Motherboard for E6700

[comrade]

For the first time, I'm going to try and build my own computer. I've settled on an Intel E6700 for the CPU, but I'm reading about motherboards for the socket 775, and I just can't decide on which motherboard to use.

Would I be better off going with one of the Intel 975 chipset ones...., or another manufacturer? I do a bit of video editing and quite a bit of CAD on the one I have now.

I plan on using the hard drives in my old computer for storage in the new one, and buying a SATA drive for the operating system, so I need a board that will allow me to plug in a couple of 200 GB IDE drives as well as the SATA drive. I also have a PC TV tuner card I'd like to be able to use in the new build.

For the video card, I've been thinking about buying an Nvidia 7950, since the AGP 6800 Ultra I've got in the old one obviously won't work.

I'm also not sure how much memory I'd need. 1 GB or two? DDR or DDR2 and what speed do I need?

I've also been told I'm going to need an ATX 2.2 power supply and that the 500 watt one I've got now won't work.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[The_Prophecy]

Don't bother with the 7950. The DX 10 cards will be out in 6-8 months which will beat it quality-wise by leaps and bounds. Go with a 7600GT for now.

Since you need to connect 2 IDE hard drives, the P5WDH Deluxe would be your best bet.

Drop to the E6600 though. It's the EXCT same as the 6700, with a lower clock speed. These chips OC very easily. Save yourself the $130.

For the SATA drive, I would go for the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2

If you're into video editing, definitly go for 2GB of ram. Even if you don't take my suggestion below, the RAM you get MUST be DDR2. Since you're going for a Core 2 build, CAS 5 ram won't hurt performance nearly as much as it would on an AMD build. I would go for this OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-800

Which 500W supply do you have?

 

[comrade]

The power supply is one I bought at CompUSA when I put the Nvidia 6800 Ultra into my old Gateway. I didn't think the 250 watt PS that came with it would handle the new video card. I honestly don't remember the brand name. It may even have been a CompUSA branded one.

I was told that the '2.2' PS's have a different plug or something that the old one wouldn't have.

Thanks for the advice. I wasn't aware that there might be a whole new family of video cards out so soon.

 

[dt]

would you notice a big performance difference and would you oc ability be limited by getting the ram you specified as compared to corsair cas 4 ram i think it is.

 

[The_Prophecy]

would you notice a big performance difference and would you oc ability be limited by getting the ram you specified as compared to corsair cas 4 ram i think it is.

Not on an Intel platform. It would really make a difference if he was going for an AMD build because of the integrated memory controller, but on an Intel, the difference between CAS 4 and CAS 5 isn't nearly as noticable. His OC'ing ability would be greater with CAS 4 though, because there is more room to loosen the timings.

 

[dt]

haha thanks for that information. well now i know.

cas 4 gives more oc