I want to put together a new computer system that will be used
primarily for light to medium gaming and office type applications, and
surfing. What motherboard should I be looking at? I need stability
over speed. What processor? I am leaning towards AMD 64 family.
Thanks in advance.
Well the most desirable is the 939 socket newer chip line vs the older
754 socket which they are phasing out in a year or year and a half
supposedly.
That doenst mean the 754 is a bad system to get --- it depends on your
budget. The thing is the prices are fairly close now but there is
about a 70-100 buck difference so if that important than the 754 maybe
a better deal for you .
The 939 socket is around 145-158 retail now - it really fluctuates
though since many online firms vary the price substantially over a
short period nowadays based on supply and demand.
The motherboards --- theres VIA chipset boards out now which are new
which I dont know much about. Theres the nforce4 boards out which are
very popular and come in 3 types budget, ultra and SLI (you can use
two video cards for more performance) - get an ULTRA.
The downside to the new chip(sets) is that they use PCI express - you
cant use an old video card you have laying around which will add at
least another $80-100 for the cheapest PCI E card. If you want to use
an old AGP card - get a 939 board with AGP.
So you have a choice - cheapest 754 CPU+754 socket board.
Second --- 939 CPU + 939 socket with AGP and PCI express slots.
Third - newest 939 CPU + PCI express video and usually 2 PCI exp slots
and 3 regular PCI slots.
The cheapest I know of at the moment and the price once again
FLUCTUATES is the one I got - the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra . Now ALL these
boards are new so no one can guarantee no problems arent going to show
up later or some combo you have (some memory stick you already have or
might buy etc) will work with the boards out. Generally the rule is
the first boards out always seem to have problems at first - the
nforce 2 and 3 have articles and posts at many sites when they came
out lots of problems with various mem sticks etc. The old VIA chips
have bugs etc. And many end up looking for newer revisions cause many
times older boards cant handle some newer processor that comes out
later etc. The other board that looks really interesting is the MSI
Ultra version generally or 158 last time I looked. Once again you wont
know all the ins and outs of compatibility issues for a while but
overall I dont see huge problems yet. This board they stuck 4 pci
clots on it somehow and has built in firewire. The chaintech has the
usual 3 , lan and sound but no firewire.
If you want to stick with ASUS and ABIT they have been kind of slow to
mkt with the new PCI express but Ive seen ASUS VIA chipset PCI express
boards for fairly cheap. The best info youll get is to read the ASUS
board newsgroup and ABIT etc. And of course those two will have the
most info since they sell more boards generally than chaintech
probably and Giga etc.
All I can say is Ive seen some overclocking issues that were fixed
with some bios upgrades etc but I havent seen any major compatibility
issues so far - though that may change. All I can say is my board has
been trouble free so far. Im using WD, Maxtors HDs with sata to PATA
converters and cheaper Kingston value ram and Centon memory - two
sticks of 512 3200. That doesnt mean every stick will work of course
or even KVR since they might switch supplier for their Kingston or
Centon sticks who knows. As time goes on more problems might come out
as usual but so far everything seems OK.
The two I like are the Chaintech cause it is or WAS going for 99 at
newegg recently. If you want to get an idea of the fluctuations it
was 114-116 in dec/early jan when a few boards made it. Then it dried
up and shot up to 125-145 in late Jan /early feb. And recently has
been falling down to 99.
