Good Socket AM2 motherboard suggestions? Anyone?

[nogoodreason]

Hi all.

I'm looking to upgrade my motherboard (currently an Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLi socket 939), but am not very clued up when it comes to knowing what motherboards are good. All I know is I need one that supports PCI-Express, SATA 2 and Socket AM2, has at least 2 PCI slots (for X-Fi Soundcard and extra USB ports) and will hold at least 4 hard drives.

I'm going to post my specs and, if anyone is feeling kind and Christmassy enough, I'd appreciate any and all recommendations people have. (preferably with reasons why)

Specs

* Coolermaster Realpower Pro 1000W PSU - 80plus efficiency, 6x 12V Rails, 4x PCI-E (4x 6pin, 2x 8pin)
* Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 64mb
* AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Socket AM2
* NVidia GeForce 7800GTX 256mb (PCI-Express)
* 2 Gigs Corsair RAM
* 2x Seagate 250GB 7200RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache
* 1x Western Digital 500GB SATA II/300 7200RPM 16MB Cache
* Windows Vista Ultimate

I would much rather spend £100+ on a board that lasts me a good few years than I would buy some cheaper one that'll just need replacing 2 years down the line.

Hope some kind souls out there can help me out.

Oh, and a merry Christmas!

- Dan

[Methious]

I'd go with am2/am2+ Asus board, just got the M3A w/ 8800GT and it's nice. See the post in this thread to see the board and pcmarks scores on it. You'll want the AMD 770 or 790 chipset, reason hypertransport 3.0, pcie 2.0, forward compatibility with Quad Core. M3A 3 year fix/replace, the Asus 790 has more sata ports (6 vs 4) and more features as well as solid caps, solid caps address the longevity issue. M3a 770 $95 US, 770 $249, speed differences, none really.

The 790 chipset hard to find right now demand is high. Both hold 4 sata, 790s I've seen hold 6.

[hercules71185]

from the AVID amd fan.. I'm not sure how effective it is going to be with the am2 board. Since AMD is getting KILLED by intel to speak the least. Not only in performance but, a lot of per price too. I think AMD is going to just jump up and change their socket and everything about it and start over so that they can get it right since something had to have went wrong. We know the technologists are very gifted people and know a lot of things about the processors and how it works. I think the phenom would have been SICK if it all worked out. I have a very strong feeling they are only getting half the productivity they expected not because of their ideas. But, a simple miscalculation. And they have looked and looked yet not able to find it. To find it I think they are going to start over and never FIND the problem but, the tedious assembly and production will just correct itself. Never finding that simple problem they will chuck this as a loss and not be able to fix the phenoms. Think about it AMD is doing great because of the ATI link they created.
No one will be sure. This is just theoretical since its impossible to tell whats going on. My suggestion would be. Either go with the new intel's instead of amd am2. OR use your socket 939 for a month or 2 and see if I'm right and they figure it out, or they change sockets to start over with the BEST communication they can get. We know AMD doesn't wanna be equal to intel. They wanna kill them like before.

[nogoodreason]

Hmmm. Thanks for the tips. I'm now thinking about being adventurous and delving into the (*gasp*) world of Intel.

Would anyone care to comment (positively or negatively - all feedback is good feedback) on these proposed specs:

• Case: Casecom Black Midi Tower Case With Front Panel LCD
• PSU: Coolermaster Realpower Pro 1000W PSU
• Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series P35 Socket 775 Socket eSATA
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Energy Efficient 95W edition Socket 775 (2.40GHz) G0 Stepping L2 8MB Cache / Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler Bundle
• RAM: 4 Gigs of DDR2 675MHz/PC2-5400 XMS Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered
• and Windows Vista Ultimate (will probably install 32 bit for now)

[hercules71185]

Sorry I replied from my phone and thought that I read everything. but, I missed the fact of you already having this set up. I thought you were making a build that you wanted to buy.
Right now the 6000 is a good processor you will get more power from a good overclocked core 2 duo or quad core. but, I wouldn't venture there if you already have what you do. Unless you really want to get what you can out of it. I'd get a decent board. I have no experience with the am2+ so I can't help much. I've heard complaints about the board but, I have no valuable proof. Sorry about the post about switching over. but, if you do rebuild its just who is in the lead at that time. As for the q6600...

q6600 is basically a 4 core entry level. If you are overclocking then I'm almost positive that the core 2 duos are stronger since on top of it nothing utilizes the 4 cores and the di is better for ocing. I'm not saying they suck at all haha they are powerhouses still.
my aquamark cpu score with my amd 3600 @ 2.85 was 12000 and total was 110000
same vid card with the q6600 OC a little I didn't mess with it much. 13500 for cpu and my score only went up to 115000

To me that is not a big enough difference even if its not something that uses all four cores. The new quad goes up in price substantially but, so does the ability to oc