£1000 ish , need help with MOBO

gulighs1

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Hi i am helping a friend build a pc based on a budget of around a 1000 uk pounds
(ive been recently reasearching parts for my machine and gave him the "buy new comp bug")

It includes:

19 inch monitor
amd 965BE
gtx 260
4 gb ram
1x samsung spinpoint F3
2 x 1.5 TB sata II HDD's (for media storage)

I can only buy from scanUK,OverclockersUK or Novatech. Due to financing reasons

Questions:

1.) My Main Question is what is the cheapest motherboard i can buy without bottlenecking any of the above.
i am hoping around 100 quid, the gtx 260 might be sli in the future.

2.) I have told my friend he should be able to play most games on high if not max settings on all current games ('cept crysis) , is that correct or should he SLI ? or maybe upgrade to 275? the thing with the ATI's is they dont have physX...or else they would have been better.

Thanks A lot For your help.
 
First, you should go with the 955 BE. The 965 is more expensive, but they're basically the same chip. Both have the same overclocking potential. Since you're building your own, you can easily overclock a 955 (probably still using the stock cooler) and get the same specs.

Second, you shouldn't get the 260 at all. Look at the new ATI DirectX11 cards. These will be cheaper, more future proof, and have the same performance.

So your questions...

1.) The cheapest you could go is around $100 (don't know the English equivalent). That said, this isn't something you should skimp on. This one isn't much more than that, but is a good choice: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO

2.) I would suggest getting a high end ATI card. The 58xx are all good, but are very expensive and hard to find. They're expensive because people are snatching them up the second they get put back in stock. I would do some research focusing on the new cards and wait until some come in. You could possibly drop to a couple of the 57xx (also DirectX 11 cards) and Crossfire them. Two of those would run you the same as the higher cards, and they're more available.

Edit: Added link to mobo
 
@MadAdmiral - ATI cards dont handle PhysX well at all. Even the 5870 can drop to 10FPS with PhysX enabled in some games.

@gulighs - A 260 will play great at lower resolutions. If you are getting a large 1920x1080 monitor then moving up to a 275 would make more sense.

From what I read, only 11 games currently use PhysX, is that correct?

I agree with MadAd about the 955, its a better value especially if you will be overclocking.
 
@dndhatcher: Fair enough, but with as little use as it has, I think the DX11 would be more important. I guess it only really matters if you have one of those 11 games.

Another option is to buy a cheap card now with the intention of upgrading once nVidia brings out cards that support DX11. I think I've heard that's supposed to happen in early 2010 (can anyone confirm this?).
 
Another physX option is to buy a good DX11 card and a cheaper Nvidia (like a GT 240 or 9800) and use it as a dedicated PhysX card.

Like this xbitlabs review where they has a 5870 with a GTX 275 as a PhysX card.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5800-crossfirex_8.html#sect2



Nvidia has been saying a few things regarding Fermi.
1> Same manufacturing problems as ATI 5800s means they wont have enough supply to ship this year.
2> The Tesla GPGPU models are a higher priority and will ship first.
3> They are hinting about demoing and releasing at the end of year, even though there wont be availability until next year.
 

gulighs1

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me personally , im building an expensive machine but am debating waiting for the nvidia DX11.

The person this computer is for is content with mediocrity as he doesnt care (nor has the xtra cash) for enthusiast level performance.

but thanks for your advice:

the monitor will be 19 or 19 widescreen: the res for thos monitors is either..

1280x1024 or 1440 x 900
 

gulighs1

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Thanks a lot for your responses guys, very much appreciated.

just on a side note (or my next dillemma rather lol)...

19 inch regular or 19 inch widescreen ?