Is this a good CPU/mobo combo?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Toshiba_Sucks
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Toshiba_Sucks

Hi there,

It's been a long, long time since I built a machine, and I thought I'd
run this by you before committing to it. I'm thinking of combining the
following motherboard:

Foxconn A690GM2MA-8KRS2H Socket AM2 AMD 690G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186114

with the following CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103036

The idea is to have a basic system that can hook up to my HDTV and let
me watch my movies, pictures, music -- a media center, I guess.

The mobo has a DVI port, which I thought would help -- I'm assuming my
movies will look better over a traditional VGA hookup? It also has,
what I believe, is one of the more decent onboard video chipsets --
AMD Radeon Xpress 1250 -- and that should help general usage
experience. It's also very reasonably priced, something will help me
keep the price of the system super low.

I chose the CPU because it's dual core (lots of processing power),
great overclocking opportunities, and in general, it's pretty good
value for money.

Please let me know what you think. I hope I'm not overlooking some
very basic mobo-CPU compatibility issue.
 
URLs invalid.

But I can say this:
As far as I know what you have chosen should work as long as the
socket number on the motherboard matches the CPU socket number.

But if you want to play HD movies (or just movies, period) I would
suggest a dedicated Graphics card, assuming your budget will allow
that.
 
Toshiba_Sucks said:
Hi there,

It's been a long, long time since I built a machine, and I thought I'd
run this by you before committing to it. I'm thinking of combining the
following motherboard:

Foxconn A690GM2MA-8KRS2H Socket AM2 AMD 690G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186114

with the following CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103036

The idea is to have a basic system that can hook up to my HDTV and let
me watch my movies, pictures, music -- a media center, I guess.

The mobo has a DVI port, which I thought would help -- I'm assuming my
movies will look better over a traditional VGA hookup? It also has,
what I believe, is one of the more decent onboard video chipsets --
AMD Radeon Xpress 1250 -- and that should help general usage
experience. It's also very reasonably priced, something will help me
keep the price of the system super low.

I chose the CPU because it's dual core (lots of processing power),
great overclocking opportunities, and in general, it's pretty good
value for money.

Please let me know what you think. I hope I'm not overlooking some
very basic mobo-CPU compatibility issue.
Click to expand...

Did you read the customer reviews ? Lack of a good manual. Backplate
doesn't fit right.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813186114

The Foxconn web page is here.

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/Product/motherboard_detail.aspx?ID=en-us0000307

This is Foxconn's idea of a manual. A 7MB download, but only two pages.
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/servi...690GM2MA-8KRS2H,A690GM2MA-RS2H,A690VM2MA-RS2H

Here is another 690G. This one is an Asus, so you will get a manual,
and you can look at the manual before you buy. $68.99 ASUS M2A-VM.
It seems you have to select a certain Catalyst driver set, to be
able to use the onboard graphics properly.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813131172

M2A-VM product page
http://www.asus.com.tw/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=496&l4=0&model=1568&modelmenu=1

Manual. 2MB. 92 pages.
http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2A-VM/e3088_m2a-vm.pdf

More comments on M2A-VM in the Asus forum. There is mention here, that
the Asus board doesn't allow setting memory timings manually (and this
is not the first time an ATI chipset board has done that - but the thing
is, the timings are actually loaded into the memory controller on the
processor, so the chipset should have nothing to do with this).

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=M2A-VM&SLanguage=en-us

So while the built-in graphics on the board looks very tasty from a
hardware perspective, there are lots of other issues that aren't so
nice.

But really, when you look at the microATX offerings, what is left ?
K8M890 (Via - possibly cheapest), Nvidia 6100 plus successors (low
percentage of GPUs have problems, some x16 slots are not full x16),
and that 690 chipset.

All I can say, is read as many reviews as you can, and see if the
issues they raise, affect you or not. And look at the boards you
would not buy (even ECS has a 690), because sometimes the issues
discovered, affect all boards using the same chipset.

For your processor, the processor listed is an OEM. You'll need
to buy a heatsink/fan assembly for it.

Paul
 
Sooo... what mobo did you pick out!

I too have been looking at the 690g chipset... the ASUS in particular
but all 690g's seem to have either BIOS problems and/or Catalyst 7.5 &
7.4 drivers are unstable and have to rollback to Catalyst 7.3

I really do not want to pick a mobo that 12-18 mo old since... but
have not yet found (time and talent issue) as an alternative to the
690g.

It is clear that the 690g is not for gamers... there are SLI options
out there for those need. I too want some general PC power as well as
DVI to push a 22" LCD... but that is it.

Dave-in-Denver
 
Sooo... what mobo did you pick out!

I too have been looking at the 690g chipset... the ASUS in particular
but all 690g's seem to have either BIOS problems and/or Catalyst 7.5 &
7.4 drivers are unstable and have to rollback to Catalyst 7.3

I really do not want to pick a mobo that 12-18 mo old since... but
have not yet found (time and talent issue) as an alternative to the
690g.

It is clear that the 690g is not for gamers... there are SLI options
out there for those need. I too want some general PC power as well as
DVI to push a 22" LCD... but that is it.

Dave-in-Denver
 
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