Good MOBO and Processor Recomendation

[HollidaySlim]

OK I know everyone hates the "give me a good recomendation threads" but I have been out of the computer loop for a while and need a little direction. Who now is making the best mobo for an AMD prcessor (more specifically the Athlon 64) and what would be a good combo (prcessor and mobo) for under $300. Thanks for the help.

Matt

 

[Leonidas]

you wont find a good combo under 300 i dont believe... however the abit av8 3rd eye appears to one of the best, and AMD 64 3200+ appears to be the best value IMO

 

[Nubius]

well for AMD64 under $300 is pretty difficult if you want the best 64 which is Socket 939. Socket 939 supports dual channel and will be the only socket AMD will continually update and support whereas they will drop the socket 754 and 940 and not really improve upon it....I think now they have socket 939 AMD64 3200+'s but the last time I checked it was the 3500+ which is $350 alone and $125 for a good motherboard.

Aright just did a little search, and at newegg they got a socket 939 3000+ 64 CPU which is $169 but it's OEM so you don't get manufacturer warrenty nor do you get a heatsink and fan. Above that is the 3200+ which is $199 also OEM, Retail 3200+ 64 is $215.....so $215 plus a board such as the ABit AV8-3rd Eye or MSI Neo2-Platinum (both excellent boards) will cost you $125 for the board (both boards are the same price basically) and $215 for retail 3200+ 64bit CPU is $340 and thatway you have the manufacturer warrenty, or if you went with the 3000+ 64 then it'd be basically right on target for your $300 budget, but like I said will be OEM.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-502&depa=1

Thats the link for the Socket 939 AMD64 3200+ CPU Retail version for $215

 

[Leonidas]

as of late ive considered going for socket 940, it will stay around for dual mobo's, the opteron and such, and then i can get a dual board and just put one processor in it til im ready to drop the cash on another... kinda 50/50 on it at the moment. i dont know if it supports dual channel or anything, even tho i think it should for opteron...

 

[HollidaySlim]

I suppose I could broden the budget a bit. I have used MSI boards in the past and liked them. Would they both be good boards to OC the processor with. I was looking at getting the AMD Athlon 64 3500+ with a MSI Neo2 Platinum mobo. I didnt mention it before but I am also looking to over clock this proocessor. Any thoughts?

Matt

 

[HollidaySlim]

OH yea forgot to ask, is Mushkin ram still good are there better sticks out there now?

 

[Leonidas]

corsair xms is considered the best RAM, and ive seen some articles and such that suggest the NEO2 board for overclocking so it must have capabilities, however most people say the AMD 64 isnt very overclockable.... how sure are you that you want a 64-bit? you could easily stay in that 300$ budget with an AMD XP-m 2400+ and overclock it past 2 ghz easy, ask nubius for more details

 

[HollidaySlim]

Doesnt the Athlon 64 peform better than the XP? I figured it was better thats why I decided on that chip. Am I wrong in assuming this.

 

[Leonidas]

well thats tricky, if you overclock enough you can get some really good performance out of an XP, of course in the end AMD 64's will win more than they lose but you are looking at extremely good performance for a very low price, and when you do decide to go for 64-bit you can use the RAM/graphics/cooling stuff/ and optical and hard drives in your final system, once prices have dropped finally

 

[Nubius]

Eh I'd just get a AMD64 and attempt at overclocking that. I built an AMD64 system with the MSI Neo2-Platinum and the AMD64 3500+ and the MSI does indeed have enough options to overclock. I was actually rather impressed as my MSI KT6V doesn't have enough options too, but it looks like MSI stepped up a bit. You can change everything you need from multiplier, CPU FSB, DRAM Timings, AGPCI Bus, voltages for everything, all that good stuff so it's definitely a worthy board. Also the ABit AV8-3rd Eye should have a good amount of OC'ing options, because they are basically somewhat known for having an option filled BIOS for OC'ing....I've seen some decent OC's on the 64's but you need really good cooling. I've overclocked my XP-M to 2.7 completely rock solid stable, but I've backed it down to 2.5 for now and it's doing me good. As soon as 64bit OS's come in and programs take advantage of it they should soar