Motherboards...what should I look for?

High Front Side Bus (533 or 800)
supports 3200 memory slots
Sata hd or IDE HD
on board video or do you have a card?
If for recording no built in sound....
 
Built-in sound is a standard in new motherboards. So you're just gonna hafta get another sound card to add on.

AMD or Intel?
 
Make sure whatever motherboard you decide on allows for extensive upgrades..

PCI (Express)
AGP (in case you want to add a second monitor)
MEMORY (at least four bays)
PROCESSOR
 
Seems I have all the bases covered except PCI-E. I was mainly asking because I was thinking of doing a complete system overhaul. But I guess I'm okay. I have an ABIT IC7-MAX3, which is discontinued. But it has SATA, AGP, up to 4GB of ram, 800FSB, blah blah blah.
 
you really dont need pci X onless your going to use it for gaming. AGP still works well and its bandwidth has not been maxed out yet for the 8x
 
PCI express, high FSB, ability to hold lots of RAM (more than 2GB), SATA, Jumperless configuration.

Oh yeah, and the ability to support the cpu you want to use ;)
 
PCI-X for DAW? :confused:

Naah... it's not necessary. I run Matrox G400 dual head 32MB on AGP 4X mode. Never have any problem at all! Unless you do gaming or graphic/video editing stuff, I guess AGP is enough. :cool:

One more thing to consider is chipset! If you run Intel (Pentium processor), then make a damn sure the chipset is intel! At least 865PE or better. Stay away from cheap Via / SiS chipset... :D

;)
Jaymz
 
Kids!

Listen to Mother...

Any motherboard you get will be obsolete within a calendar year, if not six months. Memory for it will be hard to come by, buss technology will have moved forward, and the hottest processor it can support will cost little more than the bottom of the line processor that it will support costs now.

Base your purchasing decision on...
  • Vendor RMA policy... can you take it back if there are problems? (Forget about Fry's!)
  • Reliability and Support... does the manufacturer have a rep for reliability, good tech support, and good driver support? (I lose driver disks all the time).
  • Feature set... does it have the goodies you want, and that you are going to use, RIGHT NOW? Don't pay more for RAID if you are only planning on using RAID, don't buy support for 4GB of RAM if you are only going to install 512MB when you buy it.
  • Cost... Good motherboards can be had VERY CHEAP. You do not NEED to drop $200 when a $60 board meets your criteria.

Luck.
 
wheelema said:
Listen to Mother...

Any motherboard you get will be obsolete within a calendar year, if not six months. Memory for it will be hard to come by, buss technology will have moved forward, and the hottest processor it can support will cost little more than the bottom of the line processor that it will support costs now.

Base your purchasing decision on...
  • Vendor RMA policy... can you take it back if there are problems? (Forget about Fry's!)
  • Reliability and Support... does the manufacturer have a rep for reliability, good tech support, and good driver support? (I lose driver disks all the time).
  • Feature set... does it have the goodies you want, and that you are going to use, RIGHT NOW? Don't pay more for RAID if you are only planning on using RAID, don't buy support for 4GB of RAM if you are only going to install 512MB when you buy it.
  • Cost... Good motherboards can be had VERY CHEAP. You do not NEED to drop $200 when a $60 board meets your criteria.

Luck.

Hear! Hear!
 
wheelema said:
Listen to Mother...

Any motherboard you get will be obsolete within a calendar year, if not six months. Memory for it will be hard to come by, buss technology will have moved forward, and the hottest processor it can support will cost little more than the bottom of the line processor that it will support costs now.

Base your purchasing decision on...
  • Vendor RMA policy... can you take it back if there are problems? (Forget about Fry's!)
  • Reliability and Support... does the manufacturer have a rep for reliability, good tech support, and good driver support? (I lose driver disks all the time).
  • Feature set... does it have the goodies you want, and that you are going to use, RIGHT NOW? Don't pay more for RAID if you are only planning on using RAID, don't buy support for 4GB of RAM if you are only going to install 512MB when you buy it.
  • Cost... Good motherboards can be had VERY CHEAP. You do not NEED to drop $200 when a $60 board meets your criteria.

Luck.


Subtitute motherboard with shoes, then... hell yeah, that sounds like my mother! :D Good point BTW :) (+) rep...

;)
Jaymz
 
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