thanx fellas, nice input

@ripken ..is there any specific stepping of Opteron that I should consider? (seems like it is a great value due to its VERY good OC capabilities)

Whta do you think of a board that utilize the ATI chipset, from wht I've read it has issues with USB2..?

Good thing with that chipset is the highdef audio...not many has that in the AMD world from what I've learned now.

DFI and ASUS motherboards are the absolute best ones.

I'm looking at these two:

GA-K8NXP-SLI

what this has that speaks for it is:

firewire 800

sata300

wifi

DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR

what this has that speaks for it is:

very good OC and high quality components

I'm not that into OC so I'm thinking the Gigabyte mobo will be the best choice coz all the extras....but the big question is:

will the opteron run in this?

do u want sli? if not then get the dfi nf4 ultra-d , otherwise get the sli-dr.

Clint the gigabyte card will oclock well. It is a great mobo. If you want more features, and those are actually good features like firewire 800 and the sata then go with it. That way you get oclockability + the features whereas you only get oclockability in the DFI. Good luck.

@ ripken..I think I will go for SLI...at least prepare me for the future dual 7800gtx setup

@ suryad...Yes, this whas exactly was I was thinking....very good OC even not so hardcore as DFI board...but much more nice features like the wifi and firewire800....

Do you by any chance know what stepping of the Opteron 144 939 I should hunt down?

well it doesnt really matter since no one really knows...

the first few batches have been all sold out and whenever more of them come out, the are sold out within a few days. just try to get your hand on one and be happy

Do you by any chance know what stepping of the Opteron 144 939 I should hunt down?

You want the E4 stepping. The SH-E4 has a revised memory controller that doesn't seem to overclock as well. If you can find a place that still has an Opteron 144 before the end of the year, there's a good chance you'll get one with the E4 stepping.

After some delays I finally have bought the CPU, MB and RAM.

What i finally decided to buy was a DFI Lanparty Ultra-D. (can't resist, just too superior)

Also got my hands on a Opteron 146 CABYE 0540 that should OC very well...aiming at 2.8 at stock volts.

Coolingsolution will be a Thermaltake Big Typhoon

That bundled with Kingston PC3200 HyperX DDR 1024MB KIT Non-ECC Ultra Low Latency (2-2-2-5-1) should at least give me a decent start...whattaya think?

thanx for input boys

The motherboard was a huge mistake and there is probably no reason to buy an opteron you probably should have got an athlon x2 or some sort.

With the motherboard though... DFI's go bad like there is no tommorow you have no idea how many of those I have replaced. Out of all the brands I'd say they go bad the most BY FAR. Have fun with with m8.

Asus is always the way to go.

Edited December 1, 200520 yr by oofki

hehe, I seriusly doubt that you know....DFI boards gets top ratings all over...and the Opteron is a value hard to beat.

Reason the board burn I think is the heavy overvoltage you can give it...there will allways be stupid ppl nomatter what you do..

Edited December 1, 200520 yr by Clint

Congratulations on the excellent CPU, you just bought yourself a FX-57 in disguise. Seriously, the CABYE Opteron 14x are the exact same as the FX-57 except its multipliers are locked. If you're planning to overclock, you may want to ditch the Kingston RAM and go with something from OCZ, Mushkin, Geil, Crucial or Corsair. I look forward to seeing your overclocking results.

Congratulations on the excellent CPU, you just bought yourself a FX-57 in disguise. Seriously, the CABYE Opteron 14x are the exact same as the FX-57 except its multipliers are locked. If you're planning to overclock, you may want to ditch the Kingston RAM and go with something from OCZ, Mushkin, Geil, Crucial or Corsair. I look forward to seeing your overclocking results.

will report

I honestly cant believe you guys think DFI makes good motherboards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813131540

motherboard i got...i just got my parts today though. i won't get to try anything until the weekend sadly

Edited December 2, 200520 yr by Wolf_Demon