New Motherboard Question

[Matt]

Hey guys.

I'm looking for a motherboard, but I know very little about the
different chipsets, so I could do with some help.

Basically, I'm building a system that will have an Intel C2 Duo E6850
(1333FSB with a Socket 775 connector) for £165. For this FSB I
understand I need PC2-5300 RAM (by the way, what FSB would PC2-8500
support?), so I'll probably get 2GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500
for just under £100.

Out of a budget of £500 that leaves me with ~£340.

The next thing is a motherboard for this CPU and RAM, so I've given what
I'm looking for below:

My first priority is one that fully supports this setup and the FSB
required obviously!

Secondly, I want to be able to upgrade to a fast quad core (like those
above 3GHz that are ridiculously expensive at the moment) when they come
down in price, so how far will everyone's favourite chipsets let me upgrade?

I may also be upgrading my graphics card, though I'm aware this is
likely to go over my budget so it won't happen straight away! If this is
the case, so I need to look at getting an SLI board? I play a decent
amount of games (especially when my PC is new and fast!) so I might want
to take advantage of this later if this is where all graphics cards are
heading.

I've got an AGP graphics card (Radeon 9600 Pro) at the moment, so will
there be any AGP slots on any motherboard I buy? If not I would rather
buy a PCI-Express graphics card then put up with an old motherboard that
won't cope with an upgrade.

Finally, I expect to only be running a single hard drive (which I
haven't chosen yet, so any recommendations with everyone's favourite
motherboard would be appreciated), so I don't need some crazy RAID setup
or anything, but can I expect the latest boards to have the right
connectors for today's and the future's (short term future that is) hard
drives?

Kind Regards,

Matt

 

[CBFalconer]

.... snip ...

Finally, I expect to only be running a single hard drive (which I
haven't chosen yet, so any recommendations with everyone's
favourite motherboard would be appreciated), so I don't need some
crazy RAID setup or anything, but can I expect the latest boards
to have the right connectors for today's and the future's (short
term future that is) hard drives?

Bad Idea. With multiple drive you can handle backup by copying
areas to the second drive, or better, cloning them. Then, when a
drive failure occurs, you recover by switching drives and ordering
a replacement. You can also have different size drives, allowing
for easy upgrade of storage space, etc. No RAID involved.

F'ups set to eliminate ridiculous cross-posting.

 

[peter]

Your bottleneck seems to be the AGP graphics card....all of the newer mobo
with the chipset to move up a notch in the CPU department at a later date
only have PCI-E slots for video cards.
I don't know the prices in the UK but your 340pounds would convert to about
640 Canadian $$$ and for that price in Canada I could buy a new mobo and an
Nvidea 8800GT 512 video card.
A mobo with the Nvidea 780 series chipset supports future upgrades and so
does the Intel 38 chipset.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2665
or
Asus Maximus Formula X38 Motherboard
Asus P5N-T Deluxe 780i Motherboard
Those models might cost a bit but there are less costly alternatives using
the same chipset
Your best bet is search online UK stores for prices to see if those are in
the ballpark

good luck
peter

 

[John Weiss]

Basically, I'm building a system that will have an Intel C2 Duo E6850
(1333FSB with a Socket 775 connector) for £165. For this FSB I understand
I need PC2-5300 RAM (by the way, what FSB would PC2-8500 support?), so
I'll probably get 2GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 for just under
£100.

If you can find the same spec Ballistix without the "tracer" geegaws for
less money, get it instead.

The next thing is a motherboard for this CPU and RAM, so I've given what
I'm looking for below:

My first priority is one that fully supports this setup and the FSB
required obviously!

Secondly, I want to be able to upgrade to a fast quad core (like those
above 3GHz that are ridiculously expensive at the moment) when they come
down in price, so how far will everyone's favourite chipsets let me
upgrade?

Look for a P35 or X38 chipset. P35 is more mature; X38 newer and likely
more expensive. Both will support the 1333 MHz FSB and 45 nm CPUs, but
check individual implementations.

I got the Gigabyte P35-DS4 V2.

I've got an AGP graphics card (Radeon 9600 Pro) at the moment, so will
there be any AGP slots on any motherboard I buy? If not I would rather
buy a PCI-Express graphics card then put up with an old motherboard that
won't cope with an upgrade.

You're stuck with buying a new graphics card. AGP is out; PCIe 16x is in.
You can get an ATI X1650 Pro or X1950 Pro card for a reasonable price until
you can afford more.

An SLI compliant board will cost a bit more, but you can also use the extra
16x PCIe slot later for a RAID controller or other high-bandwidth
peripheral.

Finally, I expect to only be running a single hard drive (which I haven't
chosen yet, so any recommendations with everyone's favourite motherboard
would be appreciated), so I don't need some crazy RAID setup or anything,
but can I expect the latest boards to have the right connectors for
today's and the future's (short term future that is) hard drives?

Depending on the capacity you need, go for a WD Raptor 150 or WD
Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s HD.

The 10K RPM speed of the Raptor will give you best performance, and the
perpendicular recording technology in the 7500AAKS will give you good
performance with high capacity at a reasonable price point.

All SATA HDs use the same connectors. All current MoBos should support
SATA2 (3Gbps).

 

[Matt]

Look for a P35 or X38 chipset. P35 is more mature; X38 newer and likely

more expensive. Both will support the 1333 MHz FSB and 45 nm CPUs, but
check individual implementations.

I got the Gigabyte P35-DS4 V2.

I've just been reading this article:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=409

and it seems to indicate that both the P35 and the X38 support 1333FSB,
but only the X38 supports 45nm CPU's. If so, as long as it's affordable,
I want an X38 chipset on my motherboard.

You're stuck with buying a new graphics card. AGP is out; PCIe 16x is in.
You can get an ATI X1650 Pro or X1950 Pro card for a reasonable price until
you can afford more.

An SLI compliant board will cost a bit more, but you can also use the extra
16x PCIe slot later for a RAID controller or other high-bandwidth
peripheral.

That sounds like a good idea. Other then a 10GB LAN or a RAID
controller, what else am I likely to put there?

Depending on the capacity you need, go for a WD Raptor 150 or WD
Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s HD.

I need more capacity then 150GB, so the 7500AAKS sounds just right.

Kind Regards,

Matt

 

[Matt]

I don't know the prices in the UK but your 340pounds would convert to

about 640 Canadian $$$ and for that price in Canada I could buy a new
mobo and an Nvidea 8800GT 512 video card.

Sorry I should have been much clearer, the remaining money is for a
motherboard, hard drive, case and PSU. Sorry for the confusion.

A mobo with the Nvidea 780 series chipset supports future upgrades and
so does the Intel 38 chipset.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2665

or
Asus Maximus Formula X38 Motherboard

Asus P5N-T Deluxe 780i Motherboard

Both are priced around £150, which might be just beyond my budget.

Kind Regards,

Matt

 

[BobW]

That sounds like a good idea. Other then a 10GB LAN or a RAID controller,
what else am I likely to put there?

<snip>

This would be for your second graphics card (SLI) if you want to run extreme
graphics speed/resolution.

Bob W.

 

[Matt]

If you can find the same spec Ballistix without the "tracer" geegaws for

less money, get it instead.

Is the "Tracer" just the crazy LED's on the top and side of the RAM stick?

Kind Regards,

Matt

 

[old man]

yes

Is the "Tracer" just the crazy LED's on the top and side of the RAM stick?

Kind Regards,

Matt

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "Matt" typed:

I've just been reading this article:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=409

and it seems to indicate that both the P35 and the X38 support
1333FSB, but only the X38 supports 45nm CPU's. If so, as long as it's
affordable, I want an X38 chipset on my motherboard.

Dood, that was written a while ago now. Pre-P35 release in fact. I have a
P35 chipset board (Asus P5K-E) and I bought it as a platform for now and for
when 45nm CPUs become more affordable. It say's right on the box "Supports
45nm CPUs".

 

[Philip Procter]

I might recommend that you stop and reconsider your aversion to RAID.
I use programs like Photoshop and various AVI that use big files and
are, themselves, big. Using RAID'd SATA drives spead the loading of
files up more than any other thing I've done recently.

Since I don't game, I get away with a cheap nvidia 8500 based card,
well under US$100. But a friend has the same board with a single
8800GTS card, which was quite reasonable.

I use a Gigabyte GA-p35-ds3 board: A very reasonable price and it
supports 1333FSB, 4GB PC2-8500 RAM, native RAID (though you don't HAVE
to use it) and no wasted (for me) dual video card support. If you
think you might want SLi, then this is not for you. Otherwise, it's a
great board!

2p

 

[John Weiss]

I've just been reading this article:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=409

and it seems to indicate that both the P35 and the X38 support 1333FSB, but
only the X38 supports 45nm CPU's. If so, as long as it's affordable, I want an
X38 chipset on my motherboard.

I think they're wrong on this one. Gigabyte claims 45nm support for their
P35 boards, and that is one reason I got the DS4 v2. You may want to do a
bit more research, or just spend a bit more for the X38.