MotherBoard Selection Help

[georgethomas]

Hi All,

I need help selecting motherboard, thr are so many in the market - I am confused what to buy

I have no problem with the Budget

1) I need the best one
2) Its for Digital Home as well as Gaming purpose
3) Would like to have Quad Core CPU fitted
4) Would like to have HD Sound ( Blu ray - True HD, DTS, Dolby - All the latest Digital Sound)
5) 2X PCI 16 - to able to fit double Graphic Card
6) Highest Speed
7) Latest Dual Channel RAM supported motherboard - DDR2 OR DDR 3 WHICH ONE??????
HDMI OUT ,
9) OPTICAL OUT


I would like to know which is " the BEST" in the market of a reputed company - which would be fast for both digital home

Thanks in advance

[whowhat]

Hi All,

I need help selecting motherboard, thr are so many in the market - I am confused what to buy

I have no problem with the Budget

1) I need the best one
2) Its for Digital Home as well as Gaming purpose
3) Would like to have Quad Core CPU fitted
4) Would like to have HD Sound ( Blu ray - True HD, DTS, Dolby - All the latest Digital Sound)
5) 2X PCI 16 - to able to fit double Graphic Card
6) Highest Speed
7) Latest Dual Channel RAM supported motherboard - DDR2 OR DDR 3 WHICH ONE??????
HDMI OUT ,
9) OPTICAL OUT

Thanks in advance

If you're really looking for extreme performance levels, I'd get an ASUS Striker II nForce 780i or 790i (depending on DDR2 or DDR3). Most high-end motherboards will not have HDMI out, since they don't have onboard video. Just make sure your graphics card has it and you'll be fine. Most boards do have fairly high quality onboard audio, so your optical out shouldn't be a problem. If you really want the "best" sound, buy a separate sound card.

As for DDR2 vs DDR3, at the moment they're somewhat comparable in performance (DDR3 is more efficient and has faster clock cycles, but runs at looser timings) and DDR3 costs a ton more. If price is truly no option, I'd go with the DDR3 as it will eventually outperform DDR2 as the technology advances, leaving you a higher ceiling for future upgrades. This would be the motherboard I recommend, although I'd never spend that much personally. Just my two cents, good luck.

[JohntechUPi]

I would tend to agree you can get a E8500 CPU for less than 300.00 USD check Pricwatch.com and the ASUS STRIKER II FORMULA for less than 300 USD and Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF for about 160.00 and have a great running system, If you wanted to go with AMD you can pick up a Phenoum 9500 for about 170.00 USD and the MB's are many to choose but an M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wifi is a sold MB and sells for about 240.00 USD with the same memory will also run great I am using M2N32-SLI now and love it great price and great performance with a 8800GTS Video card all for about 1100 USD.

[werty316]

I would go with a nice X48 board. The GIgabyte GA-X48-DQ6 comes to mind.

[JohntechUPi]

That is a good choice they have ran faily well in our Lab and reasonable the CPU and memory pricing would be the same. Just check the price on wwwpricewatch.com or www.pricegrabber.com if you like.

[georgethomas]

Thankyou Guys!!!!

So do you all think ASUS striker II Extreme 790i SLi with DDR3, would be a good choice to have it future proof for sometime ahead.

As told earlier, I would like to have the best MB in the market.

This is for more digital home and some game

Which CPU would be the best for this MotherBoard?

How about the Power unit? How Much watts required?

Thanku

[DMB2000uk]

Do you have some kind of budget for this build? It would help then to know what to suggest (so that you can get the best for the money )

Right now the corsair 620HX is a very nice power supply and will handle pretty much anything you can throw at it (it powered both SLI'd 9800GX2's and Crossfired 3870X2's in our recent quad graphics card review!).

Dan

[georgethomas]

Thank u for your post.

I have no budget constraints, all I need is the best one.

I have bought a Asus Striker II Extreme 790i (http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3& ... odelmenu=2)

and I had bought a Core 2 Quad Q6600 sometime and may sometime later upgrade this cpu, but not right now

I would be glad if you let me know, the rest of the components required in details ( I am in Australia).

1) The DDR3 ram, best one
2) PSU - the max Watts allowed and name
3) Case

etc etc.....