I'm in the market for a new Motherboard, my Intel Pent. III is getting old and I don't have the right slots to upgrade to a newer Nvidia Video Card. It has built in Video.

With all the different types available I'm confused. I'm not a gamer, but I do use the CPU for DVD's. Lets see you have the AMD Athlon 64, AMD Sempron, Intel Celeron D, Intel Pentium. I will be pulling out some of my newer additions like the harddrives and the DVD RW and the ethernet card if one does not come with the mobo. And what exactly is Raid?

Any help appreciated,

RV

Mandrivia 2006
Pent. III

RAID = redundant array of independent disks. it can be set up in different ways to provide more speed, or more backup security. if you don't know what it is, you probably don't need it. or u can google.

what's your budget? normally i would get AMD for the value, but for a lot of video i would consider Intel with HT. i think support for A64 is pretty good by now, but i haven't following it too closely yet. it seems that there are still some problems here and there. so i would either get a sempron (which i think in most cases is basically just a repackaged athlon :roll: ), or a P4.

once i decided on the cpu, i'd check newegg for mobos with a lot of recs, and then see how compatible it is with linux. search the review for keyword linux, and also check LQ's hardware guide. gl

As a very general comment, the options available today a much, much different than what was available in the P-III days. Realistically, if you are planning on buying a new mobo, then it's probable that you would also be in the market for a new CPU, new RAM, possible new hard drives, and new video and sound cards. If so, you'll want to make certain of a few things:

1. The CPU socket type matches the mobo's socket type
2. The CPU's front-side bus speed (FSB) is supported by the mobo
3. Your RAM is compatible with the mobo's supported RAM speed
4. The mobo's video card slot (PCI, AGP, PCIe) is compatible with your video card
5. The mobo contains sufficient expansion slots (USB, PCI) to accommodate your requirements

That said, there is no real, true, "best" answer -- different people will recommend different products. As for me, I'd suggest an AMD CPU, Asus mobos, Western Digital drives, and Kingston RAM. My best rig has an AMD Athlon x86_64 3200+ chip, on an Asus mobo, running 1G of Kingston RAM. I know it's not as impressive as other LQ'ers rigs, but for me it totally rocks.

Good luck with it and Welcome to LQ!

Thanks for your reply and to the other guy!

looks pretty good, but i would be wary of a case with 450w PSU for $30. what is it, can you provide a link?


>>just checking out their site, looks like they have some nice A64 barebones systems, might have to put together a MythTV box after all.

Good Luck
RV

hey im gonna build a pc quite soon, and i'm really excited about the dual core stuff, instead of hyperthreading...i'm including my specs and price, but its in pound coz im in the uk...
btw my memory is pc5300ddr2,coz my mobo needs that....and i need the mobo for the dual core, tho u can get a dualcore-compatible mobo with onboard vgs...

Intel Pentium® 4 D 930 Dual core 2x3.0GHz 800FSB LGA775 2x2MB cache Retail inc.Fan
£140.12

Asus P5ND2-SLI nForce 4 Skt 775 Dual SLI PCIe16, Gb LAN, 1394, USB2, 8ch.audio, SATA/RAID Prescott and Dual-Core compatible
Network adapter - Intel 82540EM - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet
Chipset Type NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition / NVIDIA nForce4 SLI MCP04
£60.45

Geil® Value DDR2 1.0GB PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 512mb) 667MHz (4-4-4-12)
with Aluminium heat spreader - gx21gb5300dc
£80.84

XFX GeForce 6500 256MB DDR2, PCI-E, DVI, TV Out, Retail
£37.84

250 GB Seagate Barracuda® SATA2 7200rpm 8MB cache oem(ST3250824AS)
£56.75

total = £376

btw about the "front-side bus speed (FSB)" - i dont kno the details, but basically u need to make sure ur processor's fsb in the specs (eg on intel.com or amd.com) matches the one ur mobo says in its specs - its typically about 533Mhz for some old pcs, 800Mhz for the current ones and about 1066Mhz for the latest ones...

The FSB basically is how fast data can be transferred between the CPU and the other components of the system. The higher the number, the better. Regardless of the actual speed though, for best results the maximum FSB the mobo can support should be the same as the CPU's FSB. (There's no point in spending extra money for one component if the other runs slower)

Regarding a case + 450W PSU selling for only $30, I'd have to say "Be Careful!!". In my opinion the PSU is a critically important component, and you don't want to buy some random, no-name mystery brand. Seriously, if your PSU is some cheap low quality product, it can very easily malfunction and fry your CPU, mobo, and RAM simultaneously. It happened to me, and trust me I won't make the same mistake again. Go with a reputable, recognized manufacturer, such as Antec.

Ya i agree with JW for the performance part and i also i dont go for INTEL's DUAL CORE processors ......... Is AMD not manufactureing any dual core?? i guess it is ......so go for it
Asus P5ND2-SLI the mobo you chose. i read about it and its fsb supports yours dont worry
read the info here
http://www.hothardware.com/viewartic...leid=675&cid=3
BUT one emphasis i would make is COOLING OF THE SYSTEM i would rather go for say 2.8 ghz instead of 3.0 ghz processor just because i have a tight budget and i spent some money on a good cooling system ..... (getting the picture ?) cooling really effects the performance ....

Ya i agree with JW for the performance part and i also i dont go for INTEL's DUAL CORE processors ......... Is AMD not manufactureing any dual core?? i guess it is ......so go for it
Asus P5ND2-SLI the mobo you chose. i read about it and its fsb supports yours dont worry
read the info here
http://www.hothardware.com/viewartic...leid=675&cid=3
BUT one emphasis i would make is COOLING OF THE SYSTEM i would rather go for say 2.8 ghz instead of 3.0 ghz processor just because i have a tight budget and i spent some money on a good cooling system ..... (getting the picture ?) cooling really effects the performance ....

Ask yourself what you want to do with that, what kind of performance you’re looking for. What is it you will use it the most?

What i will use the most is my computer and i have seen termendous diffenrence in computer's productivity in winter and summer times (the ambient temperature difference is like 15-20 degrees, so imagine what you dooooooo looose in summer times ? (atleaset here summer or HOT season ins linke for 8-9 months atleast the remaining 3 months its cold so I atleast would consider an able cooling system for my computer first...
thats just me a hermit from pakistan
usually people dont give much attention but i always recommend them to think twice about that

Why not? I just built a media rig with one of the dual-core Pentium D CPUs and it's pretty snappy. It's got two HDTV cards in it with a total of 3 tuners and I can record two streams and watch one without it getting jerky at all and that's on Windows Media Center, not even linux!

All in all, I'm more and more impressed with it the more I see.

I do not recommend Seagate hard drives and ASUS for motherboards because Seagate hard drives are not reliable as people think and ASUS does not make quality motherboards.

I suggest the following for a budget system:
Abit NF-95 (socket 939)
AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+
two 512 MB DDR ECC
hard drive from either Hitachi or Western Digital
GeForce6 6200 or stick with the on-board graphics
mini-tower or mid-tower case (without power supply)
400+ watt power supply from either Zalman, Enermax, Seasonic, Power and Cooling
TEAC 1.44 MB Floppy
Any DVD drive

If you want the best sound for DVD movies buy either Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1LT or Terratek Aereon Space.

Intel processors are poor performers and they can literally be used as hot plate. I recommend AMD processors. AMD processors beats Intel processors in media tests. AMD processors uses a lot less power than Intel processors, so less power, less heat.

I do not recommend Antec power supplies because you have to buy their top of the line just to get a quality power supply. The power supply brands that I mention above are much better than Antec. Seasonic has the highest energy efficiency. I have a Seasonic S12-430 (430 watts) that works very well and it is quiet.

If you want to run Linux and Windows at the same time, look into AMD AM2 processors. They support virtual hardware instructions so a program from Xen Source can be used to run Linux and Windows at same time with only about 5% less performance when running a guest OS.