Help! New pc builder and I need help choosing a mobo!

[sagirfahmid3]

Hi guys, last week I bought a PCI-E graphics card (Evga Geforce GT 430) for my OEM Compaq Presario SR5505F only to find out when I plugged it in that it wouldn't work. It surely was not the graphics card's fault because it works (I can see the fan spinning and all). After going on Google, I looked up the M2N68-LA motherboard in my computer (which is apparently custom built by Asus specifically for the Compaq media center computers). So anyways, I looked up "M2N68-LA PCI-E slot not working" and guess what? I found many many people with the same problem as me. Apparently, HP decided to cripple the BIOS, thereby rendering the motherboard's PCI-E slot useless. I tried changing settings in the BIOS and setting "primary graphics adapter" to "PCI-Express" but no...it wouldn't work...D: I was very sad :'( because this was my very first graphics card that I bought, just for moderate amount of gaming and for encoding tasks, and I was super excited. I've never had a graphics card, just the stupid one built-in (integrated); I can barely play even Halo 1 on that with 800x600 resolution! So anyway...after that I decided I hated HP, Compaq, Dell, Lenovo, Gateway, Toshibas, and ALL OEM COMPUTERS! and I swore to myself that I WILL create my own kick@$$ computer and will discard of this Compaq and throw it away in the corner somewhere (or put Linux LXDE on it, on a 10GB IDE harddrive I found in a Windows 98 era computer, and give it away to my parents).

So, I'm going to build a budget gaming/media-encoding pc (because the GT 430 has CUDA acceleration) this coming January and I already have most of my things picked out except for the motherboard!

$40 AMD Sempron 145 (taking a risk; 50-50 chance of unlocking to dual-core. PLUS I head people OCed to 4GHz in a snap! Note: The motherboard needs to have Advanced Clock Calibration in the BIOS, but you probably already knew that . But, I am open to suggestions so long as the processor does not exceed $75 and is at least dual-core, or unlockable to dual-core or more, you can suggest the processor to me and I will research it and then consider it)
http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Sempron-14.../ref=pd_cp_e_1

$36 Mid Tower ATX Case Steel Chassis
http://www.amazon.com/GAMMA-Classic-...zg_bs_572238_1

$26 CoolerMaster CPU Cooler (because stock cooling sucks, and I want to overclock. I CAN overclock my OEM pc btw, just that its software overclock using Nvidia nTune and it totally sucks because I need to increase voltage or the Athlon 64 X2 4200+ which has a stock speed of 2.2GHz doesn't want to overclock to 2.7GHz because without the extra Vcore voltage I keep getting blue screens, and I heard many many people overclock this processor in a snap! And yes, I know what I'm doing. I know the basics of overclocking pretty much. [Changing the reference clock, HT multiplier, CPU multiplier, CPU voltage, RAM voltage and frequency, etc, so I guess you cant really call me a noob since I did my homework :hmm:])
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-..._bs_11036281_1

$60 Corsair Builder Series 500W PSU (I don't need 100,000Watts of power. That's just being mean to the environment and killing trees. 500Watts is more than enough for my setup, PLUS any future upgrades.)
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-500-Wa..._bs_1161760_15 <----AND IT's GOT A $10 REBATE so the price is really $50!

$30 Lite-On SATA DVD drive
http://www.amazon.com/Lite-LightScri...zg_bs_172480_2

$40 for 4GB of RAM (this being a rough estimate of DDR2/DDR3 RAM)

$20 Keyboard

$12 for Arctic Silver Thermal Compound and cleaning kit
http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-...zg_bs_281501_2

(I already have a mouse. I already have a 160GB SATA harddrive from my Compaq; the Western Digital Caviar 160GB [meaning that I will take it out from my Compaq and instead use a 10GB IDE harddrive in the Compaq, because there is a IDE slot; thank goodness at least that works!]. I also have another harddrive which I salvaged from a TiVo, and its 80GB, so I basically have all the space I would ever need for gaming. Note: Once I finish a game, I delete it unless I really liked it a lot. So I just basically got a 240GB harddrive for free! This is good because I'm on a budget. Every dollar counts!)

ALL I NEED IS A MOTHERBOARD! This is where I need you guys' help. These are the features I am looking for:

+MUST BE A GIGABYTE MOTHERBOARD, don't ask me why. I heard they are the most reliable mobos around, plus they have the Dual-BIOS
+MUST BE AN AMD PROCESSOR MOTHERBOARD (Socket AM2+ preferred, but I can live with AM3 if needed. Also, please try and tell me the pros and cons of AM2+ vs. AM3/AM3+ motherboards)
+Good BIOS and overclocking features
+Needs to have Advanced Clock Calibration setting, or "Core unlocker" in BIOS settings
+Needs to support a minimum of 4GB RAM, or at least 2 RAM slots
+Needs to have at least 2 SATA and 1 IDE ports, OR 4 SATA ports
+Needs to have AT LEAST 1 PCI-Express (x16) slot
+Needs to be able to support AT LEAST 95Watt processor
+Needs to have AT LEAST 6 USB ports
+Needs to have an ethernet (DSL) port
+Last, but not least, the motherboard needs to be LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO $200

=============================================================

The prices of everything combined comes out to $473 USD. And the good thing is, I can sell some of my college textbooks like my psychology textbook and easily get $45 (half of the price that I purchased it with--$90), my 3 English textbooks ($15 + $15 + $20= $50--half the price; bought them for about $100). The funny thing is that we rarely use less than half our bought college textbooks even though it's "required." So, the FINAL TOTAL PRICE OF EVERYTHING comes out to $378 USD (maximum)! Not bad...and I think I could further cut costs by salvaging a keyboard.

Feel free to post up your motherboard's specifications and any overclock speeds you've reached with it. Post up your processor and RAM as well!

If anyone here has the Sempron 145 processor and was successfully able to unlock it, please share your motherboard model! I need at least a dual-core!

Thanks for listening. I know the post is long

 

[biostud]

Kick ass computer and Sempron does NOT belong in the same sentence.

So your budget for CPU+mboard+fan is max $300?

 

[Puppies04]

Biostud is correct, that CPU is a dog I would highly recommend against you buying it. Fill out the sticky thread in the general hardware forum with any parts you have already and a budget and you will get sound advice.

 

[biostud]

I would recommend an Intel i3-2100 $122 or 2120 $129 + H67 mATX board for ~$90

 

[sagirfahmid3]

No my budget is $473 (excluding the harddrive and mouse). Ok forget the part about the Sempron 145, I made up my mind and instead will get this

$90 AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2 GHz 2x512 KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core

And if I get lucky, may be able to unlock to 3 or 4 cores with either of these:

$60 GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 NVIDIA GeForce 7025/nForce 630a chipset mATX
$50 Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P/AM3/AMD770/4DDR3-1600(OC)/GbE/R/1394/ATX Motherboard

I don't want to get Intel mobos and processors because they cost more money for no reason...

 

[biostud]

I don't want to get Intel mobos and processors because they cost more money for no reason...

...the reason is they're faster clock for clock, but the Ph II processor is definitely a step up to the sempron.

Try to compare the processors you're looking at here:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/120?vs=289

 

[Puppies04]

No my budget is $473 (excluding the harddrive and mouse). Ok forget the part about the Sempron 145, I made up my mind and instead will get this

$90 AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2 GHz 2x512 KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core

And if I get lucky, may be able to unlock to 3 or 4 cores with either of these:

$60 GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 NVIDIA GeForce 7025/nForce 630a chipset mATX
$50 Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P/AM3/AMD770/4DDR3-1600(OC)/GbE/R/1394/ATX Motherboard

I don't want to get Intel mobos and processors because they cost more money for no reason...

I don't know where you heard that little piece of propaganda. Maybe at mid range you can put together a slightly cheaper build that will perform about the same cheaper with AMD but considering the extra you are going to have to spend PSU wise with that phenom and the big "maybe" around whether you can unlock it I would suggest a lot safer route would be picking up an I3 2100 (no real point getting the 2120 as you have discrete graphics).

Anyway this isn't a "mid" range build I would say it is a low spec gaming rig.

If you are set on an AMD CPU thats fine but your reasoning is just plain wrong from what you have said so far.

 

[mrjoltcola]

$26 CoolerMaster CPU Cooler

$30 Lite-On SATA DVD drive
http://www.amazon.com/Lite-LightScri...zg_bs_172480_2

$12 for Arctic Silver Thermal Compound and cleaning kit
http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-...zg_bs_281501_2

I think I'm going to save you $30 bucks, and maybe more.

No need for the tube of Arctic Silver. The CoolerMaster cooler comes with its own tube of Thermal, it will do perfectly, save the $12 for the silver.

Secondly $30 is high for a DVD-R/RW, I use Samsung DVD-RW drives with Lightscribe for $17-$18.

Move that $29 over to the CPU and you are close to a Sandy Bridge dual core, or an AMD X4 or even X6.

Also, for such a budget build, the Corsair CX430 will run your rig and save you even more $$. I have a 2500K Gene-Z build with a GTX 560, both overclocked, running with headroom on the CX430, just don't try dual video cards. The 430W is probably as good as 500W at that level, because if you go SLI in the future, you are going to need above 500W anyway. For me, it is either 430W or 600W+, no in between.

 

[sagirfahmid3]

@mrjolt: Thanks for the tip, I didn't know the Coolermaster came with thermal grease. Is it of good quality? or barely passable?

I've got my eyes on this mobo here:

GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128510

Would you say it's good?

Edit: Does anyone have the GA-M68MT-S2P board? How are the overclocking features?

 

[coolpurplefan]

@mrjolt: Thanks for the tip, I didn't know the Coolermaster came with thermal grease. Is it of good quality? or barely passable?

I've got my eyes on this mobo here:

GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128510

Would you say it's good?

Edit: Does anyone have the GA-M68MT-S2P board? How are the overclocking features?

That motherboard has a very high customer rating.

From my own experiences, if you buy a cheap CPU, you will regret it, sell it on eBay and buy another one. lol

If you want to go cheap on a case, I went with Gigabyte once and found them OK. Then the next step up in quality/price would be Coolermaster then Silverstone and Lian-Li (or Antec, whatever).

PSU, you may want or actually need 650 watts if you want a video card like the GTX 560. I know Seasonic is expensive, but I like the silence. lol

You may want to search in Newegg reviews for RAM compatibility with your motherboard. If you go to the RAM then search for the motherboard name, you may find reviews confirming the compatibility.

Aopen makes an OK cheap keyboard. Microsoft makes an even better one.

Yes, heatsinks with heatpipes are good for cooling and even better with fans. Nexus (Yate-Loon) and Scythe 120mm fans are pretty silent.

Asus also makes pretty good motherboards. And they can be pretty user-friendly.

Overclocking will raise temperatures, increase electricity consumption, damage your CPU and may eventually cause errors in your system.

When reformatting your hard drive, you may want to delete your primary partition and re-create it before installing Windows.

Yes, pre-built computers can suck a lot of butt. I think an OEM version of Windows without tons of publicity crap on it probably runs even faster and better anyway.

EDIT: When you think you may have chosen everything you want to buy, you could go to the General Hardware forum and ask people to review your list.

 

[sagirfahmid3]

LOL I don't need a GTX 560. That thing uses like 250Watts of power! It's a tree killer! The graphics card I have is the Evga GT 430. Uses 80W of power at load (and that's when its OVERCLOCKED!):
http://www.amazon.com/Evga-GeForce-E...1839434&amp;sr=8-1

When I was talking about the motherboard, I meant if the Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P was a good choice for overclocking or unlocking cores. I can live with mATX as I really don't need Crossfire or SLI, and 8GB of RAM is more than enough for me. From Gigabyte's main website, I see that it won a top choice award for year 2011. Do you, or someone you know, have this motherboard? How are the overclocking features? I can live without core unlocker, but I would prefer if it had it.

 

[mrjoltcola]

PSU, you may want or actually need 650 watts if you want a video card like the GTX 560. I know Seasonic is expensive, but I like the silence. lol

Although I heartily recommend investment in a 650W, only a 430W is really needed for a 2500K (even overclocked to 5.0Ghz) running a single GTX 560. You can even run a GTX 580 if the CPU isn't overclocked, but that is right at the limit of the PSU and isn't wise. The problem with 500W is it gives headroom for a single GPU setup, but isn't enough for dual.

PS: The only reason I even added this is the OP is really cutting corners and trying to maximize the budget. Otherwise, I stay away from anything less than 650W in a gaming machine because you want room to grow, plus running at 90% draw isn't ideal.

 

[lehtv]

Although I heartily recommend investment in a 650W, only a 430W is really needed for a 2500K (even overclocked to 5.0Ghz) running a single GTX 560. You can even run a GTX 580 if the CPU isn't overclocked, but that is right at the limit of the PSU and isn't wise. The problem with 500W is it gives headroom for a single GPU setup, but isn't enough for dual.

GTX 560 needs two 6-pin connectors which a 430W PSU won't have.

That thing uses like 250Watts of power!

GTX 560 uses 160W.

 

[mrjoltcola]

GTX 560 needs two 6-pin connectors which a 430W PSU won't have.

You just use the molex -> 6-pin that comes with most of the 560s. Still runs very well within range, between 330-350 total wattage.

 

[biostud]

For some reason it sounds like you think that overclocking even the cheapest hardware will make it much faster and become a solid gaming experience. It will not.
No matter how much you overclock that GT430 it will never be a gaming card. The minimum cards for gaming these days are AMD 6850 or nVidia GTX 460 1Gb.

 

[sagirfahmid3]

"No matter how much you overclock that GT430 it will never be a gaming card. The minimum cards for gaming these days are AMD 6850 or nVidia GTX 460 1Gb"

But the thing is, I'm NOT into gaming all that much. I don't need 120+FPS on "Call of Duty 11: The End of Humanity" or something like that; I can live on 30FPS perfectly fine, even on medium settings. The GT 430 is perfectly fine for moderate amounts of gaming; go on Youtube and type "GTA 4 on GT 430." Most are playing it on ultra setting with 30-35FPS.

I think you forgot what the point of this post was in the first place--it's about a MOTHERBOARD. I only need help choosing a MOTHERBOARD but I appreciate your suggestion about the graphics card. Maybe when I get into hardcore-gaming, I'll consider what you suggested.

 

[tweakboy]

Hi guys, last week I bought a PCI-E graphics card (Evga Geforce GT 430) for my OEM Compaq Presario SR5505F only to find out when I plugged it in that it wouldn't work. It surely was not the graphics card's fault because it works (I can see the fan spinning and all). After going on Google, I looked up the M2N68-LA motherboard in my computer (which is apparently custom built by Asus specifically for the Compaq media center computers). So anyways, I looked up "M2N68-LA PCI-E slot not working" and guess what? I found many many people with the same problem as me. Apparently, HP decided to cripple the BIOS, thereby rendering the motherboard's PCI-E slot useless. I tried changing settings in the BIOS and setting "primary graphics adapter" to "PCI-Express" but no...it wouldn't work...D: I was very sad :'( because this was my very first graphics card that I bought, just for moderate amount of gaming and for encoding tasks, and I was super excited. I've never had a graphics card, just the stupid one built-in (integrated); I can barely play even Halo 1 on that with 800x600 resolution! So anyway...after that I decided I hated HP, Compaq, Dell, Lenovo, Gateway, Toshibas, and ALL OEM COMPUTERS! and I swore to myself that I WILL create my own kick@$$ computer and will discard of this Compaq and throw it away in the corner somewhere (or put Linux LXDE on it, on a 10GB IDE harddrive I found in a Windows 98 era computer, and give it away to my parents).

So, I'm going to build a budget gaming/media-encoding pc (because the GT 430 has CUDA acceleration) this coming January and I already have most of my things picked out except for the motherboard!

$40 AMD Sempron 145 (taking a risk; 50-50 chance of unlocking to dual-core. PLUS I head people OCed to 4GHz in a snap! Note: The motherboard needs to have Advanced Clock Calibration in the BIOS, but you probably already knew that . But, I am open to suggestions so long as the processor does not exceed $75 and is at least dual-core, or unlockable to dual-core or more, you can suggest the processor to me and I will research it and then consider it)
http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Sempron-14.../ref=pd_cp_e_1

$36 Mid Tower ATX Case Steel Chassis
http://www.amazon.com/GAMMA-Classic-...zg_bs_572238_1

$26 CoolerMaster CPU Cooler (because stock cooling sucks, and I want to overclock. I CAN overclock my OEM pc btw, just that its software overclock using Nvidia nTune and it totally sucks because I need to increase voltage or the Athlon 64 X2 4200+ which has a stock speed of 2.2GHz doesn't want to overclock to 2.7GHz because without the extra Vcore voltage I keep getting blue screens, and I heard many many people overclock this processor in a snap! And yes, I know what I'm doing. I know the basics of overclocking pretty much. [Changing the reference clock, HT multiplier, CPU multiplier, CPU voltage, RAM voltage and frequency, etc, so I guess you cant really call me a noob since I did my homework :hmm:])
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-..._bs_11036281_1

$60 Corsair Builder Series 500W PSU (I don't need 100,000Watts of power. That's just being mean to the environment and killing trees. 500Watts is more than enough for my setup, PLUS any future upgrades.)
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-500-Wa..._bs_1161760_15 <----AND IT's GOT A $10 REBATE so the price is really $50!

$30 Lite-On SATA DVD drive
http://www.amazon.com/Lite-LightScri...zg_bs_172480_2

$40 for 4GB of RAM (this being a rough estimate of DDR2/DDR3 RAM)

$20 Keyboard

$12 for Arctic Silver Thermal Compound and cleaning kit
http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-...zg_bs_281501_2

(I already have a mouse. I already have a 160GB SATA harddrive from my Compaq; the Western Digital Caviar 160GB [meaning that I will take it out from my Compaq and instead use a 10GB IDE harddrive in the Compaq, because there is a IDE slot; thank goodness at least that works!]. I also have another harddrive which I salvaged from a TiVo, and its 80GB, so I basically have all the space I would ever need for gaming. Note: Once I finish a game, I delete it unless I really liked it a lot. So I just basically got a 240GB harddrive for free! This is good because I'm on a budget. Every dollar counts!)

ALL I NEED IS A MOTHERBOARD! This is where I need you guys' help. These are the features I am looking for:

+MUST BE A GIGABYTE MOTHERBOARD, don't ask me why. I heard they are the most reliable mobos around, plus they have the Dual-BIOS
+MUST BE AN AMD PROCESSOR MOTHERBOARD (Socket AM2+ preferred, but I can live with AM3 if needed. Also, please try and tell me the pros and cons of AM2+ vs. AM3/AM3+ motherboards)
+Good BIOS and overclocking features
+Needs to have Advanced Clock Calibration setting, or "Core unlocker" in BIOS settings
+Needs to support a minimum of 4GB RAM, or at least 2 RAM slots
+Needs to have at least 2 SATA and 1 IDE ports, OR 4 SATA ports
+Needs to have AT LEAST 1 PCI-Express (x16) slot
+Needs to be able to support AT LEAST 95Watt processor
+Needs to have AT LEAST 6 USB ports
+Needs to have an ethernet (DSL) port
+Last, but not least, the motherboard needs to be LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO $200

=============================================================

The prices of everything combined comes out to $473 USD. And the good thing is, I can sell some of my college textbooks like my psychology textbook and easily get $45 (half of the price that I purchased it with--$90), my 3 English textbooks ($15 + $15 + $20= $50--half the price; bought them for about $100). The funny thing is that we rarely use less than half our bought college textbooks even though it's "required." So, the FINAL TOTAL PRICE OF EVERYTHING comes out to $378 USD (maximum)! Not bad...and I think I could further cut costs by salvaging a keyboard.

Feel free to post up your motherboard's specifications and any overclock speeds you've reached with it. Post up your processor and RAM as well!

If anyone here has the Sempron 145 processor and was successfully able to unlock it, please share your motherboard model! I need at least a dual-core!

Thanks for listening. I know the post is long

Grab a Phenom II Quad the cheapest one, and couple it with 460 1GB and a AMD Phenom II motherboard. Total price 300 dollars. gl

 

[Puppies04]

The GT 430 is perfectly fine for moderate amounts of gaming; go on Youtube and type "GTA 4 on GT 430." Most are playing it on ultra setting with 30-35FPS.

No they aren't and no it won't, sorry.....

 

[Puppies04]

"No matter how much you overclock that GT430 it will never be a gaming card. The minimum cards for gaming these days are AMD 6850 or nVidia GTX 460 1Gb" But the thing is, I'm NOT into gaming all that much. I don't need 120+FPS on "Call of Duty 11: The End of Humanity" or something like that; I can live on 30FPS perfectly fine, even on medium settings. The GT 430 is perfectly fine for moderate amounts of gaming; go on Youtube and type "GTA 4 on GT 430." Most are playing it on ultra setting with 30-35FPS. I think you forgot what the point of this post was in the first place--it's about a MOTHERBOARD. I only need help choosing a MOTHERBOARD but I appreciate your suggestion about the graphics card. Maybe when I get into hardcore-gaming, I'll consider what you suggested.

I can see you are getting stressed out but because your first post said this....

So, I'm going to build a budget gaming/media-encoding pc

The members on this forum feel duty bound to tell you that the hardware you have picked isn't up to the task, of course this depends what games you want to play. Anything a few years old should run pretty decent, anything from the last year or 2 will struggle to run on medium or possibly even low depending on what resolution you are gaming at.

You seem to have this idea that you can buy a budget AMD chip and turn it into something that will beat the snot out of an I3.... you can't. You also seem to think that a GT430 is a decent "budget" gaming card when by any acceptable standard nowdays it isnt.

The advice you are getting about buying a GTX460 and a quad AMD/I3 2100 is very good advice if you don't want to be left feeling all the money you spent upgrading was wasted you might want to do some research and by that I don't mean the sort of research that makes you believe a GT430 can run GTA 4 on ultra at 30-35 frames a second.

 

[coolpurplefan]

You seem to have this idea that you can buy a budget AMD chip and turn it into something that will beat the snot out of an I3.... you can't.

Yeah, put it in the garden, give it some water for it to grow. lol

Actually, I've had vague thoughts of making a completely small, passively-cooled computer to surf the Internet with a combination AMD CPU/GPU chip. The thought of it is kind of cool actually I mean if it's energy-efficient.

 

[biostud]

Yeah, put it in the garden, give it some water for it to grow. lol

Actually, I've had vague thoughts of making a completely small, passively-cooled computer to surf the Internet with a combination AMD CPU/GPU chip. The thought of it is kind of cool actually I mean if it's energy-efficient.

you would still be better of with a i3 2100T

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2100t_12.html#sect0

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Intel Celeron G530 Dual-Core 2.4GHz
BIOSTAR H61MGC Intel H61 LGA1155
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB)
Corsair 430W
NZXT GAMMA Classic

Thats what I would go for