It depends on how you define better. Sure the integrated graphics in NForce 7xx0 is a more powerful than in the Intel chips in 3D, but all of these are still crap compared to the GeForce 6600. Personally I don't really like the NForce 7xx0 - it has single channel memory controller, 4GB memory limit ...

Ugh there's a parallel port on it. The way Asus arranged the PCIe and PCI slots is better too. I'd rather lose a PCIe 1x slot than a PCI slot. I think I'll get the Asus then. Lose PCIe because of using a discrete graphics card? Then why not get a G33 board if you are using discrete graphics? There ...

Late december or early 2008.

Here's a picture of the Gigabyte board:
http://www.computerbase.de/bild/news/17135/25/

they tried to sell me the story that it wont work anyway because of the "need" for split power planes lol. This is really, really bad customer service. I mean, Gigabyte even manufacture a motherboard that doesn't have split power planes and has support for Phenom. How stupid do they think we are?

Phenoms do not require it. In fact, the only thing they require is socket AM2 interface and voltage regulation that can stand a power draw of 95 watts. And a bios update for the motherboard of course. Some vendors are nice and release bios update for most of their AM2 boards, like MSI and Asrock.

Is there a reason people are recommending only GeForce cards? I mean this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121084
for example should be quite a decent choice.

Although this motherboard only has one vga port, I'm sure there's a model that has 3 pci-slots and integrated graphics with 2 ports. If there is one, be sure to tell, because I haven't found one. MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital AM2 has 3 pci-slots and supports up to 3 displays. But that's AM2 and Phenom just...

No, that's Pentium 4, Prescott core to be more spesific. As long as you get a P3 with a Coppermine core you'll be fine. Even a Coppermine Celeron would probably be adequate, and they have TDP of starting from ~10 watts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Celeron_microprocessors#.22Coppermine...

Here's a board that supports Phenom with a mere nForce 520 chipset:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?M ... R3.0&s=AM2

I wonder whether my Gigabyte nForce 520 board will get Phenom support...

Then again, their nForce 570 board is advertised to support Phenom: http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2513 And at least MSI seems to think that nForce 550 could be Phenom compatible, since it is under testing in their nForce 550 board (and I think they ar...

and also by buying ATI (where are the synergies from this deal? who benefited apart from ATI stockholders?). AMD wanted to build a platform consisting of a chipset, processor and graphics card, and now they've got one (altough not a very convincing one). In the future they're probably going to rele...

Email them and ask? If they say no, then maybe it's time to open a thread here: viewforum.php?f=24

I think (or hope) that AMD will put some pressure on the mobo makers to bring on the bios upgrades, because if they don't, then AMD will lose processor sales.

Why not subsitute the motherboard to GIGABYTE GA-G33M-S2H? It has onboard DVI and will eliminate the requirement for the ADD2 card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128063 I second the recommendation to get E21x0 too, the new Celerons are pretty good, but single cores are get...

NyteOwl wrote:Going to be interesting. Now where are the AM2+ motherboards ...

Some boards have been selling for a while
http://geizhals.at/deutschland/?cat=mbamd2p

Does anyone have a recommendation on a AM2 board? I need at least 4 sata 1 ide, and the usual for a current board. I don't really overclock much either. If you're not a serious overclocker, then almost any board will do just fine. I am personally quite satisfied with my Gigabyte GA-M52S-S3P http://...

If you are going with Intel and want stability then forget the nForce and get a motherboard with some recent Intel chipset like P35.

Operandi wrote: [*]Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3 -- ATX / AM2 / nForce 550 -- Chipset cooled by a "pretty large" heatsink -- BIOS control for CPU fan header, settings are on or off only. -- SpeedFan not currently supported -- CPU voltages down to 0.8V.

Same holds for Gigabyte GA-M52S-S3P.

Is it safe? It certainly doesn't look like it, as the heatsink is quite large and heavy, and is held in place only with single plastic holders in both ends. It holds for now, but I'm a little worried about long term use. Are there any experiences regarding this? The method for attaching the tower to...

dvenardos wrote: ASUS M2NPV-VM

Why such an old board? M2N-VM/DVI is out too, and it's based on the newer nForce 7050PV chipset.

I'd say:
Step 1: get 8800GT
Step 2: overclock the E4300, for example 1,8GHz to 2,4 GHz should be rather trivial and safe overclock, still giving lots of extra horsepower.

I was leaning towards the X38 M/B for the cooler operation, fancy heat-pipes etc. and not to fall too far behind the "bleading edge". The X38 boards have pushed DDR2 hard. I doubt they will be investing as much on the P35 models now. Actually, X38 is not cooler than P35, since the TDP of X38 is 26,...

If you are on a budget, then why the X38-based motherboard and 1066 MHz ram? You could save a few dollars/euros/yens/whatever by going with P35 and 800 MHz ram, and hardly ever feel the difference in the applications. Depending on the type of games played, GeForce 8400GS, 8500GT or something from th...

Ok, that was not apparent from your post, but it makes sense. Other than the driver issue, I'd be interested to see a comparison between Windows XP and Vista with the Radeon card, because if it uses clock gating in several parts of the 3D engine like the Radeon Xpress 1150 in my laptop, then it migh...

Brilliant! Somewhere deep inside I knew I was not saving that Soundblaster AWE32 for nothing. I wonder what the pricerange will be...?

The position of the ATX12V connector looks less than optimal though.

But on the other hand I can probably get some IGP-free VIA -chipped AM2 mATX board pretty cheap Be careful if you get one of those, because those boards really are the lowest of the low end. Lots of annoying bios problems, hardware incompatibilities, VIA drivers are not exactly on par with other ch...

Well, I'd say that it probably consumes more than 4 watts, because when the IGP is enabled the northbridge will consume more power than when it's disabled (when there is a discrete graphics card attached). In fact, with the memory controller in the CPU, the IGP is the single biggest power consumer i...

I have a Gigabyte 690v motherboard running a AMD 4000 x2, 2gb mem, 160gb HD and Pioneer DVD writer. That rates at 47 watts at desktop full cool'n'quiet running which I think is pretty good. Oh and a Seasonic S12 380 PSU. I dropped a Asus 2400 Pro 256mb PCIe card in and at desktop I only hit 51 watt...

In the other forum, this
viewtopic.php?p=375872&highlight=#375872
post seems to indicate that the idle power consumption of Radeon HD 2400 Pro might not be that high after all.

Is that an actual temperature or just a bios reading? Some motherboard manufacturers usually scale down the temperatures, because users would start worrying if they saw the actual temperatures, altough in reality they are nothing to worry about. If you have ever fondled the northbridge heatsink in a...

Since I was in the market for a new AM2 motherboard too, I did some research on the 7050PV chipset, and so far I'm not very convinced. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11986845 http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/08/08/biostar_tf7050-m2/1 We've checked to confirm and Nvidia limits t...