Need a new motherboard

[Baraktur]

Okey, I have never EVER bought a motherboard before so alittle help would be appreciated. I need to know what to look at on my components to see if they fit with a motherboard, and it would be greatly appreciated if you could tell me what I need to look at so far I've got: (No idea if this is the right info but it's the best guess I could do.)

memory card(s): DDR2
Graphics card: PCI-E
Cpu: *Will buy a new one*
Sound Card: (Have one, don't know if it will fit but if not I will get one later on)
Power Supply: - - -(No idea if this matters so post if it does.)

Well if that isn't enough information then post what I need to look at, to post more information on my components, to check with motherboards (if they are compatible).

Anyways I need help with choosing a new motherboard, I have about 235 dollars ~ 160 euro to spend. I'm not sure if that's enough maybe I have to save some more. Just tell me if that's enough.

[8igdave]

So your buying ram,cpu,gpu and motherboard?

For starters DDR3 is a total waste of money. Its not much faster then DDR2 and this can only be detected in benchmarks Or if your dealing with extremely large amounst of data on your pc.

So basicaly just get some DDr2 ram. Any 800mhz DDR2 ram will do really, the faster ram is used by overclocekrs to achive faster cpu speeds and shows no benefits over the slower ram really. 4gb of DDR2 and your set. Make sure you get vista 64 bit with it though.

Im presuming your not overclocking so its going to cost quite a bit more to get a decent cpu. But that depends on your total budget.

Motherboard wize. Get a P35 motherboard. The Gigabyte DS3L is cheap. Has some good features like gigabyte lan etc which are normaly found on the more expensive motherboards. Should you ever feel the need to push your cpu further and get some free performannce from it, its not a bad overclocker either.

[Baraktur]

Actually that was a typo on the memory cards :mrgreen: But that was some really interesting info, thanks.

Edit: as I said earlier I'm looking for a motherboard that is COMPATIBLE with my components, so the information found on the first post is basically my computer components that I wish to put in the new motherboard.

Oh and that motherboard is good and all but it's about half the money I wish to spend couse I don't really want my stuff to be outdated in the next 4 months.. :rolleyes:

[Nonym]

Graphics card: DDR3
The kind of memory (i.e. DDR2 or DDR3) your graphics card uses doesn't make a difference to your motherboard.
The thing that will make a difference is whether your graphics card is PCI-e or an older AGP card.

Sound Card: (Have one, don't know if it will fit but if not I will get one later on)
Most motherboards these days have a pretty good on-board sound card, I don't see a need for a separate sound card.
Otherwise, I would assume the sound card is PCI, which should still be supported on most new motherboards.

Power Supply: - - -(No idea if this matters so post if it does.)Should be ok as long as the one you have isn't too old.
(Only brought this up because my motherboard is about 5 years old and still uses a 20-pin power plug :p)

Also, how many hard drives and CD/DVD drives do you have, and are they IDE or SATA drives?
You can find a motherboard with older IDE plugs, but usually there's only one plug (which can support up to two drives). If you have more than one hard drive and one CD or DVD drive, that might limit your choices.

I'm going to agree with 8igdave, and suggest the DS3L, unless you have older parts it would be incompatible with. It uses the same chipset as most other intel boards twice the price, and it won't get outdated any faster.
With a motherboard you usually pay more for extra features not extra 'power'. It doesn't sound like you want any of the extra features you would get from a more expensive board, and a high end chipset would probably be out of your price range.

[8igdave]

The differences between the Cheap P35 boards and the expensive ones are:

1)Expensive boards have 2x PCI-E x16 ports. But one of them is actually only x4. To suppor crossfire

2)They overclock to higher FBS speeds before crappign out.

3)They have better raid options/Wireless/dual gigabyte lan or even just single/more sata or usb ports.

4)have better voltage increments or ram divider incimentns for overclocking or more tools for overclockign.

There really isn't any reason to buy the more expensive ones if you dont use the bits on them.

The next step up is teh X38.

The X38 is even more expensive and has the same overclocking potential as the more expensive but still cheaper P35 boards. It has PCI-E 2 compatibility and 2x PCI-E x16 slots which both run at x16 power instead of 1 at x4.

The only reason to buy X38 over P35 is if you ahve money to burn andn want PCI-E 2 on your motherboard. Which will most probably not be taken advantage of for some years to come.

The difference between PCI-E 1 and 1.1 has yet to emerge ad the difference between APG x8 and PCI-E has still yet to really show its self. PCI-E 2 is jumpingh the gun i think.

[Baraktur]

I have the Leadtek GeForce WinFast PX8600 GT Heatpipe 256MB which says something on the box "PCI EXPRESS" So that's got to be PCI-E right? It's got Nvidia marks all over it and stuff (And I would like to get a newer motherboard, I know if feels like going a step further but it feels like the gaming industry is at such a competitive state that it wouldn't feel right to buy a cheap one :confused:..) My friend says he bought a DS3R-P35, It seems decent, not as much as I wanted to spend, its alot cheaper than what I wanted to spend but just tad bit more expensive than what you suggested 8igdave. I really don't know if it's better.

I only have one harddrive and one Cd Dvd whatever.. (How do I check if they are IDE or Sata drives without opening the computer case? Couse it's a really hassle opening that one, I have to buy a new one, maybe with some leftover money I can buy a better one :\)

[Nonym]

I have the Leadtek GeForce WinFast PX8600 GT Heatpipe 256MB which says something on the box "PCI EXPRESS" So that's got to be PCI-E right?
Yeah, thats PCI-e. That'll be compatible with just about anything you'd be looking at buying.

My friend says he bought a DS3R-P35, It seems decent, not as much as I wanted to spend, its alot cheaper than what I wanted to spend but just tad bit more expensive than what you suggested 8igdave. I really don't know if it's better.
It uses the same P35 chipset, so it'll be the same as the DS3L performance wise.
Glancing over the specs for each, it looks like for the extra price your friend got:
- RAID
- 4 more SATA ports
- 4 more USB ports
- Some overclocking tools
Unless you think you'll use any of these there's not much point paying for more.


I only have one harddrive and one Cd Dvd whatever.. (How do I check if they are IDE or Sata drives without opening the computer case? Couse it's a really hassle opening that one, I have to buy a new one, maybe with some leftover money I can buy a better one :\)Ok, not too sure about this - I don't use windows myself.
But having a quick look around it looks like most P35 boards still have an IDE port so you should be alright even with older IDE drives.

[8igdave]

Right click on my computre. Go to propertys and device manager. Find your optical drive ad hard drive and copy their names. May be ale to tell from them.

But really the easyest way to tell is to open your case up and see if there is a big ribbon cable going into your hard drive or optical drive. Make sure you are not lookig at the floppy drive which also uses a similar ribon cable.

My last pc was 3 years old and had a sata hard drive and a IDE dvd WR.

In the pc world spending more doesn't always equal better. Future proofing is also what would appear to be impossible. Usualy there is a new set of top end graphics cards out every 6/7 months. However because of ATI's bad competition to Nvida we have had the same 8800 series for over a year now. CPU's seem to go through a new series every year.

Its best to buy cheaper parts and upgrade regualy i think youll find. However, how comes you want to spend so much on a motherboard but only have a 8600GT?


Ok, not too sure about this - I don't use windows myself.
But having a quick look around it looks like most P35 boards still have an IDE port so you should be alright even with older IDE drives.

Lynix freak :p


:EDIT:

There is a website begining with a B which you can use and it tells you the spec of your pc. I cant remember it though lol.

[Baraktur]

the reason was because it's expensive as hell and at that moment I didn't have the money for it. But my graphics card supports directx 10 and I think it will do well on running W.A.R so that's why I bought it, and it did cost a lot, so it's not like it's a cheap a** graphics card :rolleyes:

The reason I'm spending this kind of money on a new motherboard is because I need a new one and I might aswell get me a good one. anyways, explain to me what RAID is and what could be useful with 4 more sata ports. And I will probably have my new motherboard next week.

Edit: I live in two diffrent places (Seperated parents), but I could probably make a minor detour and take a look at my computer harddrive.

[8igdave]

the reason was because it's expensive as hell and at that moment I didn't have the money for it. But my graphics card supports directx 10 and I think it will do well on running W.A.R so that's why I bought it, and it did cost a lot, so it's not like it's a cheap a** graphics card :rolleyes:

The reason I'm spending this kind of money on a new motherboard is because I need a new one and I might aswell get me a good one. anyways, explain to me what RAID is and what could be useful with 4 more sata ports. And I will probably have my new motherboard next week.

Edit: I live in two diffrent places (Seperated parents), but I could probably make a minor detour and take a look at my computer harddrive.

8600 may support DX10 but it doesn't have the power to run any of the dx10 features veryt well without big performance hits. So really its a gimic.

As for raid. Raid is useless unless you are moving very big files etc. Therefore i doubt you need it.

And sata porst are what you connect your optical drives etc into. I doubt you will need that many.

[Baraktur]

I feel like swearing.. alot.. ._.
I bought it like 6 months ago, and now you're telling me it's crap.. great.. Why would they make a graphics card with directx 10 support if it would be crap anyways?! f**k.. ok ehm.. I'll buy the one you suggested, I'll wait two months and then I can afford a 8800 GTS. But with the new 9xxx series I could probably hold on EVEN though alot of people say it isn't that much of a difference but still it's a difference.

[Nonym]

I wouldn't call it crap, it's still fairly good, but the 8600's were always mid-range cards - the 8800's are the high-end performance cards.

As 8igdave said, you may be better off sticking with mid-range parts and upgrading regularly, rather than trying to future-proof your PC with high-end parts.

[8igdave]

I feel like swearing.. alot.. ._.
I bought it like 6 months ago, and now you're telling me it's crap.. great.. Why would they make a graphics card with directx 10 support if it would be crap anyways?! f**k.. ok ehm.. I'll buy the one you suggested, I'll wait two months and then I can afford a 8800 GTS. But with the new 9xxx series I could probably hold on EVEN though alot of people say it isn't that much of a difference but still it's a difference.

Its not "crap" its all subjective. Im an enthusiast if its not the fastests i dont buy it pritty much. The 8600 is the same power of the 7800 series and the 1950 series. They were both the top power cards not so long ago untill the 8800s came out.

These cards will run the gamse fairly well but dont expect to max the more graphical games out.

The next graphics card series will always be quite a bit more powerful then the last. But they also on release start at £400+ for the high end ones. The 9600 coming out is not high end and will be slower rthen the 8800s.

Id suggest you wait until the new cards come out. If you catn afford them well the 8800s will be alot cheaper.

[Baraktur]

Yeah I had a conversation with my friend who's a huge computer fan, he told me that I should wait for the 9600 or the 9800. They come out in like 21 of february or something. I just hope that the DS3L P35 motherboard will support it. Now I need to put my graphics card up for sale and hope for a bite :D

[8igdave]

NOOOO. Dont sell your card. Where did he get this info from?

The only rumour is that of the 9600. The 8800 GX2 has yet to come out or some call it the 9800 GX2. This is just two 8800GT's stuick together most people expect. This is just sli 8800GTs which does not mean twice the power of a single one. Unless the game supports SLI very well you may only get a 20% boost from the other card. The average between games seems to be about 40% extra performance boost.

Selling your card in antisipation of a new graphics card is usualy a bad idea. Dead lines change. The 8800GTS got pushed back months before release. And the 9600 is not going to be a very powerful card. its to combat ATI in the mid to low end market i belive as thats where ATI is strongest.

Its highly unlikely Nvida will bring out their new top end cards till Q2-3 as there is no competition from ATI and they know that once they bring them out alot of people will switch from 8800 to 9800 (guesed name, it may not be called that).

The rumours of the names are oftern done on the Chip name. The 8800 GT amd GTS both have the G92 chip as aposed to the G80 (i think its called that) chip in the 8800's. Everyone thought the 8800GT and GTS were going to be the new flagship cards but they turned out to be slower then the 8800GTX and ultra. Dont beleive things untill you get solid evidence.

[Baraktur]

okay, but I'm getting one of those cards.. and it will take me atleast two months to just afford one of them so I'm just gonna purchase my motherboard and wait for some reviews :-D thanks for the advice!