Which Motherboard

[Xanthous]

I'm building my $1000 gaming pc (phenom x4 + 5870) but not sure which motherboard to go with. I've read that there isn't much of a difference between 8x/8x vs. 16x/16x pci-e but there's two asus (preferred brand) boards that I'm hung up on.

Not sure whether to go with..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131655 (Asus 890fx) $165

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131631 (asus 890gx) $145

The biggest difference in the boards is the graphics card, The Fx has no video card while the Gx has an ati 4290. Basicaly trying to figure how much an integrated graphics card matters so I can pick one. Thanks, J.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

if your building a gaming pc, you need a add in card , if you have such a card, the onboard gfx are redundant in most cases
(i.e. you specified an ati 5870), onboard graphics will be disabled in favour of the card and just wont cut it I'm afraid for decent level performance, handy if your gfx card blows up though
16/16 and 8/8 as you say not much difference realworld its when you try 16/4 that you hit problems, it just isn't worth crossfiring then
but as for choice, if you feel you want the security of onboard gfx, go for it
personally I'd go for the 890fx, 1600 ram is supported
both have same chipset though so no real difference to your gaming,
Moto

 

[Xanthous]

Thanks for the quality information and pointing out the 1600 ram. I planned on buying some at that speed (ripjaws) so I assume it wouldn't have been compatible. I'll probably go with the Fx but not 100% sure, for some reason having an integrated graphics card as well seems nice.

The motherboards support ram 2000, Would you notice a difference running ram 2000 vs. 1600 and do you think 4gb's of ram is enough for the upper-end gamer?

 

[henydiah]

more GB for RAM good for Game & Ram (4Gb) good for OC

 

[Motopsychojdn]

The motherboard will support up to 2000Mhz ram, but thats overclocked ram, its headroom for your overclocking basically
1333Mhz is fine for gaming though, so if you went for the board with int. graphics, you wouldn't see much difference
and yes, unless your doing heavy modelling/video editing, 4Gb is plenty for a gaming system, the only time you might consider more is in an intel triple channel board imo I.e. 6Gb (3x2Gb) would be your preferred amount over 3Gb (3x1Gb)
Moto

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Thanks Mal

I'm happy to be sharing what little knowledge I have
Moto