Advice on building a new PC

[Kon tiki]

I used to keep up to date with all the latest bits & pieces, building a PC with the newest fastest parts around. That was quite a few years ago, to be honest I'm not even sure what's in this one :Confused: I remember the motherboard was a ECS K7S5A (that's only because the handbook is still lying on the desk :Blush

My daughter often upgrades her PC & has given me a processor (AMD Athlon™ 64 3800+ X2 (Socket AM2) & graphics card (GeForce 7600GT 256mb/DDR PCI Express) What I want is some advice on a reasonably priced motherboard that would work ok with these bits. I have tried looking but there is just to many choices & have built PC's in the past which have been disasters due to incompatability issues. I have looked on the AMD website but a lot of the motherboards listed don't seem to be available. My main criteria is price & reliability.

 

[Geo]

Hi Ed
In my opinion self builds are now a thing of the past even the bits you have been given are old hat, and probably less than 18 month old ,Just look at sites like Micro Direct and see just how cheap systems or bare bone packages are these days, I gave up self builds 3 or 4 years ago
Geo

 

[WillH]

Last year I looked at re-building my aging (3 years old) PC and after much research decided it was easier to buy a bare bones set-up with a pre-installed operating system. I needed a new monitor anyway. After much deliberation I ordered a PC from PC Specialists, they built it to my spec and delivered on time. One problem with it was sorted with no quibbles.

Once I had done that I wiped my old hard drives completely and installed Ubuntu on the old box. Now I have two systems, one of them virtually virus-proof.

Rgds
Bill

 

[Kon tiki]

I know what you are saying but I have all the other bits apart from a motherboard & a new hard disk, I have plenty of time to build one being retired. Buying a barebones system isn't really any advantage as I have a couple of cases & power supplies. Just need somebody with a bit of advice on a reasonably priced motherboard that would work. It will still work out cheaper than buying a built PC.

 

[American Dream]

Hi Ed,

I swear by Gigabyte Motherboards.They haven't let me down yet.

Take a look at this oneLink Removed See what you think?Not too expensive and should work fine.

Gigabyte GA M56S-S3 AM2 Motherboard Quickcode: #28840 Link Removed Quickcode:
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NF560, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

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Price:

£43.95 exc. VAT
£51.64 inc. VAT
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Stock:Link RemovedStock code:MBD-GIG-M56SS3Manufacturer code:GA-M56S-S3Delivery:Next Day Guaranteed Delivery Option available up to 5.55pmCust. Rating:Link Removed

Technical Details:

Form FactorATX form factor; 30.5cm x 21.4cmChipsetNVIDIA® nForce 560BIOS1 4Mbit flash ROM AWARD BIOSCompatible ProcessorsSocket AM2+/ AM2 processors: AMD Phenom™FX processor/ AMD Phenom™ processor/ AMD Athlon™ 64 FX processor/AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core processor/AMD Athlon™ 64 processor/AMD Sempron™ processorFSB800 MHzMemory4 DDR2 DIMM 800/667/533/400 / Supports 1.8V DDR2 DIMMsMax Capacity16GBOnboard AudioRealtek ALC888 Audio CodecOnboard VideoN / AOnboard LANRealtek 8211BL Gigabit Ethernet PhyExpansion Slots1 PCI Express x 16 slot / 2 PCI Express x 1 slots / 4 PCI slotsBack Panel I/O1 PS/2 keyboard port / 1 PS/2 mouse port / 1 parallel port / 1 SPDIF out port (coaxial) / 1 SPDIF out port (optical) / 1 serial port (COMA) / 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports / 1 IEEE1394 port / 1 RJ-45 port / 6 audio jacks (Line In / Line Out / MIC In / Surround Speaker Out (Rear Speaker Out) / Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out / Side Speaker Out)Internal I/O1 24-pin ATX power connector / 1 4-pin ATX 12V power connector / 1 floppy connector / 1 IDE connector / 4 SATA 3Gb/s connectors / 1 CPU fan connector / 1 system fan connector / 1 front panel connector / 1 front audio connector / 1 CD In connector / 1 SPDIF In connector / 1 SPDIF out connector / 3 USB 2.0/1.1 connectors for additional 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports by cables / 2 IEEE1394a connectors for additional 2 port by cables / 1 chassis intrusion header / 1 Power LED connector

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[Geo]

Then i would be looking at an ASROCK Mother board cheap and reliable ,
somthing like a AM2NF3-VSTA, Asrock if you didnt know are made by Asus and pair up well with the AMD 64 procesor and g force card etc
Good luck and happy pooting
Geo

 

[Kon tiki]

The Gigabyte looks like it might do the job, the Asrock one doesn't seem to have a PCI express slot though some of the others do. Just found the box for the daughters motherbaord box it's a Asus M2N4-SLI.

Just can't understand why there are so many different models from each manufacturer :Confused: reading the specs many of them seem to be identical, life used to be so much simpler when decided to upgrade my old 286 to a 386 & a massive 1 whole megabyte of memory.

 

[Jim]

I agree with Geo, better to buy something basic and upgradeable, some barebone systems, even from the likes of Dell are excellent, you just couldn't buy the parts cheap enough to build it. Start with that and upgrade a bit at a time if you need to.

 

[Phil]

I built my PC using an ALiveNF6G-VSTA, which is an ASRock motherboard. I have a SATA 80GB drive inside and an Iomega 250GB drive outside for automatic backup. It has an Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 6000+ CPU and 2GB RAM. It runs very well and I have had no problems with it.

Phil.

 

[slickmouse]

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[Papa Smurf]

Link Removed - cheap & reliable, excellent mail delivery service.

Built my last 2 or 3 with bits from them.

However, always remember "Moore's Law" - Every 18 months a PC doubles in spec and halves in price!