Which and Why?

L

Leevoy

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I am eventually going learn how to build and install all components safely and correctly.

Firstly I will wait till sales/price drops/special offers etc... Before I buy the components.


I have had two PC's in my lifetime both have had award/phoenix motherboards and they never have bios updates and they always seem to show errors and get out of date very quickly.

I notice a lot of motherboards have regular updates and fixes.
I want a good to upper tier motherboard, with 7 slots can take upto 4gb r.a.m. ddr r.a.m. must have at least 4 slots for r.a.m. mine currenlty has 2 (sad I know).

In the bios it must be automatic configuration, so i don't have to play around with jumpers if I upgrade the CPU. It must have boot virus enabling/disabling. It must have a feature I saw today that has a component that downloads bios updates from windows desktop.

I want to be able to have a processor speed of 3 ghz, prefable amd compatible.

I could go on, around £100-£140

NE1 recommend anything. Wanna harras my father for it after Xmas when we all know sales are on.

I don't want a via, sis, or intel chipset also.

Last part: are nvidia boards great, and is the graphics integrated on boards?

I would like on-board sound also, but that's not a problem as I can just use a sound card I have from my older PC.

really we should have a wish list section.

NE ideas? Going to bed now hope for some good ideas tomorrow when i wake up :)
 
I would reccommend u also try to get one w/a 333 or 400 fsb on it as the 133 an 266's will soon be obsolete an you will be able to handle the faster processors when they come out.

Nvidia boards are ok.A couple have onboard graphics.I still prefer the plug in (agp/vga) but it really depends on your needs.So many boards you can choose from in that price range. :p
 
Originally posted by Leevoy
I have had two PC's in my lifetime both have had award/phoenix motherboards and they never have bios updates and they always seem to show errors and get out of date very quickly.
the frequency bios updates are completely independent of the bios manufacture as the motherboard manufacturer is the one who comes out with their bios updates. decent brands are Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, Albatron, MSI, Chaintech, Leadtek, Epox, and maybe some others.

I notice a lot of motherboards have regular updates and fixes. I want a good to upper tier motherboard, with 7 slots can take upto 4gb r.a.m. ddr r.a.m. must have at least 4 slots for r.a.m. mine currenlty has 2 (sad I know).
why 4gb of ram? a lot of desktop motherboards are limited to about 3gb, which is way way more than enough for any desktop/gaming application for years to come so try not to let that limit your selection.

and when you say 7 slots, i assume you mean agp and pci slots? every board has an agp slot and most seem to have 5 pci slots but some can be found with 6. but motherboards these days can be had with a myriad of features already onboard which should cut down on the number of pci slots you'll need. thus, i would think 5 is enough, so try not to let that limit your selection either.

In the bios it must be automatic configuration, so i don't have to play around with jumpers if I upgrade the CPU. It must have boot virus enabling/disabling. It must have a feature I saw today that has a component that downloads bios updates from windows desktop.
all motherboards are practically jumperless anymore, so everything will controlled through the bios. a few might have a single jumper to enable/disable a feature like onboard raid, for example. not a big deal. and bios virus protection is standard also.

as far as the windows-based bios updating, i know abit has it on it's nf7 series and probably all the newest boards. i'm sure there are other brands, but i don't know them off hand.

I want to be able to have a processor speed of 3 ghz, prefable amd compatible.
well, AMD doesn't have a 3ghz chip yet. what they have is the 3200+ (2.2ghz) which is roughly equivalent to a 3.2ghz pentium 4. but it's also expensive. the best value AMD chip is the 2500+ at around $90. this is assuming you're building a 32-bit system. 64-bit hardware just hit the scene which is the future, but it's also pricey. if you want to know more about 64-bit, ask us.

I don't want a via, sis, or intel chipset also.
sounds like you're basically limiting yourself to nVidia's nForce2 (32-bit) or nForce3 (64-bit) chipset since you've eliminated the other big ones. but the nforce's are great chipsets so you're in luck.

Last part: are nvidia boards great, and is the graphics integrated on boards?.
they can be had with onboard video, but most don't include it to save on cost. the boards without onboard video are more for the enthusiast market since the onboard video can't hold a candle to a decent agp video card. if you plan on playing any recent games, get a board without the onboard video and buy a video card to go with it.

I would like on-board sound also, but that's not a problem as I can just use a sound card I have from my older PC.
some nforce2 boards come with superb onboard SoundStorm sound which, along with offering great sound quality, supports hardware acceleration (EAX, A3D, etc) which is great for games. two great boards with this are the Abit NF7-S and Asus A7N8X Deluxe. not sure of any others. but if you don't opt for the high-end SoundStorm sound, all other boards come with some form of onboard sound and they all offer at least decent quality sound for listening to music.
 
Hey some great tips thanks to both of you for giving me great advice:)
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
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Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
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