what motherboard to get??

sup3rcarrx8 · Sep 4, 2003

I"m building a computer for my friend and not sure if i should get him a AMD or P4 chip. He'll be mostly gaming and surfing the net along with doing homework etc. If i get a AMD chip, what's a really good reliable motherboard that won't let him down and also the same with a P4. Thanks.

P.S. - Money is not a problem because he's giving me $2000 to build the computer.

TUK101 · Sep 4, 2003

With that much money I would definately go P4. As for which parts, I will leave that up to the pro's to help you out there.

sup3rcarrx8 · Sep 5, 2003

Ok so what kind of cpu chip and motherboard would go good together? I think i'll try to spend under at least $500 total for the cpu and motherboard together.

CrashOveride · Sep 5, 2003

I would go AMD because its cheaper for similar preformance unless you are getting the VERY top of hte line.

ABIT NF7-S is good but for non overclocking any of the NF7 ones should be fine. You could even get one with onboard video and just get a lil more memory than you normally would if he doesn't need anythinbg more than a GeForce4 MX (I think thats what on it), my MX plays everything I have tried smoothly at decent resolution and detail level.

sup3rcarrx8 · Sep 5, 2003

Sorry i forgot to add that he does not know anything or not even much about computers so i don't think he'll be going into the bios to overclock at all. I'm setting everything up for him. All he wants is mainly a high end computer and will be able to play HL 2 in teh future fairly well.

Supertrucker · Sep 5, 2003

if you overclock 2.4c (if not, maby a 2.8c or 3.0c)
your brand choice of a canterwood motherboard for dual channel ram(look for sata connectors)
2x512mb ram, go with at least pc3200, i would suggest pc3500 or higher.
2 37gb wd raptor 10k hdd's(or one, and a large hard drive for storage)
radeon 9800np(try for a flash to pro bios, there is some success with this)
audigy2 soundcard
antec 1080(i think) case w/430 watt true power psu
dvd burner look for dual format +/- R
any old nic card
19" flat panel moniter that supports 1280x1024 or higher at 85htz refresh rate

im pretty sure that would fall in under 2k

cherryp00t · Sep 6, 2003

nice system but you're kinda pushing the 2k limit =d

i would prob lose the 19 inch flat panel for a 19 inch CRT flat screen preferbly sony trinitron ;d

sup3rcarrx8 · Sep 6, 2003

He only needs the comptuer. No monitor or speakers or anything. No special sound card either because he uses some cheap ones that came with a old computer.

Ubik · Sep 6, 2003

Bah, screw cheap sound cards. Get him a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz - for a mere $60 or so, it's one of the best non-professional sound cards on the market.

The sound difference he'll hear after putting in the latest drivers will make him appreciate it.

sup3rcarrx8 · Sep 6, 2003

Ok i'll see. What are some boards that have some pretty good integrated sound though? I've heard rumors that they aren't that bad?

onx · Sep 9, 2003

remember if you get a good AMD mobo like an NF2 you really dont need an add in card because the onboard is at least audigy quality and some of em even have more connectors than an audigy lol

oh and if you want a good gaming LCD get the NEC multisync LCD 1760V it has a 16ms response time and i dont notice ghosting on mine (also no dead pixles that ive noticed

) this monter is aweome, better than my new viewsonic P95f+ (the LCD is $399 on newegg btw)

id save the money for the difference betweent eh P4 and athlon rig and spend it on a better vid card because if he wants to run HL2 thats whats gonna count most probably

and i dont reccomend getting a radeon 9800np and flashing it, go for it if its your own, but not for someone else's rig, bad idea imo unless they specifically tell you to do it and they dont care if they lost the card because of it (in writing)

For an AMD mobo i reccomend either the DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra (i have one) or the GA-7N400PRO2 (i built someone a system with that) they both have good onboard sound.

sup3rcarrx8 · Sep 9, 2003

I remember reading in Maximum PC that the DFI Lan party board didn't do quite well. I'd have to read it over again if i have time to see why it didn't perform as well as the others in teh comparison test.

EDIT: i was thinking of getting the DFI board mainly because it looked cool but the results were not that good according to Maximum PC.

onx · Sep 9, 2003

yeah thats because that was based on the KT400A they released that before the NF2 variant, the different chipset made all the difference...older crappier chipset heh. the newer DFI boards are great

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1840 thats an anandtech review of it that says its the fastest board theyve ever reviewed for AMD.

and theres a toms hardware review that shows it about in the middle of the other boards (the spread is like 1 fps or something lol)

there really isnt much difference preformance wise between different boards as long as they are based on the same chipset. the difference is all based on the features the mobo maker adds on including overclocking stuff and bios stuff

Edit: mo info

CrashOveride · Sep 9, 2003

sup3rcarrx8 said:
Ok i'll see. What are some boards that have some pretty good integrated sound though? I've heard rumors that they aren't that bad?

the last mobos I have had had great onboard sound 5.1 dolby surround even

onx · Sep 9, 2003

does it output encoded dolby digital? cause if so i was under the impression that that was useless because you still had to have a decoder for it to get to your speakers? or are you talking about NF2s?

CrashOveride · Sep 9, 2003

No, its 6 channels, so you could even use your own amps if you had enough, not encoded, yes the NF7-S. (I have also used this on an Epox 8k5a3+ and Soyo KT7 Dragon Plus, I think pretty much all mobos with onboard sound are like this now.)

sup3rcarrx8 · Sep 9, 2003

Two questions to the DFI fans, you guys ARE talking about those glowing ones right? I dont' want to talk about the wrong thing here you know. Also are your DFI boards pretty stable so far? How's it do with 3dmark and prime95 if you've done tests with them? Thanks.

onx · Sep 9, 2003

yeah im talkint about the glowing one, the DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra. Mine is stable with an OC (2400+ (stock 2ghz) at 2.46GHZ @ 2.0volts @ 47C under load) I havent tested it with prime yet but i ran it for a week or so before OCing without a problem (always folding or playing games) even went to a lan party with no motherboard problems. 3dmark2k1 i didnt run because i got dx9.1b and it says that i need dx8 so screw that, i ran 2k3 and got a score of like 1700 or something but thats cause my videocard sucks for 2k3 (its not a dx9 card so it cant even run all the tests, meaning that you dont get high scores like 20k and crap)

oh and DFI has an official tech support in the fourms Angry_Games which is always a nice thing

(I pmd him a couple of times before i bought my board and he responeded without fail

)

CrashOveride · Sep 9, 2003

onx said:
yeah im talkint about the glowing one, the DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra. Mine is stable with an OC (2400+ (stock 2ghz) at 2.46GHZ @ 2.0volts @ 47C under load) I havent tested it with prime yet but i ran it for a week or so before OCing without a problem (always folding or playing games) even went to a lan party with no motherboard problems. 3dmark2k1 i didnt run because i got dx9.1b and it says that i need dx8 so screw that, i ran 2k3 and got a score of like 1700 or something but thats cause my videocard sucks for 2k3 (its not a dx9 card so it cant even run all the tests, meaning that you dont get high scores like 20k and crap)

oh and DFI has an official tech support in the fourms Angry_Games which is always a nice thing (I pmd him a couple of times before i bought my board and he responeded without fail )

What is your FSB an what kinda of memory?

onx · Sep 10, 2003

im running corsair ddr value ram (i know suddap

) with timings of 5-2-2-2 and a fsb of 164. multi is at stock 15

the ram is running at 200mhz, cause i think at stp it was registering lower than 200mhz but whatever

i donno if its the best OCer out there but i love it, my favorite board ive gotten so far, even thou it doesnt have the holes in the mobo (i plan to wc later on) but they make decent blocks that just mount to the socket so its ok

another complaint about this board is that its supposed to reset the cmos or whatever when you try OCing it and it doesnt post but for some reason taht doesnt work on my board..oh well not that big of a deal

what motherboard to get??

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