Just bought an Opty 146...

[craigyboytaz]

What motherboard and graphics card should I go for?

Am on a bit of a budget, so talking about £200 tops for both.

Saw a A8N-E for 47 and SLI premium for 94 inc vat on b-grade,granted I dont know what is wrong with them.

this would leave about £100 for the gfx card, I play a few games ..mainly online stuff, got a 9700 mobility in my laptop which plays the games pretty nice, so maybe a bit of an increase in quality would be nice.

As you may have guessed I will be trying my first OC on the opty, so a good OC gfx card would be nice...same for the mobo.

Thanks for your help guys, great forum...been reading for a few weeks while i contemplete spending my money!

Craig

 

[semi-pro waster]

Welcome to the forums. If you are aiming for overclocking then I'd probably suggest DFI as being the best bar none. This pairing ought to be suitable and has a good graphics card, if the budget is entirely non-negotiable then I'd get the X800GTO 256mb near the top of the page although it doesn't have 16pipelines as standard, it has 12.

GX-055-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO16 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-055-PC)
£104.95 £104.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£79.95 £79.95
Subtotal £184.90
VAT £32.36
Total £217.26

 

[ACESHIGH]

Gigabyte K8NF-9 nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-032-GI) £68.09 Including VAT
PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO16 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-055-PC) £123.32 Including VAT

 

[craigyboytaz]

thanks for the replys, I have also noticed the gto2 with the bios upgrade to 16 pipes for roughly the same price as the card you quoted...is this any better?

Also which board give better overclocking potential/stability the DFI or the gigabyte?

Thanks guys

 

[semi-pro waster]

The DFI will probably give the better potential but it may be a bit more tricky to get the best out of and has more options because it is specifically designed for overclocking. However the Gigabyte may be more stable as it is designed for more 'normal' use.

The GTO2 isn't any better apart from possibly the cooler and you do have to unlock the pipelines yourself.

 

[GAMEfreak]

that GTO16 they are talking about already has 16 pipes. its just underclocked. i'd get an x850 xt and overclock it tbh or a gto2.

 

[semi-pro waster]

that GTO16 they are talking about already has 16 pipes. its just underclocked. i'd get an x850 xt and overclock it tbh or a gto2.

Why the GTO2? It is clocked exactly the same as the GTO16 but you have to unlock the pipelines yourself so unless there is something in the bundle or there is a better cooler on the card I don't see the point.

An X850XT is clocked a fair bit higher to begin with and it costs more, the GTO16 may overclock to the same sort of levels but there are no guarantees(beyond a reasonable likelihood) so if you want certainty get the X850XT

 

[craigyboytaz]

Thanks again guys,

So if I was building for the future, dont mind plenty of tinkering with the DFI board, what would you say is the better long term investment mobo, planning on changing gfx card soon-ish ( 6months) but hope to keep mobo and CPU and memory for the longer term.

Thanks

Craig

 

[ACESHIGH]

Thanks again guys,

So if I was building for the future, dont mind plenty of tinkering with the DFI board, what would you say is the better long term investment mobo, planning on changing gfx card soon-ish ( 6months) but hope to keep mobo and CPU and memory for the longer term.

Thanks

Craig

Then go for ..
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)

 

[Trigger]

Thanks again guys,

So if I was building for the future, dont mind plenty of tinkering with the DFI board, what would you say is the better long term investment mobo, planning on changing gfx card soon-ish ( 6months) but hope to keep mobo and CPU and memory for the longer term.

Thanks

Craig

Go for what semi-pro waster specced above. No question about it