Board Recommendations

[jorwex]

Hey all,

I've been reading around different websites and forums lately as I've been in the market for a new computer build. I can't seem to find too many recent posts/articles about non-gamer/enthusiast type computers. The 'Attention System Builders' sticky was useful but i;d like some more direction.

So, to sum up my needs/usage (chipset is a major way to narrow the search, right?):

1) No need for SLI. I had an all-in-wonder Radeon 9800 pro till 6 months ago when i got a geforce 6600 on craigslist so I could piddle around with Ubuntu with fewer headaches. No gaming on here really, so nothing special needed.
2) Linux friendly, so no ATI. Recently with computers boards I've come to realize that that alone might dictate which chipset to look for (although if I don't need SLI/Crossfire, I'm not sure that it matters actually).
3) I've been eyeing the E8400/E8500 and don't think I need a quad core yet. I like those because of the potential for decent overclocks, but I don't think I'll do it immediately. Prolly in the next few years of its life so I could squeeze a bit of life out of it later, but still a consideration. The kinda overclocks I'm thinking about won't require tweaking the vcore or anything that might shorten the lifespan realistically.

On the whole, I've got an Athlon xp 2500+ right now and I'm jealous of others with eyecandy in ubuntu; I dual boot and run quite a few engineering-like apps in windows like labview, matlab, xilinx fpga stuff, etc.. so a quad core wouldn't hurt but I don't think I can justify the price yet (plus I think labview's the only one that might be able to thread things to each core properly). I'd like to not wait as much as i do now when running something in matlab, etc.

So I'd appreciate any thoughts. I just want a jumping off point--if you could even just recommend a chipset, that'd be fine.

I am a fan of semi-quietness and can take care of the case decisions, etc. I'm kinda out of the game (last pc was from 2003), so I don't have a strict budget. Most importantly, no special graphics (low/mid range) and def. no SLI. But I guess I have to pic a number, so lets say 300-400 for the board and graphics card? I dont know if that's reasonable. Features on teh board are icing but not super important. Shooting for late summer build. I'm in the USA and like newegg usually. I have a 320 gig sata 2 disk I'll use, i might get a sata dvd burner instead of the one i got, just for cabling cleanly, and haven't decided on ddr2 or 3 yet (ddr2 seems like the right choice regardless of the 1333 fsb on these intel chips, right?).

Thanks all,
Jordan

let me know if i left out any info needed!

EDIT: I also have a Seasonic S12-430 S12 Series 430W PSU that I'd like to keep using unless i really have to replace it. It's quiet, and has Active PFC and is actually what it's rated at (wattage wise) asfaik. let me know if you think thats a concern.

 

[DSF]

If you're not planning to build for a month, there's no point in pricing things out right now. You may also want to keep in mind that Intel has a new line of processors, Nehalem, scheduled to come out in a few months time. While they draw more power than Core2 chips, they're supposedly up to 50% faster per clock cycle.

If you build with current chips and don't wait for Nehalem, your instinct to go with DDR2 is a good one. The price of DDR3 just isn't low enough to recommend it yet. You haven't mentioned that you need bells and whistles like RAID or Firewire support, so I'm going to assume you don't and suggest the GA-EP35-DS3L. It's inexpensive, has decent overclocking options for someone who just wants to dabble, and should be nice and stable for you.

For your video card you really don't need to spend more than $75, and I'd recommend something like a passively cooled 3450, 3650 or 8600GT to keep the noise down. Speaking of noise, you'll probably find that the Antec P182 is the de-facto recommendation around here for a quiet case.

As far as your PSU, it would have plenty of power, but how long have you been using it?

 

[jorwex]

I had actually been eyeing the p182. The powersupply has been in use since around february of 2006. I actually wanted to amend my graphics card usage notes. I realized that I forgot to mention using Sketchup. I feel like that is 10 or even 100x less intensive than any current game out there, but i thought it was worth mentioning.

Thanks. any more advice?

 

[DSF]

Even if sketchup has some moderate graphics requirements, something like the 8600GT I mentioned should be able to handle it for around $60. Your power supply should be fine by the way.

 

[jgigz]

Originally posted by: DSF
If you're not planning to build for a month, there's no point in pricing things out right now. You may also want to keep in mind that Intel has a new line of processors, Nehalem, scheduled to come out in a few months time. While they draw more power than Core2 chips, they're supposedly up to 50% faster per clock cycle.

If you build with current chips and don't wait for Nehalem, your instinct to go with DDR2 is a good one. The price of DDR3 just isn't low enough to recommend it yet. You haven't mentioned that you need bells and whistles like RAID or Firewire support, so I'm going to assume you don't and suggest the GA-EP35-DS3L. It's inexpensive, has decent overclocking options for someone who just wants to dabble, and should be nice and stable for you.

For your video card you really don't need to spend more than $75, and I'd recommend something like a passively cooled 3450, 3650 or 8600GT to keep the noise down. Speaking of noise, you'll probably find that the Antec P182 is the de-facto recommendation around here for a quiet case.

As far as your PSU, it would have plenty of power, but how long have you been using it?

I agree with DSF that ddr3 is still too expensive to recommend. Though in the OP he mentioned that he can't justify the price of a quad now, and from what I've been reading in CPUs and OC'ing it doesn't seem like neha is going to be very affordable when it first launches, so it doesn't look like its going to be in his budget.

jorwex - If i'm not mistaken didn't ATI make their drivers open source for linux? I was under the impression that they had better driver support...

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: jgigz
I agree with DSF that ddr3 is still too expensive to recommend. Though in the OP he mentioned that he can't justify the price of a quad now, and from what I've been reading in CPUs and OC'ing it doesn't seem like neha is going to be very affordable when it first launches, so it doesn't look like its going to be in his budget.

Regardless whether he goes for Nehalem or not, DDR2 is the savvy choice.

 

[jgigz]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: jgigz
I agree with DSF that ddr3 is still too expensive to recommend. Though in the OP he mentioned that he can't justify the price of a quad now, and from what I've been reading in CPUs and OC'ing it doesn't seem like neha is going to be very affordable when it first launches, so it doesn't look like its going to be in his budget.

Regardless whether he goes for Nehalem or not, DDR2 is the savvy choice.

Wasn't disagreeing with you on that, just merely pointing out that it seems that his budget won't be able to support it at all.