Is this a good board for my first build?

LeeHamo

LeeHamo

LeeHamo

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Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-144-AS) £89.99 (£105.74 Including VAT at 17.5%).

I wont be overclocking, just want a good board thats gonna be futureproof for a good few years or more. I want it to be a top class board for gaming too (for my gfx card that I havent bought yet).

Got £700 to spend on my first build so if you wanted you could suggest to me some parts that would go with my board that may be better than others that I may buy(specifically).

Really i only need help with a good MOBO, is the one mentioned good enough?
is there something better for around same price?

I will be putting it in a black lian-li pc7. Havent got this case yet but it seems to be liked a lot on here.

Thanks in advance,

Lee.
 
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Cob,

Im a bit of a complete novice when it comes to intel and conroe.

What is conroe?

Could you suggest a good board for me for my needs as stated in first post and id greatly appreciate your help AND anyone elses..

Lee.

P.S I always thought AMD was the way to go. But it is my first build.
 
The Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe will be fine for an AM2 cpu.

Buuuuuuuut, at this moment in time, the new Intel processors (Core 2 Duo, commonly known as Conroes) are leading the pack. It's pretty much the general agreement that anyone building a new system would be mad to choose AM2 over Core 2 Duo. You can get a C2D e6300 for £120, match it with a £110 Gigabyte DS3 and some pc6400 RAM, and overclock it to 3Ghz with ease.
 
Cob,

I think I will probably do just as you said, but, e6300? is that the CPU or the board? who makes it so i can find it on oc easy, gigabyte ds3? board? CPU?

Im a bit lost now.

Lee.
 
The e6300 is the Core 2 Duo cpu and the Gigabyte DS3 is the motherboard. The Gigabyte DS4 is probably a slightly better option.

Do you need an SLi motherboard?
 
Do you mean this board? and this CPU?

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI) £108 after VAT

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£126 after VAT

Cheers, disregard last post. I found them...
 
Yip that's them. You can upgrade to a Core 2 Duo e6600 if you have the money. They'll usually hit 3.6Ghz. Read here for a list of compatible memory for the DS3 and DS4.

Also, the DS3 and DS4 only have one IDE channel. Will you be using IDE or SATA hard drives? And if using IDE, how many do you have?
 
Just a quickie.

Does the e6300 perform better unclocked than other processors such as a P4 3gig?

Or do you have to clock it to get the exceptable performance
 
Cob said:
Yip that's them. You can upgrade to a Core 2 Duo e6600 if you have the money. They'll usually hit 3.6Ghz. Read here for a list of compatible memory for the DS3 and DS4.

Also, the DS3 and DS4 only have one IDE channel. Will you be using IDE or SATA hard drives? And if using IDE, how many do you have?
Click to expand...

I am buying everything for the PC new, I have nothing yet. Got about £700 to spend though.

If SATA is the way I should go with this board then so be it.

By the way will all this kit fit nicely into a lian-li pc7+ or should i look for a diff case?

Lee.

P.S Thanks for your helpful advice Cob really appreciate it.

P.P.S I will not be overclocking anything, it will stay standard until I decide to venture into the overclocking world. so please bare this in mind.
 
Cob said:
Do you need an SLi motherboard?
Click to expand...

In short, not sure what SLI is really.

I want a "top notch" gaming PC that will last me a good few years and be maybe a tad future proof.
 
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SLi is putting two nVidia cards on the one board. ATi's version is called Crossfire. It's only needed if you're getting a 20" monitor or higher, and even then a high-end single card will usually be enough.
 
So I dont need SLI then I will just buy a high end single gfx card, so you still recommend the setup above cob?

Lee.

P.S the lian-li case i spoke about above ok for it or do you think i should go for something a bit pricier?

Lee.
 
I don't know much about cases i'm afraid. Try in the case forum. And yeah SATA all the way. Get the Samsung SATA DVD writer too. I have it and it works perfectly without needing any drivers.
 
Cob said:
The Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe will be fine for an AM2 cpu.

Buuuuuuuut, at this moment in time, the new Intel processors (Core 2 Duo, commonly known as Conroes) are leading the pack. It's pretty much the general agreement that anyone building a new system would be mad to choose AM2 over Core 2 Duo. You can get a C2D e6300 for £120, match it with a £110 Gigabyte DS3 and some pc6400 RAM, and overclock it to 3Ghz with ease.
Click to expand...


Totally agree have built three new machines in the last month and the performance coming from the conroe cores is amazing. If your doing a new build go for the Intel, the e6600 is apparently able to wipe the floor with the FX62. Intel e6600 is about £230 in comparison to FX62 £490. Totally impressed with Intel processor would change myself just can't afford it at the moment. So you should be able to expect good performance from the other chips
 
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