New motherboard

[seth]

I'm planning on upgrading most of the crap in my computer pretty soon. I've read through a bunch of threads and customer reviews about stuff and I've figured out most of what I want to get, I just don't know enough about motherboards to decide what to get.

At the moment I'm planning on getting a Radeon x800gto, an Athlon 64 3200+ Venice, and 2x 512Mb Corsair DDR 400 (PC 3200) ram. I have no idea what motherboard I should get though. I was looking at this one, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813180068 , but I can't really tell how good it is. I have almost no experience with motherboards.

I also never tried to replace this much crap at one time, so I don't know what I should be expecting. The things that I'm planning on trying to keep are my 2 20 Gb hard drives, my DVD burner, my floppy drive, my LAN card, and maybe my case and power supply. I don't know if my power supply would be strong enough, or if I could fit all this stuff in my case and be able to hook everything up the way I want.

I also don't know what I'd have to do with my hard drives. Could I still use them with a new motherboard and everything like it was nothing special? Or do I have to do some kind of formatting thing or something? And when I do get all this stuff, is there a way to optimize how I install everything so my system works more efficiently? I'd also appreciate any advice on how to spend my money more efficiently, too. Thanks.

[siddy]

I would suggest to NOT cheap out on your mobo. I'd suggest going with a PCI-E capable mobo, and for sure the nforce 4 chipset.

I'd give a serious look at the DFI Ultra-D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

or the Asus A8N-E
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131530

there are also cheaper alternatives, but usually the money you put into a mobo is what you get out of it.

and remember, good computer parts can be choked by a bad mobo...that's what all your parts use to communicate, cheaping out there can cause some big performance hits and incompatibility issues.

edit: what is your PSU anyway? i'll give you a rough estimation whether or not it'll be good enough.

[Moe_Rahn]

I would suggest to NOT cheap out on your mobo. I'd suggest going with a PCI-E capable mobo, and for sure the nforce 4 chipset.

Considering that he's looking at an X800GTO, and those are PCI-E only, I'd think he's pretty much stuck with a PCI-E capable mobo.

[siddy]

Considering that he's looking at an X800GTO, and those are PCI-E only, I'd think he's pretty much stuck with a PCI-E capable mobo.

ATI X800 GTO AGP arrives (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28158)

[Moe_Rahn]

ATI X800 GTO AGP arrives (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28158)
And those won't be out until next year. Since he is presumably looking at computer parts that can actually be purchased, his only option right now for an X800GTO is PCI-E.

[siddy]

And those won't be out until next year. Since he is presumably looking at computer parts that can actually be purchased, his only option right now for an X800GTO is PCI-E.
not totally true.

The cards are expected in retail and channel next week and they might just be there in time for the Yule shopping madness.

I assumed that he might be looking at getting the computer after xmas (with xmas money possibly). I honestly just wanted to cover all the bases with my first post, not to be rude to him, but just to start from square one.

[Moe_Rahn]

WTF, first the article says next week, then in the sentence immediately after, says next year.

"The AGP variant will work at similar speeds as its PCIe variant and will be based on a native AGP R420 core. The cards are expected in retail and channel next week and they might just be there in time for the Yule shopping madness. Which, of course, has already started.

This card will be released with X1600 AGP cards but those cards are not scheduled till sometime in Q1 2006. We expect that these cards will be very overclockable just like the PCIe X800 GTO brother."

[siddy]

WTF, first the article says next week, then in the sentence immediately after, says next year.

"The AGP variant will work at similar speeds as its PCIe variant and will be based on a native AGP R420 core. The cards are expected in retail and channel next week and they might just be there in time for the Yule shopping madness. Which, of course, has already started.

This card will be released with X1600 AGP cards but those cards are not scheduled till sometime in Q1 2006. We expect that these cards will be very overclockable just like the PCIe X800 GTO brother."

hrm...odd. Unless the article is saying that the cards will be released "with" meaning "adding to the ATI AGP card repitoire" each other. Quite odd, but I think it would be poor marketing to release the x800GTO AGP after xmas

[seth]

Thanks Siddy. I actually was talking about the Pci-e version, since I heard Pci-e cards were strictly better than their agp counterparts, or something to that effect. Also I don't know what kind of PSU I'm using specifically but it's rated at 400 watts.

[Moe_Rahn]

Thanks Siddy. I actually was talking about the Pci-e version, since I heard Pci-e cards were strictly better than their agp counterparts, or something to that effect. Also I don't know what kind of PSU I'm using specifically but it's rated at 400 watts.
At this point they really aren't any better, since the extra bandwidth that PCI-E provides isn't needed or utilized yet, but if you're going to be upgrading everything anyways, it makes sense to go PCI-E.

Quite odd, but I think it would be poor marketing to release the x800GTO AGP after xmas
It's probably also poor marketing to annouce the launch of an entire family of products and then only actually release one, but that never stopped ATI.

[spartan]

Cheaping out on a mobo isn't so bad of a thing now as it was a few years ago when mobos didn't come with the kitchen sink. Today if you plunk $80 down on the MSI Neo4-F board, you get SATA Raid, PCI-E, 4 DDR slots, Optical and Coaxial SPDIFin/out, 5.1 onboard sound, gigabit ethernet... want fries with that?

Also, I see you've planned on going with a 3200+, that's fine. But if you ever plan on getting one of the X2 dual cores, your mobo needs a BIOS update. BIOS updates in the past have been done with floppy drives, but most boards have a kind of flash that takes place in Windows.

[siddy]

Cheaping out on a mobo isn't so bad of a thing now as it was a few years ago when mobos didn't come with the kitchen sink. Today if you plunk $80 down on the MSI Neo4-F board, you get SATA Raid, PCI-E, 4 DDR slots, Optical and Coaxial SPDIFin/out, 5.1 onboard sound, gigabit ethernet... want fries with that?

Yep. But the MSI Neo4-F is a nforce 4 board, which is the reason why it's decent.

As far as your PSU goes, I'd certainly consider spending some money on a decent one. Pure wattage doesn't mean much. I've seen great computer fry because of bad PSUs.

here's a quote of mine from another thread

Powersupply: Never forget a decent power supply. Bad power can ruin your system. Reputable manufacturers are OCZ, Antec, Enermax, Power and Cooling, Fortron, Sparkle, and there are many others. Don't assume a 20 dollar bargain bin 500 watt PSU will work for your system. The rails probably suck, and might not have enough amps. Best suggestion is to have at the VERY LEAST 18a on the 12v rail. You're pushing it at 18 actually, and should have something at least 24a + to give yourself a bit of headroom. For the best value, i suggest the Fortron Blue Storm 500 watt. Great PSU, quiet, and pretty cheap. On the high-end the OCZ Powerstream is one of the best PSU's out there, but it comes with a price tag.