Hi there....i have plans on building my own PC but i am not sure of which or how to choose a motherboard to use........so i would really appreciate it if you could provide me some tips.....and if possible some good but cost effective models......as we all know the Motherboard is afterall the life of the PC...

Thanks

Hello Rash219,

My best advice to give you is the simplest. Spend the good money on the motherboard and build your computer around that. Use the motherboard specs to choose the peripherals that you are going to attach to it. It is hard to reccommend a motherboard unless you have no price limit cause it all depends on what you want out of your computer. If you don't have a price limit, then you just want to get a board that has the most expandability and go with good brands like ASUS or Gigabyte. If you do want some help picking out a board, let me know how much money you're willing to spend and what you plan on using the computer for, then I can try to post a few different models.

If you want to save money, you just have to shop around. Newegg.com is very popular and tons of people post reviews, so you can look for less expensive brands that have lots of good reviews and save money that way. For a CPU, AMD is my brand of choice. Their products are less expensive and perform at least as well as Intel.

Things to look for right now are very soon AMD will be releasing their line of Quad Core CPUs and DDR3 memory is just now becoming popular. So I would get a motherboard that supports Quad Core CPUs and DDR3 memory. Even if you start with a dual core or even single core CPU, at least you'll be able to choose a Quad Core in the future. And you may want to wait for AMD to release the Quad Cores cause then all other CPU prices will drop. Especially dual core CPUs. I would expect them to drop in price pretty dramatically.

The last thing to do is really simple. If you are unsure about your setup being all compatible, call the company you purchase the products from before you spend the money and just ask them if everything looks like it will all work together. That's exactly what I did when I built my first computer years ago and it all turned on in the first shot.

Hope any of that info helps you!

Hi Wadd,

Well i am planning of buying a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 ($319.99) so i know the soket type is suppose to be LGA 775.....your question regarding on how much i am willing to spend well i dont mind spending around a 100$ - 150$.....the main thing is im planning of building my PC around a cost range of 800$ and the parts im planning to use including the Processor are

Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD4000AAKS 400GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $94.99

Memory of 2GB

DVD-Burner (not sure if want an LG yet)
LG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black IDE Model GSA-H22L - Retail - $34.99

Video Card
EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $89.99

Sound Card(depending on cost)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail - $83.99 OR
Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail - $29.99
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Ok my plans reagarding the use well i am basically a crazie multitasker.....and do ocassionally work with photoshop and other progs dealing with web design you know like flash dreamweaver and illustrator and fireworks....now what i really would like my PC to do is have 2 or more progs like the above open and still experience no LAGs if you know what i mean......

Here are a couple boards:

Newegg.com - ASUS P5B-VM SE LGA 775 Intel G965 Express uATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

This one supports DDR2 memory. There was a small notice on this board that states:

Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets.

I don't know if that means other memory won't work (which I doubt) or they just won't offer you support or warranty if you use memory that doesn't fit those specs. If you happened to go with this board, you may want to inquire about that notice.

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This is the board I would recommend:

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TP35D3-A7 Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

This one supports DDR3 memory ... but is a tad more expensive DDR3 will be much better for multitasking, and prepare you for the future. It is the cheapest DDR3 board (of the brands I prefer) that supports Quad Core.

Both boards are good brands, good prices, and support all of the features you are are looking for.

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I would either get the cheaper sound card or just don't buy a sound card (use the on-board surround sound card built into either of those motherboards) and bump up your video card to an 8800 GTS video card. Those will range at around 130-150 dollars at newegg. Here is a great deal:

Newegg.com - MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256EZ HD GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Silent Heatpipe Video Card - Retail

MSI is a good brand. Good price. You'll have Direct X 10 support, and a good deal faster core clock and memory clock rates for not much more $$$.

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Here is a link to what seems to be a great case. 25 bucks and it has a 5 star out of 400+ reviews

Newegg.com - Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply with 20+4 pin connector - Retail

That'll save you some money

Hope that helps!