125w: Which one for this setup?

[kigrax]

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Quad Core @ ~3.0ghz, GTS450 1GB, OCZ Fatal1ty 550w PSU, 4GB DDR3 1600 G.SKILL, 500GB 7200rpm SATA 3GB/s Samsung F3, 1680x1050 IN WIN Griffin mid case.

I'm kinda looking for the minimum to get the job done, not looking to make a huge investment in this mobo. 6GB/s is fine if the price isn't exorbitant. I think I'll go up to $100 max.

Does micro atx help with heat? Because I might OC the gpu and cpu. Bonus points if it supports a 6950 or GTX 560Ti but not necessary if it's cheap enough.

 

[JKatwyopc]

No, Micro ATX does not really help with heat. It does help with fitting into a small case but you listed a mid tower case (at least that's how i interpret it).

If you want the possibility of upgrading to an AM3+ CPU then one of these should do the job: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007625%20600138080%20600009017%20600008296%20600008419&IsNodeId=1&name=AMD%20880G&ShowDeactivatedMark=False

If your not concerned about trhat then here are some more good choices for Socket AM3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007625%20600008296%204027%20600007943%20600008419&IsNodeId=1&name=AMD%20880G

 

[inzone]

ASRock 870 Extreme3 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $91.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157272

ASRock A785GM-LE AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $58.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157274

The first board is an outstanding board with a lot of features and will support any video card you want to put in it and it will also support crossfire/sli if you so choose to do that in the future. The second board is a micro board that will be a budget option and will get you started. I will say that you may want to get a little higher psu 650w would be good if you are thinking about a 560ti or a 6950.

 

[kigrax]

@JKatwyopc the first few on the 2nd page don't even support DDR3 1600 memory. So that leaves http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138197 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130293

Which one looks better?

@inzone That second one was reviewed by only 8 people, and even then really, really badly.

I'm still deciding whether or not I want an am3+, not really sure..

 

[kigrax]

If it isn't specially listed in green next to the product name, where can you see whether or not it supports 125w cpu's? And what is there really to look for in a motherboard?