Motherboard

[indy500fan]

I need to upgrade my computer. I am trying to do it in the most efficient manner possible for my money. I decided i would just upgrade my motherboard and processor, and buy a new video card. This is the video card I plan on buying. It is PCI Express x16, so my motherboard will need to support that. This is the processor that I am going to buy. Motherboard needs to have an "x2 prepared bios" according to the user comments, so that would be nice. And the final problem, which screwed up the chances of the one motherboard on newegg that would work, is that the motherboard has to be MicroATX form factor. Im looking for a motherboard that fits all those specifications, and preferably has 4 RAM slots. If anyone knows of such a motherboard, that would be nice. Or if you know a place where I could get the cpu already attached to the motherboard, for a comparable price, that would be even better. I want a dual core 64 bit HT enabled processor (such as the one I linked to) that is as good or around the one I linked to. Thanks for the help :D .

 

 

 

EDIT: forgot to add, if you think i should do something completely different, thats cool too. id like to keep the price of everything under 500, but if thats not possible, then it isnt.

[Necromagus]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131524

[_k0m0d0_]

This is the video card I plan on buying. It is PCI Express x16, so my motherboard will need to support that.

 

Memory	

Memory Size	256MB	

Memory Interface	64-bit

 

 

 

Only 64-Bit...

 

Not really good... 128-Bit would be much better for the same price.

 

 

 

This is the processor that I am going to buy.

 

Nice choise of Processor! :D

 

You will need lots of fans, they overheat easy.

 

 

 

Motherboard needs to have an "x2 prepared bios" according to the user comments, so that would be nice.

 

And use the socket 939

 

 

 

And the final problem, which screwed up the chances of the one motherboard on newegg that would work, is that the motherboard has to be MicroATX form factor. Im looking for a motherboard that fits all those specifications, and preferably has 4 RAM slots.

 

Ok, so I searched,a nd the best one I found was this one:

 

ASUS A8N-VM Socket 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

 

Supported CPU	

CPU Socket Type	Socket 939	

CPU Type	Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Athlon X2	

FSB	1000MHz Hyper Transport (2000 MT/s)



Memory	

Number of DDR Slots	4x 184pin DDR	

DDR Standard	DDR 400 (PC 3200)	

Maximum Memory Supported	4GB

 

 

 

EDIT: forgot to add, if you think i should do something completely different, thats cool too. id like to keep the price of everything under 500, but if thats not possible, then it isnt.

 

I tryed to follow what you already posted, but I think you should get another Video Card...

 

Something like this:

 

ASUS EN6600/TD/128 Geforce 6600 128MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card

 

Memory	

Memory Clock	550MHz	

Memory Size	128MB	

Memory Interface	128-bit

 

Its 128-Bit

 

 

 

Total:

 

Video Card: Asus - 90,00

 

Processor: AMD X2 - 295,00

 

Motherboard: Asus - 65,00

 

---------------------------------

 

Total: USD 450,00, under the 500 you wanted :D

 

 

 

Thanks for the help :D

 

No Problem :D

 

 

 

 

 

~komodo

[indy500fan]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131524

 

 

 

thats the one i found, but was discounted because i need a micro atx not a regular atx.

 

 

 

thanks for the help _k0m0d0_!

 

 

 

but i do have a few questions :lol:

 

 

 

EDIT: checked on asus website, this motherboard will work. so ignore this part :lol:

 

that motherboard you listed said:

 

Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Athlon X2

 

the chip i am getting is an athlon 64 x2

 

they also give another option for motherboards as

 

Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64

 

thats why i figured that athlon 64 x2 was different than athlon x2, but i really dont know. seems odd they would make two categories if they are the same thing, but maybe someone just forgot to add the "64" part to the other category.

 

 

 

but if you are pretty sure that motherboard will work, thats definently exactly what i was looking for :D

 

 

 

 

 

the video card thing was odd, i fell under the bigger number is better hype i guess, i saw a 7300 for as cheap as 6200 and jumped on the band wagon :lol: . actually, since you got me down to 450, i might as well spend a little extra on a video card.

 

 

 

thanks a ton for the help :D !

 

 

 

EDIT 2: actually i have one more question :D . what do i need to buy to attach my cpu to my motherboard, and my heatsink to my cpu, or will it come with all that stuff?

 

 

 

EDIT 3: one more question :o

 

what about this video card, its only $99 after rebates. (i dont mind rebates)

 

 

 

EDIT 4: i ended up buying the motherboard you suggested, the processor and the video card from edit #3, along with 2 gigs of ram (2x 1gig). $635 after shipping. ahh, $690 just for oblivion :P

[_k0m0d0_]

Glad I helped! :D

 

 

 

Nice Video card :P I was planning to buy one almost the same...

 

Now you computer is powerfull, to play Oblivion! :P

 

 

 

~komodo

[indy500fan]

yeah, this is definently the most awesome computer i have ever had (compared to what else is out at the time). now i just have to hope i can hook it all together :lol: . and hope the order actually goes through, chase doesnt really like me to make such a large purchase over the internet :lol: .

[Icehart]

Motherboard choice would be :

 

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 Motherboard

 

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=98&type=expert

 

 

 

Asus A8V Deluxe Athlon64 Motherboard

 

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1617

[_k0m0d0_]

Motherboard choice would be :

 

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 Motherboard

 

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=98&type=expert

 

 

 

Asus A8V Deluxe Athlon64 Motherboard

 

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1617

 

Form Factor	ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.5cm)

 

He need it Micro ATX

[Icehart]

Motherboard choice would be :

 

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 Motherboard

 

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=98&type=expert

 

 

 

Asus A8V Deluxe Athlon64 Motherboard

 

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1617

 

Form Factor	ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.5cm)

 

He need it Micro ATX

 

 

 

Ops..didnt see that... :P

 

 

 

Edit 1 : Threadstarter, if you're not in the rush of buying a new computer, then I would personally suggest you to wait longer until this May/June, which marks the starting of new life for amd with it's new socket, codename M2 which supports DDR2.

[jass0]

seems like a good cpu u got over there good job keep up the good work

[indy500fan]

Edit 1 : Threadstarter, if you're not in the rush of buying a new computer, then I would personally suggest you to wait longer until this May/June, which marks the starting of new life for amd with it's new socket, codename M2 which supports DDR2.

 

 

 

read edit 4 of my post, already ordered everything yesterday :wink: . and i did just read about that on digg, but i actually am in a rush this time, i have to play oblivion as soon as possible :P .

[_k0m0d0_]

Edit 1 : Threadstarter, if you're not in the rush of buying a new computer, then I would personally suggest you to wait longer until this May/June, which marks the starting of new life for amd with it's new socket, codename M2 which supports DDR2.

 

 

 

read edit 4 of my post, already ordered everything yesterday :wink: . and i did just read about that on digg, but i actually am in a rush this time, i have to play oblivion as soon as possible :P .

 

You desperate to play Oblivion! :P

 

Play ASAP or you will get a aniety stress! :P

 

 

 

~komodo

[indy500fan]

YES!!! i got everything today. the problem is, i dont have anything to connect my cpu to my heatsink. would i be able to go to like, radioshack to get this "thermal stuff"?

[_k0m0d0_]

YES!!! i got everything today. the problem is, i dont have anything to connect my cpu to my heatsink. would i be able to go to like, radioshack to get this "thermal stuff"?

 

Probably yes!

 

You need it... otherwise your cpu will "explode" :lol:

 

 

 

~komodo

[frizoid]

YES!!! i got everything today. the problem is, i dont have anything to connect my cpu to my heatsink. would i be able to go to like, radioshack to get this "thermal stuff"?

 

Probably yes!

 

You need it... otherwise your cpu will "explode" :lol:

 

 

 

~komodo

 

 

 

unlikely, if the heatsink is attached then the cpu will gradually build up heat and then the motherboard will auto shut down once it reaches a certain temperature. I've heard of pc builders running cpus under heatsinks without thermal paste successfully.

 

 

 

Are you sure the heatsink doesn't have a thermal pad on the bottom? Quite often they use that cheap option.

[indy500fan]

unlikely, if the heatsink is attached then the cpu will gradually build up heat and then the motherboard will auto shut down once it reaches a certain temperature. I've heard of pc builders running cpus under heatsinks without thermal paste successfully.

 

 

 

Are you sure the heatsink doesn't have a thermal pad on the bottom? Quite often they use that cheap option.

 

 

 

i didnt see anything like that on it, but ill check again. anyways, i went down to a local computer store and asked the guy for some of that stuff and he gave me a small tube that was supposed to have 50 uses in it. he also said i could bring my computer in and he would show me how to do it (for free) so im going in there tommorow at 11:00. waited forever to get oblivion, waited painstakenly all week to get these parts, now i have them and have to wait 11 hours and 32 minutes before ill get everything set up. i dont know how i am supposed to sleep tonight, i was planning on pulling an all nighter and just sleeping 12 hours tommorow night.

 

 

 

and im thinking about buying another 2 gigs of ram, get a total of 4 gigs. that would just be flippin awesome :D (and probably not worth the price, but man, 4 gigs!)

[frizoid]

You really don't need 4 gbs of ram :P 2gb is mroe than enough for most users needs.

 

 

 

Anyway for the thermal paste I normally upt a tiny bit of it onto the cpu and then put the heatsink on top, making sure it presses down quite hard, this seems to give me good temperatures, my cpu idles at at 28-33*C currently, its normally only 1 or 2 degrees higher than my case temperatures.

 

 

 

what sort of heatsink did you buy?

[indy500fan]

i didnt buy one, the cpu came with one. heatsink/fan combo. leave in a half an hour to go get it put on, i could probably do it myself, but id rather be safe than sorry :D . somebody who has done it a hundred times has less chance of screwing it up than somebody who has never done it before :D . yeah, 4 gigs is probably not worth it, but how many people do you know that have 4 gigs of ram :P

[frizoid]

Stock heatsinks like that generally don't cool that well. If you plan to do high end gaming or overclocking on your pc I would look at buying a higher quality one, for example a Zalman heatsink/fan combo.

[_k0m0d0_]

Stock heatsinks like that generally don't cool that well. If you plan to do high end gaming or overclocking on your pc I would look at buying a higher quality one, for example a Zalman heatsink/fan combo.

 

Yup, and as you using AMD, you need some big cool system, AMD has the highst rates of "melting down"

 

 

 

~komodo

[indy500fan]

well, the heatsink will have to do for now. might upgrade later, but for now i just really, really want to play oblivion. i got everything ready, i just have to reinstall windows for some reason. there in lies a problem though, i have a lot of information on the hard drive that i would rather not lose. the hard drive is in the family computer right now (the one i am typing on), but it cant recognize it. the actual error: "the disk in drive f is not formatted. would you like to format it now?" if i dont fix it soon im just going to reinstall windows regardless of what i lose. i really, really have to play oblivion :D

[Kwisatz]

Stock heatsinks like that generally don't cool that well. If you plan to do high end gaming or overclocking on your pc I would look at buying a higher quality one, for example a Zalman heatsink/fan combo.

 

Yup, and as you using AMD, you need some big cool system, AMD has the highst rates of "melting down"

 

 

 

~komodo

 

 

 

That's pure bull, if you don't mind my saying. If anything, Intel's P4 Prescotts have a reputation for running hot. The highest my Athlon 64 3500+ has EVER gotten with the stock heatsink is 35 C, and many P4s are up in the 40s and even 50s.

[_k0m0d0_]

Stock heatsinks like that generally don't cool that well. If you plan to do high end gaming or overclocking on your pc I would look at buying a higher quality one, for example a Zalman heatsink/fan combo.

 

Yup, and as you using AMD, you need some big cool system, AMD has the highst rates of "melting down"

 

 

 

~komodo

 

 

 

That's pure bull, if you don't mind my saying. If anything, Intel's P4 Prescotts have a reputation for running hot. The highest my Athlon 64 3500+ has EVER gotten with the stock heatsink is 35 C, and many P4s are up in the 40s and even 50s.

 

Yup :P

 

But AMD keeps running when they overheat, P4 dont, so the chance of losing your processor by not having fans is bigger with AMD!

 

 

 

~komodo

[indy500fan]

well, i have another problem. i am going to take it to the computer store after work, but i thought i might as well ask here. i have an EVGA GeForce 6800 pci express graphics card, and an ASUS A8N-VM series motherboard. my motherboard wont recognize my video card at all, it doesnt even show up as an unknown device in the device manager. its just not there at all. i threw in my old pci card for a moment to see what that did, and it worked fine. is something wrong with my motherboard, the pci express slot specifically? or is it a problem with my video card? i installed all the drivers i could for the motherboard, the video card drivers wouldnt install because it couldnt find the hardware.

[Kwisatz]

Stock heatsinks like that generally don't cool that well. If you plan to do high end gaming or overclocking on your pc I would look at buying a higher quality one, for example a Zalman heatsink/fan combo.

 

Yup, and as you using AMD, you need some big cool system, AMD has the highst rates of "melting down"

 

 

 

~komodo

 

 

 

That's pure bull, if you don't mind my saying. If anything, Intel's P4 Prescotts have a reputation for running hot. The highest my Athlon 64 3500+ has EVER gotten with the stock heatsink is 35 C, and many P4s are up in the 40s and even 50s.

 

Yup :P

 

But AMD keeps running when they overheat, P4 dont, so the chance of losing your processor by not having fans is bigger with AMD!

 

 

 

~komodo

 

 

 

That's controlled by the motherboard, not the processor. I have no idea where you heard such a thing, but it's no way true. Almost all motherboards today shut the system down once the processor reaches a certain temperature, and a processor overheating is not a common occurance by any means.

 

 

 

The bottom line is that AMD runs cooler on the whole and most if not all motherboards shut down the system when the processor gets hot enough.