A few questions, if you don't mind

[Gustom]

Building my first system here, and I have some mobo questions. Thanks in advance!

First, this system is going to be strictly a gaming pc. My current pc is still pretty new, and handles all of my other needs just fine. Much of the reason of building this system is for the experience. I plan to overclock, I guess, if that matters. So, with that in mind:

I have no real preference between AMD and Intel, and I have no knowledge of the pros and cons of each. So...what are the pros and cons of each, and which do you prefer? I've only used intel in the past, but only because that's what came with my retail pc's.

What sort of things should I be looking for in a motherboard? Like I said, I plan to overclock the cpu, and I'm a complete noob in all facets of motherboards/overclocking. Before I decided to build this system, I hadn't really ever considered what make a motherboard good. So how about it?

Specifically, which motherboards for each cpu do you reccommend? I guess that's the big question really, and the one that matters. The other are just for my general knowledge.

Again, thanks in advance for taking the time to read this crap, and I'm sorry if this is all boring old crap.

G

 

[Nights_L]

You can't go wrong with AMD Athlon64 if you are gaming, because it's integrated memory controller really help in games.
Motherboard however, find a branded motherboard such as Asus, Abit, MSI, Gigabyte etc, based on nForce3 250 chipset, or VIA K8T800Pro, both are good for overclocking, they both have PCI/AGP bus speed locked, however, nForce3 250 is recommended here

 

[Cybercraig]

How much do you want to spend?

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4 - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!

 

[shaido7]

pentiums run office applications better, amd runs games better.both can do either gaming or office applications farely well while each one excels at one thing thats your pros and cons.If you want to over clock you need to know first if you are going to buy the best performance/price ratio parts that overclock really well or buy top of the line parts and squeeze more performance out of them.I would guess since this will be your first time you wont use expensive parts so i would say buy a athlon xp 2500 mobile or faster with an asus or abit mobo preferably asus a7n8x deluxe i believe.these parts are priced resonably and offer very good overclocks get yourself a good powersupply probably an antec' true power' power supply.you will need some decent memory i would sugest corsair,kingston ,ocz,or even crucial.you will get a top of the line pc for around a thousand dollars.I am gonna pass out now im tired i hope this post makes sense lol

pentium 4 3.2
oczpc3500 el ddr platinum matched ddr433
western digital raptor 74 gig 10k rpm
8knxp gigabyte
geforce 4 titanium 4600(i know get a faster card)soon!

 

[shaido7]

I would like to add to my other post first for gamming amd is way better i have a pentium 4 3.2 retail proc etc trust me amd is better for gamming.the thing s you want in a motherboard are stability,overclocking options/bios features,you also want features and compatbility with various memory(ram ).as far as motherboards and cpus well there are a few motherboard makes whcih always stando up above the rest I believe the best is asus you also have msi,abit,gigabyte and a few others all of these are good motherboards that each make boards for pentium processors and amds so to make your choice you would have to figure out a processor speed you think will be fast enough for you and then find out what socket it is and look at motherboards with those type of sockets.

pentium 4 3.2
oczpc3500 el ddr platinum matched ddr433
western digital raptor 74 gig 10k rpm
8knxp gigabyte
geforce 4 titanium 4600(i know get a faster card)soon!

 

[Gustom]

Thanks for all the replies so far, they've been super helpful.

Right now I'm looking at getting an AMD Athlon 3500+ for 352 at newegg.com. Seems about right. Not the uber high end, but not the low end either. Does anyone know anything about this chip? 939 pin, if that matters. Then again, I might just splurge and get an Athlon 64 FX53.

Still, the question remains; which mobo should I get? Does anyone know anything about the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum? Was it released this week? I haven't been able to find it at all, so I don't know. That seems nice enough.

Again, thanks for your help.

G

 

[shaido7]

Hello again if you want to learn more about socket 939 try anandtech.com. there is a ton of information about the chipset and motherboard as well as benchmarks so you can see the performance differences.

pentium 4 3.2
oczpc3500 el ddr platinum matched ddr433
western digital raptor 74 gig 10k rpm
8knxp gigabyte
geforce 4 titanium 4600(i know get a faster card)soon!