Need advice in choosing a motherboard

[dencio]

Hi..
i was planning to build my 1st pc
This is what i have choosen so far

Processor - AMD AM3 ATHLON II X3 445 3.1 GHZ

GPU - HD5770 1GB DDR5/128BIT

PSU - HEC RAPTOR POWER 500W

RAM - 4GB DDR3 PC10600/1333

I haven't chosen a motherboard so i was hoping you guys can help me out. And i also want to ask if this rig is good enough for playing GTA4...

Thanks in advance

 

[o1die]

I use a biostar A880G+ micro atx. It comes with 2 ram slots and hdmi port. I have the ram set at 1600 and use the p-states setting for underclocking my sempron. It will also overclock your cpu if you desire and unlock cores, though the success rate varies. I suggest with the money saved you get a better power supply. The HEC won't cut it in the long run. I like antec or ocz. IF you need more slots, a full atx version of the 880 is available.

 

[dencio]

I dont have a huge range of power supplies here. Cause they only have HEC, Huntkey and atx, and they don't also have that brand of mobo here.

 

[o1die]

Look for the same chipset in another brand. Msi and asrock are also ok.

 

[dencio]

They have an ASROCK 880GM-LE. Is that good with the set i chosen?

 

[Hobybobag]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130559

This one is perfect for your needs, I dont know what budget you're looking at though

but yeah, that should be plenty for gta4

 

[dencio]

thanks for the suggestions. Btw i also wanna try playing crysis. Can that set do or i need to change something?

 

[Hobybobag]

it should be able to handle it pretty nicely, though dont expect to max the settings lol

 

[dencio]

lol. quick question, is the ASROCK 880GM-LE mobo good enough?

 

[heycoa]

The ASROCK 880GM-LE is probably good enough as an average motherboard. Im thinking youre putting too much thought into your motherboard and not enough into your graphics card. The most important thing about MOBOs is that they are upgradeable in the future. The ASROCK 880GM-LE only has 2 memory slots, i would suggest 4, for future upgrades. also i would recommend a board with 2 PCI-E x16 slots for future SLI/CROSSFIRE upgrades, and trust me, with the 5770 youll need crossfire to play new games on decent settings. I have has the 5770 and did not like it much but it played crysis for me on max settings but NO antialiasing.

 

[heycoa]

check this one out. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153186

I should also mention something about having two PCIex16 slots for crossfire; make sure they are spaced far enough to utilize Crossfire. sometimes they are right next to each other and youll never be able to crossfire with larger cards. the mobo above is enough space however.

 

[dencio]

thanks. but can you give a similar mobo with a different brand like msi, asrock etc. because that's the only brands they have here

 

[evongugg]

ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157198&cm_re=asrock_870_extreme3-_-13-157-198-_-Product

 

[heycoa]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130269&cm_re=msi_micro_atx_amd-_-13-130-269-_-Product

 

[dencio]

searched in the internet. sad to say i can't find either of those mobos here in my country. guess I'll just wait