Advise on which MOBO please.

[roto41]

Hi, I'm new to these forums.

I want to build some identical PCs for some friends, these will be general all round Home PCs with XP Home OS.

The ATX cases have been purchased along with 450w PSUs.

I have become a little fixated on the Gigabyte GA-M78SM-S2H motherboard, a little on the overkill for general use but does have on board graphics so the eventual owners can choose their eventual G/card and decent upgradebility built in.

The only thing is the boards are about £70, not that expensive I agree but I was wondering if I could obtain the same specs of the above board or very near abouts, possibly in ATX form for less money from another board/brand.

I'm not fussed if AMD+2 or Intel but would like to future proof as much as one can for the oncoming release of Win 7.

Recommendations and advise would be appreciated.

[staffsMike]

I'd deffinatly stick to AMD for budget building. I personally would have gone down the uATX route for this sort of build as well but nevermind.

£60 - £70 is what you expect to pay at the low end of the spectrum at the moment. AMD based 780G (preferably asus for me) would be a great way to go to offer decent quality and a good upgrade path.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would probably go for the following motherboard:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150278#

It has DVI,VGA,HDMI and Displayport outputs!! It also has all solid capacitors!! It is great value for around £60:



If you want a super cheap 780G motherboard there is this Asrock one for around £50:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160999

Regarding processors I would go for the AMD Athlon x2 7750+ as at stock speeds it is faster than an Intel E5200:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155158

It has an unlocked multiplier so it can be overclocked to around 3ghz to 3.2ghz quite easily.

The E5200 is a better overclocker generally and does have lower power consumption. However the Intel chipsets available in the same price range as the Nvidia 8200/8300 and AMD 780V/780G are a few G41/G43 motherboards which usually are above £60. The AMD and Nvidia integrated graphics are much faster than the Intel equivalents.

[roto41]

I'd deffinatly stick to AMD for budget building. I personally would have gone down the uATX route for this sort of build as well but nevermind.

£60 - £70 is what you expect to pay at the low end of the spectrum at the moment. AMD based 780G (preferably asus for me) would be a great way to go to offer decent quality and a good upgrade path.

Thanks for your reply.

[roto41]

Thanks for reply Cat, much appreciated.

I'm on a budget but at least now I'm spoiled for a little choice, for the extra £10-00 and the solid capacitors I think I will go with the Asus.

Does the board need a sound card, I was hopig to get away without one for now.

As far as the processor is concerned, I'm fine with your choice but I am a little worried about power consumption, could you recommend another AMD or will the 7750 be ok?

Is it my understanding to get the best out of this board at least two ram slots need to be filled?

I will start off with budget 2x 2gb ram sticks per PC, what would be the best speed and could you recomend anything?

I always fit extra internal case fans but what would be a better option for the CPU as far a fan is concerned?

And lastly, as I'm going to replace XP with Win 7 as soon as available and partition the HD so as it's a Linux machine to.

The Asus MOBO is DX10 and I believe Win 7 is DX11, to meet this requirement, will I need to flash the MOBO or fit a graphic card?

Thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for reply Cat, much appreciated.

I'm on a budget but at least now I'm spoiled for a little choice, for the extra £10-00 and the solid capacitors I think I will go with the Asus.

Does the board need a sound card, I was hopig to get away without one for now.

As far as the processor is concerned, I'm fine with your choice but I am a little worried about power consumption, could you recommend another AMD or will the 7750 be ok?

Is it my understanding to get the best out of this board at least two ram slots need to be filled?

I will start off with budget 2x 2gb ram sticks per PC, what would be the best speed and could you recomend anything?

I always fit extra internal case fans but what would be a better option for the CPU as far a fan is concerned?

And lastly, as I'm going to replace XP with Win 7 as soon as available and partition the HD so as it's a Linux machine to.

The Asus MOBO is DX10 and I believe Win 7 is DX11, to meet this requirement, will I need to flash the MOBO or fit a graphic card?

Thanks

The motherboard has an Realtek® ALC1200 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC!!
Basically the motherboard has 8 channel surround sound built in. Also if you use the HDMI connector it can output both video and audio too so it can be plugged into a TV which has an HDMI connection.

This processor has lower power consumption:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149212

Looking at this review it will consume 20w to 30w less than an X2 7750+ however it is between 10% to 40% slower:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/850/14/

Another possibility would be the X2 6000+ which is behind the X2 7750+ in performance but is in between the X2 5050e and the X2 7750+ in power consumption:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...cpus-review/12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159069

The reason that the X2 7750+ is faster than either the X2 5050e and X2 6000+ and also consumes more power is because it is based on the Phenom architecture unlike the other teo!!

[Nyar]

am running a J&W EXTREME 790GX ATM, only £90 and it really futureproof ses'ing how am3 proccessors run on it perfectly out of the box.

[Sputnik]

am running a J&W EXTREME 790GX ATM, only £90 and it really futureproof ses'ing how am3 proccessors run on it perfectly out of the box.

Snap! Will be better when they tweak the bios to unlock the 4th core on the 720's

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Biostar 790GX motherboards seem to be able to unlock the processors so perhaps they are a better choice for doing this!!

[nvening]

The Biostar 790GX motherboards seem to be able to unlock the processors so perhaps they are a better choice for doing this!!

Does it not depend on what CPU you get and also arnt alot of them unstable even if you can??

[Sputnik]

Does it not depend on what CPU you get and also arnt alot of them unstable even if you can??

Agreed, It's a bit of a lottery as to how good the one you get is. I'm not really bothered as I'm happy enough with the x3 as it is.

[nvening]

yuh, im more bothered about OCing the 3 cores

[Sputnik]

yuh, im more bothered about OCing the 3 cores

I was Running my 720 at 3.2Ghz stable. @ 1.325volts.

[nvening]

I was Running my 720 at 3.2Ghz stable. @ 1.325volts.

Ah nice, im considering upgrading to one - and 8GB rams XD

[roto41]

The motherboard has an Realtek® ALC1200 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC!!
Basically the motherboard has 8 channel surround sound built in. Also if you use the HDMI connector it can output both video and audio too so it can be plugged into a TV which has an HDMI connection.

The reason that the X2 7750+ is faster than either the X2 5050e and X2 6000+ and also consumes more power is because it is based on the Phenom architecture unlike the other teo!!

Thanks for all your help and advise Cat,

I have read on another forum some 780G boards had power phase design problems, I'm not sure what that means but did/does the ASUS MOBO?

I have settled for the 5050E for all the boards, still not sure what speed of memory will work best with the ASUS and the 5050E?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for all your help and advise Cat,

I have read on another forum some 780G boards had power phase design problems, I'm not sure what that means but did/does the ASUS MOBO?

I have settled for the 5050E for all the boards, still not sure what speed of memory will work best with the ASUS and the 5050E?

Some 780G motherboards cannot supply enough power to the higher end AMD Phenoms as their power requirements were too high. However motherboards like the Asus one can support all the current Phenoms so there should be no issues!!

1066mhz RAM maybe slightly faster but unless you can get RAM with similar timings the speed advantage is negated.

TBH with an Athlon X2 I would go with cheaper 800mhz DDR2 RAM.

I would get this RAM:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161773

I have this RAM and it is excellent!!