770, 790, 880? Help!

[The Horse Man]

Hi all. I was hoping you would be so kind as to provide me with some motherboard advice as I'm lost in a sea of 7s 8s and 9s! (with the occasional "pro" and "deluxe" thrown in.

I am building a new PC, relatively budget orientated I guess, although I am a bit flexible on price. Currently I'm looking at:

Processor AMD Athlon II X4 630 Socket AM3 2.8GHz 2MB L2 Cache
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176579

Originally I was considering an X3 for about £10 less. However I've read that if you can afford to shift up to quad core then you should. This seems like a good use of an extra £10?

Memory: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 i5 Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-24) 1.65V
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173122

No expert on memory. This seems like a good choice, is it?

Hard Drive Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

Power Supply OCZ 500W Mod XStream Pro PSU - 2x PCI-E 6x SATA
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152009

Don't need a graphics card (at this stage) or a case, keyboard etc etc....

But as I'm sure you've all noticed, I do need a motherboard!

So I'm inclined to go for a 770 chipset as my needs are modest, no games here, but I am concerned about being able to playback HD video at an excellent rate. If I were to go for a 790, 880, 890 etc... would any of them have onboard graphics sufficient enough to cope?

I'm guessing not, which is fine, I will purchase a 3D card to cope. Happy to be corrected though. If I have to buy a 3D card then the 770 seems to make sense to me.

What's the advantage of getting an 880, 790 or similar? I hear about usb 3.0, sata 3 and AHCI (I think.) Are these features that I'm likely to want in the future, and are they supported by they 770 chipset?


Basically i'm asking, if i spring for a more expensive chipset, what am i actually getting for my money?

Any help appreciated, including criticism of other components selected.

Thanks a lot

 

[The Horse Man]

No insight to offer anyone? Have I been stupid and missed an obvious guide that answers my question?

Thanks

 

[saint19]

Hi The Horse Man and welcome to Tom's forum.

I'd go with a 880 chipset, is more new and give your better features.

 

[The Horse Man]

Many thanks for the response, sorry for the follow up, but can you give me an idea what features are different at all?

Thanks very much

Edited to add, looking at 880's

i've found:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244433

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/218935

There's a significant price difference, but I cant work out why!

Also should I bothered that they're mATX rather than ATX, does it matter?

Thanks

 

[saint19]

Brand, that's all. The Gigabyte is a little more big and comes with port like eSATA.

 

[The Horse Man]

That seems crazy! are gigabyte known for being "better?" At that price anyway the 880 makes good sense.

I'm after features like AHCI, USB 3.0 and Sata 3.0, cant see any mention on either board?

I must be blind.

Thanks for the help once again

 

[walterm]

Motherboards are defined by the chipsets on them.
The 870 (no video on board), the 880 and 890 are the latest. MBs tradtionalally contain two controlers (northbridge and south bridge). In this case the "north bridge is the 880 chip, and it can be combined with a 710 or 850 chip. You need the 850 southbridge for the features you mentioned. AddITIONAL CHIPS GOVERN SOME FUNCTIONS, though many are migating to the CPU