What motherboard to get?
Please forgive me, I have some n00b questions...
I need a reliable and highly compatable motherboard for this secondary PC that will not be for surfing, gaming or anything visual, er obviously Socket 775 ( I don't get what 945, 965 etc means) the budget for the motherboard is £70-£130, I don't mind paying up to £130 but it needs to be worth it ticking boxes on my wishlist...
I have a case and PSU already and a Seagate 120gb SATA drive to use as an OS drive
My shopping list:
Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (which I may or may not overclock to 2.4-2.5GHz if I can depending on what the HSF is like)
Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (am I bottlenecking the CPU with this?)
NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (I'm assuming this is IDE since I can't tell...)
Netgear GS608 8-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch (This seems good for £46, am I sacrificing too much for the value? Are there better alternatives near that price with better throughput speeds and handling? I'm hoping its 1000mbps over Cat5e or do I need to get Cat6 cable?)
Some pedantic points:
a) I have 3 IDE drives and of course DVDR-RW to attach to the 775 mobo I want to buy, is having 2 IDE sockets on such a mobo asking too much as I find this hard to find these days?
b) I want to install windows 2000 on it and possibly dual boot it with debian, can you foresee any problems with this?
c) On board sound is a bonus and not necessary
d) On board graphics is a large bonus for me as it saves me from having to shell out for graphics anytime soon, the result is PCI-E 16x isn't entirely necessary as it does not need fast graphics, but I'm scared all the integrated graphics boards are cheap nasty things as I want a reliable and fast motherboard
e) Future quad core support is also a bonus, not necessary but would lean a lot towards making the box more futureproof
f) If integrated graphics is too poor, would a £50 or less graphics card really improve anything on Windows 2000 if I have all effects turned off, gui effects don't matter on this box.
g) The ethernet port needs to be gigabit, most are now of course, but a good network chipset on the gigabit port is a good bonus, dual gbit also be a bonus
h) Thank for putting up with me
Please forgive me, I have some n00b questions...
I need a reliable and highly compatable motherboard for this secondary PC that will not be for surfing, gaming or anything visual, er obviously Socket 775 ( I don't get what 945, 965 etc means) the budget for the motherboard is £70-£130, I don't mind paying up to £130 but it needs to be worth it ticking boxes on my wishlist...
I have a case and PSU already and a Seagate 120gb SATA drive to use as an OS drive
My shopping list:
Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (which I may or may not overclock to 2.4-2.5GHz if I can depending on what the HSF is like)
Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (am I bottlenecking the CPU with this?)
NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (I'm assuming this is IDE since I can't tell...)
Netgear GS608 8-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch (This seems good for £46, am I sacrificing too much for the value? Are there better alternatives near that price with better throughput speeds and handling? I'm hoping its 1000mbps over Cat5e or do I need to get Cat6 cable?)
Some pedantic points:
a) I have 3 IDE drives and of course DVDR-RW to attach to the 775 mobo I want to buy, is having 2 IDE sockets on such a mobo asking too much as I find this hard to find these days?
b) I want to install windows 2000 on it and possibly dual boot it with debian, can you foresee any problems with this?
c) On board sound is a bonus and not necessary
d) On board graphics is a large bonus for me as it saves me from having to shell out for graphics anytime soon, the result is PCI-E 16x isn't entirely necessary as it does not need fast graphics, but I'm scared all the integrated graphics boards are cheap nasty things as I want a reliable and fast motherboard
e) Future quad core support is also a bonus, not necessary but would lean a lot towards making the box more futureproof
f) If integrated graphics is too poor, would a £50 or less graphics card really improve anything on Windows 2000 if I have all effects turned off, gui effects don't matter on this box.
g) The ethernet port needs to be gigabit, most are now of course, but a good network chipset on the gigabit port is a good bonus, dual gbit also be a bonus
h) Thank for putting up with me
Last edited:
