Motherboard help desperately needed.

[Horuss]

A year ago lightning fried my computer :mad: . I had it checked out and they told me to get a new motherboard, processor and power supply. My knowledge about these things is limited so please help me.

I need a great motherboard. I had a P4 with GIGABYTE GA 8SQ800 Ultra, 1000 ddr ram and a Radeon 9700 Gold. It was a monster gaming computer.

I need a new motherboard with a AGP slot (because of the Radeon). I am also going to get these new 64 AMD FX processors. I am looking at the GA – K8NSNXP – 939. Is it any good. I has to be great. I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE PRICE and it has to be GIGABYTE.

Please make any suggestions as to what you would buy.

Thanks in advance

[therealwesty]

Welcome to PCStats Horuss!

The board you mentioned I beleive is Gigabytes top AGP ready Athlon 64 capable board. If that doesn't do it then I don't know what will. Sometimes being hard-set on a particular brand can be pretty limiting, there are other Socket-939/AGP boards I would recommend before this one.

I was also never wholly impressed with nForce3 as a chipset. I worked with a few different boards and just never got them to run 100% stable in my opinion. For the most part they worked, and were reliable, but there was always little bug and oddities that undermined my confidence in the nForce3 boards. I think Avid6eek may have some similar sentiments.

Also, if you are looking to maintain the title of 'monster gaming computer' you will want to look at a new videocard. And if you are going so far as to get a new motherboard and videocard than there is no reason not to move to PCIe. Some stuff to think about anyway.

[Stone Fox]

Also, if you are looking to maintain the title of 'monster gaming computer' you will want to look at a new videocard. And if you are going so far as to get a new motherboard and videocard than there is no reason not to move to PCIe. Some stuff to think about anyway.

Spot on. While I highly reccomend the GA-K8NXP-SLI board (I use one myself) as westy pointed out you need a good graphics card to get the title "Monster gaming system"

As for Gigabyte boards I'd reccomend one of these two:

GA-K8NXP-SLI - Brilliant board, not the best overclocker, but it can be tweaked. If you press ctrl+f1 in bios it opens a "hidden" overclocking menu. This is the more loaded of the two boards.

GA-K8NXP-Ultra-SLI - Roughly the same board, slightly less features (lacks the pair of non PCI bus Gigabit NICs etc) but it's been optimised for overclocking.

I'd avoid spending money on their "Quad Royal" board as nothing really supports it yet, but if you've really got the money, when gigabyte release their 7800GTX version of the 3D1 card you could be running 4 7800GTX GPU's on one system.

Possibly quite pointless and expensive... Yet to see.

[Computerade]

"I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE PRICE and it has to be GIGABYTE."

Well if you don't care about the price, and it seems like you don't if you want an FX processor, why don't you upgrade to a PCI-E video card, and if all your budget was going to the FX processor, get a 3800+ X2 with the Gigabyte K8N Ultra board.

[Skorp]

These guys are all orrect. Now is the best time to move to PCI-E. Why? Because you will eventually, and when you do, you'll have to dump your perfectly fine motherboard AGAIN. I also cant see a reason to stay AGP; the 9700 really doesnt seem like a good excuse to not go PCI-E.

If you can find it in your budget, then it really makes sense to get a slightly slower processor and a better graphics card. Pairing up an FX with a 9700 makes little sense.

[ElrichMeister]

i definately agree with the guys as well, id rather get one of the lower end X2's, which are about half the price of the FX's, and with that money u can get a better video card. because the 9700 is an old gfx card, youll get a better gaming performance out of a machine with latest generation gfx cards with a lower end x2 or higher end a64, than an FX with a 9700.

[stlouis1]

in a couple weeks im going to have a brand new msi k8n neo 2 platinum that ill be letting go for 150$ canadian. its meets your requirements, aside from not being a gigabyte board

[yahooadam]

It has to be great. I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE PRICE and it has to be GIGABYTE
sorry but ure CPU/mobo can only take u so far

if ure gonna be gaming, the GFX card is probably the most important factor solely (aslong as ure not running a slug of a proccesor)

Its really up to u what u get

if u want it to be good at gaming though, depends what games also

ure looking at a 6800 or a 7800 (if u can afford it) for anything like bf2 wheres a 6200 would prolly do for CSS although the 6800/7800 wont hurt

anything older then that and ure 9700 ATI card is prolly OK, but theres no point dumping money into the computer then

u might wanan get 1 of the mobos which does AGP and PCI-E

[chris000001]

please tell us why you are so stuck on gigabyte... you claim you need a great motherboard...well then my friend you need a DFI lanparty board!
along with a new graphics card...i have a 9800XT and i would say it performs OK in BF2.

if your planing on shellin out for an FX then you NEED a new GFX card like everyone else has said!

[stlouis1]

i dont think this guys worth wasting our time with. he knows nothing