Building a System, but need help on the motherboard.

[JinKazama]

Hi All,

I am in the midst of selecting all of the components for my new system but I ran into a bit of a snag. The motherboard that I had originally selected is not in stock locally and rather than buying online I was seeing if I could find a board that may do the job.

Here is what Ive got so far:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Socket LGA775, 3.16 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache, 45nm (Retail Box) (BX80570E8500 )

XFX GeForce 9800 GTX Video Card - FREE Company of Heroes PC Game, 512MB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support, Dual VGA Support

Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz E.P.P. Memory (4 x 1024)

and for kicks... NZXT LEXA Blackline ATX Case Red No PS Temp Display Window Front USB & Audio

Now I had originally decided to go with the Asus P5K-C but as I mentioned that is no longer available, chiefly due to the fact that it is an older board. Can anyone suggest a suitable motherboard given the build that would be in the same price range? Im building with about a $1,000 budget.

Oh, and any suggestions to the current build would be appreciated as well.

 

[aevm]

Your budget is in $ so I'm assuming you're in the US. If you're in Canada say so, or you'll get useless newegg links.

Try to get 2x2GB rather than 4x1GB.

Asus P5Q Pro ($150) is a good modern motherboard, for example. Or GA-EP43-DS3L ($100), if you don't need RAID.

Are you sure you want a 9800GTX? The HD 4850 is cheaper (at newegg, at least) and faster in most benchmarks I've seen.

 

[JinKazama]

thanks for the reply. And yes, I am in Canada.

The 9800 GTX is selling about 210 @ Tigerdirect. And I see that the HD4850 is about the same price. If the HD4850 performs better I may have to seriously consider getting that instead. Ill take a look.

The only reason I settled on 4 x 1GB was because the P5K-C had 4 DDR2 slots and 2 DDR3, so I figured if I was going to upgrade I could have just chucked in a couple DDR3 ram chips. But if I am looking at another board I may very well go with 2 x 2GB.

 

[aevm]

OK, first of all, avoid the mobos with dual DDR2/DDR3. All you really get is a higher price and lower overclocking ability. I've discovered that too late, with my own GA-P35C-DS3R with dual support.

Stick with something with DDR2 only. By the time DDR3 is worth buying you'd need a Nehalem motherboard anyway, you won't be able to reuse any MB you buy today with a Nehalem CPU.

Between HD 4850 and 9800GTX. They trade blows. I'll stick with 1680x1050 comparisons, since those are the 20" or 22" monitors which most people have these days.

http://www.techspot.com/review/103-asus-radeon-4850/page4.html
Crysis: 9800GTX wins by 1 fps (33.1 instead of 32)
Devil May Cry 4: HD 4850 wins by 5 fps, but it's irrelevant since monitors can't display 125 fps
Quake Wars: HD 4850 wins by 26 fps, but again it's irrelevant
Supreme Commander: HD 4850 wins 61 fps vs 58 fps, or 54 vs 51 with AA/AF. The monitor can show the difference but you won't notice it.
UT3: the 9800GTX wins by 3 fps, but it's pointless again (131 fps, 128 fps, the monitor won't show that many fps)
World in Conflict: the HD 4850 wins, 34 fps vs 31 fps. You won't notice it, I guess.

I'd say they are identical for all practical purposes. If you want two cards though, you're better of with the ATI card because then you can use a quality motherboard with an Intel chipset and avoid nVidia's SLI chipsets. Also, two ATI cards scale better than two nVidia cards usually, it's a somewhat better mechanism.

Do you like the NZXT Tempest? I'd prefer it to the Lexa because it has better cooling.

Check out www.ncix.com. It often has excellent prices. Also, if you're not in BC, you don't pay the PST (that's 8% in Ontario, for example)
Here's a HD 4850 for $190 or $180:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30487&vpn=4850PE3512&manufacture=Diamond
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30488&vpn=H485F512P&manufacture=HIS

 

[JinKazama]

Thanks for your input aevm, I really appreciate it.

Here is what I decided on:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/254039-31-buying-system-today-assurance