Need to select a Motherboard

[satyre]

From the following link, please look at the ASUS boards. I would like to select one ASUS board out of that list. I am looking for all the latest futures that I can get out of it.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2848

I appreciate your suggestion.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Two big factors that will cut the choices down quite a bit for you...

Do you intend to run two video cards?

Do you intend to run RAID?

[satyre]

Yes, I need the option for the two video cards. I want to use the latest Nvidia card GeForce 8800 GTX.

Yes, I want to set up the RAID array.

I don't need a built-in WI FI since none of them has 802.11n draft. I will get an add on wirless card from Belkin or Linksys.

[YeOldeStonecat]

So based on that...you've narrowed the fields a bit....

P5B Deluxe
P5W DH Deluxe

...from the list of popular enthusiast boards. Similar in features, except the W is on the older 975 chipset, the B is on the newer 965 chipset. I snagged the P5B Deluxe.

Main differences between the chipsets? The 965 natively supports Core 2 Duo, the 975 is older, needed BIOS upgrade to support it, unofficially supports the faster speeds. Overclocking differences..not much anymore.

[satyre]

I was comparing the expansion slots of these boards,

P5B Deluxe has:

2 x PCI-E x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x2 or x4 mode)
1 x PCI-E x1 (x1 or diabled mode)
3 x PCI 2.2

P5W64 WS Professional has:

4 x PCI-E x 16 slots
2 x PCI 2.2

P5W DH Deluxe has:

2 x PCI Express x 16 slot for discrete graphics card
2 x PCI Express x 1
3 x PCI

What is the advantage of having 4 PCIx16 slots?

I understand that Geforce 8800 takes two slots space. I want to feed TV cable into a TV card to record as well as a Picture in picture functionality. So, what kind of combination slots is better Or any other MB that I have to look into for this?

[Sava700]

I'm a AMD fan..but if I was you building now I would go with Intel and go Conroe.. If you intend to stick to AMD the best chip would be the FX-62 on the AM2 socket so look for boards with that.

[Rivas]

I would go with what Moderator suggested ....P5B or P5W.

[satyre]

I have some problems with choosing a MB. I would like to stick with an Intel processor.

I want to use Geforce 8800 board that is going to takes two slots space. Also I want two hard drives with 10K RPM, which has an Ultra320 SCSI interface as far as I know. Isn't it better to use a PCIx16 slot for the SCSI card ? So, if I choose a MB with only two PCIx16 slots, do I run into a problem ?



What is the difference in going with Nvidia chip vs. Intel?

[YARDofSTUF]

Well I dont think they make scsi cards that use pciex16

But you can just use 2 WD raptor sata drives, the raptors are 10k rpm.

[satyre]

Would you check the following two drives:

http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/sit...062f6aac4f0a0/
Hitachi Ultrastar 10K 300 GB Ultra320 SCSI Average seek time – 4.3 ms
Lowest price: $506

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/pro...89&Language=en
WD Raptor 10K 150GB SATA Drive Read Seek Time 4.6 ms
Lowest price :$222


If I buy two WD 10K 150GB SATA drive , total 300GB about $444
one Hitachi 10 K 300GB SCSI drive, about $506

about $62 more for SCSI 300GB. Given these facts which one is a better choice now?

[YARDofSTUF]

If this is just your home computer I see no reason why you need scsi.

[satyre]

Yes, this is for my home use. Mainly I want to record movies and such..play back, edit so on....

I wonder a SATA drive is good enough for such activities...

[YARDofSTUF]

Well the scsi would be faster, I dont know by how much though.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yes, this is for my home use. Mainly I want to record movies and such..play back, edit so on....

I wonder a SATA drive is good enough for such activities...

SATA is good enough, even old PATA is good enough. However SCSI usually is superior, depending on the drives you get. It's a matter of if the gain in performance justifies the added cost for you.

Best drives out there..Seagate Cheetah 15,000rpm SCSI drives, the models with 16 megs of cache.

If you were to purchase 10k SCSI drives....gain over 10k Raptors...not so much. I'd probably take that high end Raptor with 16 megs of cache over a 10k SCSI drive.

SATA drives have gotten close in transfer speeds, seek times, and getting close in low CPU utilization and multi-tasking.

[satyre]

Thank you both , YDS and YOS

Ok I will get two WD Raptor 10K SATA drives.

I saw your post about ASUS Striker Extreme . How does that compare with ASUS P5B Deluxe board?