Mini Motherboard suggestion for Q6600 cpu.

C

[CaM]Spoon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Messages
233
Hey guys.
Going crazy trying to find and choose the right motherboard. I am looking for a mini motherboard only as thats all I need and I only like keeping small tower in my room.
Also im on the cheap side as i just switched my mind over to intel from AMD and all there motherboards are pretty much under 100 dollers for minis.

So far im looking at these.
Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 $100
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2605

MSI G33M-FI $110
http://www.msi-computer.ca/product_info.php?cPath=22_35&products_id=206

Asus P5K-VM $133.....
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=542&l4=0&model=1690&modelmenu=1

Any inputs on what I should get for a newb? First time buying intel in long time also.
Anyothers i should keep in eye on?
 
Wow thats a really nice motherboard. Shame its so much money. Plus gotta order it online which not a fan of.
Thanks, this is really on top of intel motherboar list. Sucks thats the intel gigabyte motherboard is almost double the price of the amd. Same as anyother make.
I cant get my self to actually go with intil since its so much more expensive. Man so hard to choose.
 
- Well what's your total budget for everything?
- What are you planning to do with this new PC?
- Are you reusing any parts?
- If gaming, what size monitor do you have?

Depending on your answer, you may not even need the Q6600.
 
I realized that i wont need a q6600. Im gonna use the computer in my room so its for playing around. Gonna do some gaming and watch movies.
I already bought 2 gig or ram and radeon x2600 xt video card. Gonna use a 22 inch monitor. Using 74 gig raptor harddrive and audigy 2 zs sound card from last computer.

Im just being cheap as really I dont wanna spend alot of money just to play games.
 
Well give us a budget. Just "cheap" isn't very helpful

What games were you planning to play?
What case were you planning to use?
 
Well i really dont have a budget. Just putting a limit. im thinking around 100 for motherboard and 150 for cpu.

I wanna be able to play halflife 2 again. Counter strike source and upcoming Team fortress 2. Also I really hope I can play brotheres in arms 3, as it looks amazing and i love realistic ww2 shooters.

AMD is so much cheaper and better performance out of the box. I understand intel can overclock so easily but im not sure if its actually worth it becuase i never overclocked before.

oh and i already have a mini case with a....cooler master 550 watt powersupply 55 dollers cant go wrong :)
 
What size monitor?

To give you an idea of how easy it is to OC the Core2's, a modest OC requires changing just the FSB, and thats it. If you'd like to go a little further, then you'd need to give it a bit more voltage. Of course, your results may vary since OC's are never guaranteed.
 
I havnt decided on which monitor i wanna buy but its gonna be 20 or 22 inch so native res is 1680x1025. 20 inch with 2 ms is same price as 22 inch with 5 ms so im just debating on which one i want.

Im gonna see if my friend at work can get me this motherboard since he has hook ups and gets stuff for really cheap. Probably going to get the 4400 and overclock it to 2.6 right at start and just play my halflife 2 with that until brothers in arms comes out and is more demanding.

If I cant get these parts for cheap then the 70 doller gigabyte AM2 motherboard with 140 dollers x2 5000 cpu is mighty fine price and performance. And thats already clocked to 2.5.

What has a better long run? AM2 chips or 775 chipset?
I read that that that g33 motherboard will support the 45mn chipsets when they come out so i guess it has still a long life ahead. And it supports DDR3! no way! thats crazy.


oh and i have same ram as u! patriot LLK its 4.4.4.12 something like that.
 
AMD has stated that all am2 boards will support future am2+ and am3 CPUs.

The P35 express chipset (Bearlake) is brand new, so it supports Intel's upcoming Penryn family CPUs. While it does support both DDR2 and DDR3, the board you get must also support it (provide DIMMs for both). Most boards just provide DDR2 DIMMs because DDR3 won't become mainstream until 2009.

The DS2R only supports DDR2 (the board doesnt have any DDR3 DIMMs).

The Bearlake replacement is Eaglelake, which is due out Q2'08.

I havent had a chance to see how far the LLK sticks will go, since I lent them to a friend... which reminds me, he should have his Ballistix RMA replacements by now, so I can probably pick the LLK sticks up, lol. Sorry, thinking on my keyboard again...

For a 20-22", I'd recommend at least an 8800GTS 320MB. However, the GTS replacement, 8700GTS 512MB, is due out in November with a pricetag of $250, rumor has it.

Also keep in mind that the Core2 chips are faster, per clock, than the A64X2's.
 
Well Theres no way im going to spend even 250 for a video card. To me its stupid spending that much money on something thats only needed to play games. Thats only one part too.
I used to have a athlon 64 3500 with radeon x800pro and it ran halflife 2 pretty fine.
Ill take intel route as Overclocking is something i should get into since at my age im getting really cheap just to keep a hobby as playing games :)
For now ill stick to my x2600 xt video card, i just regret not getting the ddr4 version.
 
Yah, if you already have a card and only play HL2, then theres no point in such an expensive card.
 
Now, for my two cents worth. I agree about using one of the 3 series chipsets because as far as I understand it they support the 1333 fsb, replace the 965 and 975 chipsets, the best intergrated graphics (important for a mini configuration), the new 45nm chips and are good, cool running overclocking boards
With that said, I picked up a ECS G33T-M2 mobo on Ebay for $47.00. I understand Fry's is giving the board away free for a combo deal on a E6550 or a E6750. I've checked several reviews and for what the board was disigned for it's a dynamite board.
I threw in a E6420 cpu I had sitting in the closet, some PC5300 RAM (also sitting in the closet), a 9700 HSF, whatever else I needed from my closet stash and upped the % of fsb to 2.8 GHz. (no fsb # adjustment, just a % deal which is the same thing, in my case 100 % = 266 fsb)
I use the rig to fold with 24/7 along with 2x E6600's, both on 965 boards (1x 3.0 GHz, WC'ed, 1x 2.71 GHz, air city) The ECS G33T-M2 has been folding 24/7 for about 3x days, I have my fingers crossed it'll keep going.
Cheap mobo (only $47 bucks), easy as sin to OC' (stock vcore, no vcore adjustment :mad:). Also a good way to thin out my closet stash cheaply.
I've never been a great fan of anything ECS, but it seems they have a winner on their hands here. I don't know or really care about their P35 boards because, as mentioned here, the Gigabyte P35 boards are, in my opinion, the best overclocking, dependable mobos out there (I'm talkin' the DS3 variety)
The real bummer city with this board (G33T-M2) is for those of us with only IDE DVD or CD drives this board has no IDE channel (it's got a floppy channel, go figure) I went out and got a SATA DVD burner from NewEgg (glad I did, they're faster than IDE and are pretty much the same price) and installed WinXP on a SATA 80 GB HD (more closet stash). It seems to be just as "snappy" as either one of my E6600's I only "surf" and play "Unreal Tournament" occasionally. (the "snappiness" may only be my imagination :rolleyes:)
Oh Yeah, the boards got a PCIe slot which, among other things, stops the graphics memory sharing thing. (no more than I do I don't see much difference) I read on the Net where some benchmarks with a separate video card had this board holding it's own against other P35 boards. (I'm not a gamer so I don't understand all I know about fps's)
Like I said "Only my 2x cents worth". :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top