New build, recommended mb/cpu w/PCI-E 2.0

[AE3Wolfman]

Ok, I bought a Asus EN9600GT for my Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe to replace my 7900GS mainly because the price on the card and the rebate. It should work (Asus EN9600GT TOP and ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe)but for some reason unknown to man or machine they just won't cooperate. Mainly I'm looking for a solid MB with a cheap cpu that I can always upgrade later. I know I'm going to need memory with this, as DDR 400 is extinct now... Just trying to keep the price around $300. I'm a little behind on the chipsets available as I just spent 15 #^($* months in Iraq.

CPU wise I was liking the price on the AMD X2 5200 Windsor, but was wondering what everyone thinks... Thanks.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Why does it need to have PCI-E 2.0? The 9600 GT runs fine on PCI-E 1.1 slots and most people try to steer clear of AMD for now, Core2 is still better than the latest Phenoms in a lot of areas, maybe get an E2xxx and a p35 board and overclock the hell out of it?

 

[AE3Wolfman]

Well, I would rather have a higher end MB, I tend to keep the board for 2-3 years and just change cpu's and graphics cards out as prices come down.

 

[mhouck]

if you go intel on newegg the Q6600 is only 219.99 and p35 boards are starting at 79.99. That would be a hell of a lot better. Also on Frys last week q6600's were going for 179. I don't know if that's still going or not. if you want to spend more on the board and still have pci 2.0 support the nvidia 750's are starting at 149.99 at newegg and you would have sli support if you wanted to go that route and just get a $150 intel core 2. you don't want to skimp on those parts

 

[krnmastersgt]

Back to full price on the Q6600, the 750's are decent from what I've seen, and you could buy another 9600 GT later on, but you still don't need to get a quad core just yet, and at the current rate that game developers are utilizing multiple cores, you can live with a dual for any non-rts game for about 3-4 years still.

 

[AE3Wolfman]

What would you think of the MSI P7N SLI Platinum 750i with a Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz?

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: AE3Wolfman
What would you think of the MSI P7N SLI Platinum 750i with a Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz?

Thats a good combo. However the E6550 has a max 7x multiplier if I remember correctly, so it won't be that friendly to OC compared to other models- you will have to go pretty high on the FSB, in turn adding stress on memory frequency/nb voltage.

 

[AE3Wolfman]

Your right, I think I'll just save 90 bucks and get the E2600, and a good hsf, can easily hit over 3.1 on air.

 

[AE3Wolfman]

Decided I'm going to go with the MSI P7N Platinum, Intel E2600, OCZ Reaper HPC, and a Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. All told came to 330 bucks, half of which is the mb. This will be my first Intel build since my P2-333 died way back when(got hooked on AMD). Thanks for the suggestions.