I'm currently looking for motherboard to replace my ASRock, as nice as it is I'm planning on getting a 7950gx2 and the ASRock board cannot cope with that.
Thing is I'm on a pritty tight budget atm so I'm rather limited on price, so the cheaper the better.
What I'm looking for is
1- Socket 775
2- memory support up to 800mhz (faster is nicer but not a major issue)
3- core2duo and quad support (for future upgrades)
4- 2x IDE connectors*
5- Rear pannel serial or serial header (COM) **
6- 4x SATA min (for future upgradeing, not planning on a massive raid array so 4 should be fine)
7- 1x PCI-e (x16) not massively bothered about crossfire boards as I'll not use it, although I have been considering SLi simply because
8- Cheap as poss but not a Lemon
*Currently I've got 2 IDE HD and 1 IDE DVD rw, while it would be nice to upgrade to sata I'd be looking at £70ish to replace the hard drives and another £18 to replace the DVDrw
I could get away with just 1 IDE port and replace the DVDrw but the extra cash would have to be factored in.
**I currently have an old Aiptek graphics tablet which uses serial and I love to bits, as there's no real hope that I'd beable to afford a nice WACOM. I did get a cheap USB tablet to replace it but that went back in it's box as it's no ware near as nice to use as the Aiptek.
So for now a COM port is a must, although I recently found I've got an IO blank with a COM port attached from my old motherboard that attaches to a COM header so that would be acceptable.
So any sudgestions?
EDIT: the only one I've found that really ticks all the boxes is the Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4, unfortuantly Scan only have the L version
Tekheads have some pritty cheap would be £75ish with P&P
What's Tekheads like as a retailer?