Selecting a motherboard and processor for a new PC?

Question

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a new computer. Any recommended processors/mobos, or
anything special I should look for?

I don't really understand all these specs motherboards have. Can omeone
explain the crux of the matter...., what really matters when choosing a
mb/processor.

The minimum I want is a P IV 3mhz. Should I go for a dual-core? What extra
advantage would this give me? How do AMDs match up?

Also, what motherboard will be recommended. I'd find it very helpful, if
someone could specify models, and tell me exactly why you recommend that
model. I want atleast 8USB slots, and Firewire too.

I'm going in for atleast 1GB RAM.

I won't be doing anything deadly. I'm not into games too much. I expect
some juice to be able to download huge torrent files, converting video,
downloading DV from my camera and editing using Adobe Premiere Pro - which
I expect will demand a bit.

I think I'll be buying this pc next week, so any help in this short will
will be much

Answer 1

Hi,
the biggest question you have to reslove is "What do I really want to do with my new computer?"

If you are a heavy gamer and get frustrated because you are a couple of frames per second FPS slower that the max or you have need of a powerful machine to do some 3D graphics procssing (ie: rendering a complex animated scene) or as you mentioned you are heavy into Video processing then you have to do some serious studying ahead to get the best match for price / performance. Study benchmarks that are specific to video processing and then you can make some intelligent decisions.

If you are a casual gamer and just want some speed and are on a budget then it's easy to throw one together.

First oreder of business is PCI Express, it's the new kid on the block and for some reason the video care mfgrs. are only charging about $160 for a PCI Express video card that is about the equivalent of a $500 AGP card.

Beyond that choose either AMD or Intel and go with the 64 bit. AMD has both excellent performance and excelent pricing. Each manufactuer has chips in the $900 to $1000 range (and above if you start looking at XEON and Opteron processor) but for the general usage, you can get a pretty decent AMD 64 bit for around $300 - $400.

Add a case, a high quality power supply, cooling system (if you get some of the higher powered chips) a decent mother board. Lots to choose from http://hardwarehell.com/mobo.htm

Personal experience stay away from PC Chips they're kind of weak in the BIOS can't do much over clocking and they have less settings overall.

Get a board wth a fast FSB front side bus, some decent quality memory (at least a gig) and a SATA hard drive. DVD burner and DVD player. and you are good to go.

There are sooooo many chips and soooooo many motherboards that it is almost a full time job keeping up.

Some chips within the same manufacturer like AMD are very close in performance and yet are several hundered dollars apart in price.

Dual core just means (a new trend in chip technology) that there are two processors on the same die or physical chip.

I have an AMD 3000+ 32 bit with 1 GIG of memory and an ATI x700 graphics card that is respectable in performance.

I can play games and I can render simple stuff and I do a fair share of video creation using a program called MAGIX Movie Edit Pro.

Answer 2

First of all, make sure you get a motherboard that is compatible with both the chipset and processor you would like.

I would reccomend a Turion 64 AMD processor over the dual core processor even, as in a number crunching test, the turion scored much higher, which will save you money and give you better performance.

Also, I would reccomend an ATI Radeon Graphics card over the Nvidia. You could even get an SLI enabled motherboard and have dual ATI AGP Graphics cards for the best of visuals which will be able to stand up to anything thrown at it for the next 20 years.

Answer 3

Good
you know just enough, fine

Stick 2 Intel Dual-core, perfect ,,, nothing wrong with AMD tho
- will mess up u'r decisions & since u buying in a weeks time, stick to the dual-core !

1 GB RAM perfect ... man, u've done most of u'r work

Lemme present u with u'r most suitable PC
it is the Dell XPS 400
http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/cto_xpsdt_400?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Costs $ 990
now customise it !

U can buy it as it is, but i suggest u add a TV tuner with it
Dunno if it comes with a remote, else add it too

U have Windows Media Centre 2005 for operating system, which is superb

Suggest u don't get into too much understanding of motherboards n all ... the XPS 400 has the best ...
160 GB hard disk @ 7200 RPM is great, unless u want them larger

Perfect 4 u .. just check it out and order

best of luck !

Answer 4

First of AMD's will be better for gaming, their bus speed runs much higher; Pentiums will get better performance in most other areas if you have the money go for dual core many programs will soon support and in the future require a dual core processor so you extend the life of your PC dramatically ; with a motherboard you get what you pay for take into acct any brand preference you may have....I would be leery of putting a 400$ processor on a 30$ board other than that just look for the features you like and supports your processor type and socket.

Answer 5

you need to sit down and find out what you need then go 20% better so you can grow into it. your needs are very important, like is it for intense gaming, or word processing. this all matters when you buy. find a good computer tech near you and they should be able to help you, but dont buy the top of the line unless you need it you can upgrade later

Answer 6

ill recommend lenovo for a much fairer price. IBMs desktop package, you can browse info at IBM.

Answer 7

DELL.com, pick one , customize it and good pricing too.