandable :) This helps a ton in my mobo decision. FYI, I will be using an independent graphics card (looking at a ATI 4850 for now).

Off-hand, I noticed that some of the mATX Asus mobo's do not have a floppy connection. The only caveat I can think of is in case Windows XP's installer CD would not recognize the SATA controllers during the installation (and consequently require a floppy with the right driver). I'll eventually get Windows 7 (going to skip Vista), but I wanted to see if you, or anyone else, knew anything on this topic regarding the Asus mATX mobo's.
Click to expand...

I will point out from the start that I do not know much about SATA vs IDE so there might be wrong information in my post.

From what I have read, there are no real benefits to setting your SATA controller to ACHI mode over IDE when using Windows XP. I have read some reason why not to use ACHI mode in Windows XP but don't want to spread too much wrong information if it is wrong (plus, I don't have a source and it is based on memory). When keeping my SATA controller on IDE mode, I was able to install Windows XP without a problem (SATA HDD and DVD-rom). Installing Windows7 in ACHI mode works fine.

Or you can follow DragonQ's suggestion if you still want to run in ACHI (or RAID) mode.
 
If you gotta get something now, get a DDR3 motherboard, since DDR2 is now being phased out. DDR3 is already cheap and it's the future. There will be cheap 4GB DDR3 sticks very soon.

Or you could wait until September for cheaper P55 motherboards and Core i5's.
 
Bo_Fox said:
If you gotta get something now, get a DDR3 motherboard, since DDR2 is now being phased out. DDR3 is already cheap and it's the future. There will be cheap 4GB DDR3 sticks very soon.

Or you could wait until September for cheaper P55 motherboards and Core i5's.
Click to expand...
What mobo/cpu combo fits both the original criteria and your suggestions?
 
PTNL said:
This helps a lot with my decision. I'll go with the Q8400 proc.

I haven't quite decided on the mobo yet, but that will happen soon. If anyone's got another good Intel/Asus mobo to suggest, then please do so!
Click to expand...

Good choice; just got mine installed, for $169; overclocked to 3.4 without ANY voltage increases beyond default VID, etc.....nice and cool and fast, and cheap.
 
With regards to WinXP and the lack of a floppy connector... You can slipstream your SATA drivers very very easily into a Windows install disc (with nLite or vLite for Vista), there's a great PDF guide to do it floating somewhere on the forums that's pretty much fool proof (if ya can't find it PM me and I can e-mail it to ya)... Or you can use IDE mode instead of ACHI as one poster mentioned above.

One downside to using IDE mode might be that the e-SATA connectors may not support hot-swapping drives w/o restarting the OS... There might be other quirks like that, but you won't run into any performance drawbacks by going with IDE or AHCI.

I wouldn't worry about getting a P45 mATX DDR3 board right now (if there's even such a thing, would have to take a look at ASUS' site) unless you're tremendously worried about going from 4GB to 8GB or something like that in the future. I think 4GB will be fine for a while regardless, 'specially if you're just using it as an HTPC in the long run.

DDR3 has gotten much cheaper, but you won't really gain any performance by going with a costlier DDR3 P45 board, at all. The only reason to worry about DDR3 is if you intend to build a Core i7 system (or Core i7 once it's out), because they only use DDR3, imo. Desktop P45 boards that use DDR3 haven't sold very well for a reason, there's no need/incentive for such a thing. However it's worth noting that in a few months there'll be P55 boards out there for roughly $100-120 and the cheapest i5 model is supposedly gonna debut at $200-ish...

As always, new tech is always around the corner.
 
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PTNL said:
What mobo/cpu combo fits both the original criteria and your suggestions?
Click to expand...

Here's a motherboard that supports both DDR2 and DDR3, and it's Micro ATX (small form factor as you preferred): ASRock G43Twins
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157137

But if you want to be able to use 16GB of memory in the future, which might be helpful with all of those 64-bit applications for Windows 7, here's a full-size ATX motherboard that is DDR3 only, for $99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128371
It's not Asus, but if you must have Asus, here's one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131344
It's $145 but you get a $15 mail-in rebate.

As for the CPU, just find any you see in the list: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=343&Description=&Type=&N=2010340343&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=507%3A22265&PropertyCodeValue=507%3A22264&PropertyCodeValue=507%3A27216 and in a pull-down "search within" menu, click on "lowest price" so that the list would be re-sorted into a cheapest-first order.
 
Thanks to everyone that chimed in on this thread! I pulled the trigger with Newegg over the weekend on a Q8400 ($175) and an Intel mobo ($100). All of the suggestions and recommendations were greatly appreciated and also pointed out some additional considerations that I had not thought of. Thanks again!!
 
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