How do you pick a motherboard?

I know that is a wide range question to ask and I know many will say it depends on what you want to do with it. But I don't know a whole lot about motherboards and chipsets...so that is kinda hard for me input on exactly.

My previous experience has been with AMD processors and up until now I've never owned an Intel processor. Back before my AMD system was stolen I had made my mind up that the next rig I built would be an Intel system.

Now exactly what I want...I don't have a clue. I know that helps a lot huh, but it's all I've got to go on right now. I do have some ideas of what I think I want but nothing is set in concrete right now. So I'll try to give as much info as possible and I ask the "guru's" here to try to help me decide what is best for me.

Previous experience was that when overclocking you have a lot of extra heat that you need to get rid of one way or another. So this time around I'm thinking between either the Antec 1200 or Cooler Master case that is the Nvidia Edition. I think I want either a E8400 or Q6600 processor but again I don't know a lot about them and maybe I've even got the numbers screwed up? This will be a machine that I plan to overclock. I plan to use it for the regular computer stuff, internet...email...some small business stuff and gaming too. I plan to view photos but not any big editing or anything like that...and right now I have no thoughts of video. I guess if you have a good set-up for gaming then it'll handle videos? By my choice of cases you can tell I plan full sized ATX and I want something I can put some cooling devices in as well...heat won't be my problem this go'round if I can help it.

My previous motherboard was Abit...they are all I've ever had. I was told that Abit catered to AMD more than Intel but was also told that they were leaning toward Intel now? Don't really know. Don't know about these Northbridge and Southbridge chips either...like whether you should get Intel or Nvidia? If it's worth anything I did like the Abit Fatal1ty board...it was cool looking...not that neat or cool looking does anything for performance but I like trinket crap and mess like that, I'm a fan freak.

Sorry to be so long and boring but I really don't have a clue what to look for in buying a new motherboard. Any suggestions?

From what I can tell you aren't going to want a high end dual gpu motherboard, so I would point you straight to a P45 chipset. As for the brand ASUS seems to be the latest pick with gigabyte not too far behind. As for which model I can't really tell you until you give more information (most importantly a budget).

As for the processor it depends on how often you will upgrade. If its fairly short term I would go for the Q6600, otherwise the dual core will give you better all round performance at the moment.

If you are a fan freak definately get the antec twelve hundred, its a great case. Briliant airflow, heaps of space. Only downside is that you can't turn off the led's. I would recomend either the thermalright IFX-14 or Ultra 120 extreme for air cooling.

Well I'm not a guru but I think you should get the E8400, an Asus P5Q Pro or P5Q-E, or a Gigabyte P45 board. The E8400 will do all that you need and more without generating the extra heat you'd have w/ a quad.

edit: I have an E8400 as well. It's a crappy overclocker and I still get 3.75GHz for my everyday overclock, vcore is just higher than most people's at that clock (1.376 load). So even if you get a "bad" one like me you're laughing.

me personally? i chose motherboards on how it looks =p it's nonsense, but that's how i do it. and performance/quality/features of course, but say a Gigabyte and Asus board both with similar features, i'd pick the Asus because of the better colours and cooler heatsink

and my last gigabyte board fried lol.

Like stated above, I pick a motherboard primarily on looks. It usually correlates to their performance.
My process relies heavily on the Newegg "drill-down" method.

First I set my price range, which is never above $250.
Then I look for sata connector placement, heat sink design, color scheme, rear I/O.
Then comes chip set and ram speed.
Finally, it comes down to reviews (which are usually biased anyway).

@ samsonJS: What cooling are you running on that E8400? As far as I can tell you can get around 3.8GHz on the E7200 comfortably on air, and most people are able to get around 4GHz for daily use on an E8400.

If looks is what you want then head straight for the DFI boards, they are the best looking boards on the market imo.

Well a budget isn't an issue right now cause I'm planning to buy it Johnny Cash style...one piece at a time. And I don't have a game plan right now so right this minute I don't have a plan to buy anything...just hunting for suggestions.

I want to water cool my next setup, I want to...doesn't mean I will. Cause I've been reading in the water cooling section and it seems like a lot of work, and sometimes you get a lot of extra noise. I'll have to keep thinking about it though and see what I end up deciding.

My other boards I picked by looks and my last pick was pure luck...the Abit NFS-7 v2.0 which turned out to be a popular choice and a good board. Of course I went through about 4 other part numbers and they were POS before my picking style pulled a winner. I don't want to go through that again and make the mistakes as I did before. Like I buy something and then try to do this or that with it and somebody say "oh you should have bought this chipset or that board". I know that is hard to make a suggestion on when I don't know what I want to do with it...or what I expect. Please work with me.

I do know I want something that is a good (easy) overclocker. I've not given thought to dual processors...what are the pros and cons of that?

Personally i would advise against "one piece at a time". Generally because by the time you get all your parts together, your system wont be the best you can get anymore.

If your looking for a good and easy overclock, i wouldnt spend a lot of cash. Maybe the Abiit IP35 and a E7200 or even a cheaper E4xxx cpu, depending on what Ghz you intend to reach. The Abit supports new fsb 1333mhz CPUs, by bagging yourself an older cheaper 1066mhz (E7200) or a 800 mhz (E4xxx) will give you some headroom.

Well I understand and I agree on the thing about buying it one piece at a time. However, I don't tend to upgrade and keep up with the crowd like some guys do. I plan to build something that'll last for awhile hopefully and something that easy to overclock, I'd like to get atleast 3.5ghz. Now 4ghz would be nice but how possible is that on air cooling and how much work is involved to go with water?

I want a motherboard that has the widest range of options and has a wide range of things it's compatible with. I'd just as soon have onboard audio (I think) and I'm gonna opt out for a good video card, I said good not top of the line. I want a lot of ram also...and I'd prefer the whole system to be fairly quick and efficient. Am I asking for too much or what?

Generally e8400s will do 4ghz on air. e8500 and e8600 will almost certainly do 4ghz without blinking. As I said, I just got unlucky and can "only" gain 25%. The e8x00 is an excellent choice.

someone1029 said:

@ samsonJS: What cooling are you running on that E8400? As far as I can tell you can get around 3.8GHz on the E7200 comfortably on air, and most people are able to get around 4GHz for daily use on an E8400.

Click to expand...

Noctua NH-U12P. I can push 4ghz but I need 1.48v load! At that point prime95 gets temps quite high (80-85) but I'm not going to give her 1.48v 24/7 so it doesn't matter.

well for you i would set you up with a E7200 and depending on how many HD's or future plans for raid, would say a Asus P5Q-E or P5Q-Pro. i would push things to much since you wont stay up with the crowd sorta speak. Meaning i would keep the clock speed max 3.6ghz to keep temps down as much as possible. as i would say push it higher if you planed to upgrade more often.

As a avid Abit user, im sad to say abit is slipping more and more. i think the IP35-Pro may be my last board with them. i how ever am a waiting it out for neha to show up in oct.

samsonJS said:

Generally e8400s will do 4ghz on air. e8500 and e8600 will almost certainly do 4ghz without blinking. As I said, I just got unlucky and can "only" gain 25%. The e8x00 is an excellent choice.

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Seconded. I also have what I consider to be a sub-par E8400. I got it back in late January / early February when they first hit retail. It has a rather high VID of 1.15v, and I tinkered with it for six months with a water cooling setup and it just didn't respond well. Core 1 runs a constant 4-8 degrees hotter than core 0, probably because of some issue with the IHS (lapping had no effect).

That said, it will do 3.8GHz on air with 1.263v and I have it running stable 24/7 @ 4.0GHz with just 1.312v.

So even if you get a "bad" one, any E8xxx chip should deliver great performance.

There was also a record setting mobo highest fsb yet... currently on the egg @150.

Well I've always been an Abit fan since my first Abit board. My brother is who got me started with building a computer instead of buying one. And after owning a custom built computer the store bought mess is just junk to me but I know there are some nice prebuilt systems out there. He started with an Asus board and he had nothing but trouble from them, so he doesn't care for them at all. I guess that kinda rolled over to me too cause I'm kinda scared of them myself but only by what he's told me.

So I guess Asus is the leading board to have if you want to overclock? I take it that you say any E series Intel processor is a good choice? If Asus wasn't a choice then what other board would come in second to it and why?

I'd like to go SATA all the way and I don't know a lot about RAID...I think RAID lets you split your info between two drives, is that right? Also is overclocking achieved the same way it was on the Abit NFS-7 or have things changed much since my last OC rig?

doublejack said:

Seconded. I also have what I consider to be a sub-par E8400. I got it back in late January / early February when they first hit retail. It has a rather high VID of 1.15v, and I tinkered with it for six months with a water cooling setup and it just didn't respond well. Core 1 runs a constant 4-8 degrees hotter than core 0, probably because of some issue with the IHS (lapping had no effect).

That said, it will do 3.8GHz on air with 1.263v and I have it running stable 24/7 @ 4.0GHz with just 1.312v.

So even if you get a "bad" one, any E8xxx chip should deliver great performance.

Click to expand...

what? bad E8400?!?!?! only needing 1.312 for 4ghz is better then you think... just cause it didnt do it with 1.2-1.28 v doesn make it a bad cpu. you still hit 4ghz under 1.4v.

MrTurd Ferguson said:

Well I've always been an Abit fan since my first Abit board. My brother is who got me started with building a computer instead of buying one. And after owning a custom built computer the store bought mess is just junk to me but I know there are some nice prebuilt systems out there. He started with an Asus board and he had nothing but trouble from them, so he doesn't care for them at all. I guess that kinda rolled over to me too cause I'm kinda scared of them myself but only by what he's told me.

So I guess Asus is the leading board to have if you want to overclock? I take it that you say any E series Intel processor is a good choice? If Asus wasn't a choice then what other board would come in second to it and why?

I'd like to go SATA all the way and I don't know a lot about RAID...I think RAID lets you split your info between two drives, is that right? Also is overclocking achieved the same way it was on the Abit NFS-7 or have things changed much since my last OC rig?

Click to expand...

well you can either mirror the driver for backup reasons. then you could use strip-mode which increases HD thru-put and access times. then there is mirroring with striping for both...

Well you just went over my head...ha-ha. I think I'll look that up and see how confused I can be by about midnight...ha-ha.

Is there a certain motherboard and/or processor that responds or works better with water cooling than others? How big a heatsink are we talking about that you need for 4ghz air cooling?

MrTurd Ferguson said:

Well you just went over my head...ha-ha. I think I'll look that up and see how confused I can be by about midnight...ha-ha.

Is there a certain motherboard and/or processor that responds or works better with water cooling than others? How big a heatsink are we talking about that you need for 4ghz air cooling?

Click to expand...

well a cpu that may respond better under water would be a quad core. for motherboards it really doesnt matter. as for the size of a hs well, i like the ninja while big it means i can use low speed fans on it. im still able to get the max cooling from this HS vs say the U120E which needs to have high speed fans used on it for best cooling. everything with air coolers is a trade off, watercooling is a bit the same way. while water will transfer heat faster then a air hs, if you want low noise. then it becomes what cpu and target oc, to then choose the rad you should get vs buying what is the best out there period.

i did at one point wanted to get back to water cooling my rig. only not doing it cause of the cost, as i needed a new rad,wb. which i didnt want to spend the 100+ for both. making for me the air setup i have just fine so i dont oc as high as i might have on water. for my gaming needs the extra MHZ wouldnt matter.

Alright, I've got some stuff listed here as a starting point and I would like some suggestions as to whether these are or aren't good choices. If you list other suggestions could you please link it so I can see what we're talking about because a lot of this stuff I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

Processor :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
Which is : Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core $169.99

RAM :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145197
Which is : CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit 149.99

Motherboard :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138126
Which is : BIOSTAR TForce TP43 HP LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX $99.99

Thoughts for a video card since that board doesn't support onboard video and I don't really want that anyway...thought about doing 2 of these :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138126
Which is : PNY VCG88512GXEB-FLB GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported $119.99ea

You'll need a motherboard that supports SLI if you want to go that route.

What size display do you game on? I recommend a 8800GT or a HD 4850. If you'll be gaming above 1920x1200 check out the 4870.

Ok, I think that motherboard doesn't support RAID and I'm assuming you're telling me it won't run two video cards at one time. Why the two PCI-E 2.0 slots then? I don't know personally and that is why I'm asking...I assumed two 2.0 slots meant it would run two video cards at one time on the same display. I haven't exactly decided on a monitor yet...

How about any of these choices for a motherboard? If none of these fit the built then can someone please recommend one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127050
ABIT IP35 Pro XE LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188026
EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136047
DFI LANPARTY DK X48-T2RS LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136051
DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2RB LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138118
BIOSTAR TPower I45 LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Tpower- P45 OC Record (E8400, FSB675MHz, CPU to 6.0GHz)