Complete Noob Question

[imported_Velocity]

Evening All
I am so sorry for this dumbass question, and yes I am for real...Just swapping over from being a long term Apple user and decided to put together a PC system but really dont know much about anything..My Question is

I have read about the motherboards and know at least the difference between AMD and Intel...But what about all the chipsets...I was keen on the new Gigabyte P965 boards and want to run a Geforce 7950gx2 - Is that ok ? I read somewhere Nforce is better for Nvidia, but the Gigabyte is Intel so is that bad and whats Via got to do with all this anyways ?

Basically I am looking at asking someone who has the patience and time to spell out the motherboard basics for me or point me in the right direction because I am intensely PC dumb - I apologise in advance to all those who are rolling their eyes going "My Lord"....

Here is my dream system being put together slowly
Gigabyte 965p-DS4....noticed MSI and Asus also put out some nice boards but not much is known about them from what I can tell
Core2 Duo or depending on price Pentium D 3.8ghz - cooled with a Zalman CNPS-7700
Geforce 7950GX2
PQI 6400-667mhz turbo RAM
WD Raptor 74GB
WD 320GB 16 MB Cache
LG Lightscribe & Pioneer DVD/RW burners
Benq F202 - 20" Widescreen monitor
Silverstone ST60F PSU
Its all in a Thermaltake Armor VA8000 case so plenty of room and air around it

Cheers

PS
Everyone raves about switching to Apple......I find the difference between the two like driving an automatic car and a manual...The auto (Apple) sure is smoother and less taxing around town....but the manual (PC) is ultimately more satisfying to drive and gets better mileage.

 

[alizee]

The chipset is what inferfaces between the CPU and the RAM. Nvidia, Intel and Via all make chipsets for Intel CPUs. Via tends to make budget chips for lower-end motherbpards. Since it looks like you'll be spending a lot on this system, you probably don't want to get anything with a Via chip.

Nvidia nForce chips are higher-end, and if you wanted to do SLI then you would need to get an nForce board, but since it doesn't look like you'll be doing SLI, you don't need to get it, but you may still want an nforce based board because they perform very well. Some say Nvidia graphics cards work better on nvidia boards, but I haven't seen too many benchmarks to back that up.

Intel makes some high-end, some mid-range and some low-end chips. The one that you're looking at, the 965P is midrange, although, because it's newer, it may be more fully featured then the high-end, the 975.

The Gigabyte looks to be a good board and potentially a good overclocker, although I haven't seen any definitive reviews.

PS - I would pretty well agree with you about Macs, I love mine and it's my main computer, but I love messing with hardware on my PC. Also, my PC doesn't do anything but play games.

 

[acegazda]

Originally posted by: Velocity
Here is my dream system being put together slowly
Gigabyte 965p-DS4....noticed MSI and Asus also put out some nice boards but not much is known about them from what I can tell
False... more is known about asus than all of the others put together (less intel) I'm not aware of their 965p offerings though.

Silverstone ST60F PSU
this psu is a rebadged enhance 0560g. Get the enhance and save $$$.

Its all in a Thermaltake Armor VA8000 case so plenty of room and air around it
Thermaltake in general is a subpar company, the armor is OK, but you'd be better off with a full tower lian li if you've got the cash.

PS
Everyone raves about switching to Apple......I find the difference between the two like driving an automatic car and a manual...The auto (Apple) sure is smoother and less taxing around town....but the manual (PC) is ultimately more satisfying to drive and gets better mileage.
I think you've seen the "tu che" apple commercial too many times. Apples are a fashion statement, not a performance statement... IMO, just so I don't start any flame wars.

My comments are in bold, yours are in italics.
As for chipsets... Nvidia chipsets run SLi, ATI chipsets run crossfire, intel chipsets will run SLi (I'm not sure if they already do) with the c2d offerings. Don't know anything about VIA, but there's another one called Uli which is on the asrock dual sata. That has AGP and pci-e x16. The 975x and 965p intel chipsets are currently the only ones equipped to support conroe. Happy building and welcome to the forums!

 

[alizee]

Originally posted by: acegazda

My comments are in bold, yours are in italics.
As for chipsets... Nvidia chipsets run SLi, ATI chipsets run crossfire, intel chipsets will run SLi (I'm not sure if they already do) with the c2d offerings. Don't know anything about VIA, but there's another one called Uli which is on the asrock dual sata. That has AGP and pci-e x16. The 975x and 965p intel chipsets are currently the only ones equipped to support conroe. Happy building and welcome to the forums!

Intel chipsets do not support SLI, although the 975x does support Crossfire (though the 965 doesn't). And, there is only one known 975x board that officially supports Conroe, the Asus P5WD2-E Premium. The nvidia SLI 590 also supports Conroe.

 

[alizee]

double post, sorry. is there a delete function?

 

[imported_Velocity]

Thanks Alizee...doing a bit more research on the motherboards...I noted that the gigabyte as stated doesnt do SLI...which makes me wonder why there are two PCI-e slots on the board...explain that
Anyways, so the Asus 975x only does ATI Crossfire, and the Gigabyte doesn't do Nvidia SLI...I take it then my options are reallllllly limited to get a board that also supports Conroe & SLI - ah heck !

 

[orion23]

The asus board listed above does not support Conroe (a later revision will support it, revision 1.03G)

Intel 975X boards do not support SLI (some people with modified drivers have managed to do it though)

Nvidia will release a Conroe board soon which will support SLI

Intel 975X boards support crossfire. So far there are 2 new boards that support Conroe

DFI Infinity 975X
Asus 975X P5W DH

 

[acegazda]

Originally posted by: alizee

Originally posted by: acegazda
The nvidia SLI 590 also supports Conroe.

Oh, so this is the only way to get SLi with c2d?

 

[akugami]

I always like to think of a motheboard (mobo) chipset as an operator. They allow different parts of the computer to "talk" to each other. A traditional mobo chipset contains a northbridge and southbridge.

Keep in mind the new Conroe based CPU's from Intel should be scarce for a good couple of months from initial release later this month. Most of the supplies will go to OEM's (original equipment manufactorers like Apple, Dell, etc). The AMD's should drop price by a lot just after the release of Intel's Conroe CPU's and availability should be very good since it's already launched. You might want to reconsider your options at that time and maybe go AMD with socket AM2. From what is being rumored, the AMD X2 3800+ should go for a nice $160 and be a decent overclocker if you want to experiment with that. The Conroe CPU's might be a better bang for the buck but if availability is scarce for a couple of months, it does no one any good. I'm hoping it's not scarce so that pushes the prices of all CPU's downward but that is my fear.

Gigabyte is a very good company and I don't have any problems recommending their mobos. Just do your research and first pick the CPU you want, this will decide if you're going AMD or Intel. Then choose what features you want on your motherboard, SLI, firewire, etc.

NEC makes some very good DVD burners as well if you want to take a look at them and their cheap as well. A little on the noisy side when spinning up though.

I'd recommend scrapping the Raptor hard drive and just getting two Seagate 7200.10 320GB HD's for roughly $110'ish each. The cost increase of the Raptor vs it's performance once made sense but today's 7200 RPM HD's are getting faster and faster and the price premium of a Raptor no long makes sense for the average user.

Antec, Lian Li, Cooler Master all make good computer cases and it is mostly a matter of taste as to which you get so don't limit yourself to any one or any few companies. Generally those cheaper manufactorers cut corners and their cases are not as good as well constructed though they do work. Do keep in mind certain features such as thumb screws and removable motherboard tray that can make life easier when installing your system. One major point to keep in mind is to NOT get those cases with tiny exhaust and intake fan holes. Some like this with large holes that are small enough not to stick a finger in there but large enough to allow lots of air movement. And try to get one that uses 120mm fans as they can move the same amount of air as smaller fans but with less noise.

I don't really recommend the 7950GX video card as the bang for the buck is simply not there. This HIS X1900XT can be had for under $400 and perform very well. Or if you want to go nVidia you can get a 7900GTX for about $450'ish or a bit lower if you look around.


Apple systems are good. For the average computer user, it's more than enough processing power. Most people just trash Apple because they hate Apple for some wierd reason.

 

[imported_Velocity]

Cool - Thanks Akugami
You know what.....as a noob, who really cares about SLI....coming from a G4 Cube (yes I know) any card from a 7300 up will be such an advance I couldn't begin to describe it.

That leaves the Gigabyte or the Asus; 965p Vs 975x.....they both have everything I will pretty much ever need...Firewire, USB2, Gigabit LAN, audio, and the Asus also has wireless which will be useful for my wifes laptop around the house.

Do you have any comments on the two chipsets...from what I understand both are backwards compatible - 965p was written from scratch to support Core2 while 975x is a rewritten version to support same.

Now I just have to choose the card.....the 7900 and 1900 xtx can be had for around $750-$850 (I laughed when I saw your $400) depending on when and where I buy, but the Leadtek 7950gx2 is only a measly $80 dearer..I always liked ATI since the geforce in the cube died and the OEM ATI has just kept kicking along....but I have heard they can be quite noisy..So for $80.00 I would probably just get the latest and greatest...Plus if I do change my mind and use SLI down the line I just need the expense of another 7950 to go quad.

I take it you would raid the two seagates together ?
Guess we are getting off topic here about the whole motherboard and I could pick your brain for hours...but thanks for the assist...changed my mind about a lot of things.

 

[akugami]

I'm speaking in US dollars. Not sure how the Australian money is in conversion to USD but here in the US, the X1900XT (not XTX) is a good $50 cheaper than a 7900GTX.

Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with the Intel chipsets and how they perform at this time since I've mostly been dealing with AMD lately. I only familiarize myself with both when I'm doing a motherboard + CPU upgrade to find out which is the best bang for the buck.

I wouldn't bother raiding the hard drives. Mirroring them is only useful if you're doing work that absolutely needs to be saved in case of a single hard drive failure you always have a backup. However, mirroring provides no speed benefits. Striping will make the two HD's act as one and it will provide some speed benefits but for the average user it's probably not worth the added risk of having one HD go bad and taking out your operating system and any information stored on the HD's.