Need help on selecting cpu and mb

[xringx]

This is for a low end system. Only requirement is that the mb take pci-e

I have stock cooler for and intel 775 and a amd 754

Looking to spend no more than $125 combined.

Any suggestion?

 

[ausch30]

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131162 with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116038 or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157098 with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819104248

 

[Ninjaz7]

If you dont mind used from a quality seller,fleabay a 939 combo setup with an opty prefferrably.Bet you get a nice setup for under $100 with hsf and possibly memory....gl

 

[xringx]

AUsch30 suggestions brings me to a question.

I am going to be putting these into an old mid ATX case. Does putting a micro mb in a mid atx case present any problems??

 

[ausch30]

No, all micro ATX boards will fit in a mid-ATX case, it just won't work the other way around. What case do you have?

 

[authoratah]

I'll confirm that. I have a micro ATX in a Xaser III Skull. Although a micro atx board might not be for you if you want to add a lot of expansion cards.

 

[xringx]

It wasnt so much fit demension wise, just i guess the wierdness of it. I have always tried to match size for size....

The case is a very old case from like 1997ish. My friends puter blew up, and he was ready to shoot himself. So I voluntered to build it and donate parts that I have laying around. My budget is $190 shipped. He already has all the periphials, I am suppling a cheapish psu and case.

This is what I have so far. I wouldnt mind a critique.

FYI, he only uses the computer for mild internet, such as online poker and web browsing, and only plays 1 game, Counter Strike 1.6. Not even source. A low end game that isnt graphics intense.

Open Box: ASUS M2V AM2 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM 39.99

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Orleans 1.8GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA3000CNBOX - Retail 41.99

ASUS EAX1550/TD/256M Radeon X1550 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail 52.99

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit 39.99

With shipping, total is $185

But I didnt consider any micro boards......

 

[ausch30]

As long as it's an aftermarket case it should support micro-ATX and ATX. Larger cases usually support micro-ATX, ATX, and E-ATX while some cases like mine support about 10 different form factors. The only thing that decides whether or not it supports micro-ATX is the placement of the risers. I think the placement is the same as ATX but it just uses less due to the board being smaller. The board you picked out looks nice but I would be wary of an open box board. There are a lot of idiots out there that will beat up a board or hook things up wrong and fry something then RMA. Newegg won't test every board which is RMA'ed and it's possible that you might be buying something that someone killed. It would cost an extra $33 to get a new one and I think it would be worth it.

 

[xringx]

That is my one concern, the open box..

 

[xringx]

Ok new choice.

# ECS GeForce6100SM-M (1.0) AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100S Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813135039
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
# AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Orleans 1.8GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA3000CNBOX - Retail
Item #: N82E16819103639
Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy

A few dollars more.

New concern. Specs says mb runs video at 8x? Yet calls it a 16x slot?

Something I should avoid?

 

[ausch30]

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/411

Review on the new board, not very positive especially for gaming.

 

[xringx]

overall not a bad review. They didnt like the onboard video, but who would?

 

[ausch30]

They also tested it against a high end board with the same video card in both and it was 15-20% worse.

 

[xringx]

So are you saying that is bad or good?

 

[xringx]

I found it. IT says with a higher end video card, the cheap mb, the one I selected, achieved the same or better benchmarks as a higher end MB with the same vid card.

Interesting. Seals the deal. Thanks for the post..

 

[ausch30]

I found it. IT says with a higher end video card, the cheap mb, the one I selected, achieved the same or better benchmarks as a higher end MB with the same vid card.

Interesting. Seals the deal. Thanks for the post..

This is an entry-level motherboard for the socket AM2 platform, clearly targeted for the new socket AM2-based Sempron CPUs. From this motherboard specs and performance, we don’t recommend it to be used with an Athlon 64, at least while the Athlon 64 models available for the socket AM2 are still above the USD 100 range.
We were very disappointed with the performance of GeForce 6100-405. We expected much more from it, especially because its engine runs at a higher clock rate than Radeon Xpress 1100 (425 MHz vs. 300 MHz) and is Shader 3.0 while its competitor is Shader 2.0. GeForce 6100-405 was faster than Radeon Xpress 1100 only on 3DMark05, and they achieved the same performance level on Quake III. On all other 3D programs Radeon Xpress 1100 was faster.

The good news is that you can, in the future, disable its on-board video and install a real video card on its x16 PCI Express slot, which runs at x8. That is another problem with this motherboard. You won’t achieve the same performance of a high-end motherboard by simply installing a “real” video card on it because its main PCI Express slot runs half-speed. On Quake 3 and Quake 4 our GeForce 7800 GTX installed on ASUS M2N32-SLI De Luxe was respectively 19.08% and 11.59% faster than this same video card installed on ECS GeForce6100SM-M.

 

[xringx]

On PCMark05 ECS GeForce6100SM-M was 13.42% faster than ECS RS485M-M, which is based on Radeon Xpress 1100.

When we installed a GeForce 7800 GTX on ECS GeForce6100SM-M it achieved the same performance level of ASUS M2N32-SLI De Luxe with the same video card installed, meaning that you will achieve the same processing performance of a high-end motherboard by installing a real video card on this motherboard.


Didnt know how to make the important parts bold..

Also, not installing a highend video card. Infact far from it.

i read somewhere else on this forum that the affects of 8x vs 16x is only noticable when you get to about the 7800 level for vid cards..

 

[ausch30]

You are correct that lower end video cards don't need all the bandwidth provided by a 16x connection but neither do high-end cards. An 8800GTX is only slightly slower in a PCI-E 8x slot than 16x slot and that's at super high resolutions and I think the speed difference has more to do with the chipset and the fact that there is only one chip rather than a northbridge and southbridge.

 

[ausch30]

I think you would be much better off with the ASRock in my first post.

 

[xringx]

now I know why you have that guy banging his head on his desk.... I cant tell if your agree with the MB selection or disagree............(except for your last post.)

 

[xringx]

LOL.. SEE!!!!!

 

[ausch30]

Sorry about that, I know what's going on in my head but perhaps I need to convey it a little better.

 

[xringx]

Your cool, I appreciate the help.

now thinking this....

Intel Celeron 420 Conroe-L 1.6GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557420 - Retail


ECS P4M890T-M (V1.0) LGA 775 VIA P4M890 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

 

[ausch30]

I think you would be better off staying with your AMD CPU and pair it with something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128034. The Athlon64 will be much better than a Celeron. For some reason the link isn't working but this is the board GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX AMD Motherboard $74.99 which combined with the A64 will be $116.98+shipping.