Need recommendation on mobo

[eli98]

Hey guys i need recommendation on a socket 940 motherboard for a Athlan 64 and wich cpu would be best for it.My wish list is as follow...Thermaltake VA3000 Dream Tower Black Tsunami,Powercolor ATI Radeon 9800XT 256mb ddr 256bit,Antec 550W power supply,Kingston HyperX Series 512mb ddr pc-4000,Samsum 160g SATA HD,Plextor 12x dvd+/-rw drive,Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Gamer Limited Edition PCI.

[therealwesty]

Socket-940 has been discontinued on the desktop side of things. Socket-939 has taken over as the standard for Athlon64. Up to this point I was recommending the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum as it has been top performer in any of the reviews I have seen. However, a number of forum members have been having trouble with the MSI Athlon64 boards. So at this point I am not certain what to suggest.

On the CPU front AMD has announced price cuts across the line. The Athlon64 3000+ and 3200+ have also been release on Socket-939 so there is a lot to choose from depending on your price point.

[omga14]

are you getting this cpu for free? otherwise i would suggest getting the 939 socket version. unless your getting an opteron they offer the FX series in 939 now. with the 940 socket your limited to registered memory which only offers PC3200 as the fastest available memory. with the FX in 939 you don't have this restriction since you can use unbuffered memory and that goes all the way up to pc4500. if you go with the 939 socket i would suggest the 3500+ and the MSI "K8N NEO2" for the motherboard. with the video card you should spend the extra $30 or so and get a next gen card as any of them will out perform the 9800xt at higher resolutions and with aa/af enabled. the rest looks fine but get the sata version of the hard drive as it's only $10 more and uses less power, smaller cable(helps with airflow in the case) and sets you up for future upgradability. i mentioned the 3500+ cause i can't really justify the extra $300 for the 3800+ performance wise. if you can wait a little longer the nfoce4 chipset will be available and offer pci-express and more onboard goodies. also the 3600+ should be available around the same time and it's just a rebadged FX-51 cpu. that would be more justifiable performance wise. hope this wasn't too confusing for you. i know i tend to ramble.

[bluegreenshxt]

- msi neo 2 platinum socket 939
- amd 64 3500+ or 3800+ depending on your budget
- ocz platinum rev2 dual channel kit cas 2-2-2-5 memory (amd's perform better with lower timings...higher frequencies come with high timings which lower the performance of amd cpus...just sell your one stick of pc4000 )
- nvidia geforce 6800/6800gt depending on budget...i like the gainward 6800gt goldensample

apart from that...you're all set...however you may wish to wait for pciexpress motherboards which are just a few months away.

[eli98]

Thanx guys! i was thinking of the 3500+ or 3800+,i wish i could spend more time in the forum but haven had the time.Will have to do more research on the MSI k8n Neo2.

[Tecleaus]

What is the highest DDR of ram you can get with the DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250GB

[omga14]

the DFI Lan Party UT 250gb has been proven to be able to handle DDR616. there is no DDR out there it can't handle in it's rated speed. right now the fastest stock sold is PC4500(DDR566).