Motherboard

jack19512 · 07-08-2007, 05:25

The motherboard on my grandsons computer just died. I would appreciate some suggestions for a new board. I am far from being a motherboard expert and tried to research them on Newegg's website but after an hour I was more confused than ever, one review would say great board, then next review would say it's junk.

My grandson is a mild gamer. I have a good pci-e video card so the board would have to be pci-e ready, although most of the new boards are now I think. I would be getting a new processor so I am not tied to any particular processor board. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

IndyGunFreak · 07-08-2007, 05:48

Stick with the Big 3 in my opinion...

MSI, ASUS, Abit. The cheap ones(Chaintech, ASRock, and a few others), are terrible. Gigabyte falls somewhere in the middle, I personally don't like them, but they are probably halfway decent.

Whats your price range?

IGF

jack19512 · 07-08-2007, 06:22

Quote:

Originally posted by IndyGunFreak

Whats your price range?

IGF

If possible I would like to stay under $150.00 for the motherboard.

mitchshrader · 07-08-2007, 07:06

and find a motherboard that's compatible with whatever parts you keep.

avoid the 30$ extra 'all bells & whistles' model.

PRECISELY what you want is difficult to say, it's a tiptoe through component compatibility and bottlenecks in performance and price.

likely the motherboard matters not much, processor speed and ram speed and quantity, and video card, matter more.

if you're going to spend a little extra, make sure you have enough ram, (at least 1 gig, 2 better)..

I own 5 Asus motherboards. I'd be willing to use an ABIT happily and have used Gigabytes without fuss.

don't lowball. don't pay for bells and whistles. stick to top brands. that's it.

i build em. you can break anything, get a decent warranty, there's no huge differences that aren't reflected in price. any answer that works, works..

IndyGunFreak · 07-08-2007, 07:22

Quote:

Originally posted by jack19512
If possible I would like to stay under $150.00 for the motherboard.

Are you saying 150 for the motherboard and CPU, or just the motherboard, and you'll buy the CPU?

mitch does bring up some good points about needing more info about your hardware.

Here's a decent deal on a Gigabyte board w/ a 2ghz CPU.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...323&CatId=2417

IGF

Philipp2 · 07-08-2007, 07:39

I built up a computer from scratch for my grandson and found the same confusing compatibility issues. We used a gigabyte MB that was somewhat top end and am happy for it. It has excellent audio, which he doesn't use since he uses a headset rather than speakers. The most important choices seem to be "Intel vs AMD". Make sure that it is Dual Core ready and has several SATA connections. Check out your power supply, some of the newer parts, video boards especially, take lots of power to run. Good luck.

Glocker424 · 07-08-2007, 08:05

Since hes a gamer, (Like Me lol), Go with a Core 2 Duo. Fastest processors out now and handle games and any other things you throw at it very well. You might need a new PSU of about 600 Watts to be safe to keep up with everything. If I were you I'd just build him a new computer, and keep the video card you already got. Let me know if you want me to build you one. But I here I gave you the 3 main parts that you will be. Im assuming you still have the HD, PSU, and the Case.

Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128017

Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115013

RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134488

jack19512 · 07-08-2007, 12:40

I should have included more details, I know I give very little to go on. I have a good pci-e video card that I intend on using. The processor that was used in the bad motherboard was a 939.

If I stick with a board that uses a 939 processor that will save me from buying a processor and maybe I won't have to buy ram too. That would be the cheapest way out for me.

But, for my grandson, I don't care to spend what it takes to build him a good computer, I would hope that it would last longer than this one did though. Thanks again.

jack19512 · 07-08-2007, 12:44

Quote:

Originally posted by IndyGunFreak
Are you saying 150 for the motherboard and CPU, or just the motherboard, and you'll buy the CPU?

I would be willing to spend that much for the motherboard, but if I could get both for that than that would be great too, although I have my doubts about that.

Blitzer · 07-08-2007, 12:48

Do you want to keep the old computer chip off the old motherboard? It may be dead and is the cause of your problems.

Ditto on the "Big Three" brand of motherboards.

A few things to remember are:

The old memory most likely won't work with the new motherboard, a hidden expense.

The old hard drive loading of Windows will most likely fail to work with the new motherboard and you will need to reload Windows and all the programs.

srhoades · 07-08-2007, 17:00

Socket 939 is an AMD chip, so take that into consideration when getting your board.

c6601a · 07-09-2007, 01:36

Are you sure that it is the motherboard and not the processor or the power supply or the memory? Unless you have the diagnostics skills and either the hardware diagnostics tools or the spare parts to swap things, all of those can appear exactly the same.

If it is the motherboard, unless you can get an exact replacement, you might as well buy a new computer. Replacing the motherboard with something new will require at a minimum a new CPU, new RAM and a fresh OS install. You may be able to keep the case, but since the power supply is the weakest link in the system, you might as well replace it while you are in there. You can keep the hard drive (if it is EIDE), but if you have a lot of stuff on there, you will be better off getting a new hard drive and using this one as a secondary drive to facilitate transferring the data. If you do all of that, what do you have left from the old computer?

RaiderRodney · 07-09-2007, 05:32

Socket 939 is getting out of the ballgame quick and is getting hard to find good MBs for. IMHO the best one for it that you can find atm is the ASUS A8N32-SLI. It is Nforce 4 based and has I think 5 SATA2 connectors. Doesn't matter if you never use the SLI it beat every other 939 MB out there in single card mod too

Only thing is I have heard of several that receive the board DOA or goes out within a few days. I actually am having to send mine back this week as well....ran about 3 hours before it poofed :( I hope to get a good one this time...always that chance though...