Motherboards

[Scorpiоn]

This is sad.  I couldn't find one decent article online about motherboard stuff.  So, back home I come with questions.

Here is everything I plan to get (or swap over) for my planned system, which I was finally granted due to my birthday, although I was told I was going to get it in December of last year (I should've known better!).  (The forums aren't working at their best, so bear with me) And please, feel free to make suggestions.  I'm working with a decent budget, $600 or a little more.

-A sexy metal case and power supply - 300 watts
-[Motherboard unknown]
-Intel Pentium 4 Processor: 2.8 Ghz or up
-Corsair RAM (Circa 1Gb)
-Current Geforce Ti4200 64Mb Graphics Card (To be upgraded pehaps later on)
-Audigy 2 Soundcard
-Western Digital 250GB Hard Drive
-[Moniter unknown, need help with this]
-DVD-ROM
-CD-RW
-Iomega Zip Drive
-Wireless keyboard and mouse, sidewinder Force Feedback 2 and rudder/racing pedals later on
*Windows XP Home Edition
*Combat Flight Simulator 1/2/3
*Flight Simluator 2004: A Century of Flight
*Il-2: Forgotten Battles
*Command and Conquer: Generals Zero Hour
*Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
*Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

This system is intended for gaming, music, gaming, movies and gaming.  What are ALL the things should I look out for in a motherboard (RAID, ATX, FSB... what is this nonsense?)

While I'm at it, depending on how complex it is, I think I'd like to set up my computer so that it'll connect to this one (the one I'm on now) via a LAN.  Is this easy to do?

[Pcyco]

To go into all the details you are asking for would take up a couple of pages at least. Best thing you can do is to research the various Mobos and pick what you like best. Last year I put together a new system and the board I picked up was an ASUS P4P800 Deluxe and an Intel 2.8 gigahertz CPU. Reviews on the board were very good and the price on the 2.8 was a hell of a lot better than anything up in the 3 gig range. However the board can handle anything up to a 3.6 gigahertz. Here are a couple of links to study up on what you want.
http://www.anandtech.com/
http://www.sharkeyextreme.com/

[Ivan]

ATX is the size of the board, and the connector locations. Most boards are ATX at the moment, just be carefull and get a full-size one

Get something with S-ATA for the harddisk if you are planning to get the WD 250GB drive, as that is a little faster

internal ZIP drive will kill performance on the IDE port it's attached on, so try to keep that one on a seperate one.

DVD and CD-RW should both be either ATA-100 or ATA-66

[Fozzer]

Whichever processor type you decide to use, make sure you get an approved motherboard suitable for that processor type.
The processor manufacturers site will display a list of suitable, (approved), motherboards for their products.
(My AMD processor requires, (amongst a few others), a Gigabyte motherboard).

Cheers all... ...!

Paul.

A 300 Watt power supply is only just large enough to cope with serious hardware... ...try 550 Watt... ..!
And how about treating yourself to one of those new, sexy, flat screen, LCD monitors.... ....LOL...!

[Scorpiоn]

The thing is, I want to read 10 pages of info on all the details, I don't know about all these guys these tech review sites when they scoff at people with lower end systems, but $600-700 is a lot of money for me.  I'd read 5 hours worth of materials if I had to to make a good decision.

Crap, XP is shutting down, I'll finish this later.

[Scorpiоn]

Okay; back online.

I want all this info because I shop at a place called Fry's.  Lots of selection, very good sales (you caould save around $20-100), but you have to know what you're doing.  I went to guesstimate the price of a rig last time I was there, and had a good idea of what I wanted but their Motherboard Department fried my brain.  Every motherboard has about 10-15 little specifications/details beneath it, and they're all things I'm unfamiliar with.  "RAID Compatibility: YES/NO"and all that other suff I mentioned, etc.

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Pcyco, I really plan on getting a Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz, but may have to settle for a 2.8, do you have any reccomendations?

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Ivan, what does ATA denote?  Spin speeds?

Helpful little tidbits you got there, thanks.

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Fozzer, thanks for the powerful tip.

Could you perhaps suggest a monitor?

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So far this is what I've managed to find out from numerous Google searches.

• 478 Socket for Intel Pentium 4
• An ATX board requires and ATX case
• RAID is an ability to combine multiple drives into one.  Seems silly to me, better to have a Master and a Slave.  Won't be needing it.
• I will be needing AGP for all my gaming.
• CPU, motherboard and RAM need to be the same FSB, although I don't know what it means

[Ivan]

ATA is a standard for harddisks and CD drivers
if there is a number behind the letters, it says something about the theoretical maximum speed.

In order of speed, starting with the fastest one
S-ATA, 2 different standards for this one. controller usually supports one of the two, harddisks adapt automatically.

ATA-133, the fastest one you can get on 80 wire flatcable. 133MB/s
ATA-100, 100MB/s
ATA-66, 66MB/s
ATA-33, same as UDMA, max speed 33MB/s

And the old ones:
PIO-4: ZIP-250 (2002 model) and possibly late model ZIP-100 drives
PIO-3
PIO-2
PIO-1