What motherboard for AMD Athlon II x4?

[meganreeves]

I'm building a new system (my first homebuild) and I'm starting to get my parts together. Here's what I have so far:

AMD Athlon II x4: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

3 of these (or similar 250GB ones): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136161

CD/DVD Multi drive (others would work fine but this seemed to be the cheapest with all the different read/write types): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827140041

I have no clue what motherboard I should use, which is why there is no memory, or a graphics card yet. I want to be able to stream videos, and use all the fancy Win7 stuff, but not much more graphics intesive stuff then that. I have no preference for motherboards, I just want something that isn't going to crap out in a very short time, works well, and is compatible with my CPU. I do however much prefer Crucial RAM.

 

[kiren]

Well, there are many solid AM3 boards to choose from. Some questions though, do you want onboard graphics available? do you plan to use crossfire, SLi, or neither? What additional features do you need/want? (things like firewire, eSATA, etc.)

In general I can say that you should go with a DDR3 based board. If you want integrated graphics take a look at 785G based boards, if you definitely plan to crossfire its worth noting that only 790FX boards support two full x16 slots, though this isn't a significant issue with current cards it might be with the next generation ones.

Stick to known manufacturers, I've personally always had good luck with Gigabyte, Asus, and MSI boards. My most recent board was ASRock and has also been quite solid, avoid anything from ECS. (of course this is just my experience, others may have different opinions)