Need help choosing a mother board on budget also

[thedrunk]

As people know I am building a new computer for school, I will have around 1400 for the desktop I need it to be first off a work horse second a gamming rig.
I am going to collage for game simulation, I plan on taking Electronics technology next bachlors in order to achive my masters degree in Information systems. ( yes I want to design the next gen gamers hardware) I am at the hardest descion I am faced with right now concidering I have a new OS i am falling in love with, choosing the right motherboard and processor(s), I am going to use a 120G ssd drive for installing the OS and certian programs, others I havent decided on what type of hard drive or drives yet.

I want a 3.2Ghz or faster proc, dual proc would be nice yet then I am now looking in to having to go server board and then the video cards I would liek to use are univailbe do to archtiture. I am a fan of gygabite technologies every one I have built has done what i build them for and beyond. but I am open to go with another maker even a intell board or AMD board ( does amd even make boards?) I will need the option of having dual vid cards NOT in sli or X-fire. also upgradability is a must...... I dont want to spend a good chunk on proc and mobo just to have to replace it in a year I am wanting this build to last three years with minimal upgrades.

I preferr Intell over amd I belive they are more stable and right now have the fastest procs otu there.

Would like to hear peoples feed back on mobo and proc before I make the desicion to buy. I am also going with the 64 bit versiopn of W7


Yours
The Drunk

 

[Thrax]

Are you in the United States or the UK? 1400 is quite a bit of money in either locality, and I can put together a top of the line system for you if you let me know where you're located.

 

[thedrunk]

I am located in washington state,

yea I am getting total of 2300$ to go towards what ever but I felt that 1400$ would be enough before my next seimesters budget and want to build some thing fun and mabey even dump 300 on custimizing a case ( want to build a transformers theam case with cross of robotics and stuff idk )

so lets see what is up and out there, and dam ssd are expenvice

 

[olg207]

To be honest reguarding processors. you said you wanted a work horse and gaming rig. I use amd, i have always been an amd lover, always hated intel. amd are good for gaming, but if you want it to be dedicated and fast definitely go for quad core.

Reguarding ram, Random Access Memory, you would need a minimum of 4gb for the 64bit version. i dont know the prices in the USA though. And if you want to be using it for the next 3 years+ for college, and your studying IT systems, i would suggest a 500gb, western digital or seagate have always been my favourites.

The next part is optical drives, due to your specification, saying being a work horse and gaming rig, i wouldnt suggest a blu-ray player, unless of course your gonna be watching alot of films, and are a media kind of guy. Just get a normal DVD/RW drive, and for fast transfer rates ii would suggest sata. This includes HDD.

Finally graphics, go with what is the best at the moment, but be weary on the prices, as some retailers can be pricey, i dont know graphics cards have been released in the USA is but research into it thoroughly. The best manufacturer for graphics will always be Nvidia, with out a doubt.

I hope I have helped and enjoy your build as much as i did mine!!!!!!

 

[thedrunk]

To be honest reguarding processors. you said you wanted a work horse and gaming rig. I use amd, i have always been an amd lover, always hated intel. amd are good for gaming, but if you want it to be dedicated and fast definitely go for quad core.

Reguarding ram, Random Access Memory, you would need a minimum of 4gb for the 64bit version. i dont know the prices in the USA though. And if you want to be using it for the next 3 years+ for college, and your studying IT systems, i would suggest a 500gb, western digital or seagate have always been my favourites.

The next part is optical drives, due to your specification, saying being a work horse and gaming rig, i wouldnt suggest a blu-ray player, unless of course your gonna be watching alot of films, and are a media kind of guy. Just get a normal DVD/RW drive, and for fast transfer rates ii would suggest sata. This includes HDD.

Finally graphics, go with what is the best at the moment, but be weary on the prices, as some retailers can be pricey, i dont know graphics cards have been released in the USA is but research into it thoroughly. The best manufacturer for graphics will always be Nvidia, with out a doubt.

I hope I have helped and enjoy your build as much as i did mine!!!!!!

I have decided to go with intel for they have the fastest procs out there on market today, I will be going quad core and a 100g or 120g SSD for my main os and programs that I use along with a sataII 500g and a hot swappable sata drive so I can fill a drive and swap them out on the fly. far as graphics I will be going Nvida looking in to dual proc vid card enstead of two vid cards. blue ray burner and dvd burner plus a good audio system


My problem is finding the main mobo and proc I will be using wish a xeon can be used on a desktop board its hard as all finding the right hardware to convert a server board to a desktop usage...................

 

[clifford_cooley]

Im looking into this motherboard for my next computer. Support for wide variety of Processor's and DDR3 memory aswell.

P5Q3 Deluxe WiFi-AP

 

[thedrunk]

Im looking into this motherboard for my next computer. Support for wide variety of Processor's and DDR3 memory aswell.

P5Q3 Deluxe WiFi-AP

I will reaserch and even call asus, I dont think the archtiture will be suitable for my needs though. the onboard wireless is great for a mediacenter pc to connect to a network in order to provide the media needs to other displays or computers. I will be doing a pci or pci-e wifi card W/blue tooth for my pda and phone to sync.

The dual pci-e 2.0 is great but is based only on ati tech and I my self am a Nvida man.
I will look in to it as far as a tru gamming rig not just one that will play games but that will bring full quality and performance. plus I also need it to be able to make games and program also........

I will update in a few

 

[clifford_cooley]

That board should support one video card which is what you said you was looking into - I would not have suggested if you was thinking about two Nvidia cards

 

[thedrunk]

As was my first intuition for the board it will function well as a gamming machine, yet it would be better suited as a media center core system on a net work. the dual gig ethernet would really come in handy for it being the center piece, as far as some of the system features the multi O.C. profile settings is good. I would like to get one for my media center system I am going to be building through out my collage carrer. 3 years each seimester 2300 for hardware yea I think I could afford to spend some on setting up some 32" tv through otu the hosue LOL

But ty very much it would be a good board considering it has a hot swappable sata plug in the rear I/o panel for media purposes. not jsut a media networked center hub but all around music and video machine. Intell I get some people who have built gamming rigs form it I cant say how it will do with games and I dont knwo if any one si using it to make games

Thanks

 

[thedrunk]

That board should support one video card which is what you said you was looking into - I would not have suggested if you was thinking about two Nvidia cards

It supports cross fire also two pci-e 2.0

I havent really decided on if i am gonna run single vid card or dual vid cards but I wont run cross fire or SLi I would only have two cards to support two to three or even four monitors


This is very hard for me I can take a customers requests for what they want to do and make a tower design in under 6 hours, yet when it comes to me I am unshure for I feel the mobo and P{roc are the most important things you choose ...