Motherboards

[fxt107]

I have just started shopping for a new machine at Cyberpower. I am starting with an Intel configurator to build my machine, but I can't seem to find any good sites for motherboard comparisons.

Can anyone or Tekzilla point me in the right direction? I plan on going with an Intel E8500 Core 2 Duo and want the ability to eventually go SLI.

Anyone?

[tokenuser]

Word of advice - go to NewEgg for the purchase. When CyberPower get it right, then all is fine, but there are many, many complaints when somethng goes wrong - especially with the build quality of their desktop machines and over inflated shipping charges.

[burkhartmj]

agreed with tokenuser. Even if cyberpower doesn't inflate their shipping charges with you, it tends to be cheaper to build your own than get a premade one. Now as far as motherboard is concerned, I usually stick with asus or gigabyte, depending on what you're shootin for in connectors and the like. With gigabyte, you also need to look at what cpu cooler you plan on using because of their weird "crazy cool" heatsinks. The two I'm lookin at personally are [both on newegg]:

GIGABYTE GA-EX38-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

[ciredark]

Originally Posted by fxt107

I have just started shopping for a new machine at Cyberpower. I am starting with an Intel configurator to build my machine, but I can't seem to find any good sites for motherboard comparisons.

Can anyone or Tekzilla point me in the right direction? I plan on going with an Intel E8500 Core 2 Duo and want the ability to eventually go SLI.

Anyone?

Make sure you pay attention to the CPU Socket type and match motherboard accordingly.

This is alot like saying "Make sure you zip up your pants after taking a leak." but in both cases, you'd be surprised how many people forget to pay attention to that detail.

[sam_]

If your looking for SLi then any of the nvidia 7xx chipset boards are a good bet. and if your overclocking they should be ok.
I say ok because if your not sure if you will go SLi and want to get the best clocks out of your cpu then a P35 or X38 motherboard would most likely OC better than the nvidia.

[jdhore]

I'm a big, big fan of Asrock boards...They're pretty cheap, but they've got some nice features (especially the $107 model at Newegg) and in my experience, they're more stable than Asus or Abit or MSI or Foxconn...The only other company i'd recommend is Gigabyte, but my main board is a Gigabyte server board so i can't make any desktop recommendations

[tokenuser]

When I was watercooling and OCing and dual cpuing, I was a huge fan of Tyan mobos.

[lordlundar]

An approach that works well for me is to look at the motherboard last. Look at what you have and are going to get, then use that to narrow down your choices. I consider the motherboard as a spinal cord for the human. Totally vital, but it's primary purpose is to connect the foot to the brain so you can stand. I then make choice using that information and that approach.

[shegs]

how much is looked to be spent on this new system?

[d3m0n1k]

Hey, I don;t know if this was mentioned or not, but make sure the board you buy allows for FULL speed Sli or Crossfire.

I made the mistake once of buying an "SLI" board but when I went to SLI mode it cut the cards down to 4x each. Stupid, really.
Now I have one that allows quad sli at full speed or crossfire at full speed.
Just a note.