About this motherboard.?

Question

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=0&model=1181&modelmenu=1

^ here is a link to the mother board I am thinking of getting.

I don't know what other mother boards are I can get at the shop that is going to build my PC. I am going with 2GB 800MHz of standard ram no high performance ram.

I am not going to use any special hard drive things like Raid 0 or what ever its called. I'm also not going to overclock anything. The rest of the PC's hardware has not been 100% conformed either.

I know I am going to get the x1600 Pro video card or a card that is a little better. I got a nice real aluminium case to go with it.

Question one? I heard this mobo has a bad rap but then if its this troublesome why does the tech at the shop recommend it?

Question two? Whats the deal with that weird Orange tube that looks like liquid cooling on the board?

Question three? I'm going with dual AMD64 4200+
Processors where do they go on the board?

More info to come asap. probably 2 mins or so

I'm going to wait 1-6 months before I get this PC made. I'm not looking for a pro gaming PC only a good one. I got my eyes on a 600 Watt cool man power supply as well.

The total price after tax should be around 1900-2200 the tech says for the PC just the tower of course.

Other hardware 1 300-350GB hard drive at least 7200RPM.

Question 4? The reason for the 1-6 months is windows vista and physics cards? Do you think in the next 4 years most games will need a physics card? I know I can buy a new mobo when that time comes. So the real problem is waiting for windows vista. I'm not paying $600 to upgrade to vista no way!

Question 5!? I really need to know this one people. If I get myself custom build PC at a good PC shop like the one I have been going to for a few years do they make sure the PC is running fine before I pick it up? Can I get them to installed the video card and all the hardware and software for the hardware like It says windows XP include will they install it for me? and the video card and at least make sure the PC can start up and shut down without any errors?

Thanks for your time and help. Please help me with anything question 1-5 or anything else I may have talked about. Remember I am not looking for a Leading edge PC only a stable PC that will run games in the Sim2 , Battlefield 2 range well. Any help is welcomed.

And sorry I need a mother board with at least 4 USB ports and at least 1 firewire port. Well I might get away with 3USB but I need a firewire for sure.

Answer 1

That motherboard is just fine...although there are better Asus motherboards...for what your doing though its just fine...

The Orange tube is a "heatpipe/heatsink"...in other words that mobo is designed to support a fanless set up...but its still recommended to have atleast one fan in the PC to move the air...

The Dual Core AMD64 4200 goes in the normal CPU slot...it's not two processors but it just has two cores within the CPU...so it will work just fine

Answer 2

You need to research this mobo to satisfy your own questions.

For instance, why do you want to buy another video card when it has video built-in?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/nForce5prev

I don't know of any troubles with Asus boards. However, it wouldn't hurt you to research reviews about any board you want.

This board seems to come with a lot of muscle for someone who is not going to game.

I think you could get by on a lot less if you are not a gamer or power user, thereby saving you some bucks you probably need for something else.

I've heard that Vista is really going to be bloatware, so you may want all that you have mentioned, or you may not want Vista after all.

Answer 3

Thank you for introducing me to War and Peace.