My old system is getting, well...too old, too cluttered. I'm still running a Socket 462 (A) Athlon XP on an ASUS A7V600X mobo, with 768MB. I'd throw in two sticks of 1GB, but in all reality, DDR is twice as expensive as DDR2, and what the hell...I'm thinking of just relegating this machine to basic stuff and building me another one...something I can do some decent music composition on and that will handle all my CAD stuff (including new parametric modeling, etc.) with ease.

I could care less about uber graphics power, as I don't do any 3D gaming, and don't plan to start now.

I can pick and choose other components easily, but the bottom line is this: I'd like to know everybody's favorite motherboards. I've had 3 MSI's (one was an early Socket 939/SLI board that was a pain in the ass, another shit the bed when the north bridge chip melted down-most likely due to insufficient cooling), and I have an el-cheapo Socket 939 with the el cheapo ATI chipset that works flawlessly in my dad's office computer.

Tell me what you think, fellow geeks.

7/6/2009 10:35:46 AM

I think most fellow geeks are on Intel

But my favorite motherboard manufacturer's are Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI in that order.

7/6/2009 11:08:29 AM

post in the perpetual new computer thread.

and yea, intel is winning the mobo/processor best value for your $$ race right now. don't bother with AMD.

7/6/2009 11:16:09 AM

Well, unless I'm technologically shooting myself in the foot, I prefer AMD...the only Intel processor I own is an N270 Atom in my netbook.

I am much more of an underdog kind of guy...and don't like buying Intel unless it's a stupid good deal with obvious architecture benefits.

7/6/2009 11:25:47 AM

The biggest problem with getting a non-intel CPU is getting a non-intel chipset. Every chipset ever made for an AMD proc is shit, no exceptions.

Pick yourself a core2duo and find a mobo from a reputable brand with a p45 or better chipset.

7/6/2009 11:31:21 AM

if you go AMD, get the X4 940 with an nforce chipset, that's about the only hope you have of keeping up with the times.

Quote :

"Well, unless I'm technologically shooting myself in the foot"

The charts speak for themselves:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

[Edited on July 6, 2009 at 11:53 AM. Reason : .]

7/6/2009 11:50:36 AM

Quote :

"unless I'm technologically shooting myself in the foot, I prefer AMD"

you are. i mean, if you like wasting money.. go right ahead. but personally i like the best value for my $$

i remember when AMD was the cheaper/faster/more aweomerest alternative. it's just not the case anymore.

7/6/2009 11:56:18 AM

I'm going to go ahead and disagree and say the phenom ii x4 940 is a great deal for the money. true, amd chipsets arent as good as intel's, but at that price point its hard to beat with a similar spec'd intel.

[Edited on July 6, 2009 at 12:20 PM. Reason : ]

7/6/2009 12:20:52 PM

I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with that.

The Intel i7 920 is only $70 more and you get 45% more performance than the X4 940, AMD doesn't have anything remotely close to that.

$10 more if you have Microcenter nearby:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727

[Edited on July 6, 2009 at 12:39 PM. Reason : .]

7/6/2009 12:38:23 PM

2 things:
with a 939, you are stuck buying ddr1 memory which is expensive as fuck
amd makes their own chipsets now since they bought ati

I would look at frys for the super cheap combos

and though it adds nothing to the thread

Quote :

"one was an early Socket 939/SLI board that was a pain in the ass, another shit the bed when the north bridge chip melted down-most likely due to insufficient cooling"

939 boards don't have northbridges... the memory controller is on the processor

7/6/2009 12:43:06 PM

If you end up going with a DDR1 board, I have 2x512mb pc3200 sticks I'll sell you for a decent discount to ebay if you're interested.

7/6/2009 1:23:07 PM

I have a AMD w/ socket 939 ASUS mobo. Has been my workhorse/gaming machine for the past 4 years.


mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131517

my 939: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103537


I will be upgrading and building a new beast this October when windows 7 hits the stands.

7/6/2009 1:27:09 PM

This thread made me evaluate upgrading my CPU from a Core2Duo E6750 to some type of Core2Quad, but I'm using an MSI P6N Platinum SLI, which doesn't support 45nm processors.

which means the only Quad Core I can put in this fucking mobo is Q6600.

I mean, it's an upgrade, but I wouldn't mind some more options before I'm forced to upgrade the board. The i7 is just too much at the moment. New board, new CPU, and new memory. bleh.

7/6/2009 4:40:18 PM

If you're doing something that will benefit from 2 more cores, then its worth doing. Otherwise you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot with a lower clockspeed. (E6750 to Q6600)

7/6/2009 4:48:14 PM

Quote :

"939 boards don't have northbridges... the memory controller is on the processor"

that was a 462, not a 939.

7/6/2009 9:51:22 PM

I've got an Asus M3N78 Pro now... don't like it nearly as much as the M2N-SLI Deluxe before it. Both have bulletproof nVidiot chipsets.

7/6/2009 10:27:49 PM

Quote :

"If you're doing something that will benefit from 2 more cores, then its worth doing. Otherwise you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot with a lower clockspeed. (E6750 to Q6600)"

You sure about this? It has 2x the L2 cache. The above chart has it doubling the performance. I wonder how much multi-threading had to do with that test.

7/6/2009 10:28:22 PM

most of those tests are theoretical multithreading things that have no real practical use. If you wanted to compare procs, pick some site that does real world tests (video encoding/specific game testing) that corrispond with your general usage.

7/7/2009 3:16:27 PM

you should buy this, now

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.213493

7/8/2009 10:39:19 AM

just had my 5 year old ASUS mobo (had an Athlon 2400 circa 2003) fry a couple months ago, but besides that it seemed solid enough

7/8/2009 5:53:57 PM