New motherboard. Opinions/Thoughts wanted.

[El Sitherino]

Alright, I'm going to be getting into the market for a new motherboard soon, and possibly CPU. I'll be worrying about graphics cards after the new release from nVidia. So first things first, I'm looking for motherboard upgrades.

 

It's been a while since I've been in the fold on this, as life has kinda gotten in the way a bit, so I'm counting on you chaps to point me in the right direction for something that I hopefully won't be needing to upgrade in the near future. Not quite future-proofing, that never really works out but something that'll get me by for a while as my gaming is relatively low. However I do fancy pretty graphics and watching baddies blow up in exciting ways.

 

I'm looking mostly for something that offers me the ability for absurd RAM levels, I may not need as much RAM as I purchase, but it never hurts to have excess. And also a very low level of restrictions for processor choice. After I get this I'm looking to get a very swanky processor that'll basically turn my computer into something of a god-machine.

 

Try to keep in mind I'm not looking to spend more than $200, but a few fantasies never hurt. Who knows, it could be worth it, but mostly bang for the buck.

 

Now, I start the races. Impress me and someday I may name my child after you.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

If you want to go AMD (if you want to drop an extra $10 for a higher FSB).

 

If you want to go with Intel.

[Astrotoy7]

Depends on how much of a RAM-whore you are sithy

 

Both of the options are OK, but if you really want to god and future proof your rig - the new Intel boards based on the nforce 790 chipset are going to be able to tear s**t up, and support DDR3 RAM out of the box. Grab yourself a quad CPU, a 64bit OS and 16GB of DDR3 and you'll be able to fry eggs on that baby

 

of course 4X4gb sticks of DDR3 wont exactly be cheap, neither will the 790 mainboard > which are due to be released in January.

 

If thats a bit out of your price range, that jmacs options will do you nicely

 

good luck

 

mtfbwya

[El Sitherino]

I'd kick serious ass for 16GB of RAM. Are there any plans for a DDR3 release from AMD, or am I SOL on that for a while? I'll probably be shelling out a heftier chunk of change for my processor, but I'd like for it to be worth it at least.

[Astrotoy7]

I'd kick serious ass for 16GB of RAM. Are there any plans for a DDR3 release from AMD, or am I SOL on that for a while? I'll probably be shelling out a heftier chunk of change for my processor, but I'd like for it to be worth it at least.

 

yes, there will be a concurrent release of an AMD variant. You think me of all people should have mentioned it !! <points at sig!>

 

Im not sure if these will be the socket AM3 variety - I doubt it - phenom socket AM2+ is barely off the ground.

 

mtfbwya

[stingerhs]

out of curiosity, why would you want that much RAM?? 4GB is pretty much overkill for both right now and the foreseeable future. Crysis doesn't even benefit much from having that much RAM available much less 8 or 16GB. not to mention that 16GB of DDR3 is going to cost a small fortune.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

out of curiosity, why would you want that much RAM?? 4GB is pretty much overkill for both right now and the foreseeable future. Crysis doesn't even benefit much from having that much RAM available much less 8 or 16GB. not to mention that 16GB of DDR3 is going to cost a small fortune.

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[Negative Sun]

AMD's spider platform is coming out soon, which should be quite interesting...even though a current AM2 socket would still allow you to use all of AMD's upcoming processors, and an AMD 690 chipset is more than adequate just now, there's some boards that go up to 8Gb, which is more than plenty, even for Vista...

 

DDR3 doesn't offer that great an advantage compared to DDR2 just now, especially if you look at what you'd have to pay for it...4Gb of dual-channel DDR2 800Mhz should satisfy your needs if you've got a 64-bit OS.

[Astrotoy7]

...4gb DDR2 800Mhz should satisfy your needs if you've got a 64-bit OS.

 

thats exactly what I have and I have to admit I dont posess any apps that love me for it - even the video editing/encoding ones - they definitely benefitted from when I went from the x2 5000 to the x2 6000 but not as noticeable when I went from 3 to 4gb. Anything *below* 2gb in vista and you will definitely notice it in higher end apps.

 

I daresay that if I wanted to further boost performance in these apps I'd be much better off getting a quad CPU than another few GB of DDR2.

 

as shuttle smallforms are finicky things when it comes to CPU compatbility - Im just going to ride the next few months out and see if its worth upgrading to a particular quad CPU. Pursuant to my previous rants about CPUs hitting a ceiling effect for most apps, especially games - I think Id be better off waiting to upgrade my GPU to get Crysis running at 2560 x 1600/60fps.... gonna be a while though I dont think G9x will pull it off, nor ATIs always belated equivalent

 

mtfbwya

[Negative Sun]

I think Id be better off waiting to upgrade my GPU to get Crysis running at 2560 x 1600/60fps....

I hope you can be very patient then