Need some Mobo/CPU advice.

[WintersFury]

Ok, so I'm going to be selling most of my current C2D rig to a friend and building a new mATX rig in it's place.

Now from what's I've read here, if I'm going to go C2D again (Which I'm not sure on), I should wait and get one of the new Gigabyte boards.

However I'm not sure if I'm going to go C2D as well I can save $ going AM2 and spend it on better graphics. That and I may be selling the stuff before the Gigabyte board comes out in the US.

So the Abit NF-M2 nView seems to be the board to get. However I now see a bunch of boards out with AMD chipsets in them. But I have yet to see any info on if the chipsets are good or not and all that stuff.

So to sum up the questions. All I really do is play games as far as things that tax the cpu go. So for someone who's just a gamer and won't be using SLI / Crossfire it shouldn't really make a difference what brand of cpu I'm using, right? My experience of going from 1.86 to 2.49 on my C2D didn't do much for my gaming, but I'm not sure about what would happen if I were using a DX10 card instead of my current card. And if I'm going to go AM2, what boards should I look at to get some good OCing potential and good overall performance?

Thanks for any help any of you are able to give

 

[W6FO]

Can't help ya with this one mate. I'm Intel for life! I'm sure some AMD wacko will come in soon though.

- JT

 

[WintersFury]

Can't help ya with this one mate. I'm Intel for life! I'm sure some AMD wacko will come in soon though.

- JT

Any suggestion for an alternate Skt775 board then? The only one I found is that Abit Fatality one. Reading about it here made me a lil iffy on it though as I don't like hardware dying on me and causing me to be without a computer while it gets fixed... And it seems that either people here have bad luck with em or something like that...

Though getting the C2D is tempting as it'd last me longer than an AM2 cpu due to having more raw cpu power... And I'm all about doing full system upgrades as little as possible!

 

[W6FO]

Just be patient and wait for the new GigaByte board to come out in two weeks. It's going to be worth it as it will put the nail in the coffin of all other mATX boards.

- JT

 

[WintersFury]

Just be patient and wait for the new GigaByte board to come out in two weeks. It's going to be worth it as it will put the nail in the coffin of all other mATX boards.

- JT

Dur... It didn't click that it was only two weeks till it came out... Well that solves the if I go C2D question. Thanks for reminding me there

Though I still am interested in AMD boards, as I've used AMD cpu's for years and still want to see what I could do with one.

 

[Skott]

Well, if you are interested in AMD mATX mobos the ABIT NF-M2 (currently considered the best for AMD) comes back into stock again about the same time as the new Gigabyte mobo hits the stores.

 

[WintersFury]

Well, if you are interested in AMD mATX mobos the ABIT NF-M2 (currently considered the best for AMD) comes back into stock again about the same time as the new Gigabyte mobo hits the stores.

Actually, there are places that have it currently in stock.

And I have to admit I like the pci setup better than the Gigabyte as I'd be able to use both slots with a video card that has a 2 slot cooler on it...

 

[Skott]

I didnt know the NF-M2 were in stock anywhere. Last week all the places I was checking was saying 1st week of June. Good to know its available again though.

As far as dual card or single card setup goes let your screen resolution decide that. If you are going to game on 1600x1200 resolution or less stick with a single card setup. Dual card setups get the most benefit from high resolutions like 1900 or more they say.

Intel or AMD? Thats been a big debate over the last few years that has swung from Intel's favor to AMD's and now back in Intel's favor again. Clock for clock AMD cant match Intel. When you factor in overclocking potential Intel spanks AMD even more. AMD's only saving grace right now is its cheap prices.

In the mATX arena AMD mobos are clearly superior because they can overclock better. That is until now. If, and the jury is still officially out on this, the G33M-DS2R is as good as early tests show then AMD mobos are gonna get trounced in this category too because Intel chips clearly overclock better. If the DS2R doesnt live up to its early hype get the NF-M2. BIOSTAR has the next best AMD mATX model I hear. I forget its model number.

Now wether you go Intel or AMD keep this in mind. If you are wanting to run a big beefy card like the 8800GTX supposedly to keep the CPU from being the bottleneck and run the 8800GTX sufficently its reported you need a chip with at least 2.6GHz clock pushing it. So wether you go Intel or AMD or run it at stock or overclock it make sure you got a chip running at least 2.6GHz.

Just my two coppers on the subject as things are currently.