HELP choosing motherboard

Milner

OK I want to order my parts/new computer this week, but I am having a hard time picking a motherboard. I have the other components pretty figured out. I will be using a E6600 c2d, but want a board that will take a quad if need be at some point. Other than that my biggest thing is USB ports for all my crap, and an external SATA. (if I get an mb with eSATA, I don't need a case with an eSATA port, right??) Also plan on SATA for my optical drive. I will run 4gb for now but want the support for 8.
I assume it is better to get a board and seperate sound/video???? Or maybe sound on the MB and video on a card? (Dual monitor NO games)

So suggestions? Asus, Intel, Giga, Others????

I seems like my needs narrowed everything else down to easy choices, but I just keep running circles on the MB.

THANKS
Marc

ChrisJ

Milner wrote:

So suggestions? Asus, Intel, Giga, Others????

I just bought an ASUS P5B-Deluxe (w/o WiFi). It supports all of your requirements except that I do not know about Quad support. It's socket 775, so I think it does.

See this thread for details of my system: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=59219

Link to the ASUS manual for this MB (pdf): http://dlsvr05.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5B%20Deluxe/e2668_p5b_dlx.pdf

TristanP

If you care about good audio, you'll get a separate card. If you care about video and want a dual monitor setup, you'll get a dual DVI video card. Shouldn't run you more than $140 for a perfectly fine vid card. I've had good success with Asus and Gigabyte boards. My current is a C2D E6300 on a Giga DS3 w/ 2GB of Corsair RAM. When you say you want to run "4 mb for now", do you mean 4 GB of RAM? I can't see how you'd need any more than 4 GB ever. Even 2 GB is plenty for most users.

Milner

TristanP wrote:

When you say you want to run "4 mb for now", do you mean 4 GB of RAM?

Opps

Actually I will probably only run 3gigs for now, sticking with cs2 and xp for now....

claudermilk

Asus are good boards, not familiar with Giga. Another good manufacturer to look at is MSI.

As a matter of fact, here's a couple they specifically say are quad-compatible:
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=975X_Platinum_V.2&class=mb
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=P965_Platinum&class=mb

I've been very happy with my socket 939 board. Nice feature set & good price. I am happy with the on-board sound on my board, and those look like even better versions. Video is best as a separate card.