I am looking to build a brand new system. My main reason to do so is for gaming. Like being able to play C&C 3 and Company of Heroes at the native resolution of my monitor, and source games. Pretty much the games that are out now. Seeing that AMD processors are cheaper, and I am a happy AMD user right now. I like the idea of saving money and going with the AM2 over Intel. The 3800+ can achieve the performance I want in games: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2933&p=8 The review there on anandtech is more than enough to convince me thats all I need. Especially for now. So I am wondering whats a good stable board? I don't need SLI, and I won't be overclocking either. I want to try to stay away from NForce (if possible...), and ASUS. The reason being is that I hate Nvidia's drivers. I have almost no good experience with them. Especially hearing from my friends with Socket 939 boards. The reason for ASUS is that their support/website is unacceptable.. While I love my A7n8x board. It's just been one of those legendary boards...I hate the nforce on it though. Ugh. Plus how quick Nvidia was to screw people over. They stopped making drivers years ago, and the latest drivers for nforce 2 cause my computer to black screen + the whole vista fiasco and soundstorm is horrible Bah. I could go on. I have been looking for AM2 motherboard shootout reviews...but I haven't found any. The price range I am looking at is about 130 dollars, because I am comparing it to the Core 2 duo alternative. If I were to go intel I would get this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128012 And lastly. By getting an AM2 motherboard. Does that mean in the future if I don't like the performance of my games I can easily upgrade to a much better processor say quad-core from AMD? I was never given this option. It seemed that AGP disappeared and my socket type was gone in an instant. I I look forward to any reply's! : )
I was in pretty much the exact same situation, new PC for C&C3 and company of Hero's I got this Mobo, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128014 Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 Its been really good so far, its socket AM2 and its really quite good for overclocking. I've got my X2 4600+ sitting at 2.8Ghz per core up from 2.4Ghz Its also SLi compatible, I've got one 6600GT in it atm but I'm looking for another.
Yes and No.... the AMD Quadcore's will be for socket am2+ (they will phisically fit into am2 sockets, but oyu will loose support for ht3... i.e. no full performance)
Strange enough I've always tought nforces are the best chipsets out there I've been happy with my latests nF4 SLi and 590SLI... Seeing your price range and requirements tho. And maybe older nForces weren't so good, dunno. I can't really help with the reasonable priced mobos, I've been happy with mine. I'm also sure even how you want AM2, someone will still come to this thread recommending C2D
I'm running the XFX NF590 board (the nVidia reference model) and I'm VERY pleased. Last 64 board I liked as much was my Sapphire PURE Innovation...
If you're really set on AM2 then go for an Nforce 590SLI it may be slightly more expensive than the nforce 570 or nforce 4, but will ultimately be useful for longer.
pretty much all nforce 590 sli AM2 mobos are good. the ASUS crosshair, abit fatal1ty an9 32x, the DFI one, the gigabyte, etc are good. not much difference between them.
