Need advice on what mobo to get for my new gaming pc

[G0liath]

Gonna be upgrading my system in about 1 month and ½ , and since my 1st upgrade (after my initial intel pentrium pro pc ) i went the AMD way. I use my pc mostly for gaming. I am not up to date on all the new shiny components and how they work together so i am asking u guys for ur help

things i wanna get

CPU: AMD Phenom II 940
GPU: ATI Radeon 4870...
RAM: 8GB ddr2 1066Mhz (4x 2GB ... or less if the mobo u guys sugest doesnt have enough slots)
MOBO: ???

I have everything else needed.
Main purpose is gaming

From what i saw online ASUS M3A32 line caught my eye ... however i realize that mobo is too much for what i want ... in my experience i don't go crossfire or SLI, the system i get i use for 2-3 years then upgrade to the next thing. So i don't need a system with more space to add more GPU's or integrated GPU since i have my eye on one already, onboard SOUND is necessary tho. And since i went for the radeon card + amd cpu i fugured i should get some mobo with the 700 series chipsets cuz i read something somewhere about dragon system or some such...

I decided to get 8 GB ddr2 cuz ram doesnt really affect FPS just load times ( 98½ % sure on that ) so i figured its not worth it to shell out for more expensive "faster" ram and have only 4gb ram, unless i might be wrong and go overboard with 8 GB and just 4 is enough ?

My decisions are not set in stone if u give me good arguments about CPU and GPU i will change my mind ( tho its the 2nd time i am gonna try n use ATI instead of Nvidia... last time it didnt quite go so well ... i think i had about 5 or 6 different versions of the catalyst drivers ( or even if they were called catalyst back then ) so to make them work on all my games ... a bug i hated a lot was extreme FPS loss in KOTOR in certain places on certain driver versions ... and ofc on other games i played the driver that worked in KOTOR had bugs there... )

PS: what kind of power supply am i looking at with that cpu + gpu + 2 hdd +2 optical units + 3 case fans ... should my curent PSU of 600 Watts be enough ?

 

[aberchonbie]

why don't you go to newegg.com and look for a motherboard with a 790 series northbridge chipset (however, most of them will have multiple graphics slots..) look at boards from quality manufacturers.. ie. Asus, Gigabyte, DFI, etc. stay away from the crappy ones like ecs, jetway, pc chips, etc.

I think 8GB is kind of overkill for gaming. 4 GB of good quality RAM should be suffice if you have a 64-bit operating system..

ATI graphics cards should be fine these days.. don't worry about it.. (some argue that nvidia drivers are better for newer releases however) it won't be too noticeable..

 

[G0liath]

thx for the sugestion browsed a bit and found a card i think its good for me...

MSI K9A2 CF-F V2 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130172

 

[G0liath]

checked out ram a bit more and for the same price i could of got 8 GB ddr2 1066 nameless ram i can get 4GB ddr2 1066 Geil Evo One 5-5-5-15 ... still thinking wich is best ... 10% performance boost for my ram or 200% more space

 

[batuchka]

Well i agree that 8GB is kindda overkill and as for mobo choice:
ditch that MSI as it is on a much older SB600. Look to hit at least SB700 and ideally you be looking at these chipsets

770 (ones with SB700)
780G
790GX
790X
790FX
750a
780a
GF8100/8200/8300

 

[dokk2]

HMMMM, as you are going with an A M D chip you should keep an eye out for future upgrading..
I too am thinking and researching an upgrade for my 7850be I have been looking more than once or twice at the Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-UD5P,of course I do not need the second x16 pci-e slot but it might come in handy when reselling the beast..

 

[photonboy]

I'd much rather have 2x HD4770 than a single HD4870.

Normally I don't recommend crossifire or SLI cards unless they are the most powerful and you still "need" more but these are very efficient. They have great overclocking potential but even without they're a better deal.

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think so.

 

[G0liath]

Yeah i wanted to get those too but unfortunetly I live in eastern europe ( Romania ) and cant find em anywhere near me at a reasonable price and figured im gonna go the way of 2x 4870 eventualy ...

took the last days reading everything i could find about components ... found out the mobo i wanted to get was having problems with 125 Watt CPU's and decided to get a different card too

ASUS M4A79 Deluxe AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131361

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102825

(changed my mind about the original 512 mb model cuz of what i read on reviews here and seeing that on high settings on some games 512 ram can reach its limits even tho i wont go past my montiors resolution 1680x1050 but for future proofing)