Quick Question About C2D Motherboards

[BlindMelon7]

I'm looking for a new motherboard. What would you say would be the most stable chipset sub £100? I really don't care about features. All I need is 6 SATA plugs, 1 PCI and 1 PCI-EX. It will be running in fairly rough conditions (under stage lights, and moved around a lot). I may overclock it when I need to (E7400) but for the moment it will stay stock.

I'd rather not buy an Asus because of the 2 I've had in the past, both have caused trouble.

[Sputnik]

Gigabyte with P31 or P35 chipset ?

[Infinite]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...667-SATAII-ATX

[peterb]

Moving it around will cause quite a bit of mechanical stress (SOBO - statement of the blingly obvious) so when you are fitting the SATA connectors, you might want to consider the latching variety - they aren't that much more expensive and may save you from some unexpected and unwanted snaggetts when you are setting up.

I'm sure you have plenty of experience building this stuff, but making sure all internal cables are tie wrapped or otherwise secured is a good idea, again to reduce the stress on connectors. Shakeproof washers on securing screws wouldn't come amis either, or weak threadlocking compound (NOT the permanent stuff - you want to be able to dismantle it!) could be used too.

[BlindMelon7]

Latching SATA cables?!?!? I was unaware such an incredible thing existed! Fantastic Thanks peterb!

Infinite, would you recomend the gigabyte over the MSI P43? The MSI seems to have better cooling.

[peterb]

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...cat=112&page=1

One example - others on the site with a variety of connectors, some 90 degree to 90 degree, other staright to straight. There are other suppliers around (Google "latching sata connectors) I have seen alternative 90 degree connectors (left hand and right hand versions) on other sites.

[BlindMelon7]

For future reference, X1950 Pros do not fit in Xcase short rackmount cases

I'm having to cut a hole through the hard drive rack, and it only leaves me with 2 hard drive spaces. I'm going to buy an external CD drive and put the third hard drive in the bigger bay with some adapters. To say I'm dissapointed is an understatement.

Ah well, should have checked first (i.e. before I put EVERYTHING else in!!!).

[scaryjim]

I'm intrigued - what's this computer being used for?

[BlindMelon7]

It runs effects and softsynths for my band

If anyone is interested, I run Plogue Bidule (a modular host) with various softsynths and sample players for me (the keyboardist), Amplitude for the guitarist (and a few other effects) and all the vocal effects as well. I'm using an M-Audio Delta 1010LT.

I'm still annoyed about this case business. I wish it would just work! I don't want to return it because I need it for the 4th of July (not that I would expect them to take it back).

[scaryjim]

get a different graphics card? if it's only running audio stuff the gfx you use shouldn't matter that much, and you can pick up tiny cheap graphics cards for next to nothing...

[BlindMelon7]

The problem is, I've used most of my desktop to build it! So this is now my main PC

I tried using my brothers XFX 7900GS, which fits if you don't put the 3rd hard drive in (its about 18cm vs the ATI which is about 22).

Are there any decent cards out there that are less than 18cm long?

[BlindMelon7]

I think I'll get a 4670. I guess thats going to be faster than my card anyway, and its pretty small.

[BlindMelon7]

For the record, the one thing that actually worked were the latching SATA cables! They're so good! I've had so many problems with loose sata cables in hard to reach places. Why don't they all latch?

[Meaker]

The HD 4770 is short and you can get short HD 4850 varients (sapphire HD 4850 dual slot, also works really well with the Arctic accelero S1 if you have height room above the expansion cards).