Need Mobo Recommendation

[Guest j-mo]

I posted this in the other forum at the bottom, but no response yet. I'm hoping someone here can make a suggestion.My 15 yr. old son is upgrading components in his computer. He'll be keeping his case and HD.He's looking to upgrade to Q6600, Antech 500W PS, Corsair RAM (4 gigs). His budget is around $600. Question #1: Can someone recommend a decent motherboard. I doubt he'll be overclocking anything.Question #2: Does the OS matter for Crysis?He's not into Flight Sim, but will Crysis, among others.Sorry that I don't have more specific info on these components... he doesn't live with me. I'm hoping for recommendations anyway.Thanks in advance.Regards,

[Avcomware 1]

Hi Alex.I am not the best to give you advice on the latest Mobos, the last system that I built was about 6 months ago, but there will be others, Nick, Sam etc. that are real good at this stuff. I will give you my opinion based on what I know and think.You need to know what type of HD your son has, probably a PATA and Not a SATA, which means that you Have to get a board that has that type of interface. Nothing wrong with that, they can be made to perform OK, but most are now SATA drives, and many Mobos have both interfaces available, as long as you know what you need to do.You can get a lot of data from "newegg.com" but the least expensive are ECS, may be others if you get them on sale.Another thing you have to be aware of, is the OS, you will need, in most cases, XP SP1, or SP2, to make the boards work with all the IO, and Video cards on the market. Vista may also work, if you get it get at least Vista 64 SP1. I do not recommend it because there are still many configurations, hardware like Printers, Scanners, CD / DVD Drives, utilities, applications, etc that will not work with Vista, but if you do not upgrade for the next 1-2 years Vista will be your best option, unfortunately. If you do get Vista 64, I would get at least 6GB of RAM.I can go on to recommend other things, but as you can see you will basically have to get just about everything, except your Case and HD, CD / DVS Drives and maybe the OS if you have at least XP SP1.Some of the best / most efficient buys for parts I've seen are at Fry's and Micro Center, where I live, in So Cal.The decision you have to make is how is best to approach this, and what you want get out of it. In plain speech, you will gain the knowledge and experience if you build it yourself, which, to me, is worth the effort even if costs more than buying a system already assembled, by Gateway, and others.The other option, is a system that that are manufactured / assembled by others, Newegg has many brands available, that has the right Processor, RAM, HD and other hardware you need like a 6710, 4710 from Gateway for around $4-500, and add your own, better Video board for another $100.00. This route may be less expensive and time consuming, but definitely Not as rewarding, especially if you, and your son spend that time together. I hope this helps. TV

[Guest V4DIV-CVN-70]

I posted this in the other forum at the bottom, but no response yet. I'm hoping someone here can make a suggestion.My 15 yr. old son is upgrading components in his computer. He'll be keeping his case and HD.He's looking to upgrade to Q6600, Antech 500W PS, Corsair RAM (4 gigs). His budget is around $600. Question #1: Can someone recommend a decent motherboard. I doubt he'll be overclocking anything.Question #2: Does the OS matter for Crysis?He's not into Flight Sim, but will Crysis, among others.Sorry that I don't have more specific info on these components... he doesn't live with me. I'm hoping for recommendations anyway.Thanks in advance.Regards,

I had asked the same question awhile back and settles on the ASUS P5Q for my q6600 and Never regretted it. Great Board.

[Guest j-mo]

I had asked the same question awhile back and settles on the ASUS P5Q for my q6600 and Never regretted it. Great Board.

Thanks for the replies. I've read some good things about the P5Q, but it's better hearing from folks I trust. I didn 't know if the 6600 and P5Q were a good match or not, so this helps.Thanks again. Regards,

[peppy197 165]

I too have been researching for another MB, and settled on the P5Q line for my Q6600However, to save money I got the P5QL-pro, the lite (L) version of P5Q-proIt will overclock to 1600 FSB the specs say.Its chipset the P43 is subsequent to the P45 (not older) and is a P45 with less features.As it does not support crossfire I'm Ok cause I have a solitary GTX260, and I only need one GLAN as well.Aslo got the cheaper but very popular Arctic Freezer-7-pro CPU heatsink/fan and more 800-RAMStill awaiting delivery it is due FridayAllen

[Guest j-mo]

Thanks, Allen.

[av8tor98 0]

I went from an Asus P5N32-E SLI and an Intel E6750 2.66Ghz to Asus Maximus Extreme mobo/Intel E8400 3.0Ghz combo and really love the Maximus Extreme. The mobo made it easy to overclock the E8400, and the DDR3 ram works great!

[Guest TSE]

Count me in for the Asus Maximus Extreme - great, stable mobo with a lot of tweaking and tuning possibilities.ThanksJoerg

[Arklight1 140]

If I was looking for a good OC'ing board at a good price, I would look at the P5Q line.

[Guest j-mo]

Hello, all, and thanks kindly for your replies. Sigh... my son has put his upgrade plans on hold for the moment. Feel free to keep this thread active if you wish.Regards,