Who wants a motherboard workout?

[Zephik]

I'm feeling lazy right now, so if anyone is really really bored, knock yourself out and tell me which one out of all these motherboards is the best? I'm thinking about building a lil cheapo PC. I have everything but the motherboard and a PC case, so I'm trying to balance out the two with my itty bitty budget. I have somewhere around $150, so not too much, but enough to get a decent little setup for now.

Motherboard Palooza! (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=Property&N=2010200280&StoreType=7&CompareItemList=N82E16813186122%2cN82E16813135052% 2cN82E16813135042%2cN82E16813135051%2cN82E16813186 107%2cN82E16813127021%2cN82E16813127024%2cN82E1681 3128054%2cN82E16813135032&PropertyCodeValue=705%3a9908%2c706%3a22729%2c706%3 a22728%2c706%3a25638%2c3880%3a27176%2c3880%3a27177 %2c3880%3a27174%2c3880%3a27200%2c734%3a16878%2c125 6%3a16857%2c1256%3a10484%2c1256%3a23068%2c1256%3a1 8190%2c1256%3a16073%2c1256%3a29141%2c1256%3a18189% 2c1256%3a28253%2c1256%3a23538%2c1256%3a14567%2c125 6%3a10654%2c1256%3a22703%2c1256%3a23023%2c1256%3a2 9326%2c1256%3a10649&page=2&bop=And)

I was also looking at this motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128061), but forgot to include it into that scary list of boards above.

As you can see, nothing fancy. I'm looking for a board that has on-board video, 240pin DDR2 Memory, SATA, PCI-E X16, LGA-775 for my Pentium 4 but that also has support for Core 2 Duo so I can upgrade in the future. I think... thats basically it. Oh, well, I would rather it be pretty and unique instead of ugly, boring and plainly average. Like green and yellowish motherboards, blech! lol

Thanks for the help guys, this isn't on a rush request, so if your not bored enough at the moment, feel free to wait until you are. -_^

-Zephik (Previously SnowFire, for those who haven't been paying attention)

[dgrmkrp]

Unique?.. go for the one with the PCI 16x + PCI x4.. It looks different..

[Crazy Buddhist]

Ok health warning first :D this is not a highly thought out or researched response. I'm afraid boredom works the other way with me: it means you won't get one lol

This one from Foxconn looks great. I have used their boards before and I really like them. Very robust, quite pretty and at $53.99 after a $20 mail in rebate good value. Not a good overclocker from the sounds of it - but that is not what you are going for from the sounds of it. However the reviews say that the onboard graphics handles Vista quite capably and based on what I'm hearing that says a lot for the board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186107

edit I think dgr is talking bout the same board: that's one of the things I liked about my Foxconn's in the past: pretty little things and blue :)

[Spawn-Inc]

i say go with the gigabyte model in the first link. (i only say that since the two computers i've had, family ones, both were gigabyte boards. we haven't had any trouble with either one and the oldest one is 10 years now i think. but we haven't done any overclocking with them though.



Ok health warning first :D this is not a highly thought out or researched response. I'm afraid boredom works the other way with me: it means you won't get one lol

This one from Foxconn looks great. I have used their boards before and I really like them. Very robust, quite pretty and at $53.99 after a $20 mail in rebate good value. Not a good overclocker from the sounds of it - but that is not what you are going for from the sounds of it. However the reviews say that the onboard graphics handles Vista quite capably and based on what I'm hearing that says a lot for the board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186107

edit I think dgr is talking bout the same board: that's one of the things I liked about my Foxconn's in the past: pretty little things and blue :)

no i think he's talking about mine HA!, joking but he said one with pci x16 and pci x4 the board you linked to has pci x1 not a pci x4.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128054

[Crazy Buddhist]

no i think he's talking about mine HA!, joking but he said one with pci x16 and pci x4 the board you linked to has pci x1 not a pci x4.

How right you are.

[Zephik]

Well, I just thought of something. lol

I wasn't looking into overclocking, but, thats because I'm cooling on air. But its not a stock cooler, its a Blue Orb II. I bet I could get a small overclock with that right?

Btw, what the heck is a PCI-E X4? lol I've never even heard of that before...

[crenn]

It's PCIEx16 but with limited bandwidth. The slot might be in between the size of PCIEx1 and PCIEx16

[Zephik]

It's PCIEx16 but with limited bandwidth. The slot might be in between the size of PCIEx1 and PCIEx16

haha, yea I figured that much. :p

What I meant was more on the lines of, what the heck would or do you use it for? I've seen very few PCI-E x1 cards, MANY PCI-E x16, but never have I seen a PCI-E x4 card. Hmmm, I'll have to google that. Omg.. stand back.. I'm about to do actual work! :eek:

.....
Found this (http://www.orbitmicro.com/global/pciexpressx4tox16adapter-p-4568.html), pretty cool I guess. If I have a PCI-E x4 device, I can use it. But with this, I can change it into a PCI-E x16 at x4 speeds.

I bet they mention what its for on the products homepage.
.....
Product page says its for dual graphics. Right... what graphic card would that be now? lol


Also, I've decided that I would like to try my hand at a bit o' overclockin. Nothing big, just enough to maybe raise my 2.8 P4 to 3.0? or more maybe? How much do you guys think I could get on a Blue Orb II? It doesn't even get hot, on my last board at least. Under load, the Blue Orb II got slightly warm. But in this case, I'll have a closed case with airflow, unlike before. Hmmm... I guess it depends on the board too?

[crenn]

Decide on the temps of the PC. My HSF hardly gets warm, but the CPU can get very hot.

[Zephik]

Well I don't mind if things get a bit hot, just as long as its not overly damaging, especially to the motherboard. If it only affects the cpu, then I don't mind at all. I plan to replace it this winter, end of January at the latest. I NEED dual core performance, lol I feel like such a dork still using a damned P4.

I think I might of decided on a board. Maybe. This one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128054)? Someone mentions that it has some pretty easy/basic overclocking options in the Bios. If I can get to 3Ghz, I'll be happy. Anything more than that is just a bonus. lol

Ah man, I was seriously considering an attempt of splurging with the case. I REALLY want the Thermaltake Armor, except its $150. Makes sense I guess, that case was bad ass in the past, bad ass now, and will probably be bad ass in the future. Wish it was cheaper though, out of all the cases I have ever looked at, that case I have always liked. Some cases I like alot one moment, then the next I won't be interested in them. But the Armor has always held my respect and attention. ah well. Maybe I can upgrade that in the future too. lol man I hate spending money on things I don't need or already have though. I guess I'll just settle for the X-Dreamer (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144123). Thats a pretty nice looking case, not too fancy, not too plain. Pretty cheap too!

[Crazy Buddhist]

From Wikipedia:

"PCI Express, officially abbreviated as PCI-E or PCIe, is a computer expansion card interface format. It was designed to replace PCI, PCI-X (interface card interface) and AGP (graphics card interface). PCIe is based around serial links called lanes. The PCIe 1.1 specification supports x1 (pronounced "by one"), x2, x4, x8, x16, and x32 lanes." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express)

From Microsoft:

"Is an n-lane PCIe slot compatible with a p-lane PCIe graphics card, where p > n? Where n > p?

You cannot plug an x16 graphics card into an x8 slot. You can however, if you wish, plug an x8 card PCIe card into an x16 slot. A p-lane PCIe card will work at some speed in an n-lane PCIe slot, where n > p. This is not true if n < p."
(http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/PCIe_graphics.mspx)

And I can't find any PCIe x4 graphics cards so I dont know what they are talking about that being for dual graphics. plenty of x4 RAID controllers out there though. Fancy RAID? lol

[Spawn-Inc]

Also, I've decided that I would like to try my hand at a bit o' overclockin. Nothing big, just enough to maybe raise my 2.8 P4 to 3.0? or more maybe? How much do you guys think I could get on a Blue Orb II? It doesn't even get hot, on my last board at least. Under load, the Blue Orb II got slightly warm. But in this case, I'll have a closed case with airflow, unlike before. Hmmm... I guess it depends on the board too?

i see no problem in getting 3ghz from that, i have oc my old computer from 1.6ghz to 1.83ghz on stock cooling (i lapped the heatsink and cpu though, also went from a thermal pad (looked like aluminum duct tape) to AS5. and temps are still low. i forget what i changed though i don't think it was the multiplier.

specs of pld pc

pentium 4 1.6ghz ( 478 )
gigabyte 8IDX
896mb's of ram pc133 3-3-3-6 (512mb stick, 256mb stick, 128mb stick)
80gb+20gb hdd's
320watt psu


Well I don't mind if things get a bit hot, just as long as its not overly damaging, especially to the motherboard. If it only affects the cpu, then I don't mind at all. I plan to replace it this winter, end of January at the latest. I NEED dual core performance, lol I feel like such a dork still using a damned P4.

don't worry, i all (3) the pc's in my house are still p4's. once i get ram though it will be a quad!~!!!

[Zephik]

don't worry, i all (3) the pc's in my house are still p4's. once i get ram though it will be a quad!~!!!

haha, I suppose once I get dual core, I'll still be a dork because everyone else will either have quad or octo-cores! lol

Figures, I'm 8 dollars over. lol

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144123

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128054

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812101121

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119020

Need the power adapter for the built-in power supply with the case, but I also need the laptop to IDE converter so I don't have to buy another HDD for now. Seems like my SATA 320GB SeaGate doesn't work anymore. For whatever friggen reason I haven't a clue. Maybe it will work when I plug it into a fresh system. But it didn't work in my brothers PC or when I put it in an external case. ><

[Spawn-Inc]

can you rma it?

[Zephik]

can you rma it?

It's been months. It was probably, hmmm, maybe February when I bought it off newegg.

I'm going to see if my best friend has any HDD's he doesn't want or use. He has a pretty good collection going on. He uses most of them for storage for his laptop, has every one of them connected to a hub. lol Its pretty ridiculous if you ask me, he even carries a WD Passport around with him. :rolleyes:

[Eclecticos]

I'd recommend this one from your List. GIGABYTE! (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128054) <=-

[Zephik]

I'd recommend this one from your List. GIGABYTE! (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128054) <=-

Yea, I think I'm going to go with that one. Seems pretty good.

How high of an overclock do you guys think I can get out of my 2.8Ghz P4 with that board? I have a gig of Corsair Value Select Memory by the way, nothing great, but at least its not some weird crap brand. Also, just in case you weren't paying attention, I have a Thermaltake Blue Orb II (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106069&Tpk=Blue%2bOrb%2bII). I would venture a guess that it is just as good as a Zalman. Zalman being better with their CNPS9500 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223), but only by so much. Probably why the price for the Blue Orb II has been raised since I bought mine for like $35. Things friggen huge, its probably bigger than the Zalman.

[Spawn-Inc]

depending on how much you can do in bios i would guess 3.2 -3.4 maybe? like i said before i got mine to run stable at (from 1.6) 1.83ghz on stock cooling. with that blue orb i could probably go to 2ghz. i think i might go try 1.9ghz and see what happens.

[Zephik]

Sweet, 3.2 would be awesome! 3.4 might make me not care a whole lot for getting a Core 2 Duo anytime soon. lol

Whats better? A low Ghz dual core or a high Ghz single core? Maybe compare the best single core with the worse dual core? Which would be better?

[crenn]

Low GHz dual core. Hands down. Although, do you really need a C2D? Could always try AMD if you need a cheap dual core PC.

[dgrmkrp]

Long overdue, but the one I liked and thought it was unique was the ECS 945GCT-M, with 2x 16x, one of which is electrically 4x.

About the quote from the wiki, Tom's HW or Xbitlabs did an experiment to see whether a 16x video card is influenced by the 16x, 8x.. 1x. They just taped the surplus connections on the PCI-E side of the card and plugged it in. Some documenting was made before, they didn't just tape it. Their result: 16x is better than 8x, so all those with 2 cards in SLI or Xfire would have benefitted from upgrading their 2x 8x to 2x 16x. Nowadays, most boards are dual 16x, so no biggie there.

But, it proves that even the mightiest cards they used (before DX10) were capable of working at even 1x speed. Maybe someone else read the article.. and remembers it..

Anyways, looks like a good setup you have there. If the gigabyte board has nice OC capabilities, you could buy the cheapest core 2 you can and OC that.. A really fast single core could be better, but not an older P4.. Does anyone remeber the highly OC 805 CPU? It could get 4GHz+ but it is not so competitive today... And this is an old generation dual core. I'm going with the others and crenn on the dual core. Much better.

[Zephik]

Low GHz dual core. Hands down. Although, do you really need a C2D? Could always try AMD if you need a cheap dual core PC.

Don't worry, I'm not a fanboy. I've actually checked out AMD a few times. I like their motherboards alot more too. But it would cost me more to go AMD, even though I would be saving money on the motherboard and processor. Reason is, because I would be out over $40usd for a new heatsink. I only have the LGA775 brackets for my Blue Orb II. I had AM2 or something like that, but I haven't a clue where that mounting plate went.

Its also that the Core 2 Duo's are better than the AMD's currently. Even though that will change soon enough, but the motherboard I buy may not support the new line of processors, so I don't want to be out even more cash to get the new line of processors. I won't upgrade to a new processor until I have enough money to get a decent one, so when the time comes, I'll probably be looking at the E6600 or better/similar. Then I got to also be thinking about getting a new video card with DX10 support, I'm thinking this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102700) one.

So it would just be better if I went Core 2 Duo. Its not only cheaper in my case, its also better. ...and they run really cool from what I've heard too. So I would only guess that they last longer before they start degrading and slowing down. Although, I probably won't have the same processor or maybe even the same PC 5+ years from now.

Does anyone know what the nVidia equal to that card is? hehe, I might not be a processor or motherboard fanboy, but I AM a video card fanboy! nVidia FTW! ...not that I don't like ATI, and especially because they are owned by AMD now. nVidia is just more... of a fail proof brand. I don't think I have ever heard even once about a person complaining about their nVidia card. Plus, their name is just so much cooler sounding. It also has some pretty cool meaning behind it! It comes from roman word invidia, which means envy or jealousy. It is also personified as a female goddess, who wouldn't want a card thats namesake came from a hottie roman goddess? Thats just a FTW situation if I ever did see one. :p

invidia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invidia)



Anyways, looks like a good setup you have there. If the gigabyte board has nice OC capabilities, you could buy the cheapest core 2 you can and OC that.. A really fast single core could be better, but not an older P4.. Does anyone remeber the highly OC 805 CPU? It could get 4GHz+ but it is not so competitive today... And this is an old generation dual core. I'm going with the others and crenn on the dual core. Much better.

Thanks for the info! I was thinking that the dual core would be better. lol I was just trying to cheap my way out of it I guess. ...how MUCH better is it? THAT is the question! haha

Love the new sig btw dgrmkrp, very slimline and very nice looking. Not overly complicated either. It also seamlessly flows into your award too! Very nice.

...I'll give you FIVE dolla for it! lol :p

[Crazy Buddhist]

About the quote from the wiki, Tom's HW or Xbitlabs did an experiment to see whether a 16x video card is influenced by the 16x, 8x.. 1x. They just taped the surplus connections on the PCI-E side of the card and plugged it in. Some documenting was made before, they didn't just tape it. Their result: 16x is better than 8x, so all those with 2 cards in SLI or Xfire would have benefitted from upgrading their 2x 8x to 2x 16x. Nowadays, most boards are dual 16x, so no biggie there.

But, it proves that even the mightiest cards they used (before DX10) were capable of working at even 1x speed. Maybe someone else read the article.. and remembers it..

You're right. I've been reading up on this. 4x slots are physically smaller though. But you can dremel out the end of the slot, tape up the pins that stick out and away you go. The PCI-e architecture negotiates to use as many lanes as it can snatch. If a PCI-e x16 VGA card is in a slot with four lanes thats what it will use. Which is why you can buy x4 to x8 and x8 to x16 converters and they work.

In any case the old stylee split the bus x8 x8 SLI could never have been implemented if cards were not capable of using less than their maximum lanes. You just get a reduction in bandwidth.

Microslop's information on the bus architecture seems incorrect on this basis. However all the experiments and logs I have found about doing this were based on systems running XP and the full capabilities of the PCI-e architecture are not implemented in XP but only Vista onwards. It may be that under vista these mods wouldn't succeed.

What use a x4 PCI-e slot is for graphics I don't know. There are some old PCI-e x1 Graphics cards I have seen from Matrox which would work in the slot but that was it. And it certainly would not seem likely to support SLI so it would basically be for running low graphics demands multiple monitor systems I guess. O/w it looks like SATA Raid, one soundcard and a few other oddities you could slap in there at this point in time.

[crenn]

May I suggest this graphics card?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122034

EDIT: Errr.... I mean this one!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122024

[dgrmkrp]

In that article they were scientifically.. trying.. to find out what effect and where lower bandwidth has. And it only affect card with huge processing power, that may suffer from this bottleneck. I've seen modifications of chipset/boards that didn't support SLI officially, but had their lanes split by the manufacturer and created "XLI" (DFI or epox, don't remember). Worked almost the same with mainstream cards.. Even though one card was at 16x and the other at 4x.. Also, the slots were the same.
And checking out the new boards with the 600 series chipsets you can see 3 pci 16x slots, and you don't really have to put a 16x device there: a 8x or 4x raid card would work, a 1x sound card or tv tuner would also work :) Those guys who made the PCI-E architecture are pretty smart.

Well.. this is a nice de-railment off topic :) Sorry...

Oh, Zephik, how would you plan to pay? ;) 10ks for the compliment though :)

[Zephik]

EDIT: Errr.... I mean this one!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122024

Why that one?

Pros:
32 PixelPipelines
nVidia Brand
$50 Instant Savings

Cons:
Green

Not too many cons, but thats not my point. This is my point (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161176). Why would I choose the nVidia card over the ATI card? I might be a fanboy, but I still buy whats best for performance/price ratio. It seems that ATI is better on almost all fronts, and if not, then its just as good?

nVidia:
32 PixelPipelines
Core Clock - 540Mhz
Memory Clock - 1400Mhz
RAMDAC - 400Mhz
DVI - VGA Adapter
HDTV Cable

Features:
NVIDIA Lumenex Engine
NVIDIA unified architecture
GigaThread Technology
NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology
Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0 Support
NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology

ATI:
120 Stream Processors (Universal PixelPipelines as I understand it?)
Core Clock - 800Mhz
Memory Clock - 1400Mhz
RAMDAC - 400Mhz
DVI - VGA Adapter
HDTV Cable
S-Video Cable
CrossFire Bridge

Features:
Equipped with ZALMAN VF100-Al high-performance single slot cooler
Gold-plated ports and black panel plate – Hi-fi concept
390 million transistors using 65nm fabrication process
High-speed 128-bit HDR lighting
Up to 24x Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing
ATI Avivo HD Video and Display architecture
Built-in HDMI and 5.1 surround sound Support for the ATI Radeon DVI to HDMI adapter Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for Blu-ray and HD DVD

[crenn]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/440/14/

The 8600GT performs better, and a little overclock never hurts! (I have the 256MB Leadtek 8600GT)

And the first one I recommended had GDDR2 not GDDR3.

[Zephik]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/440/14/

The 8600GT performs better, and a little overclock never hurts! (I have the 256MB Leadtek 8600GT)

And the first one I recommended had GDDR2 not GDDR3.

Thats seriously weird. It seems like... logic says that the ATI should perform better, but the nVidia one actually does? Why is that I wonder?

Oooh, overclocking the video card, never thought of doing that! lol man I can't believe I ever even thought of abandoning PCs for laptops, must of been something funny in the water I was drinking. lol

[crenn]

The difference in performance is the drivers used.

And I've overclocked my laptop's GPU.... just it got HOT. (85c). I loved my laptop when I got it.... don't love it so much.

[Zephik]

The difference in performance is the drivers used.

Yet another reason why I prefer nVidia over ATI.
...........

Does anyone know if the Abit Fatal1ty issue has been fixed yet? There were alot of people complaining about motherboards dying left and right and whatnot. Just wondering if they ever got that fixed? Seems like I've heard somewhere that that board was a pretty decent overclocker. It also has four DIMM slots as well as some pretty nice on-board graphics.

I'm thinking about putting a little more money towards the motherboard, then buying a really cheap-o case until I can afford a better one. What do you guys think? I would like to keep the total around $130, but I can go as high as $150 altogether.

Hmm, not sure what to do...

I suppose I could get like a 15 dollar case, then get a cheap graphics card... that would open up a whole new line of motherboards I could choose from. I could probably even run the motherboard without any case at all, that would save even more money...
...........

I think, I'm going to go with this setup.

Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053) - on-board graphics, so no need for a graphics card. Also has some nice overclocking options from what I hear.
PC Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147074) - Cheap, but fairly nice looking. Also has a 120mm exhaust, so thats nice.

Not too shabby eh? Better motherboard by leagues if you ask me. Downgrade in the case department, but I'll just call this baby a "sleeper". Looks normal on the outside, kicks ass on the inside! The motherboard also supports 45nm processors, so thats pretty cool!

[crenn]

Maybe it's a slightly better idea to save up a little more.

[Zephik]

For the motherboard or the case? The case seems fine in my opinion, I'm sure I can do a little magic with it to make it a bit more fun. The motherboard seems fine too? Unless you disagree? It seems to have good features and the reviews are pretty good too. Seems like it even has better OC abilities compared to the other mobo I was looking at.

[crenn]

Which motherboard was it exactly?

The link you gave is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Suggested&Description=13-128

[Crazy Buddhist]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128012

I think he means that one ^^^ and if he does he's on to a winner from the looks of it.

[Zephik]

I think, I'm going to go with this setup.

Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053) - on-board graphics, so no need for a graphics card. Also has some nice overclocking options from what I hear.
PC Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147074) - Cheap, but fairly nice looking. Also has a 120mm exhaust, so thats nice.

Not too shabby eh? Better motherboard by leagues if you ask me. Downgrade in the case department, but I'll just call this baby a "sleeper". Looks normal on the outside, kicks ass on the inside! The motherboard also supports 45nm processors, so thats pretty cool!

Just in case that link isn't working... heres the direct link.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053

I decided that instead of getting an okay case and an okay motherboard, that I should just get a cheap-o case and get a better motherboard. I figure, why pay extra for something thats prettier, when I can pay less and make it pretty all I want.

[Crazy Buddhist]

EDIT: info in this post is just plain wrong. My bad.


Just in case that link isn't working... heres the direct link.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053



"Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets."

Zephik ^^ did you note that for that Mobo. Not sure if you have supported memory or not but if no thats going to push your build cost up.

[Zephik]

See, this is why I'm asking all these questions. lol

So that means if I don't have that specific memory, in this case DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6, that I won't be able to use that board? Right? Just making sure, so I'm clear on what its saying.

Why on earth would that be I wonder? Thats so lame! A motheerboard should be built to be able to handle whatever you put in it. Well, within reason. You can't put a PCI-E x16 into an AGP or a PCI slot, but that just makes sense. Having only one kind of ram supported doesn't make sense to me at all. ><

Well, back to the drawing board. Dang, that had fairly nice features too.

[Crazy Buddhist]

See, this is why I'm asking all these questions. lol

Ignore me I had too many newegg windows open for my own good. That board is fine I was looking at another one. My bad.

[Zephik]

Ignore me I had too many newegg windows open for my own good. That board is fine I was looking at another one. My bad.

Thats sick man. Just sick. I get my hopes up, then you take them away. Then you bring them back again. STOP PLAYING WITH MY HEAD! lol

Thats good news though! For once, I'm happy that someone made a mistake! lol

Well then, it looks like I found my mobo! woot woot ^_^

Thanks for the help guys!

[crenn]

Yep, looks like a winner in my opinion.