What's the best chipset?

[LAPIII]

In the PC I'm building, I will buy everything around the chipset and probably CPU.

The motherboard that I want will have most of the features listed on the following link except I'll be willing to go with a quad core, and AMD if necessary:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/250399-30-what-motherboard

 

[Shadow703793]

1. You decide the chipset based on:
a) Budget
b) OCing
c) CPU

2. What is your max budget for CPU,GPU,case,etc?

3. What is this going to be used for? (ie gaming, video editing,etc)

4. What OS? And why 6-8GB RAM?

 

[LAPIII]

1) I don't ave a budget, what's OCing, adthe CPU is undecided, bu a dual core or higher

2) I don't hae a max budget, I'd like to sta below $1000, but really want th best CPU, GPU , ad case without going overbordon price and preformance. For example, the GPU dosen't need to be SLI nor Crossfire, ca't use a ual core extreme because of price, possibly no quad core since I might not use all 4 core, and possibly a hybri moherboard to combine graphics.

3) It's fr gaming!

4) My current OS is Win XP, and all he RAM is an attempt at better reformance.

 

[Shadow703793]

1. OCing is overclocking. This gives you higher performance at a lower cost. Be warned OCing could cause damage to parts.

Overclocking is the somewhat unknown and uncommon practice of running your CPU (or other parts) past the speed that it is rated at. An example is running a 1.2 GHz CPU at 1.4 GHz or a 200 MHz CPU at 233 MHz. How can this be achieved? The following description isn't exact, but it captures the basic idea. Most CPU companies create their CPUs and then test them at a certain speed. If the CPU fails at a certain speed, then it is sold as a CPU at the next lower speed. The tests are usually very stringent so a CPU may be able to run at the higher speed quite reliably. In fact, the tests are often not used at all. For example, once a company has been producing a certain CPU for awhile, they have gotten the process down well enough that all the CPUs they make will run reliably at the highest speed the CPU is designed for. Thus, just to fill the demand, they will mark some of them as the slower CPUs.
Beware, however, that some vendors may sell CPUs already overclocked. This is why it is very important to buy from a dealer you can trust.
Some video cards are also very overclockable with some companies selling their cards already overclocked (and advertised this way). The Programs like Powerstrip can often be used to easily overclock the cards.
Also, if you're afraid to overclock your CPU, let another company do it for you! Companies like ComputerNerd sell CPUs pretested at overclocked speeds.

http://www.basichardware.com/overclocking.html


2 &3. A E8400/7200 should be fine for gaming. If you also plan to do video editing and the likes get a Q6600.

4. XP/Vista x86 is limited to 3.5GB max. You will need a Vista/XP x64 to use all RAM above 3.5GB.

 

[wormy]

motherboards

ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157121
$129.99
Supports DDR & DDR3, Wi-Fi and Firewire

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337
$89.99
Good board for overclocking, great value no firewire, no wi-fi, DDR2 only...you only need DDR2 anyway

ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299
$149.99
P45 motherboard which is intel's newest chipset, PCI Express 2.0, 65nm chipset instead of 90nm of P35, firewire

CPU
I would get the e8400 and then upgrade to a quadcore in the future..lets say a year from now when more games and applications can take advantage of all 4 cores and prices have dropped

RAM
CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145194
$109.00(79.99 after mail in rebate)
This ram has 4-4-4-12 timings which is about as good as it gets..and they can be overclocked to around 1Ghz if you massively overclock your CPU

OS
You will need Vista 64 bit system to use 8 gigs of ram

Video Card
Since you are on a budget you should get the ATI(AMD) 4870 GDDR5 when its released the last week of June

Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002
$164.99(139.99 after mail in rebate)84% efficiency, 3 12V rails 50amps combined

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001
$119.99(99.99 after mail in rebate)84% efficiency, 3 12V rails 40amps combined

The case is going to be up to you because some people just pick them on looks alone

 

[Shadow703793]

^Nice choices.

Since you are on a budget you should get the ATI(AMD) 4870 GDDR5 when its released the last week of May

Really? So it was already released??? :lol:

 

[wormy]

yeah I changed it to June

 

[smalltime0]

With the question in the title I'd say the AMD 790FX or the AMD 780G. They offer very good performance (their NBs, not SBs) and use little power, generating less heat.

However you really need to state what you want this for. Gaming yes, but do you want this machine to be silent? water cooled?, is it going to have other uses we are not aware of?. Whats the budget? you need to set a cap, or else I'd recommend IBMs new Super computer (1 PetaFLOP FTW!).

In any case, wait for the New GPUs to come out before getting the machine