Motherboard DECISIONS !

[Almost-Human]

I am goint to start with choosing a motherboard and build around it..

My interests are in photoshop and video production software.
Will be running Vista..
Wanted opinions on good Motherboards with good support for optional extras. an example for this would be the need if possible to attach a number of 3.5 ide drives as second and third drives if possible or practical that is..

anythine at all would help me get started even a link to a motherboard you think might be a good starting point..
Thanks.
A-H

 

[terror112]

the evga 680i is an awsome mobo. 680i SLI

or the P965 from asus. this has tons of features. P965

 

[BUFF]

an idea of budget would help.
You have to look at the system as the PSU & CPU are equally important so you want to balance things.

 

[foz]

For the price the ASUS P5N-E has alot features and can overclock well. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131142
This and the new MSI P6N SLI-F are only Intel boards that can support 4 IDE drives at this price range. What is your budget anyway? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130082
Ether of these would be ok.

 

[Stealth_JAG]

I think you need to choose the processor (CPU) before you choose the motherboard. For example, some socket LGA 775 motherboards support Quad Core Intel CPUs - some don't. If you are not going with an Intel chip, then you don't want an LGA 775 board at all. Since you are doing video processing, you are one of the few people that can take maximum advantage of a Quad Core processor (I believe most video processing software is multi-threaded). Also, I think the consensus is that the Intel Quad Core processors are better than the AMD quad core processors. Right now, the two chips that can handle Intel Quad Core processors the best are the Intel 975X chipset and the NVidia 680i chipset. However, the NVidia southbridge chips aren't that great for SATA raid performance. Also, some 680i motherboards have had problems overclocking QuadCore processors. By process of elimination, I'd say you want to go with an Intel 975X chipset for the motherboard. There are many varieties of 975x chipset motherboards, but the two I've been looking at the most are the Intel BadAxe 2 and the ASUS P5W DH. If you decide you don't want the expense of the Quad Core chip, both of those boards will still be able to handle the Core2Duos. Just my 2 cents.

Rob

 

[BUFF]

This and the new MSI P6N SLI-F are only Intel boards that can support 4 IDE drives at this price range.

Not true as abit's IB9 965 mobo does as well plus their 650i, the FP-IN9 (& of course everybody else's 650i too)

 

[foz]

I stand corrected, when I posted these were the only 650i boards in stock at NewEgg.