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help purchasing a mobo for someone

S

supremeone

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
141
I'm trying to build a computer for my nephew. I have spare 400watts psu, 256mb of pc-3200 ram. And another stick but idk if both will work. And have a 9800 radeon pro, or 9600 pro i could use for a video card. Also have a spare monitor (lcd), and mouse, keyboard, and internet adapter. But i tried some old mobos i had lying around, and unfortunately both my old a7n8x deluxes started up once or twice and than just messed up for various reasons.

Not even sure if the processors are good, so need to get a mobo + cpu, and if it includes ram that'd be nice as well. I'm currently looking on ebay for some good deals. Was wondering if anyone had any advice or recommendations. Like which motherboards to look for, or some reference guide to all the different types of amd and intel motherboard, since don't know which ones are newer or older etc.
 
Your best option for such old hardware would be to buy used. Although to be honest, I'd just recommend that you get some DDR2 and go with an inexpensive combination of a CPU and a motherboard with integrated graphics. An AMD 780G or 785G-based motherboard would probably have comparable or better graphics performance compared to a 9800Pro if he's interested in playing games, and a modern CPU would be considerably faster than anything from the AGP days. You could put something together for $150-200, or even less depending on how you go about it.
 
he mostly plays unreal tournament. And i don't want to spend more than $80 because i mean already got a decent enough video card to handle the graphics, just need a pc close to 2ghz or more i guess. But he was saying he wants a computer as fast as this other pc we have in the house, that's an amd athlon 64 3400+ (2.4ghz). Not sure if that would happen.

But is the ram i got, pc-3200 compatible with most mobos? That's one of the main things i'm concerned about, not sure if i'd have to buy new ram if i get a new motherboard
 
supremeone said:
he mostly plays unreal tournament.
Click to expand...
Which one? UT99 or UT2004 would be easily handled by the 9800Pro or by the 780G integrated graphics, but UT3 would probably need more power to run decently.
supremeone said:
And i don't want to spend more than $80 because i mean already got a decent enough video card to handle the graphics, just need a pc close to 2ghz or more i guess.
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Fair enough, that's understandable.
supremeone said:
But he was saying he wants a computer as fast as this other pc we have in the house, that's an amd athlon 64 3400+ (2.4ghz). Not sure if that would happen.
Click to expand...
It's possible. Hardware like that is fairly outdated by today's standards so you should be able to find a decent board and CPU combo for fairly cheap. If you're looking at Intel, you should check out Socket 478 boards based on the 865PE and 875P chipsets, preferably made by ASUS. Other ASUS boards will do in a pinch, but if you find one I suggest you run it by here first. CPU-wise, you're looking at an older P4, probably in the 2.4GHz to 3GHz range.

On the AMD front, the most comparable hardware would be a Socket 754 board paired with an Athlon 64 CPU (make sure it's S754, as there are several other Athlon 64 sockets including S940, S939, and AM2). A 3000+ or better would do fine.
supremeone said:
But is the ram i got, pc-3200 compatible with most mobos? That's one of the main things i'm concerned about, not sure if i'd have to buy new ram
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PC3200 RAM should work in any DDR1 motherboard. It will lower its speed if used with a CPU running at a lower bus speed or if the motherboard can't run at those frequencies.
 
well i was browsing a lot and added a lot of items to my watched list. You can view it here if you want: http://www.speedyshare.com/170156397.html There was this one amd 3200+ deal that ended (with no bids though), that i missed out on, was ending too fast and i didn't checkout the other deals too much. Could someone look at that list and tell me which ones to consider or to not consider? Meanwhile i'm going to try to follow zero82z's advice on the processor/chipset types, as i check into each item on list more thoroughly. Thanks
 
Try to at least get a motherboard that will support a dual core: 865gv-3 by MSI
 
to be honest, personally I would feel much more comfortable getting parts/a combo from here in the for sale section, shady stuff does happen, but I would bet not as often on fleabay, 99% of the traders here are decent people who will treat you right and may even give you a break on some prices (especially for combos on the older stuff), if possible I would check that out first, it may be a bit more expensive, but coming from here you can almost be assured that whatever you get is in good shape and may even have been babied beyond belief, also, if you post a WTB thread people will be able to post what they have for you that may not already be in the for sale section...

I saw this for $90, scroll down to the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe AMD 64 socket 939 board + AMD 64 3500 90nm San Diego core CPU, 1GB 2x512mb DDR 3200 Combo, all you would need is a PCI-E video card, you could buy a cheap 9600GSO from the forums also (I've seen them for ~$45) and he would be set for more than just the games mentioned (unless I'm mistaken), what's a few extra dollars when the hug you'll get from him will be priceless...?
 
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ahhh, That'd be like $50 overboard. I already bought him a gaming system a few months back, and i just can't be spending all that money as i'll need it for some other things. But maybe i can work something out for that, idk. What makes it safe to buy on these forums though? I know ebay has buyer protection (and can check feedback), but no such thing on here i don't think, so kinda makes me uneasy about buying things on here, even tho i'm sure there's a higher percentage of trustworthy people.
 
supremeone said:
ahhh, That'd be like $50 overboard. I already bought him a gaming system a few months back, and i just can't be spending all that money as i'll need it for some other things. But maybe i can work something out for that, idk. What makes it safe to buy on these forums though? I know ebay has buyer protection (and can check feedback), but no such thing on here i don't think, so kinda makes me uneasy about buying things on here, even tho i'm sure there's a higher percentage of trustworthy people.
Click to expand...

^^^ this bolded part, also, your nephew would probably JIHP if you get it, even a cheaper PCI-E card from the forums to reduce the cost would probably perform better, IIRC, I've seem 7900series cards for ~$25-$30, and that was just the first thing that caught my eye when I searched, there may be even cheaper options......
 
is there any criteria that i should go by when deciding if person is trustworthy tho? Would have to check other posts they made or something? :eek: i'll start checking that forum now, tho
 
supremeone said:
is there any criteria that i should go by when deciding if person is trustworthy tho? Would have to check other posts they made or something? :eek: i'll start checking that forum now, tho
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ask them for their heat (they'll give you a "name", mine is the same as my board name here, but others' names may not be the same), then go to heatware.com, search their name in the directory and check their trading references (positive, neutral and negative), most notably the ones listed from others as "bought items" since you would be the buyer, heat is not the end all be all, but is a very good indicator, most people really value their heat rating...
 
gwarren007 said:
Buy a socket A when the 754 is within his budget?
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just remembering this thread when I see cheap combos dude, I don't have any AMD builds so I have no idea what the difference between the two are, so maybe I should just let more knowledgable AMD guys like you help him...? I'm just trying to steer him to the for sales threads here though since I consider them much safer than ebay...
 
gwarren007 said:
Its cool, Just trying to get the best deal for him within his budget :D
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yeah, I was just trying to help, but I don't know jack about AMD, I probably should've stayed out of this thread after I put my .02 in about buying the stuff here...

;)
 
thank you gwarren and wol-va-rine. Was kinda busy with a pet tragedy (dog had a heatstroke), so haven't looked that much since yesterday morning. I'll check up on some of these ideas and i have posted a WTB thread on the forum as well.

Btw first link i got when i googled for sempron 2600+ was this link: http://reviews.cnet.com/processors/amd-sempron-2600-1/4505-3086_7-31453470.html

And only review said it sucked lol. Just thought that was funny, but hey my real old computer was a amd 2500+ and i used that for years

Also i'm having a hard time finding motherboard deals in the buying/selling forum, as it's cluttered with a lot of other hardware sales. Guess i'll just try searching for "mobo" and see how that goes.

Update: i contacted sellers in those threads wol-var-ine. Although i think the mobo one is gone ;\ We'll see. I'd be happy if i could get that processor though, as don't really see that processor being sold on ebay, atleast not in conjuction with a mobo and for under $80. Hmm going to see what i can find on that tho
 
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i found this on ebay for $30.
http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-Athlon-64-X2-Dual-Core-3800-2-0GHz-ADA3800IAA5CU_W0QQitemZ260462575176QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ca4c77e48&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

This is $10 more than the deal on here. So it's more expensive, but the guy selling it is a power seller with a ton of good feedback. Still curious on ways to tell if the person ur dealing with is shady, given that they have sold a lot of items with good feedback. And how heatrating gives more credibility. Some ebay users have like 5,000 feedbacks, and i'm guessing a lot of heatratings aren't that high. Don't mean any disrespect to the sellers here, just like to get good deals and now it seems like getting those off of ebay is more in doubt.

Regardless thinking of buying from the guy here, gotta checkout his heat thing first.
 
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hmmm interesting. Might not have to worry about having an outdated agp card or needing to get a pci-e compatible video card, except in the future since that mobo has onboard video. Does anyone know where i can find more information about different motherboards and series, and what companies are best? Someone at the beginning of this thread said asus, but someone pm'd me about my WTB thread and had a biostar board and now this other biostar board is suggested. Just mean when i see a board like this: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P ATX AMD Motherboard, i can't make sense of what the "ga-ma770t-ud3p" part means.


Well guess i could just go to newegg and look at different types for the different sockets and maybe some mid range motherboard comparisons or something. Btw tho, if going with amd, should i be looking for a socket 939 or a socket 775, got confused on that part.
 
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supremeone said:
hmmm interesting. Might not have to worry about having an outdated agp card or needing to get a pci-e compatible video card, except in the future since that mobo has onboard video. Does anyone know where i can find more information about different motherboards and series, and what companies are best? Someone at the beginning of this thread said asus, but someone pm'd me about my WTB thread and had a biostar board and now this other biostar board is suggested. Just mean when i see a board like this: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P ATX AMD Motherboard, i can't make sense of what the "ga-ma770t-ud3p" part means.


Well guess i could just go to newegg and look at different types for the different sockets and maybe some mid range motherboard comparisons or something. Btw tho, if going with amd, should i be looking for a socket 939 or a socket 775, got confused on that part.
Click to expand...

neither, you look for socket AM2 motherboards, and don't get too excited over the onboard video, it absolutely sucks for gaming...
 
Okay could you help me make sense of these posts below than. This guy said the onboard graphics should be sufficient and mentioned about getting a socket 754 for amd, so kinda confused..

Maybe u meant onboard video not good enough for playing other games, and for that i was thinking of a future pci-e card addition. Not really planning on buying a pci-e card, want to get either an agp board or a onboard graphics board. But if i get an agp board than that means can never upgrade it, but by the time nephew wants to play more graphics intense games, he'd probably have his own brand new mobo anyways. Hmmmm. Think onboard graphics is the way to go, because i get a design that allows future processor upgrades + pci-e card addition, with the same video card type benefits i'd get with an agp card, atleast when it comes to oldish games like unreal tournament.


Zero82z said:
Your best option for such old hardware would be to buy used. Although to be honest, I'd just recommend that you get some DDR2 and go with an inexpensive combination of a CPU and a motherboard with integrated graphics. An AMD 780G or 785G-based motherboard would probably have comparable or better graphics performance compared to a 9800Pro if he's interested in playing games, and a modern CPU would be considerably faster than anything from the AGP days. You could put something together for $150-200, or even less depending on how you go about it.
Click to expand...




Zero82z said:
Which one? UT99 or UT2004 would be easily handled by the 9800Pro or by the 780G integrated graphics, but UT3 would probably need more power to run decently.

Fair enough, that's understandable.

It's possible. Hardware like that is fairly outdated by today's standards so you should be able to find a decent board and CPU combo for fairly cheap. If you're looking at Intel, you should check out Socket 478 boards based on the 865PE and 875P chipsets, preferably made by ASUS. Other ASUS boards will do in a pinch, but if you find one I suggest you run it by here first. CPU-wise, you're looking at an older P4, probably in the 2.4GHz to 3GHz range.

On the AMD front, the most comparable hardware would be a Socket 754 board paired with an Athlon 64 CPU (make sure it's S754, as there are several other Athlon 64 sockets including S940, S939, and AM2). A 3000+ or better would do fine.
Click to expand...
 
Zero82z said:
I said that the onboard graphics of the AMD 780G chipset specifically would be sufficient. Most other onboard solutions would not be.
Click to expand...

the problem is that the 780G would take him out of his price range, the cheapest AM2 board on Newegg with it cost $90 ($70 after MIR), his total budget is $90 max...
 
wol-va-rine said:
the problem is that the 780G would take him out of his price range, the cheapest AM2 board on Newegg with it cost $90 ($70 after MIR), his total budget is $90 max...
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Well, if you had actually read the posts that were being referred to, you'd see that my suggestion of a 780G board was made before the OP posted a budget.
 
gwarren007 said:
Motherboard for That Cpu:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=MCP6P-M2PLUS&cat=MBB

ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146571
Click to expand...

motherboard is out of stock unfortunately, thanks for the ram link though

Btw i don't get it, i used to be able to play unreal tournament on this old compaq presario that ran at 600mhz with 4mb of onboard video memory. And i'd run it at 50-60fps, at 640x480 resolution. That was like 7 years ago, is it really that far fetched for most onboard graphics to support something like 60-80fps at 1024x768 resolution, as the current max resolution for the monitor i have is 1024x768 (don't have the best spare monitor unfortunately, as space is a concern so sticking with lcd).

Okay so what i want to do now is, narrow down the best deals on ebay, and continue searching on for sale forum for mobos and than want to checkout how cheap pci-e cards are (although i'm leaning more towards sticking with agp, although with a fairly modern processor). And also checkout newegg for good motherboards for the pentium 4 and amd 3400 and above line. And see if i can match any of those to what i've found on ebay/traders place. Also want to see how bad or good these integrated video chipsets are.
 
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hi, gwarren, the 2nd link is dead but i guess i could search for others, but kinda a little hesitant about ordering 3 parts separately, at the most would only want to order 2 separately, but idk kinda sucks because if someone goes wrong with 1 of the parts i might not be able to figure out which one is bad. But ya ordering 2 separate or the combo works.

Also wol-va-rine, i pm'd that guy but no response yet and i pm'd him after he said he got a ton of responses and that he would go in order to be fair, so probably a dead end there. Thanks tho. Btw here's all the good products i found for under $80. Going to try to find more amd deals as i think amd has the cheapest dual cores. Here's the list, in order from worst to best:

Intel P4 506 & MSI PM8M2-V motherboard combo
Intel D845GRG Skt 478 Motherboard + P4 2.66Ghz CPU Comb
ASUS P4SD-VX Motherboard w/ 2.8Ghz CPU Socket 478
INTEL D865GLC MOTHERBOARD P4 2.8GHZ 512MB
Intel Motherboard P4 HT 2.8Ghz D925XCV Rev.01 w/Plate
INTEL D865GLC 478 P4 MOTHERBOARD CEL 3.0GHz CPU COMBO
New Motherboard & 3.0 P4 Combo Video card Memory Plus
AOpen i915Ga-PLF Motherboard & P4 3.0ghz LGA775 CPU
ASUS MOTHERBOARD P5P800 SOCKET 775 P4 3.0GHZ CPU
INTEL D945GTP MOTHERBOARD W/P4 3.0GHz 512MB SOCKET 775


ASUS K8V SE Delux motherboard+Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2Gh Cpu
New AMD 3600+ CPU + Biostar M7VIG 400 Motherboard Combo
Socket 939 Motherboard with Athlon 64 CPU & Memory
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.0GHz ADA3800IAA5CU

also found 2 amd 2.3ghz dual cores with mobos, but we're $100, kinda outta my price range
 
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ya very good point. Think i'm almost set here, since i can get a good deal on an amd 3800, which means i can use a newer motherboard, and one that has integrated graphics so no worries yet about buying a pci-e card. Although i still could somewhere down the road. As well as upgrade the cpu if needed for some reason, although that would be atleast 1-2 years away. Thinking about buying a motherboard on newegg tho, even tho the real cheap ones use the nvidia geforce 6100 chipsets which aren't that great compared to the 8200 or others but should be sufficient for 800x600 res or something in unreal tournament. Prefer that over buying a mobo on ebay even if one on ebay is a bit better. I wonder though, if overheating would be a problem. But if i didn't want to get a pci-e card and decided to go with a agp board, i'd probably be stuck with a mobo that isn't upgradable to much higher than what it is. And probably wouldn't be a dual core processor i'd have, so ya i think this is best. Can get a dual core + integrated graphics for now and upgrade to video card later if needed. I think i saw one deal on ebay where it came with a radeon x300 card. But i think i could upgrade to much better than that in the future.

Have one question though, is it bad to get a microatx board. I hear a lot about if you put in a big video card in there, it might cover a pci slot. I mean if i ever wanted to upgrade to a better card, would this be a problem? Trying to figure out how upgrading might look like down the road.
 
supremeone said:
ya very good point. Think i'm almost set here, since i can get a good deal on an amd 3800, which means i can use a newer motherboard, and one that has integrated graphics so no worries yet about buying a pci-e card. Although i still could somewhere down the road. As well as upgrade the cpu if needed for some reason, although that would be atleast 1-2 years away. Thinking about buying a motherboard on newegg tho, even tho the real cheap ones use the nvidia geforce 6100 chipsets which aren't that great compared to the 8200 or others but should be sufficient for 800x600 res or something in unreal tournament. Prefer that over buying a mobo on ebay even if one on ebay is a bit better. I wonder though, if overheating would be a problem. But if i didn't want to get a pci-e card and decided to go with a agp board, i'd probably be stuck with a mobo that isn't upgradable to much higher than what it is. And probably wouldn't be a dual core processor i'd have, so ya i think this is best. Can get a dual core + integrated graphics for now and upgrade to video card later if needed. I think i saw one deal on ebay where it came with a radeon x300 card. But i think i could upgrade to much better than that in the future.

Have one question though, is it bad to get a microatx board. I hear a lot about if you put in a big video card in there, it might cover a pci slot. I mean if i ever wanted to upgrade to a better card, would this be a problem? Trying to figure out how upgrading might look like down the road.
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yep, a cheap 9600GSO will play every game you've mentioned here pretty much maxed out IIRC, they are usually around $45-$55 in the for sale section, also, I only need one PCI slot (X-Fi Platinum sound card), though some may need more...
 
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Hopefully i can get the sempron 3800, just waiting for pm. Otherwise i'll buy from guy off ebay although have to also buy a heatsink ;\.

But i have a question, would you feel comfortable buying used ram to save like $6-$7 off the retail price? Or would you buy it new. Same thing with the mobo. I kinda see memory and the mobo as important parts you want to count on, mainly the mobo. I guess if someone has good feedback/heatrating you should expect the product is in good condition.

Well ram isn't the big concern, my big concern is about the mobo. I've seen this deal on new egg for a foxconn mobo with amd 740g chipset (link). And that chipset from what i've seen on reviews, does okay on a few modern games. But what if i can get the ec amd2 mobo from that guy sizzlemeister. Haven't seen his heatware rating yet, although mobo seems decent from a review i've seen, except something about it not working at right speeds with ddr2-800 ;[. Mostly just has a fan on the chipset, and uses nforce4, nothing else spectacular with the exception of i'd probably save like $20 or something. What do you guys think?

Edit: also sizzlemeister said: "Greetings! This is my first for sale thread here, but I have had plenty of sales elsewhere, mainly music sites and Ebay. If you want to check references, my user name on Ebay is "toorglick" - you'll see I have 100% feedback. Paypal is fine, USA shipments only, please."

But i can't find that seller name on ebay ;O
 
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supremeone said:
Hopefully i can get the sempron 3800, just waiting for pm. Otherwise i'll buy from guy off ebay although have to also buy a heatsink ;\.

But i have a question, would you feel comfortable buying used ram to save like $6-$7 off the retail price? Or would you buy it new. Same thing with the mobo. I kinda see memory and the mobo as important parts you want to count on, mainly the mobo. I guess if someone has good feedback/heatrating you should expect the product is in good condition.

Well ram isn't the big concern, my big concern is about the mobo. I've seen this deal on new egg for a foxconn mobo with amd 740g chipset (link). And that chipset from what i've seen on reviews, does okay on a few modern games. But what if i can get the ec amd2 mobo from that guy sizzlemeister. Haven't seen his heatware rating yet, although mobo seems decent from a review i've seen, except something about it not working at right speeds with ddr2-800 ;[. Mostly just has a fan on the chipset, and uses nforce4, nothing else spectacular with the exception of i'd probably save like $20 or something. What do you guys think?

Edit: also sizzlemeister said: "Greetings! This is my first for sale thread here, but I have had plenty of sales elsewhere, mainly music sites and Ebay. If you want to check references, my user name on Ebay is "toorglick" - you'll see I have 100% feedback. Paypal is fine, USA shipments only, please."

But i can't find that seller name on ebay ;O
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did you type it in correctly...? toorglick
 
oh i screwed up there (smacks head). Didn't notice where it showed it found his name at the top left. Just saw it say 0 items found.

k working out details with him, and waiting for another response from t_ski.

Thanks to all who took the time to find some deals, i appreciate it.
 
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have a quick question though. Should i get the AM2 ECS board, even though i read that ram voltage doesn't go higher than 1.8v and i heard it's hard to get ram running at faster than 667 speeds. Or should i get the foxconn, probably would be $30 more tho. And how would the nforce4 chipset measure up to the 740g for gaming?
 
supremeone said:
he mostly plays unreal tournament. And i don't want to spend more than $80 because i mean already got a decent enough video card to handle the graphics, just need a pc close to 2ghz or more i guess. But he was saying he wants a computer as fast as this other pc we have in the house, that's an amd athlon 64 3400+ (2.4ghz). Not sure if that would happen.
Click to expand...

Give him the system that you have now (athlon 64 3400+ @2.4ghz) and build you a new system. Sounds like a plan right there.
 
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