Which Motherboard Is The Right One For Me?

Question

Help, Im planning on upgrading my computer, however Im in a dilemma and am unsure of which motherboard to purchase.

I need to purchase the last 3 major parts for upgrading my computer; I have an WD SATA2 hard drive and a brand new Nvidia Geforce 7600 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI express video card.

Im leaning toward purchasing an Intel Core2 Duo E6600, DDR2-Ram (533/667/800 which ever would be best for board bus speed) and a P965 chip set type Motherboard.

My system is going to be used for low-end gaming and homework. I’m not planning on using SLI, or overclocking.

So Im asking what you guys think is my best option, the P965, however I not ruling out the 680i, or the 975x. I dont need a ton of motherboard for what I need, (dont need WiFi, parallel port, FireWire ports, eSATA, etc)

What I really want is ease and no conflicts, I want to know what will be practical and some experience from people telling me what really works well together.

Let me know what you guys think.

Answer 1

I have the perfect board for you:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131030 it has everything you need, and is from the best manufacturer of motherboards. You are right to go with the P965, much more stable than the 975, and 680i is just a waste of money in your case.

Answer 2

I would go with the Core2 E6300 (save money, not much difference in games-goto www.tomshardware.com for benchmarks). A great place to go is www.newegg.com. They have an easy guide to choosing the motherboards (like all socket 775 boards), and reviews by actual users on each motherboard.

And note:the extra money saved in the lower cpu, invest the money into a better video card like a Radeon 1900 or 1950 pro. It's the video card that is the most important in most games.

Answer 3

As my husband says, "Just by a stinkin' Dell!" ;-P