Computer opinions needed...

Well, I think both Steve and myself and a few others do know a lot about this,but we all are still going to have differences of opinion.

I love both ASUS and ABit motherboards,and they both have their good and bad points,but even saying that I don't think you could go wrong.

When I had my shop and was actually building xutom machines for customers, I had a check sheet of parts and/or features I would go over with them and have them tell me how important something was,and work from there.

But honestly, I would never pay that much money for a motherboard. If I were you I would do a price comparison of a same brand motherboard and find one about $100 less and see what you would miss out on by not spending that extra hundred. You might find that it might be not much at all.

For example,for years you needed to add a sound card to a machine to get decent sound,which kept Creative as the leader of sound cards,but now the built in sound on some motherboards can equal a surround sound system that you buy for your tv.

As far as the processor,I may be wrong but I think Steve is an Intel person,but I actually switched to AMD a few years back. I have to also say that because of my financial situation I have not built a personal machine for myself since 2005. but I am typing the response on that machine.

My next suggestion would be to check bot Newegg and Tiger direct for the parts and prices. Usually Newegg is a little cheaper,but not always.

Hope this helps and if you have anymore questions,feel free to ask.
Kim

Well, I am not a die hard Intel fan. Frankly, I have been rooting for AMD ever since intel started trying to destroy them. Intel came out with a crippled 286. They left out a few instructions and a transistor or two. Seriously, with a FEW minor tweaks, and a better OS, it would have been GREAT! It was actually MORE efficient than the 386! They realized that they had a problem. A processor that was crippled, but FAST. Well, they had a number of companies make 286s to help fill demand while they tried to KILL the 286 and come out with the 386.

Perhaps ALL those companies used the 286 design that they were GIVEN, and built it into a 386 workalike, like the license ALLOWED them to do. It was YEARS before intel got the courts to rule in their favor. They lost several times first. I think EVERY company either DIED, or gave up! EVERY company but ONE! AMD said "Aw, what the heck, we already designed our OWN anyway!" Without missing a beat, AMD just dropped the Intel design and went full speed ahead. AMD used to be a little known company known for making high speed processors. And that was BEFORE the 8088.

I just checked out toms hardware, a long standing respected and unbiased website for such things. They have the AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 3.3Ghz The 3Dmark vantage benchmark puts it at 14678 About the area of a midrange i5

The fastest is the Intel Core i7-980X (Gulftown 6c/12t) 3.33 GHz (Turbo 3.6 GHz), at 17114 or about 17% faster.

Realize that NO benchmark will match your performance, it is onlly a guideline. You have to determine if that boost is worth the price.

As for the high price tag for the motherboard? You picked out a HIGH END one! And this price ISN'T bad for a high end one. You can expect to pay between maybe 80 and 500. most that I have bought have been $100-$150, but they were low to mid range boards. And that WAS a while ago.

BTW you get quality EITHER WAY! As far as I am concerned, ASUS is quality. AMD and Intel are also. AMD USED to be like the LEADER! Unfortunately, for the moment, they appear to be a little behind. But HEY, they probably cost less too.

And I'm sure you know, motherboards today are almost like cellphones in that you can't just simply buy two parts, like the CPU and motherboard. You have to make sure you like the two together. It's a pretty good bet that the lower end boards WON'T support an i7. And such a board probably won't support the AMD processors.

BTW they last computer I got was an Athlon II x2.

Steve

Roaddog,

The one I got is near the bottom of the list, 9386! So that i7 is about 82% faster! It's a pity that they can't milk all that speed, because mine is 2 core, and that i7 is 6 core SO, in theory, mine is more efficient. That is probably because the bus can still only go so fast, and communicating among cores isn't perfect. But 82%! And I thought I was DREAMING when I saw mine SCREAM! Of course, it is slower now with all the software, etc..., but it is still fast.

BTW I bought mine simply because I knew it would probably work fine, and be very fast, and it was CHEAP! At least it MADE the list!

The slowest one on the list, probably for comparison, is the Intel Celeron 430 (Conroe-L 1c) * 1.8 GHz, DDR3-800, 0.5 MB L2 at 3839. And THAT is more efficient than mine! Probably because there is NO overhead in the CPU communications and it is even closer to the memory speed.

BTW when I talk about efficiency, I am basically talking cores, clock, and speed. Power isn't even really a constant anymore, so it gets hard to judge.

Steve

Jim,
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying don't get that motherboard,it's just that I always try to factor on features versus cost to come up on value.
Plus the fact that people build for different reasons.
If I had the money right now I would build another gaming machine,which means I would focus on cpu power,memory utilization and video,while if I was building for my wife,all she does is basically FB and her pictures.What does she need for her pictures? good graphics. Thats basically it.
As far as Intel versus Intel, Steve, didn't mean to sound like I was pidgeoning you in to INtel,thats just what I thought I remembered you saying you liked a long time again. Jim,Honestly, I haven't checked cpu prices in a while,but it seems at this point no matter what you go with,it is going to rock.

Glad to hear you like Windows 7, Steve. I haven't heard too much negative stuff about it.

I definitely want to get a good video graphics card.

I want to start working with video a lot more.

I actually haven't read how video 'friendly' W7 is, maybe I'll go do that now.


Jim

I too want a Windows 7 machine.Actually, I NEED a windows 7 machine if I am to keep repairing computers. Vista was so bad it was easy for me to skip over it and keep repairing,mainly becuase the biggest request I had for a long time was "Can you take this Vista crap off and put XP on?"