I need a motherboard for this build. I’m trying to build a quiet moderate solid overclocker. Other then the PSU, Sound Card and Drive I welcome suggestions.
Antec Performance I P180 ~ $140.00
2 Nexus 120 mm fans $16 a pop do I need any with p180?
500 w Smartpower 2.0 ($40 at fry’s last week uses 1 quiet fan most of the time)
ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER4 $32 (cheap, one of the coolest, and quiet)
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article223-page5.html
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getart ... rticID=224
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard $186.00 (already have) (They say relatively quiet I’m not so sure so far)
250 gb WD SATA (I got 3 Seagates w/ death pulses and 3 WDs without)
OCZ Enhanced Latency 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Copper Heatspreader 2-3-2-6 $127.00 (I wanted the 2-2-2-5 platinums but can’t justify it for this system)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor $194.00 (3500 is $70 bucks more if it dropped 30 bucks I’d do it)
eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 $359.00 -$14.00 Instant (any other thoughts would be appreciated)
What’s missing ? A Motherboard!!! I have 2 MSIs and they are ‘very much sucking’ as Sergei Fedorov would say…. so no MSI. I melted a non-oc’d Soyo so I won’t do them again either.
Musts
939 chipset
NVIDIA nForce4 ultra (do I need ultra with this system?)
PCI-E
SATA
I got Audigy 2zs so I don’t need audio but looks like it's std fair.
Thanks for your input.
A build without a motherboard... Your Thoughts Welcome
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Hi, if I was buying a 939 board now I'd probably buy an Abit AN8 with "Q-OTES" which is their marketing speak for their heatpipe based NorthBridge cooling system. The NF4 (& NF3) chipsets are pretty hot and their location under/around the graphics card slot can make cooling it a challenge. The Q-OTES system runs a heatpipe from the NB to a radiator in the back plane that is passive, i.e. silent. The heatpipe system should remove any problems with large graphics cards and coolers on them. Abit do both Ultra and SLI versions and are generally well regarded for overclocking.
Ultra version
SLI in Edward Ng's awesome machine
Asus have also recently introduced a heatpipe/passive NF4 board which may be worth considering, particularly if you're going to go SLI as it has 2 slots between the graphics cards making quiet graphics cooling easier.
Hope this helps, Seb
Ultra version
SLI in Edward Ng's awesome machine
Asus have also recently introduced a heatpipe/passive NF4 board which may be worth considering, particularly if you're going to go SLI as it has 2 slots between the graphics cards making quiet graphics cooling easier.
Hope this helps, Seb
The AN8-Ultra is very hard to find. NOT AN8 FATAL1TY!!!! Newegg, tiger, zip, directron didn't have it. Pricegrabber, froogle, copernic don't know it either. Took me about 5 hours of searching. $136 at ATACOM to bad in state Sales Tax.
http://www.atacom.com/program/print_htm ... SER_ID=www
http://www.atacom.com/program/print_htm ... SER_ID=www
The Chaintech fanless won't hold up to major overclocking, Would be fine non-overclocked,and of course would cool quieter. ECS's KN-1 Extreme has an oversize heatsink the fan can be removed from,has so much space you almost could rig up a mount for an 80mm-The ECS is great for Audio due to the soundcard slot,with no chipfan-same as the Chaintech-OC at risk....leaves the Abit Ultra with heatpipe the winner. Like the early NF 4 boards,it may be a week or 2 before its at New Egg,etc.