Legit Reviews

Hey all,

I'm new to these forums and was wondering if I could get some advice about choosing motherboards.

Ok I own a FOXCONN G31MV http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/M ... -us0000376
and a Intel Core2Duo E8200 2.66GHz. And I have always chosen motherboards based on what FSB, RAM, SATA and PCI Express it supports, so I have gone with budget boards cause I don't need all the other additional integrated peripherals. Now was this wrong should I taken into consideration chipset type as you can see my motherboard is a Intel G31, is this a bad choice say if I upgrade to nvidia 9800gt 512mb. Do chipsets matter if so why, how does one chipset differ from another, does one chipset make better performance in gaming with a PCI Express graphics card. If G31 is a bad choice for gaming with a PCI Express graphics card what do you recommend and why, I got to know if chipsets actually matter from motherboard to motherboard.

And this is silly question but what makes one motherboard better than another with identical components say RAM supported, FSB supported, SATA supported. Is it the chipset that gives the motherboard the advantage in many benchmarks, reviews etc or do some motherboards transfer more data than other, I simply don't get how one motherboard with similar parts on the motherboard gets the advantage over the other.

Thanks cause I have up to this point choosen motherboards to support my CPU FSB, DDR2 800 RAM, SATA, PCI Express so should I of been taking into consideration the chipset type as this maybe what would give better and faster gaming performance on PCI Express graphics card or if its not the chipset that matters what other parts of the forementioned matter in choosing a gaming motherboard.

Howdy and Welcome. Looking for what you need is always better than what you want(unless you're me). Chipsets do matter mainly due to features and what it can do. Some might support faster Ram, faster FSB, more pci-e slots. or if they both offer multiple pci-e slots, one might offer more bandwidth between them. So yes chipsets can affect performance. Some boards with the same chipset, may even be built different. Like the Asus P6T and the Asus Rampage II Extreme. Both have the X58 chipset with 3 pci-e slots, but they are laid out differently.

Here's another example

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128372 ($94)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128358 ($140)

main difference? the $140 one offers another pci-e slot(if you want more than 1 graphics card)

You can keep the Foxconn and still do ok if you get a decent graphics card. IF you want the best performance with what you have, get a GeForce GTS250 or a GTX260(or higher even). Other wise, Ditch the Foxconn, get a new motherboard for that 9800gt(or 2 of them even). I personally recommend either Gigabyte, MSI or Asus motherboards that are at least $100 or higher to get the best stability/performance. I'm sure someone might have better ideas or suggestions(on what is different or what you can do), but this is what I would do in your shoes. If you do go for multiple graphics cards, make sure you have enough power to supply to them (ie: 500w or higher power supply)

Are you asking if your motherboard is fine for a 9800GT? If that is the question then yes.

Chipsets vary in options/tweaks/support/, basically a myriad of things. If you have no intentions of overclocking or tweaking then your current motherboard is fine. I a not sure if they still do but for the longest time Dell used rebranded Foxconn motherboards almost exclusively.

Another thing is there are two chipsets on every motherboard, a northbridge and southbridge chipset.
http://www.legitreviews.com/images/revi ... t_diag.jpg
The image there shows what the two chipsets in that AMD board control. The one labeled 790GX is the northbridge and the one labeled SB750 is the southbridge.

And this is silly question but what makes one motherboard better than another with identical components say RAM supported, FSB supported, SATA supported.

Board A - Basic Board with no overclocking options supports DDR2 800
The board will run the DDR2 modules at DDR2 800 and at the factory timings (in this example let's say 6-6-6-18).

Board B- Allows overclocking and supports DDR2 800
The board will run the DDR2 modules at DDR2 800 and at the factory timings (in this example let's say 6-6-6-18). But once you start to overclock the CPU (unless you have a Black Edition AMD CPU and that's a whole different example) then the RAM starts to overclock. Now that your CPU is overclocked your RAM is overclocked and is running faster than DDR2 800 maybe it is running DDR2 1066. Since most boards that allow overclocking allow you adjust RAM voltages lets adjust that. Now you adjust the RAM voltage and the RAM is now stable at DDR2 1066 at 5-6-5-15. Since you started out with the same RAM you are now running it faster than it was intended to run in both bandwidth and it's timings.

Does that make sense?