Author Topic: Looking for a new MB for my AMD 64 X2 6400 Dual Core (Read 587 times)

Jag34 · « **on:** February 02, 2008, 08:11:11 PM »

Hello all, I'm getting the parts to build my new system and haven't made up my mind as to what Mother Board to get. Here are the parts I'm looking to get so far, all parts are coming from NewEgg at this time. Also I'm looking to make this a water cooled system.
AMD 64 X2 6400 Windsor 3.2 GHz Dual Core
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103191

Water Cooled system from Thermaltake Bigwater 760i
http://thermaltakeusa.com/product/Liquid/DIY/cl-w0121/cl-w0121.asp

Haven't pick out a video card that I will be going with yet, but leaning with an ATI.

I am looking at a ASUS MOBO, was thinking of their gaming MB the CrossHair
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131593

But I've heard that ASUS products lately have not been very good. So I'm also looking at ABIT. Is there any other MOBO out there that will be good? Also, with this in mind, can I upgrade to a Quad Core with any of these mobo?
I plan on using at lest 4GB of memory, haven't pick out a make or model yet.
OS: Win XP Pro
Any good ideals on a sound card?
I will be using some of my Hardware out of my running system like my DVD drive, 750W PSU.
IDEX 300 SATA switch with my 3 harddrives. One HD for gaming (XP Pro), 2nd HD for pictures, surfing the net, email(XP Pro), 3rd HD for Linux. May add a 4th HD for Vista.
http://www.industechnologies.com/products_view.asp?CatID=168&SubCatID=0&SubSubCatID=0&ProductID=207

I'll be getting my parts in about 3 weeks, have to wait for that tax return check.

Any help on these parts, especially with the MOBO will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Fulmar · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2008, 08:15:45 PM »

Remember you need a 64 bit OS to recognize more than 3.5 Gb of memory. As for Asus, I've always used Asus boards, and I looked at some of the NewEgg reviews for their boards recently and I was shocked that most of the sub $150 boards were 2-3 stars. Their high end boards seems to be good yet. One gripe I've always had about Asus is their website servers are terrible. Downloading updates at like 10-15kb/sec some times. I mean seriously get some more State-side servers or upgrade them.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2008, 09:09:04 PM »

ok alot of the lower end asus ,gigabite ,ect are not made at there top of the line plant .they are ran off by ECS and other manufacturers .

so rule of thumb when building a system is build on the best MB you can get that fits your style of pc usage and upgrade time ... spend the extra 30-70 bucks now and the life and reliability of it will double or triple over the cheaper boards .

its also better to let others test the newest thing out and buy something with proven time ect .

Getback · « **Reply #3 on:** February 02, 2008, 09:26:33 PM »

I cannot disagree with Roscoroo. I saw on Tom's Hardware that Asus was not willing to have one of their cheaper boards (less than $150) used in a test they were conducting. Having said that I use an Asus board on this system LOL. It seems to be working fine. The ECS company is not recommended by anyone I know of. I went to Fry's Electronics and they did not recommend them for gaming and they sold them. Also, I built my mom's computer many years ago using EliteGroup (ECS) and it was tough to upgrade. It still runs but like I said it doesn't like upgrades.

I'm currently building an intel machine and I chose Abit. It was rated 5 stars.
Any reason you are going AMD? I just built an AMD machine and it was one tough monkey to get to work in AH. It runs fine now. Just be prepared for far more effort than plug n play.

Good luck with the build and keep us posted. I love this stuff!

Roscoroo · « **Reply #4 on:** February 03, 2008, 02:46:59 AM »

i still have one Ecs k7s5a that runs 1.5ghz ..passed dwn to my little roo. my 1st one died at 5-6 yrs of capacitor failer ... not a bad pc but limited

my 1st asus a7n8x dlx still runs @ 2.5ghz on water runs , and I still play AH on this -e dlx one here, they run 24-7 . my asus AM2 board is still working great too and its on a hard OC @ 3.4ghz fx55 .... ive got a 11 yr old sp-97 asus board that still runs, along with rebuilding and donating a few old recycled pc's to the needy every few months. (any of ya got any spare slow/ small ddr ram ??? I can always use it along with socket A MB's )

keep the temps down , dust bunnies away ..and dont turn them off and on (when away) ..let em run . (my thing that works ) ive got other little tricks too that help ..AE ; run a second power supply /source for your case fans and water cooling . only run the Nbridge ,cpu fans off the mainboard(if applicable)

Jag34 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 03, 2008, 12:03:53 PM »

Quote

Any reason you are going AMD?

I've used AMD for the last 8 years in all my systems I've built, and never have had any trouble. Plus I like the cost of AMD compared to Inter.

Quote

ok alot of the lower end asus ,gigabite ,ect are not made at there top of the line plant .they are ran off by ECS and other manufacturers .

Roscoroo, the system I"m running on now is an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe which I've had now for 4 years, and have never had any problems at all. I"m running an AMD XP 2800 O/C to a 3200 for the last 3 years. Runs great. I wanna stay with ASUS but like I said, I've heard some bad stories about them in the last year, and wanted to run this by you guys to see if anyone out there has a CrossHair and see what they think about it.

So, is anyone out there running an ASUS CrossHair MOBO? If so, what do you think of it?

Once again, Thanks for all the help.
Its greatly appreciated.

Jag34T

Fulmar · « **Reply #6 on:** February 03, 2008, 12:57:14 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Roscoroo
i still have one Ecs k7s5a that runs 1.5ghz ..passed dwn to my little roo. my 1st one died at 5-6 yrs of capacitor failer ... not a bad pc but limited

My roommate in college had this same motherboard, went through three of them in 9 months.

humble · « **Reply #7 on:** February 03, 2008, 03:27:58 PM »

I've been building AMD since the mid 90's...up until my last build. There simply is no logical reason to build AMD at the moment....simply none. The only thing that might be a possibility is the new chips based on the "spider" concept...but basically there selling the chip on a price/performance par with the Q6600 etc. You can build a better faster more stable system with intel stuff then AMD at the moment....sadly.

Jag34 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 03, 2008, 05:59:11 PM »

Quote

I've been building AMD since the mid 90's...up until my last build. There simply is no logical reason to build AMD at the moment....simply none. The only thing that might be a possibility is the new chips based on the "spider" concept...but basically there selling the chip on a price/performance par with the Q6600 etc. You can build a better faster more stable system with intel stuff then AMD at the moment....sadly.

Humble, what would be a good Inter CPU that compare's with AMD 3.2 GHz Dual Core?

Thanks

Jag34T

humble · « **Reply #9 on:** February 03, 2008, 06:42:11 PM »

You really cant compare it do any intel CPU. It's a 90nm build so its very hot and not a good overclocker. Your running it at 125W to get something roughly comparable to core Duo. When you look at just how overclockable even the lowest price intels are its not really a comparable product. If your looking to use stuff you already have and upgrade fine. But as a new build...nuts. I'd get a 45nm core duo for $230...

The fact that this chip has plummeted in price from roughly $220 to its current $160 speaks volumes. So does the fact that no cooling is provided. If you look at your end cost and the very low heat/power demand of the E8400 your ahead to start with and the 8400 woll OC far beyond anything the AMD can produce with just the stock fan.

Jag34 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 04, 2008, 10:28:34 PM »

Quote

The fact that this chip has plummeted in price from roughly $220 to its current $160 speaks volumes. So does the fact that no cooling is provided. If you look at your end cost and the very low heat/power demand of the E8400 your ahead to start with and the 8400 woll OC far beyond anything the AMD can produce with just the stock fan.

Alright, Now you have me leaning to the Inter E8400 at NewEgg. Now what would be a good gaming MoBo?

Jag34T

humble · « **Reply #11 on:** February 04, 2008, 11:25:49 PM »

I'm not really sure, I'd have said any P-35 board just a week ago...but the new "G" series is out along with another I know very little about. I really like abit and DFI P-35 boards for overcocking but I have a P5K-e in my current build (which is set as a XP/Vista/Linux box) that I use for both work and "play". I'll probably build out a gaming rig this summer and am just starting to look at MBs again. I'd look at toms hardware etc for better 411 but you cant go wrong with a P-35 MB...the key is to make sure that anything you buy already has the bios for the 8400...its not a big deal but why go thru the headache.

Jag34 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 04, 2008, 11:39:15 PM »

Here are 3 I found on the ASUS website.

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=117

What do you all think?

Jag34T

Fulmar · « **Reply #13 on:** February 05, 2008, 01:36:51 AM »

As humble eluded to...,a lot of 'older' chipsets support E8400; however, they need their bios flashed before they can recognize the new processor. So on a fresh new build using and older chipset motherboard, you'd have to have an 'older' processor installed to boot up and flash the bios before you can put in that E8400. The P35 series or newer have no problems with this. I know my P5N-E SLI board with the Nvidia 650i chipset would need to be flashed to recognize the E8400. But my chipset is going on over a year old.

I've also 'heard' that some older chipsets actually underclock the E8400 for it to be able to run on the board. I haven't seen this in any official writing, but wouldn't surprise me if it was true.

humble · « **Reply #14 on:** February 05, 2008, 07:53:00 AM »

If I was going to buy a MB right now I think it would be this one...
ABIT Pro