Noob seeking Motherboard Info

[BoxxyBrown]

Hey all I'm a first time builder, and i plan to build a mid-range system over the next few weeks. Anyhoo, while i have a good idea about cpu's, gfx cards etc, i'm still in the dark about motherboards, or more specifically what exactly they do and how can i judge a motherboards quality beyond looking at its price?

My initial ideas for my budget rig is an E6420, 7900GS, 2gb ram etc,

anyhoo, motherboard info much appreciated, but bear in mind i don't know too much

TIA

[0iD]

Well the Abit IP-35 Pro is initially looking like a sound purchase, but availability is scarce. I have a Abit ab9 quad GT which is a good solid board & stellar overclocker. Also look at the Asus P5B & P5K.

[BUFF]

My initial ideas for my budget rig is an E6420, 7900GS, 2gb ram etc,

anyhoo, motherboard info much appreciated, but bear in mind i don't know too much

So, what's your budget for the mobo & what "must have" features do you need (firewire, COM port, RAID, overclocking ability etc. etc.)?

[BoxxyBrown]

nothing fancy for my first build, i'll keep those for my second i'd say tbh, not looking for SLi or Raid or even firewire, although i may try overclocking once i get everything running nicely.

Budget is about 120 euro, which is about 80 pounds, though i could push it to 100 pounds if thats unrealistic

how about this?
http://www.dabs.ie/ProductView.aspx?...=221&InMerch=1

[nvening]

if buying from that shop, that would be best.

[BoxxyBrown]

Well i'm in ireland so dabs.ie is one of the very few places i can order from. ordering from england would lead to huge delivery charges.

so would this board be good? in the dark here

[tigerboyce]

yep its a good board, im having no problems with it, although i havnt tried it it should overclock quite well

[BUFF]

if you haven't already got drives buy a SATA optical & SATA HDD, connect them to the ICH8 & disable the Gigabyte (JMicron) controller in the BIOS.
The PC will boot faster & it makes life simpler anyway ...

[BoxxyBrown]

Okey doke sounds good i'll go with that so.

I'll try to remember the SATA advice, haven't bought anyhting yet, should be ordering next monday if all goes to plan.

Not exactly sure what you mean but hopefully it will make since when i have everything together and screwdriver in hand, which is how i roll lol