micro atx confusion..help please

[neiledavies]

I'm about to build a micro atx pc from scratch as i'm going to ditch my laptop for gaming. So far my spec are as a mininimum sockett 775 based (sorry AMD, lost me as customer), will include a 9600 GT 512 PCI-e card on top as must be able to play direct x 10 games...but looking for ideas as lost in the world of motherboards..help needed.

[ackrite26]

Best bet is probably a Asus P5E-VM HDMI iG35

untill the G45 comes out!

[staffsMike]

Try and stick to a low FSB chip and that will make overclocking on such boards easier. G35 is good as will G33 be as long as you don't want serious overclock (which none of these boards will produce safely imo)

G35 is quite expensive so I imgine G45 will be also. That said the asus G35 was only around £85 on scan which is about £20 more than the decent G33 boards.

If you have the budget for it I would go all out and get a Q6600 and overclock to 3.0GHz easy and then perhaps a bit more depending on the boards limits over stock FSB's. That will last a good while

For basic gaming E2***'s overclock well given their 800MHz FSB's and will provide ample gaming power for very little money.

[neiledavies]

Is G35 better than NF 630 ?

[staffsMike]

NF630 has certain limitations.

No dual channel RAM being a bit of a killer although it doesn't seem to make that much real world difference from what i've seen in review. Also you will be limited to 4GB of RAM but no big loss.

It has very limited overclocking functions from what I have read, but the Abit version does remedy that very well even offering a PWM heatsink so I would deffinatly get that 630 board if any

I'd probably go for the Abit 630 or one of the better Gigabyte G33's.

[neiledavies]

Was considering a Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H as an all round solution but is the 45nm intel chip work it?

[staffsMike]

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

That is the abit version and much better all round as the gigabyte offers no overclocking features from what I read, espeically voltages which is pretty important.

If you aren't overclocking then there is very little point getting the intel imo as an AMD setup will offer more performance at a reduced cost.

There aren't many 45nm chips which I would be comfortable recommending to be honest. They cost similar money to the Q6600 quad core which is what I would have at that price.

[neiledavies]

ta hadn't even considered quad core, asumed way to expensive. but for £25 quid more seems has to be done. will go with abit board too :-)

[ackrite26]

NF630 only has two memory slots if im correct.

Also Asus P5E-VM HDMI iG35 is £74 on specialtech.

[staffsMike]

That's a nice price. I did mention that he would be limited to 4GB (in 2 x 2GB guise) but to be honest that really isn't the problem, it's the lack of dual channel which is slightly annoying but not the end of the world.