Motherboard compare

[Messerschmitt]

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...=2&NoMapp=0

vs

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...=2&NoMapp=0

Which of the 2 is better and why?

Me personnaly would go towords the MSI. I know they are a good company so the 12 months warranty vs the 36 shouldn't be a big factor.

It has more PCI slots and more I/O ports.

I don't know anything about the chipset tho. Is it better to have only 1 Northbridge, or 2 a South and a North. What is the difference?

And what case can you get with it? I mean I am looking at the back pannel connectors and no case matches it. This kinda goes for MSI as you can't really see the Asus. But I have seen many new motherboards having different style of back pannel connectors while all the cases still have the standard holes in the back. Would this case be good? And can I use the firewire port if the case is good?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...u=TC3J-4032%20P

[ripken204]

thats a decent case, nothing that really looks bad about it. the front firewire will just connect to the header on the mobo.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...&CatId=1572

here is another good mobo

out of the mobos you picked, i would go for the asus

as for the back of the case, the panel there pops off and you pop in a new one that came with your mobo, so dont worry about it.

[jcarle]

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...&CatId=1572

here is another good mobo

Considering his two choices are SLI motherboards and yours isn't...

[ripken204]

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...&CatId=1572

here is another good mobo

Considering his two choices are SLI motherboards and yours isn't...

he said he know nothing about chipsets, so he picked those just b/c he liked them i guess.

he also said nothing about SLI. most people could care less about SLI.

[jcarle]

he said he know nothing about chipsets, so he picked those just b/c he liked them i guess.

he also said nothing about SLI. most people could care less about SLI.

You guess, you assume, you did everything except ASK him what he wants.

[ripken204]

and you assume that he wants SLI.

[jcarle]

and you assume that he wants SLI.

If you notice, I didn't make a suggestion.

[Messerschmitt]

I will not use SLI at the moment but i'm looking for it since I ususaly when I buy a system I keep it for around 5 years (as I did with this one from which I currently write). When I will need more power I can just buy a second GeForce and not throw away my first card which right now cost at least 400$.

When I chose the mobo I looked at the PCI slots (I am using a SB card) proobably will look for a TV Tuner as well, so as many PCI the better.

I looked at the Max ram capacity, and even if 4 GB is humangous who knows what the future will bring. A 8 GB capacity is allways nice. I did a mistake with the mobo I currently have thinking that I will never need more than 1 GB 5 years ago and guess what, I was terebly wrong.

The Front Bus has also a 1333MHZ "for the future" as they said, even tho intel might never produce a CPU using 1333MHZ.

And I allways want as many options I can on it. This goes for the I/O

My plans is to buy a very good system now around 1500$ and have the option that in 3-4 years to be able to boost it a little again for another 2-3 years. Now I realise anything can happen with the mobo and I will need to buy a new one, but well, this current mobo is a Sis735 which almost nobody heard about it, I have no idea who produced it (I wasn't that smart back then) and yet it goes well for over 5 years. Oh yea and it had 2 power surges, capacitors where destroyed but I just used a soldering hammer, put back in new capacitors and away I go.

And from what research I did I guess if the mobo only has a northbridge then the functions from the southbridge are implemented into the same northbridge.

If you do recommend new mobo please tell me why you think it's better than the one I chosed. Or if you recommend one of the 2 I chose please tell me why is that over the other one.

System I am planning to have is: E6600 2.4GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB Ram, 667MHZ DDR2, 1 or 2 SATA HDD, 1 IDE HDD, 3 ROM's (CD-RW, CD, DVD-RW) Gf 8800 GTS 320mb (no idea if 640 makes any real difference for the +150$)

Edited May 7, 2007 by Messerschmitt

[jcarle]

I've always lived by the same principale and it has saved me hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Whenever you're going to buy a new system, spend top dollar on the motherboard, save on the rest if you have too. The motherboard is the foundation of your computer, it alone will determine just how far you can upgrade. Some people agree with me, others don't. This is just my opinion.

And, still holding to my humble opinion, if you want the top motherboard in the LGA775 series and you don't mind spending top dollar, from ASUS, the top dog is the Asus Striker Extreme. It's expensive, but it's worth it.