Time to upgrade. What motherboard do I really want?

[Agrajag]

Guys, I'm going to be building a new system and part of the use will be FSX (assuming I can get it running solidly).

I'm not big on overclocking. I used to, but don't really bother much any longer so a great OC board isn't essential. I also don't bother with RAID or arrays. I do want to use a SCSI adapter (one SCSI device left) and my Sound Blaster X-Fi.

I'm thinking I should be able to get a rock-solid motherboard for around $100. The question is, which one? I'm leaning towards an Intel setup but am open to AMD. I just had issues the last time I went AMD before this last system (problems with drivers and the Via chipsets).

My biggest issue is that I'd like it to be extremely solid and support the fastest FSB speeds, etc.

What boards and such should I be looking at?

Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.

[noell]

The top CPU performance spot these days belongs to Intel so it only makes sense to go with Intel's Core 2 family of processors. An E6600, for example, will run FS9 really well. Keeping in mind that FSX is very tough on even very high end, expensive systems, the E6600, when paired with a good video card, will also do a pretty good job of running FSX with the sliders at mid-range or even a bit higher.

As for a motherboard, the NVIDIA chipsets offer excellent performance. While motherboards based on the top of the line NVIDIA 680 chipset fall outside your $100 criteria, there's a new crop of motherboards arriving on the scene based on the NVIDIA 650 chipset. They offer comparable performance to that of the 680 but are less expensive. EVGA's version is just one example which should be available very soon and is expected to cost about $100.

Here's some info:
http://www.evga.com/articles/356.asp

And here's a review:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2964

As you can see, this EVGA example is 1333FSB and Quad Core compatible so you would achieve at least a bit of future-proofing.

You may also want to look at ASUS 650 based motherboards. One is the P5N-E Sli Nforce 650I.

Here's some info:
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...74&modelmenu=2

And here's a review:
http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/...ds/1704_1.html

IMO you won't go wrong with either of EVGA or the ASUS.


....Noell

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3GHz
CoolerMaster 'Aquagate 120' Liquid Cooling
ASUS P5N32-E SLI
2GB Mushkin XP2 PC2-6400 DDR2-800@4-4-3-10
EVGA 8800 GTS KO ACS3 w/ 640MB @580MHz&1.7GHz (Driver: NVIDIA 97.94)
Samsung 215TW Monitor
1 X 36GB WD Raptor
2 X 74GB WD Raptor RAID 0
1 X 250GB WD Caviar SE16 SATA II w/ 16MB Cache
ASUS Supreme FX Audio
OCZ GameXStream 700W
Antec P180B case

[Agrajag]

I'm only seeing one E6600 at Newegg. It's 2.4GHz and is $235 which is within the $200-$250 that I like to spend on processors. That seems a bit low speed to me given that I'm on a 3.4GHz now (non-Core 2 Duo of course).

You're the first one to recommend and Nvidia chipset board to me. No issues that I need to be worried about?

Also, is the 680 worth it if I go higher? I don't see the point in spending $200 on a motherboard but $150-ish is fine. Just wanted to see if I could get lucky for a change and get something a bit lower.

Lastly I want to keep the video under $300. Originally I wanted it under $200 and was thinking of the 8600GTS but then that came in just over $200 and people are telling me I can get the one 8800 for about the same price that's much better. It'd be my first Nvidia card after ages using ATI (and Matrox before that).

For example, $209 for your board seems okay but then looking over it I find it has 3 PCI-Express slots. I just don't see me going SLI, nor will I be adding a physics board. Two gigabit connectors seems unnecessary (for me) and the sound card portion won't get used (though you never know).

[noell]

The days of rating processors based upon clock speed are over. Now its all about architecture and, in this regard, Intel's current Core 2 architecture outperforms all else. Here's an example - I just retired an Athlon 4000+ that was over-clocked to the level of an Athlon FX-57 and switched to an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600. Even in its stock, un-overclocked state, the E6600 blows the doors off the Athlon 4000+.

I've been very, very pleased with any NVIDIA chipset I've tried (NF2, NF3, NF4 and now the 680). The early release of the 680 chipset had some problems but most, if not all, of those have now been resolved. As for the 680, it gives you lots of flexibility in the way of over-clock settings. So, if you don't plan on getting into over-clocking in a big way, you don't need it. The 650 will give you pretty well equivalent performance to the 680 and it still has plenty of settings for over-clocking for "average" users.

When it comes to graphics, the future is DirectX 10 so, IMO, it only makes sense to go with a DirectX 10 compliant video card. The current crop of NVIDIA 88XX seres cards are great performers even while running non-DirectX 10 apps and they will get even better when software written for DirectX 10 gets released. You have to have Vista, BTW, for DirectX 10. As for the 8600GT, its a pretty new card and in early reviews it didn't fare that well against some "7" series cards or aRadeon 1950 Pro. To get a better idea, see this review:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=8409&page=1
IMO, you would be better off spending a bit extra for the 8800GTS. The 320MB model can be had for around $300.

Back to the mobo - many boards have two LAN ports as well as integrated audio so that's pretty normal and doesn't impact the overall board cost very much. I see your point about not needing 3 PCI Ex slots. If you don't want to go there, you can get boards with one PCI Ex slot based on the Intel 965 chipset, for example. The performance may be slightly lower and you will not likely get 1333FSB nor quad-core support for down the road but it will be a decent performer. Something like the Abit AB9 Pro with the Intel P965 Chipset is one suggestion. There are others from all the major mobo manufacturers.


....Noell

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3GHz
CoolerMaster 'Aquagate 120' Liquid Cooling
ASUS P5N32-E SLI
2GB Mushkin XP2 PC2-6400 DDR2-800@4-4-3-10
EVGA 8800 GTS KO ACS3 w/ 640MB @580MHz&1.7GHz (Driver: NVIDIA 97.94)
Samsung 215TW Monitor
1 X 36GB WD Raptor
2 X 74GB WD Raptor RAID 0
1 X 250GB WD Caviar SE16 SATA II w/ 16MB Cache
ASUS Supreme FX Audio
OCZ GameXStream 700W
Antec P180B case

[Agrajag]

Noell,

You've got me intrigued with the Nvidia 650 chipset approach.

Mwave (I like them because their prices are decent and they'll also test the setup before sending it out so it's one less thing I have to worry about when it gets here) has:

Asus P5N-E SLI $126
Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus $173
Asus P5N32-SLI PreWifi-AP $211.50

Any comments on those boards? I ask because they don't show up on the ASUS site. Your board does (oh, and the first one does but I don't know what the lack of the "32" in the name implies).

[noell]

There's no denying that the ASUS 6XX chipset product line certainly has some pretty confusing model numbers.

The lack of a "32" in the model number means that if you install one video card it runs at the X16 speed but if you install two video cards for SLI, each card will run at the X8 speed. Models with the "32" designation, on the other hand, will run two cards in SLI at the X16 rate. In real world testing, though, two cards running at X8 in SLI mode have shown very, very little difference in performance compared to two running at X16 in SLI mode.

The P5N32-E SLI Plus is a bit of a different bird in that it's chipset is comprised of a 650 for the Northbridge and a 570 for the Southbridge. While I've seen some decent reviews on this board its a configuration I tend to shy away from for some reason that I can't really put my finger on. I guess its simply because its a bit different and seems, to me anyway, to be kind of a kludge.

So, I suggest you go for the Asus P5N-E SLI @ $126. Here it is on the ASUS website, BTW:
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...74&modelmenu=2

Here's a review which shows this board presenting some pretty decent numbers:
http://www.techspot.com/review/43-asus-p5n-e-sli/



...Noell

[Agrajag]

Thanks Noell. Getting down to the core now.

Got the CPU ID'ed. (I may just order it now)

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6600 2.4 GHZ EM64T 1066MHZ RETAIL BOXED $227

Pretty close on the motherboard. I too am a bit suspect of the different chipset setup but I'll read over that review. That price is hard to pass up.

The last thing is memory. Mwave seems lacking there. I'm out of touch on memory but their pricing for it is dramatically different than what I'm seeing on Newegg. I was thinking 1GB was enough for me (I have that now and don't use it 99% of the time) but Vista is probably in my future (waiting for them to service pack it) so then I thought about 2GB and on their site the best they offer is Crucial 2GB DDR2 667 for $94. Uh, great price but I think I want 800 don't I? And that price seems about half what I thought it would be.

BTW, this is two pieces of 1GB sticks. Not sure if that's still an issue or not but we had the whole dual channel ram thing the last time I went through this.

[noell]

Get 2GB of RAM composed of two 1GB sticks. PC6400 is the way to go.
You don't need "premium" high speed RAM unless you plan to over-clock.
Something like this would be fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146118


...Noell