Where to buy a new motherboard?

[TWSARCH]

Greetings, this is my first post on the forum. I need to build a new PC for 3-D cad and rendering applications, photo editing and a little video editing thrown in as well. To add complexity to the issue, I have to build a $3500 computer for $2000. The problem is, I don't know where to buy components, especially the motherboard. Looking at user reviews on online retailers such as tiger direct, it seems a heck of a lot of bad motherboards get sold and it takes a few returns to get a good one, even from reputable manufactures. Is this due to the retailers selling seconds and rejects or is quality control with motherboards just that bad in general? I don't have time to mess around with building a computer and ripping it apart a couple times to return parts, this is a work computer, not a gamer. If someone could recommend a retailer that ships good parts to start with it would be great, or should I just get the motherboard directly from the manufacture?

Thanks

 

[Evolv]

I don't have time to suggest a build for you, but I'm sure someone else will. If you live in the United States the best place to get computer parts would be newegg.com. Or if you live in Canada, tigerdirect.com or ncix.com are good as well.

 

[TWSARCH]

Thanks, I wasn't looking for build suggestions, AutoDesk takes care of that with approved component list if you want support from them, it all cost a lot. $850 graphics card, $1000 processor etc. I was just looking for a recommendation on where to shop for parts without having to sort thru a lot of DOA's as I noticed a lot of people complaining about defective motherboards on the on-line retailer sites.

Actually, I could use suggestions on motherboard manufactures and models if one was inclined to offer opinions. I think I know who makes good stuff but my info is old and things change.

 

[Evolv]

I just had the weirdest case of deja vu, I swear someone like 2 months ago said the same exact thing as you. Um anyways back on topic.

Some good motherboard manufactures are Gigabyte, Asus, Biostar, MSI. Depending if you're going for Intel, good chipsets to stick with are P45/P43, X38/X48. And there are new i7 processors that use X58 chipset, currently they are the best. There are some decent Nvidia chipsets as well like, 750i/780i.

 

[philbar71]

Newegg.com - Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Newegg.com - OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

leaves plenty of money left over for a case of choice.

just throw your quatro card in there and build it your self. there is no need for a $1000 CPU. that i7 is one of the best cpu's on the market.

 

[Dauntae]

Take the reviews with a grain of salt, They sell thousands of products and most people get a good item, but as soon as someone gets a bad one, the first thing they do is write a bad review. Many people write reviews on those websites but most do not. I always mean to but always seem to forget. I buy most of the things I build PC's with from Newegg.com because they have fast shipping that's not overpriced and have a really good return policy if you do happen to get something bad. I build systems for side money, and have ordered thousands of dollars there. and only received one bad mother board, and one bad Hard drive. and the HD was a lower end one to save a few $$ but I don't build like that any more. If someone won't spend the little extra to get the good brand, then I won't give any support if there is a problem. and I've had very few calls with hardware issues with the ones I've built.

Dauntae