Page 1 of What mother board?

Hi Guys, need some help as im confused about the expansion slots etc.

I need to buy a motherboard, ram, cpu, psu and graphics card for about 330 quid

I would like to order from saverstore or dabs or something like that, ebuyer is another.

But im not sure which mother board will be compatible with which graphics card and chip and ram all at the same time...

I would be more than happy if you could help with a search and post the individual links for each components ( This might be asking for too much)

But I would still appreciate what I should be looking for to ensure compatibility.

Please help me with my Mother problem :)

First question, do you want to go with the Intel or AMD chips?

All new motherboards (well most of them) will now have a PCI-E slot for the gfx card. And pretty much any card will be compatible. You`ll just need to be wary of the power requirements of the card + all the other components.
So you need to know what wattage your current power supply is.

"Build a man a fire, and he`ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he`ll be warm for the rest of his life."
-Terry Pratchett.

Going for intel... Its main use is graphics design. If AMD can pull it off then fine.. ill go for AMD if I can save some money

I`d personally stick with the Intel CPUs.

If you`re concerned about picking out components that will go together, Novatech do some motherboard bundles (motherboard + CPU + RAM) that they test before sending out.

But to be honest, given the standards these days its easy enough to pick up components that will be fine.
You just need a motherboard with a LGA775 socket, preferably with the 1333Mhz FSB (for future proofing)...an Intel C2D or quad core (the Q6600 is a pretty good buy).
Then I`d go for 2 x 1024MB 800Mhz RAM.

Not sure what kind of graphic design work you do, but if you`re not using for video gaming then the gfx card shouldn`t need to be that beefy. I`m not really up to date on them, but Toms Hardware always has reviews and comparisons on all of them. So worth a look there.

"Build a man a fire, and he`ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he`ll be warm for the rest of his life."
-Terry Pratchett.

I went with a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and a C2D E6750 CPU. The Q6600 was £60 more and I couldn`t justify it at the time. Apparently the E6850 are the `sweet spots` now. By the time I need to upgrade the CPU there will be better and faster for the same money though. I also went for 4GB of 800MHz DDR2, because it was only £60.

Not sure what graphic work your doing, but I`m guessing it`s not CAD (if it is the card will cost you more). Should be okay with an 8800 series or even the 9600, as they`re a bit cheaper and not far off of the performance.

or even the 9600, as they`re a bit cheaper and not far off of the performance.

i heard these actually use the same core as an 8800gt, tho of course, that could be totaly wrong, & i can`t remember where i read it :/

i have an 8800GTX, but if i where gonna do it again, i probably would have bought an 8800GT 512meg, as these can be easily clocked to roughly the same speed..... but about £80/£100 cheaper......

& ditto for intel, i have the Q6600, a decent chip & if your interested in overclocking (i`m not) it can apparently be clocked upto 3ghz very easily... & it`s a pretty cheap option these days.

Been looking at the 9600gt and thinking of getting that one. looks good and a bit cheaper than the 8800gt.

Im running on 8800gts now.. but this pc is for a mate who is trying to keep the cost down cos he is in Mauritius and he does not earn enough.

Graphics is for quark express, photoshop and adobe illustrator and stuff.... not for cad or 3d

I would like to go for the intel, but with 10 quid making a big difference here, ill have to try and cut a few corners.

Any more ideas to keep me under budget would be great... will have to oder by tomorrow night to have delivery on time for when my bro flies over.

This item was edited on Monday, 5th May 2008, 21:18

Sid

Tom`s Hardware do a few build PCs for under x amount every now and again - so worth checking those out (e.g. www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-graphic-game,1810.html)

They pick components based of performance, price etc.

Miles

"Build a man a fire, and he`ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he`ll be warm for the rest of his life."
-Terry Pratchett.

Don`t skimp on a cheap ass PSU and generic RAM! They`ll appear fine until you start running the system under heavy load, then you`ll end up with blue screens, and no explanation as to why.

(And a cheap PSU never delivers the wattage (or even close to) it promises on the box, and offers no protection to your mobo+cpu).


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