- Feb 21, 2008
- 12
- 0
- 18,520
Background:
Hi. normally I do all my computer building stuff on my own, but having been out of the loop since I bought my AMD Athlon64 3200+, AGP graphics (i dont even remember what card it had, 6800GT maybe), based machine in August of 2004. I will concede there are many fanboys and uber-geeks that surpassed my once awesome geek status cuz I havent really followed up on any of the developments in new technology. My comp was good enough for Doom 3, Homeworld2, Civ4, SimCity4, Command & Conquer, etc (casual gaming) with most of the eye candy at decent resolutions. I had water cooling for a bit, overclocked it and stuff, CCFL lights, UV, all that jazz, but I'm not really into tinkering with all the vga bios shadowing, tCAS, or tRAS type BIOS settings anymore. I just want to get a decent mobo for casual gaming and not have to do much to get it running well. at this point, anything will be worlds faster than what i got now
Currently:
I've always hated Intel, even going back to the days of the Cyrix PR166+ chips, but I recently "fell into" an Intel E8400 chip. So i guess i'm going that route. Also, I came across a BFG 8800GT PCI express video card that I havent been able to use for months. As far as the other components go, I just need a new motherboard and ram sticks. I've read that the CPU is FSB speed 1333MHZ, but DDR2 is only 800 or 1066? DDR3 seems too expensive and from what websites are saying, it's not worth the money yet. I tend to like to keep the CPU and RAM at the same base speed (even going back to K6-3 450mhz and SDRAM) as I thought it made a difference. so i have the following for use:
■Intel Core2 E8400
■BFG 8800GT PCI express
■WD Raptor 74GB and hitachi 500GB (both SATA300)
■Enermax Liberty 550W power supply.
■Antec/Cheiftec/Chaintech case. i dont remember what type, but it's fine for me to keep using it.
What I would like:
■a motherboard with no parallel ports, serial ports, IDE, floppy or any technology that I remember (i.e. "legacy"). I guess that means all USB, SATA based connections or whatever.
■nothing elaborate for "gaming" or overclocking. just something rock solid and fast out of the box.
■awesome on board sound (I will never buy another of Creative's products)
■CPU and RAM to be at the same speed (if it still makes a difference). preferably 4GB. I run 64bit XP, but i hear it still only uses 3gb of ram... if M$ ever gets Vista to a point where I might use it, then i guess the extra 1GB will be nice.
■Cool and quiet!
■money is no object, but i dont want to pay for stuff i wont use (like an ASUS Maximus Gaming board with wireless and dual lans and an elf that makes me cookies)
Oh and thanks for reading (and hopefully replying).
Hi. normally I do all my computer building stuff on my own, but having been out of the loop since I bought my AMD Athlon64 3200+, AGP graphics (i dont even remember what card it had, 6800GT maybe), based machine in August of 2004. I will concede there are many fanboys and uber-geeks that surpassed my once awesome geek status cuz I havent really followed up on any of the developments in new technology. My comp was good enough for Doom 3, Homeworld2, Civ4, SimCity4, Command & Conquer, etc (casual gaming) with most of the eye candy at decent resolutions. I had water cooling for a bit, overclocked it and stuff, CCFL lights, UV, all that jazz, but I'm not really into tinkering with all the vga bios shadowing, tCAS, or tRAS type BIOS settings anymore. I just want to get a decent mobo for casual gaming and not have to do much to get it running well. at this point, anything will be worlds faster than what i got now
Currently:
I've always hated Intel, even going back to the days of the Cyrix PR166+ chips, but I recently "fell into" an Intel E8400 chip. So i guess i'm going that route. Also, I came across a BFG 8800GT PCI express video card that I havent been able to use for months. As far as the other components go, I just need a new motherboard and ram sticks. I've read that the CPU is FSB speed 1333MHZ, but DDR2 is only 800 or 1066? DDR3 seems too expensive and from what websites are saying, it's not worth the money yet. I tend to like to keep the CPU and RAM at the same base speed (even going back to K6-3 450mhz and SDRAM) as I thought it made a difference. so i have the following for use:
■Intel Core2 E8400
■BFG 8800GT PCI express
■WD Raptor 74GB and hitachi 500GB (both SATA300)
■Enermax Liberty 550W power supply.
■Antec/Cheiftec/Chaintech case. i dont remember what type, but it's fine for me to keep using it.
What I would like:
■a motherboard with no parallel ports, serial ports, IDE, floppy or any technology that I remember (i.e. "legacy"). I guess that means all USB, SATA based connections or whatever.
■nothing elaborate for "gaming" or overclocking. just something rock solid and fast out of the box.
■awesome on board sound (I will never buy another of Creative's products)
■CPU and RAM to be at the same speed (if it still makes a difference). preferably 4GB. I run 64bit XP, but i hear it still only uses 3gb of ram... if M$ ever gets Vista to a point where I might use it, then i guess the extra 1GB will be nice.
■Cool and quiet!
■money is no object, but i dont want to pay for stuff i wont use (like an ASUS Maximus Gaming board with wireless and dual lans and an elf that makes me cookies)
Oh and thanks for reading (and hopefully replying).
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