Recommended motherboard?

I would like to see some suggestions on good motherboards which is AM3 compatible and where I have the possibility to install a good cpu cooler on it that fits.

So, what do you say? Göran, do you have any advice? (I might buy something this autumn and if I do this, I'm interested in the best that money can buy)

And one other thing, once I get replies on this topic I will probably check with other tech sites to see what they say also, as usual.

Well, I'm close to become a Gigabyte fan boy for both AMD and Intel mobo's lol. I have had 3 different Intel, Gigabyte boards down the years. And I have no reason to complaint at all! Also, I know a couple of guys running Gigabyte AMD boards. They are as satisfied with them as I am. I like that Gigabyte quite often have new motherboard bios updates too.


Here is one such board that could be something for you:

This is a new webshop to me. But according to the customer reviews at "Prisjakt" They seem good. And they are definite cheapest among the Swedish pc hardware shops on the net that have this board in stock.

http://datorfixarna.com/catalog/prod...ducts_id=20501

This board get good reviews at newegg too:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128387

The first motherboard which you recommended feels pretty expensive, but I assume it's good quality (is it?). I bought my present motherboard in november 2002 so although it's still working I get some bad colors in BIOS nowadays + that my old cpu cooler has gone bad so I placed an 80mm Arctic cooling fan on it so it will not overheat.

I've seen a lot of packages from Komplett.se where they often have inbuilt graphics on those motherboards and I'm wondering how much money one loses on getting one of these if the inbuilt graphics isn't going to be used anyway. I mean, in that case I pay for technology which I don't want to have.

I've both read and heard a lot about ASUS motherboards over the years and I've always thought that these would be the ones to recommend. Maybe times have changed and ASUS is not the number one any more?

Buying a mobo with onboard video is not worth it, unless you are just going to use the actual mobo for a workstation / student pc? Then, you will save some bucks not nessisairly needing to buy a video card first place at least.


But for a gaming rig I would'nt bother with any mobo with an onboard video chip.

Asus, do have some nice mobo's. But the really good ones are horribly exspensive.
Their low and mid prized mobo's have gone down in quality pretty drastically the last 2 years. But if you do some real detective work. You might find an Asus board or 2 in the lower price range that are'nt too shabby.

Actually, Asus daughter company, Asrock have gone up noticeable in quality from beeing a real budget brand before. But I still think, that Gigabyte and for AMD cpu's Epox, are the top mb brands nowadays.

I took a quick look here at komplett.se and I do see they have plenty of motherboards nowadays that support the AM3 processor slot.

The most interesting thing for me when I decide on to replace my current motherboard, is that I will be able to have it for at least 7 years or more before it's time for a new replacement.

By your experience, can you sort of the brands to watch out for when it comes to quality from the ones in the list?

Looking at that list compairing price / performance ratio. This seems nice:

http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=480481

Got good overclocking options as far as I can find out. + the "2 oz Copper PCB" Wich means:

* Cooler than traditional motherboards
* Enhanced durability
* Improved energy efficiency
* Greater margins for overclocking

Supports "Crossfire" wich means dual Radeon cards. Or alternative, a single Geforce card.

For that resonable price you will have a hard time finding anything better.

Need new RAM?

XP kit:

http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=355542

Vista /Windows 7 kit:

http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=347969

When it comes to motherboards, I will never have any needs for S.L.I or Crossfire. I have always felt that it's over rated.

So I'm actually looking for motherboards which don't have these features. I assume this will make the total price even lower.

Most AMD X3 and X4 supported mobo's meant for gaming do have Crossfire support. This, as AMD and ATI (Radeon video cards) are partners nowadays. If I where you I would be more conserned about the overall quality and overclocking ability than about if a mobo have 1 or 2 graphics slot or not. Especially since you said you dont want to have to upgrade the mobo (cpu) for the next couple of years. The old saying "You get what you pay for" applies here. Good oc ability spells longer "performance span" of the cpu, before it starts to feel too slow. Or will be a bottleneck for an upgrade to a more powerful card.

Besides, you dont have to use more than one card of your choise anyways.


And I seriously doubt, that you will find anything cheaper than this mobo that have the same quality.

1100 SWE Kronor is'nt much for a good mobo really.

Originally Posted by goranpaa

And I seriously doubt, that you will find anything cheaper than this mobo that have the same quality.

1100 SWE Kronor is'nt much for a good mobo really.

That is probably a good price. I have bookmarked the page. The main problem get's when one decides to add more things on it. "It's gonna cost". There's no hurry in my case, the most important thing is quality as it will determine it's life cycle.

Any comments on the other motherboards? Are they bad quality in comparison?

The other, cheaper boards are just less good, or just "work station" mobo's And if you want something better? Then it will cost you a bundle. I can't find a better board for a decent price at Komplett.

I think it's a good idea to hurry slowly buying 1 good hardware at the time you get the funds for it.

BTW, When getting a cpu. Dont buy any under 2.6 GHz or you are out on thin ice when it comes to bottlenecking one of the more powerful video cards. I.e Radeon HD 4670 or a Geforce 9800GT and up.

And you get better oc from a more powerful cpu.

This is a nice and decently priced X3 :

http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=434415

Good video card with improved cooling:

http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=383505

The HD 4870 have become dirt cheap the last weeks since the introduction of the HD 4890.

Before that, the HD 4870 did cost 2000 Kr or just over that.

For the future, I think I will loose a bit if going for a triple core processor. The price is pretty attractive, though.

As always there will get price drops as time moves on and I'll see what happens with the quad cores from AMD this autumn.

Once I have the new system powered up it will mainly, if not only, be running Linux. I have plans on running World of Warcraft in a high resolution screen in the future and I'm hoping to be able get smooth video playback. That would be pretty nice. My older brother did buy an iMac a few years ago and at the present it can't run World of Warcraft with all the graphics settings turned to max, it's just not powerful enough. All the expansions is a result of that.

I'm hoping to get a better feel of multi-tasking with quad core. I have been an Amiga user in the past and I hate to wait for tasks to get finished (it's something one easily get's used to from using Windows), I just want to stress the system to max and have fun with it.

I would like to add to this thread a link to review written by AnandTech (14th of july this month) where they take a look at one boards from Gigabyte. Here it is.

Any comments on this one?

(I now see after posting this that it has inbuilt graphics which isn't really necessary, but the quality is still of interest when analyzing boards like these.)

That board might be interesting. But I want to see some more reviews than just the one from AnandTech (wich seems to be the only review for the moment), before I will say hurrah.
Especially the customer reviews at Newegg will be interesting when this board are out.

If you would recommend a cooler to one of these AMD boards, what would it be?