The Mother Board

[kidfrankie]

As a newbie to the forums I thought it would be nice to say hello before asking for some advice so HELLO to you all

I am after a little advice please about motherboards

I purchased a thermaltake Tsunami case a few years back which has been sitting in a corner (Still in original packing) and I thought to myself that I would finally get around to building my first p.c. now that I have some funds available

I will be using the p.c. for both business and pleasure although mainly surfing the net and sharing files + a little bit of gaming (Mainly driving games and sub Sims)

What I am after is some advice on motherboards, Now I was thinking of purchasing a bundle due to the fact it would be easier for me as my knowledge about this kind of thing is limited and also the fact I will know that all the items will work well together, I have a budget of £500 to £700 for a motherboard bundle but this price must also include a decent graphics card to, I’m ok for all other components but the motherboard bundle is what I am stuck on so I would appreciate any help or advice you may be able to give me (I.E where to purchase and recomedations for motherboard bundles)

I have been told that bundles may not be the route to go down as i would not know who put the thing together and also the cost is usualy put up and performance is not a guarantee so if a bundle is not the route to go down a little advice on a decent board and processor would be great


Many thanks and your help is much appreciated

[franbo73]

Since I don't know much about components costs in british pound compared to the dollar I will convert your 500 - 700 pound budget to around $800-$1100 US. For that you can defintely get a good P55 motherboard running i5 with a good graphics card. The problem is that DX 11 is out and there is a small premium that you have to pay for the ATI DX 11 cards since they cost more than comparable performing ATI DX 10 cards.

IMO, the obvious cpu and motherboard to get is the i5 and a P55 motherboard. The only difference between the i5 and i7 CPUs (not counting socket 1366 i7) is hyperthreading but for your purposes, 4 cores should be more than enough. The i5's are also very overclockable, so they can run faster or just as fast as the i7 8xx.

Three very good candidates for the MB with i5 are:
GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD4P
MSI P55-GD65
ASUS P7P55D

all priced around $150. With the i5, the cost of the CPU and MB should be around $350. Get some good aftermarket cooling and a good PSU, you should be able to overclock it to around 3.7 to 4.0 GHz.
A set of 4GB Gskill dual channel DDR3 memory runs around $100 and a good Corsair 750W PSU runs around $100.

You can get a ATI 4870 1GB for around $150 that should be good enough to run your driving and Sims games.

The core of this system, CPU, MB, memory, PSU, aftermarket cooler, video card is around $750 US (£447). You have some money left in your budget to get a hardrive and an optical drive to complete your system.

This setup should be futureproof and last for at least a few years (longer if you can upgrade your graphics card to a DX11 card in the future). I am waiting for nvidia to launch their DX11 cards so I can see which card to get and maybe even the DX10 cards will drop in price.

You can look for MB combo deals on Newegg to stretch out your budget. If you want to do some more research, two sites I find very helpful are:
http://www.tomshardware.com
http://www.bit-tech.net

I don't really like bundles as I like to buy the components I want to fit my budget so I know, for that pricepoint, I am getting a good product. Bundles usually will give you good key components such as CPU and skimp on the quality of memory or PSU which are just as important as the CPU when it comes to the longevity of the system. Hope this helps.

[Karlsweldt]

Welcome to Motherboards.org!
Our "front page" has a lot of reviews for motherboards and processors, as too for memory. The important part is to match memory and processor to the board's design.
Some of those 'bundled' setups do have the basic needs, such as board and CPU. Some may include memory, most do not. But the cost of the package is lowered by those extra programs included as promotional by other providers. Some of that programming may be useful, maybe not.
But you should build your system around your needs, not accept a package that is close or has the best price.
While www.newegg.com/ does not yet have services world-wide, they do have attractive packages that are sure to fill your needs.. to get an idea of pricing and model availability. www.tigerdirect.com/ is another source, and does have world-wide service. You may also find great deals locally.

Put together a listing of what components you are interested in, and post that here for recommendations on value.
With newer systems, the power supply (PSU) should be at least 450 watts, preferably 550 watts. If your case does not have a PSU with that rating, you should consider a new PSU.
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