Re: PC Motherboard Chipsets and Parts Vendors
- From: Julien BH <julienbh@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 06:08:33 -0700 (PDT)
On May 13, 9:06 am, Julien BH <julie...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 13, 8:09 am, Mike Rivers <mriv...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It's been time to update my old 266 MHz Pentium studio computer for a
few years now. After years of indecision and not being able to find out
enough about what was available to decide what components to buy, I bit
the bullet and bought a ready-to-go brand new Dell for $400 at Micro
Center. It had enough power to do everything I needed, came with WinXP
so no Vista hassles, and all the software I loaded on it ran just fine.
But the rub was that it was shy on ports that I needed to integrate it
into my working environment and the short story is that I eventually
gave up filling holes and finding "should work" solutions that didn't,
and my neighbor bought it from me for the price I paid for it.
So I'm back in the market. What is there to know about "chipsets" and
why should I choose one over another? We have P31, P35, G33, X38, X48
and probably some others. One difference seems to be that some include
VGA graphics and some don't, requiring a separate graphics board. There
also seems to be a difference in what types of memory they'll talk to.
Do I need to care?
Also, are there still motherboards to avoid, either because of
reliability or incompatibility with certain software? I know there was
an issue with some electrolytic capacitors (apparently made with the
wrong formula for the electrolyte) that failed in a short time, but
apparently they've all vanished from the market. Anything else?
I'd really like to buy everything from a local vendor so it'll be
convenient to return anything that doesn't work right but all we have
around here is Micro Center. They turn over their stock so fast that by
the time I research what they have and decide to make a purchase, they
no longer have it in stock. So I'll probably have to buy from an on-line
vendor. I know that NewEgg.com is pretty popular and has a good
reputation for fair prices and good service.
I've been looking at MWave.com, the attraction there being that when you
order a motherboard, memory, and processor from them, for ten bucks
extra, they'll put them together and test the assembly. And if you buy
enough stuff to make up a full computer, for $80 they'll put it all
together and test it. I'm sure I can put it all together myself, but
knowing that I won't have to send something back is probably worth the
extra $80.
Yesterday's shopping list (which might be good for a week or two before
something goes out of style <g>) is:
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L (P35 chipset) motherboard
2 GB DDR2/800 RAM
E6750 CPU
Zalman CNPS7700-CU fancy fan
ATI Radeon HD3450 PCI-e16 graphics board
250 GB SATA 7200 RPM hard drive
Cheap SATA Lightscribe DVD drive
Antec Sonata Designer 500 case/power supply
The motherboard has the two PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports that I need
for compatibility with my KVM switch and Mackie HDR, a parallel port for
my Sequoia dongle. Those were the biggest hangups with the Dell, which I
couldn't resolve with several different adapters. There are three plain
PCI slots so I can install my Lynx L22 card and a Firewire card that
works with the Firewire audio devices that I have (I put that in the
Dell and they were all happy there) and still have one PCI slot left
over if I need it.
The whole thing comes out at about $615 without assembly or OS, another
$165 ready to go, which seems pretty fair to me. MWave is in California
so it'll have to come all the way across the country. Their shipping
charge is $45, more than the local tax would be (I guess it's not
expensive enough to be the other way around).
Does any or all of this makes sense? If I were to get one of the "Audio
preconfigured" systems from places like Sweetwater, Rain, or that other
place that pops up often that's the same name (but completely different
company) as the company that makes microphones, that I don't remember,
I'll get what they want to give me, and the price seems to be 25% or so
higher than choosing the parts and paying for assembly.
Is this as good a motherboard as any other one? If not, why (other than
that YOU chose something else) would another one be better? Is the 2.66
GHz CPU a reasonable level between bottom of the heap (which the Dell
had) and cutting edge? And does the P35 chipset do what it needs to do?
--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me here:
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
(mriv...@xxxxxxxxxxx)
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L (P35 chipset) motherboard
GREAT motherboard. I would suggest the DS3 (R) if you want your HD in
RAID (google RAID 0 or 1 if you don't know what it is - VERY cool)
2 GB DDR2/800 RAM
2GB should be way enough (you don't need 800, more like 667 mhz since
that's the speed your CPU needs)
E6750 CPU
I'd change that CPU to the newer (and better one - also lower priced)
the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Zalman CNPS7700-CU fancy fan
You don't need this if you don't overclock... spend your cash
elsewhere
ATI Radeon HD3450 PCI-e16 graphics board
Whatever... for audio you don't need a good card (this is NOT a good
card, but will do if you don't play games)
250 GB SATA 7200 RPM hard drive
Try this TIMES 2 for raid :)
Cheap SATA Lightscribe DVD drive
Why lightscribe? anyway that's up to you. That said, you need special
lightscribe disks to have that feature enabled. (they cost more)
Antec Sonata Designer 500 case/power supply
Great case :) Same as me.
P.s.: The P35 chipset is nice. Not top of the line, but a great all
rounder.
.
- References:
- PC Motherboard Chipsets and Parts Vendors
- From: Mike Rivers
- Re: PC Motherboard Chipsets and Parts Vendors
- From: Julien BH
- PC Motherboard Chipsets and Parts Vendors
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