Curse

Azure1010 · Jan 03, 2009, 07:32 PM // 19:32

Hey Everyone...happy new year!

I'm about to start buying components for my build with the cash i got for christmas but have no idea as to which motherboard to get!

Here is my soon to be speclist:

* GPU - Sapphire 4870 1gb
CPU - Q6600
RAM - Reaper 2GB (possibly 4GB) @ 1066MHz
Case - Antec 1200/900 (or possibly coolermaster 932 HAF)

I will be using windows XP professional as im not going any where near vista!

Further down the line i am planning on overclocking and adding a second card.
Oh and i have a budget of around £150 but obviously want the best i can get for the least!, i'm willing to spend more if it will make a fair bit of difference.

Thanks a lot for reading this, and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

p.s. feel free to give recommendations of any other components, PSU recommendations would be appreciated to.

Thanks a lot,

Azure

EDIT: I will most likely have 2 hard drives one running xp pro and the other vista for gaming.

moriz · Jan 03, 2009, 10:52 PM // 22:52

with what you have in mind, vista 64bit is your best bet. i took a brief foray into XP 64bit this winter... i was back to vista in about a week.

anyways, here's the board i would recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136051

with a Q6600, you won't need any of the newer (P45/X48, for instance) chipsets. you might also drop to the cheaper DDR2 800 ram, since you won't notice much difference anyways.

Evil Genius · Jan 04, 2009, 01:56 AM // 01:56

Since your getting another card a X38/X48 board is the best choice since they have two full x16 lanes. P45 runs crossfirex in x16 and x8 so is not the best choice. The one moriz suggested would be fine (X48 is basically cherry picked X38 chips with official support for a 1600Mhz FSB), but if the equivelent X48 board is a similar price might as well get that.

I would also recommend getting 4GB of RAM even if that means 4GB of 800Mhz instead of 2GB of 1066.

Lord Sojar · Jan 04, 2009, 07:04 AM // 07:04

Yes, the x48 boards are pretty awesome.

As for your case selection, the best two to look at would be either the Coolermaster HAF or Thermaltake Armor+ full tower case. Both are really solid, but I always give my nod to the Armor+ because of all the nice features it includes.

For power supplies, Corsair is the best buy at the moment. They are built extraordinarily well, and are very stable. Their ampere ratings are perfect, and their rails are solid.

This model would be best: (look on your preferred UK site for the same models)

For current stuff without plans to upgrade later:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

For ability to upgrade well into the future but pay more now:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139007