Help with choosing a motherboard for a budget build?

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BoWzA

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
148
Hi guys
I have my old desktop lying around in my room and thought that i'd use the case, HDDS and optical drives for a new AMD dual core project. Kinda hoping to keep costs down rather low.

I'm thinking an AMD X2 4000 Brisbane which will set me back around 90-100$ NZ. Just not sure about which board to choose. I'm a casual gamer and not looking for a hardcore system just something I can play BF2 on high and newish games around medium.

So far I've got the following on the table, all of which I've seen you guys say are good already and are all supportive of Phenom if I wish to upgrade in the future:
Asus M2N-E SLI ( $125.90 exc.GST)
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 ($143.03 exc.GST)
Gigabyte GA-M61P-S3 ($127.87 exc.GST)
Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H ($124.14 exc.GST)

I'm thinking if I got one with onboard video I could get a graphics card sorted out later on because at this stage I'm not sure between an ATi 2600pro and a Nvidia 8600gt. Any advice on that too? I thought maybe if I got the 570 SLI then I have some headroom for upgradeability in the future but I'm not sure I'd use SLI.

Any help would be great! Thanks guys :)
 
BoWzA said:
I'm thinking if I got one with onboard video I could get a graphics card sorted out later on because at this stage I'm not sure between an ATi 2600pro and a Nvidia 8600gt. Any advice on that too? I thought maybe if I got the 570 SLI then I have some headroom for upgradeability in the future but I'm not sure I'd use SLI.

Any help would be great! Thanks guys :)
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Not sure about the motherboards, but unless you're desperately strapped for cash, I wouldn't get anything below a Radeon 3850 at this point. It costs up to $60 more than the 8600 GT (NewEgg prices at leastl $100 for 8600 GT, $160 for 3850), but performs soooo much better and will last you a lot longer.

If you're thinking about SLI, then the 8800 GT would work even better, but would be much more expensive. 8600 GT SLI works, and there's a nice forum post from Deww it Right about how to do it, but a single 8800 GT 512MB would be much better and easy to work with, and dual-8800 GT rocks. Given your budget though, I believe that the 3850 would be the best compromise (then you can get a 790FX motherboard and have even more upgradability; up to 4 of them. :D )
 
farfromhome said:
Not sure about the motherboards, but unless you're desperately strapped for cash, I wouldn't get anything below a Radeon 3850 at this point. It costs up to $60 more than the 8600 GT (NewEgg prices at leastl $100 for 8600 GT, $160 for 3850), but performs soooo much better and will last you a lot longer.

If you're thinking about SLI, then the 8800 GT would work even better, but would be much more expensive. 8600 GT SLI works, and there's a nice forum post from Deww it Right about how to do it, but a single 8800 GT 512MB would be much better and easy to work with, and dual-8800 GT rocks. Given your budget though, I believe that the 3850 would be the best compromise (then you can get a 790FX motherboard and have even more upgradability; up to 4 of them. :D )
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Far out I don't know if things are more expensive over here or what but an entry level 3850 (Sapphire Radeon HD3850 256MB) is 310$NZ lol. I'm a uni student here!! :p. 4 would be sweet lol but atm I'm gaming on my Dell Inspiron laptop and this ATi X1150 graphics is just annoying me so anything above that is an upgrade lol. Forgot to mention I won't be using a large screen for this build. Thanks
 
BoWzA said:
Far out I don't know if things are more expensive over here or what but an entry level 3850 (Sapphire Radeon HD3850 256MB) is 310$NZ lol. I'm a uni student here!! :p. 4 would be sweet lol but atm I'm gaming on my Dell Inspiron laptop and this ATi X1150 graphics is just annoying me so anything above that is an upgrade lol. Forgot to mention I won't be using a large screen for this build. Thanks
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Hmm...compared to 138$NZ for the 8600 GT; I see the problem. :) Sorry for not checking the NZ price comparison site first!
 
BoWzA said:
Far out I don't know if things are more expensive over here or what but an entry level 3850 (Sapphire Radeon HD3850 256MB) is 310$NZ lol. I'm a uni student here!! :p. 4 would be sweet lol but atm I'm gaming on my Dell Inspiron laptop and this ATi X1150 graphics is just annoying me so anything above that is an upgrade lol. Forgot to mention I won't be using a large screen for this build. Thanks
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Gidday another Kiwi here. I know how expensive the 3800's are mate it sucks. I personally have ordered a 2900 PRO. Now it only cost me 280NZD. A lot cheaper than the GTS or any other rubbish card. That said you'd need a nice PSU to handle it.

If that is still tooo much get a intergrated GFX from say the Gigabyte. And save a few coins more for the 2900 or 3850. Both are cheap and will do you proud.
Failing that the 8800GT 256 is also 350ish.

Remember that integrated will get you by on the older games. And even some CS/Dawn of war times.
 
I think I like that idea it's kinda what I was thinking in the first place. I have money now but I'm flatting for the first time this year so I think I'd rather get a graphics card in midyear break or something. So in saying that, NVidia integrated or ATi integrated? lol AH I hate decisions
 
Hey, thanks hossdaddy. I'm gonna take a trip to the local pc shops today and see if they have anything cheap cos I think I saw an 8600GT and an M2N-E SLI in one window the other night. Plus they all have the cpu I'm after lol.
 
SLI isnt necessarily a helpful thing.

Yes, you can add another video card for increased performance, But you often times will need to upgrade your powersupply as well adding to the cost of the upgrade(2nd video card$200 + new psu $100)

When you add in the cost of the first video card you bought you will have spent in the neighborhood of $400 which is what a nice 3870 512mb or 8800 gt 512mb would run you, and if you ask around you will see that one of those cards would smoke an 8600 gt setup.

Sli generally only helps people who are gaming @ 1650 x 1050 or higher resolutions.

Food for thought.

:D
 
Are you going to be overclocking? That makes a big difference. Some of the really cheap micro atx boards have great onboard video and sound while still being really cheap, but they clock like CRAP. Asus M2A-VM for example.
If you are overclocking and thinking of phenom there are the new and mostly untested 790X boards (like FX but with only 2 vid lots instead of 4, and all around cheaper). And there are the older chipsets which will run it but at a lower HT (Probably not noticeable).
 
Oh right. I was only considering the SLI boards because there wasn't much difference in price between them and a micro atx board and I thought it'd be good for future proofing but now not so sure. So you still think I should get a micro one then? I couldn't decide between the asus and the gigabyte one lol
 
Whatever you decide to buy, google it first and read the reviews. If you plan on overclocking that chip you want to make sure it can hit 300ht. Only other thing that matters is if it can supply the right voltage for the ram you pick.
I'll use any motherboard if it can hit 300ht and 2.2vdimm. I dont give a rip if its got raid, gigabit ethernet, wifi, all that other junk id never or rarely use. Read the manufactuers forum though to see if it has any constant problems (how I found out the M2A VM was crap, after I ordered it :( )

If you dont plan on overclocking then just find the cheapest boards you can, pick which one has the features you need, and google it to find out if its good quality / stable.

Unless you plan on one day buying two of the same video card so you can score higher in benchmarks or run a ginormous monitor, dont factor in SLI as a plus.
 
Ok excuse my ignorance but I've never heard the term ht before lol what's ht guys? Thanks for all this advice btw it's really helping. I think I'm sorted for a board nwo though. Gigabyte GA-M52S-S3P. It's got everything I need I think. Any comments? suggestions?
 
BoWzA said:
Ok excuse my ignorance but I've never heard the term ht before lol what's ht guys? Thanks for all this advice btw it's really helping. I think I'm sorted for a board nwo though. Gigabyte GA-M52S-S3P. It's got everything I need I think. Any comments? suggestions?
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HT is the AMD equivilent of FSB. Stock HT is 200. HT is also the only thing you can change to overclock on a non Black edition CPU. So say you have a 2ghz chip. That means the multi is 10 so 200x10 = 2000. If your chip was able, and you wanted to overclock to 3ghz you would have to raise the HT to 300x10 to get 3000. If the board cant hit 300 you are just out of luck. Your multiplier has a lot to do with whether that is a problem or not though. If your chip had for instance a 13 multiplier (stock speed of 2.6ghz) you would only need 230x13 to get 2990. Would need 333 for a 9 x multi etc..... you get the idea by now.
If you aren't overclocking though. None of that matters.

HT, HTT all refer to the hyper transport system. Im not sure what the proper usage of each term is for each circumstance. They call it by different things depending on whether they are talking about pre-multiplier or not. I just go by context :/ Really big numbers they mean post multi. Small numbers they mean pre multi (the multi is what it gets mulitplied by before becoming the Hyper transport link. Think quad pumped FSB etc.. where the multipler got multiplied by 4. Except in AMDs its first by 5, then by 2. The first number is modifiable in bios alot of times. Motherboard makers like to mix us up even more though by somethings calling it NB, LDT, or whatever floats their boat when they are writing the bios.
 
Oh right, thanks for that that makes sense :). Hey this is kinda out of the motherboards section now but which is the better core brisbane or windsor? I know brisbane is 65nm so runs cooler and has the extra 0.1ghz but is that worth the compromise of 2 x 1mb cache?
 
nope that larger cache will allow the cpu to process more info in the same time if im not mistaken.
 
so it's better to have more L2 cache than the extra .1ghz and cooler cpu?
 
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