Help with a New MoBo Choice

[Cr0nJ0b]

Hey everyone,

I've decided it's time to buy an AMD64 system. I plan on waiting to see if there is a SSE3 chip in the next month or so, but in the mean time, I'd like to narrow the field for Motherboards.

My Criteria:

Stabilty shoud be high, past record with good boards
support for AMD64 3500+
SATA150, SATA II with NCQ
I plan to have atleast 4 drives in a RAID 0 Array.
fast RAM...not sure what's new and fast...but that's what I want.
AGP slot for video, since I'm not going to change out my 9800PRO yet
USB2 -- at least 2
Gbit LAN
Audio -- I have an audigy card that I can keep using unless there is better onboard stuff.
Overclocking -- I've never overclocked in the past, but I still want to have the ability to mess with timings if I need to.


Any advice would be great. I know there are a lot opinions out there.

thanks

carl

 

[joelslaw]

most of this stuff is pretty easy to get all in one board. But that SATA2 is a tall order on an agp board. Have you considered selling your 9800 and going to a pci-e 6600gt or 6800? It would cost little or nothing. Chumps on ebay will buy that card for close to 150 (200 if it's the 256 version) and the xfx 6600gt pci-e only costs like 190 new. Waddaya think?

 

[gobucks]

i agree with joelslaw. The 6600GT would fit the bill nicely, and the XFX dual-DVI can be had for $180. After selling the 9800 Pro, you'll only be spending $30, and the performance difference will be very nice, especially in new games. I've got one of these babies and they FLY!!! As for the mobo, i had the Asus A8N-SLI Nforce4 mobo, but the SATA-II controller died on me, so i returned it. I just ordered the Chaintech VNF4/Ultra for $119 on newegg, but i haven't got it yet. It does have SATA-II and NCQ, though. For memory, if you're running at stock you can just get vanilla DDR400 (2x512MB), and if you're overclocking, get some DDR500 or faster, or just ultra low-latency DDR400, since it can overclock well with relaxed timings. I've heard Crucial Ballistix is great, albeit a bit pricey ($250). I got PQI DDR500 from Newegg for $180, and it works great. Oh, and as for the CPU, if you're an overclocker, why not save some cash and get a 3200+ or 3000+? They overclock just as high as the 3500+ (2.6GHz).

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

Thanks, I'm not sure about the 6600. How does it spec with the 9800? I mean, if I'm going to upgrade, I might as well go big.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Cr0nJ0b
Thanks, I'm not sure about the 6600. How does it spec with the 9800? I mean, if I'm going to upgrade, I might as well go big.

specs fairly evenly, but in some benchmarks, the 6600GT is decently faster, as an upgrade, i wouldn't say it's really all that worthwhile, but in order to move to PCI-E and not break the bank, it's a good alternative.

a 6800GT would be better, but also normally a little more than 2x the price of a 6600GT.