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!

I was also looking at this motherboard, 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 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/Produc...82E16813186107

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 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/Produc...82E16813186107

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/Produc...82E16813128054

[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!

.....
Found this, 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? 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. Thats a pretty nice looking case, not too fancy, not too plain. Pretty cheap too!