First "starter" mobo

[Zephik]

By the way, you should head on over to Xoxide.com! They're having a "going out of business sale" right now. Great deals! They're one of the best and most well known websites around, it's too bad that they're going away. It was a good run though and hey, you might be able to pick up a badass case for a good price!

Just thought I'd mention it. They have a bunch of goodies at great prices right now.

[Locum51]

Yea, i've been checking all their stuff and i was wishing they were'nt going out as well. Thanks for all your help though! Hopefully i can start my project soon!

[NightrainSrt4]

The best thing you can do is to give us your full budget, and what exactly is needed within that budget (keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, hard drives, optical, etc).

Are you looking to overclock? As this is a beginning board then maybe not, but maybe down the line. If so then I wouldn't jump on the G31m-es2l. It is a great board, don't get me wrong (I've used it twice), but it has some nuances to overclocking that other boards just don't have to deal with (only opening up certain dividers based on cpu fsb, some need bumps to pci-e freq, pretty much needing 1066 ram to get a decent overclock, where other boards will do the same with 800, etc etc).

[Locum51]

I don't have a budget as of right now. But i'm not looking to overclock because i fully don't trust myself with that type of modding just yet.

[Locum51]

Probably going to go with this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128356

[Zephik]

That board actually has a twin brother...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...128356&bop=And

The G31 chipset is the P31 chipset, just with on-board graphics. The G31 is also a bit cheaper, but it does lack a Coaxial output. ...although, I'm not sure if you would even ever need that which is basically why I'm mentioning this. You might as well get the board with the on-board graphics. Its cheaper and its pretty much identical aside from that audio output deal. Its always nice to have on-board graphics just in case your graphics card decides to mysteriously die on you someday. This way, you won't be up **** creek without a paddle.

Edit: Although I just noticed that your board has a better PCI layout AND it has more slots. So... hmmm. Now I'm not sure which is better. Probably your board. lol

Just figure out how many PCI slots you need and then you'll know which is better. Personally, all I ever needed was a graphics card slot and one PCI slot for my wireless card.

[Zephik]

This board is pretty nice too actually. It has HDMI, D-Sub and DVI-D. Again, pretty much the board you wanted except a bit better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128396

And this one isn't missing any PCI slots. By the way, you'll pretty much never use the PCI x1 slots which are those small black ones so don't worry too much over that. Just make sure that if you get a dual slot graphics card, that you don't need all three PCI slots or you'll need to get a single slot graphics card instead.

Anyways, that's the one I'd get. It seems like the best bang for the buck and its only $10 more. But then again, your board is pretty nice too simply just for the design layout. I don't, either is good, your choice. I just like having on-board graphics in case something happens to the graphics card.

[Locum51]

Yea, i was thinking of going with the one mobo earlier but it seems like the one you just found has alot more features, especially with the HDMI and DVI on a board like this. It surprised the **** out of me! haha.

[Locum51]

What would be a good board that has at least one PCI Express 2.0?

[Zephik]

Just one? Why not... SEVEN!?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131390

...lol just joking, I'll track one down here in a second. Just thought that was pretty comical. I mean really, who needs seven?? lol craziness.