First post, and a question about AMD mobos

Hi all

First post but I've been lurking for a long while.

I'm about to cross over from a life-long loyalty to Intel into the happy-go-lucky pastures of AMD. I figure change can be good and all I do is game like a crazy mofo. AMD seems to be the way go for this.

I'm in the process of building my new system. I'm looking at:

-FX-60 X2 (and I don't care about the potential July release of the FX60 upgrade, be it 2.8ghz or not)
-2gb of PC3500 (Corsair XMS probably)
-2 x 500gb Western Dig. Caviar 7200rpm SATA/Raid0
-2 x GeForce 7800GTX 512mb GDDR3
-etc

For the mobo, I'm looking at the A8N32-SLI Deluxe. The mobo is the only "variable" right now. Everything else I'm pretty much decided on (but am open to suggestions that do not include "buy a cheaper cpu and overclock it"). But I'm new to AMD and don't want to make snap decision about the mobo, as they can make or break a rig.

Is this the best mobo to get? I am comfortable with the Asus brand (and also Abit and Gigabyte). I will not buy "off brand" hardware because of past experiences.

My goals are max FPS in games and smooth Windows UI for general purpose and for surfing.

Thoughts? Thanks!

BTW..nice place y'all have here.

Cheers,
-Smoky

Hey Smokey!

to the Forums!

Looks like a very good setup you have picked, should be able to handle about anything you throw at it.

Also, don't skimp on your Power Supply- if the CPU is the brain, the PSU is the heart and needs to be stable and strong. I'd recommend a high-end Fortron or Sparkle PSU, known for their quality and reliability.

I would save some money by overclocking a dual Core Opteron but if you have the money to spend, go for the FX.

In my opinion, ASUS makes the very best Intel boards and would only use ASUS when building an Intel setup. However for AMD, it seems to me that ASUS is a bit behind the others and would not use ASUS. For AMD, you'll find that ASUS is not as popular choice as many others. Most popular choice for AMD is DFI. I would get a DFI or MSI.

You also find that not many people find it useful to do SLI because there will always be a better performing card for cheaper than doing SLI (example one 6800GT performs better than 2X6600GT in SLI, etc.). But if you must do SLI, it's better now than upgrade later. I would save the money for the 2nd GTX and use it to buy a nice 30" LCD Monitor.