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This is a really nice motherboard (only downfall is it only supports 8GB DDR2). It is designed for the AMD 64 X2/Phenom processor. Has built in WiFi, GB lan, 8.1 Channel Surround Sound, Built in RADI 0/1/0+1, 4 PCIE x16 slots( w/ Crossfire support), front side bus of 2600Mhz. It's an all around nice board.
Do you have a budget you have to stay in or do you just want the best out to the public market? What are you using it for? Gaming, Main Desktop, Workstation, Fun, Major Computing, boredom reliever?
@ psychocoder:how is 8GBs of RAM a drawback? isnt that the max that a 64-bit operatin system runs?
It depends what you are looking for. a good gaming mobo is one that has atleast 1 PCIe 16x slot, a frontside bus of 1066MHz+ and can use SATA cables for HDs and DVD drives.
If you need t be cheap, this one looks pretty good seeing as its cheap and has average specs. I have a $30 mobo and its great.
It depends on what you're going to be running it for. In my gaming PC I have an EVGA 680i SE SLI, which overclocks great and is very stable (E6600 @ 3.375GHz with XFX P31 BIOS on air). Not the best board, but for the $150 I paid, I couldn't be happier.
If you want SLI, get a 780i board, either EVGA or XFX. If you don't want SLI, a P35 board is good, or an X38. The X48 boards are out now (a few anyways) but they are expensive and not very mature. 680i boards are still nice and have gotten less expensive, so there's another option.
One thing to look at before you buy is, what kind of RAM do you want to use? DDR2, DDR3? DDR3 is expensive now but you may want it in the future. Say you get a CPU with 1333MHz bus, you'll only be able to run it with a 1:1 ratio of CPU to RAM with overclocked RAM. With DDR3 at higher speeds, you can overclock the CPU and keep the RAM stock and still run at a 1:1. Just some food for thought.
This post has been edited by .Maleficus.: 6 Apr, 2008 - 03:17 PM
Thats pretty kickass. I have 2GBs and I know its a great amount, but I really wish I had just bought the 4GB dual channel kit when I built the computer.
Nice, my mobo only has 2 memory slots, so that was a bad choice on my part for buying this mobo, but it really doesn't matter seeing as I got it for $30. The computer im on gets a full 2 points better on the vista rating system than my neighbors and costed 1/3 the price. He paid over 1500 for his and I skimmed by with a nice $550, so 2GBs of RAM works out well for me. Runs Adobe Premiere CS3 perfect so there really is no need for 4GBs, just a want
Well, all depends first of all what kind of computer You need. Something durable for work, wich is quiet, or a serius game platform. I'm a reseller of computers, since mid of 2005. What I write here is my personal opinion.
For "work" computers for office use only and internet, go for some integrated gpu mobo. MSI K9N6SGM-V/K9N6PGM-FI/K9N6PGM-F are made for this task. I think they where the best. I used Gigabyte and asus and abit mobo too, but since these are out, i only use them for office machines. Offers all what You need in an office. BUT right after buying any of them, be sure to change the stock chipset cooler. And I DO mean it. an Athlon X2 BE-2350 cpu and 2x1 Gbyte ram will do the trick. Relaible, not too strong but way stronger than You need in an office. I love them, as much as my consumers.
For games.. Well, bit harder. A good mobo.. Well, I like MSI as they make prety decent stuff. You could go for K9A2 Platinum V2 from MSI on intel line. Nice mobo, top level, supports quad-core and so on.
But to be honest, best buy for games is not intel in the high-end class. For intel line, and high-end, I would go with MSI P35 Diamond. It supports DDR3 800/1066/1333 and up (over-clocking). And currently has the most advanced memory controller for intel cpus.
For buying something for gaming, but You wan't a good price/value, get a good old MSI K9N Diamond, and a nice dulacore athlon. I think x2 6400+ is at fair price now, well at least here... Games are not allway optimised for quad-core, so this dualcore thingy is enough. More than enough. Be sure to buy the lowest latency memory, and get 8Gbyte ram. It uses ddr2, it is cheap now. As for vga card maching this, go for 9600 gt. It makes a nice gaming platform, not high-end, but will serve for a good time.
Off course other makers than MSI offer mobos with the same chipset, and there are good choices from intel-dualcores.
So...conclusion is, I prefer MSI, thats why I wrote that maker. The chipsets these mobos come are in my opinion are the best in class. Some may argue with this statement, some may not. It is my personal opinion. I'm not an AMD fanboy, only in office machines I force the athlon BE, becouse it is a "cool" one, with a nice heatsink it can stay as a passive cooled thing, with a medium case airflow it will stay cool, stable, and quiet.
As for dualcores, well... Intel has made nice core2duo CPUs, You can aim for them with the same MSI P35 or equivalent chipset mobo. You can upgrade to quad-core with no need to change the mobo. For long terms it would be better *maybe* than the K9N4.
So again, it depends the lifecycle You would want for this computer, the price You are willing to pay for it, and purpose of the thing, and what CPU You chose. Note, that AMD systems have CPU integrated memory controller, while intel does not. For a decent intel mobo, You have to search for the best memory controller.
27 Mar, 2008 - 03:23 PM
(Well not "the limit" but you get the point.)
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