Help Picking A Motherboard

[Craniel]

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+
ASUS AM2 M3A Motherboard[/font]
2x DDR2 1GB Generic 667MHz RAM[/font]
320GB Western Digital KS 7200rpm 16M SATA HDD
ASUS 8600GT 512M PCIe Video Card

I'm buying a new computer and those are the specs, im pretty new to the PC world but i have a bit of an idea of what i need.
The Motherboard is the only thing i am unsure about. can anyone help me out.

i was also looking at a Gigabyte AM2+ GA-MA78GM-S2H Motherboard

[Corbs]

The Gigabyte GA-MA78GM seems like a safer bet to me. I love ASUS, although the ASUS M3A seems to have drivers issue, at least from the customers point of view. Plus, the Gigabyte offers a newer chipset.

Questions to ask when ever you're buying a motherboard, apart from the series (AMD vs Intel) :

• Are you interested in overclocking your PC?
• Do you want Wifi or dual LANs included?
• Do you want SLI or Crossfire?

So as you can see, it all depends on the features you want included with your motherboard. The more feature you're looking for, the more expensive it will cost.

[Craniel]

Hey thanks for the help, corbs.
i've decided im gonna spend a bit more money and get:
-Intel S775 Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz CPU
-ASUS S775 P5Q-Pro Core 2 Motherboard

[gobbly2100]

Awesome! You can never go wrong with a good Asus motherboard

[Corbs]

Originally Posted by Craniel

Hey thanks for the help, corbs.
i've decided im gonna spend a bit more money and get:
-Intel S775 Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz CPU
-ASUS S775 P5Q-Pro Core 2 Motherboard

That's a way better setup than your original one. It seems your video card is your only weakest point.

Two questions for you :

• Are you going to overclock it?
• Is that a gaming only PC?

[Craniel]

Well im pretty inexperienced with PC hardware and stuff so i dont think i will be overclocking it anytime soon.
im getting this PC so i can play good games but i will be doing school work and other stuff on it.
I am putting the 8600GT in because i already have one and it is $150 less that i will have to pay for my PC.
I will upgrade the video card a few weeks after i get the new Computer.

[Corbs]

Originally Posted by Craniel

Well im pretty inexperienced with PC hardware and stuff so i dont think i will be overclocking it anytime soon.
im getting this PC so i can play good games but i will be doing school work and other stuff on it.
I am putting the 8600GT in because i already have one and it is $150 less that i will have to pay for my PC.
I will upgrade the video card a few weeks after i get the new Computer.

Well, if you take into consideration that you won't be overclocking the processor and that the PC is multi-task oriented, I strongly suggest buying the Q6600. I mean, for 20$ more, you get a quad core at 2.4GHZ, compared to a dual core 3.0GHZ.

[Craniel]

Originally Posted by Corbs

Well, if you take into consideration that you won't be overclocking the processor and that the PC is multi-task oriented, I strongly suggest buying the Q6600. I mean, for 20$ more, you get a quad core at 2.4GHZ, compared to a dual core 3.0GHZ.

Will a 2.4GHZ be alright for Huxley or will a dual core 3.0GHZ CPU run it better?

[Corbs]

Considering Huxley is based off the Unreal 3 Engine, I would recommend buying a quad core since Unreal Tournament 3 benchmarks have showed it is CPU demanding.

Now, here's what I think :

• If you buy the dual core 3.0GHZ (E8400) and overclock it to... let's say 4.0GHZ, than I would say you're better off with the dual core.
• Although since you're not into overclocking, I believe the 2.4GHZ (which can also be overclocked) quad core is the safer bet.

Remember you'll probably have this computer for the next 2-5 upcoming years.