Suggestions for motherboard for a noob! (I did research first!)

[mawst95]

Hey, all-

I'm going to attempt to build my first computer for use primarily as a HTPC. I've been doing some research over at silentpcreview, avsforum and now here. I've been researching motherboards and I think I have a decent handle on the various choices out there. Let me give you a run down of the components I'm thinking of using, then the issue with the motherboard. My priorities are ease of setup, low noise (doesn't need to be silent), cost-performance ratio and expandability. This would be my first build, but I love to tinker and optimize things, so I would like to try overclocking a conservative amount.

Opteron 165
2x1GB OCZ platinum
eVGA 7800GT
1 or 2 Fusion HDTV PCI cards
1 or 2 Haupage MCE-150 PVR PCI cards
2 WD KS series SataII HDD
1 Benq DVD burner
1 Asus DVD-ROM


Thermalright SI-120 paired with a 120mm Nexus fan
Arctic Cooler VGA silencer

Seasonic S12-430W PS
Centurion 5 (I need a midtower 16-19" tall and black)

I don't necessarily need SLI (don't plan to use it), but I will go with an SLI board if it offers other advantages such as better layout, more stability, etc.

Here are the motherboard choices:

Epox 9PNA+ultra

Pros: seems like a great board, good price, good OC ability

Cons: Not sure if all 3 PCI slots will be accessible with the 7800GT with the aftermarket VGA cooler, if read the power slot is in a funky location and that there might be USB issues. Will need to go for a Zalman passive cooler on the northbridge chipset

Epox 9PNA+Ultra SLI

Pros: same as above? Layout might allow for use of all three PCI slots in single VGA card configuration.

Asus SLI-Premium

Pros: Looking at the layout the presence of the second PCIe-16X slot (which I'll never use) shifts the PCI slots far enough away from the primary 16X slot that clearance won't be an issue and all three PCI slots will be accessible. Passive NB cooling.

Cons: Seems like an awful lot of people have stability issues with this board. I'm coming into this unbiased and some of the issues worry me.

Abit: Not really an option because the ultra board is lacking firewire IIRC.

MSI K8N Neo4 platinum (SLI?--I can't find a picture of the SLI version)

Pros: The non-sli board has 4 PCI slots so even if one is blocked, I would still have 3 accessible

Cons: Need to replace NB fan, not as much OC potential, mixed reviews on this forum

DFI: Seems too finicky for a first-timer.


Any thoughts? Its hard to pick out things without hands on experience.

Matt

 

[keeleysam]

Epox 9PNA+ultra

 

[mawst95]

If you could elaborate that'd be great. My main concern with the epox board is the vga-cooler and PCI slot spacing. The USB 2.0 issue seems to have been solved with a recent beta bios I think.

 

[keeleysam]

I run mine with a 7800GT and use all 3 PCI slots.

No USB issues either.

 

[mawst95]

Do you use the stock VGA cooler or an aftermarket one? Here's the one I was thinking of getting:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=40

Not sure which direction the wider side faces. Sorry for the newbish questions.

 

[mawst95]

Daily bump for today's crowd.

 

[sygyzy]

I am in a similar situation, but not HTPC. I'd like to hear some responses.

mawst95 - How did you choose your CPU?

 

[mawst95]

I was thinking of getting the X2 +4400 toledo because it has the 2X1MB cache and the toledo is supposed to be superior to Manchester from what I read on Tom's Hardware (I think that's where I read it). The Opteron is cheap ($150 cheaper than the X2 +4400), and supposedly uses the highest grade chips (similar to toledo) which makes them good for OC'ing. Everything I've read about the 165 is raves from both your average and hardcore user. I'd like to move up to the 170 opteron, but its about a $100 price difference. As for why AMD over intel, it just seems that in terms of price vs. speed vs. heat the AMD is the current winner for my particular application.

Edit: I'm a noob so hopefully this explanation isn't a complete technical trainwreck

 

[atybimf]

7900GT instead of the 7800GT

 

[nyker96]

go for the 7900 baby, power overwhelming.

 

[sygyzy]

You might as well go for 7900 since it's essentially replacing the 7800, right? And at the same price.

Is the Opteron Dual Core?

 

[JasonSix78]

I really like my ASUS A8N5X. Check it out, it's got some good OC'ing features and is a solid board.

-Jason

 

[mawst95]

I was thinking that, but I wanted the VIVO feature which is only available on 7800 and 6600 boards right now. Maybe they'll add that to 7900 boards eventually. I'm not really a gamer so not sure what advantages the 7900 would offer, but heat (and thus noise) might be reduced with the smaller die size.