[kbaird]

I am looking for two good motherboards.

One for programming/work stuff and one for gaming.

I am used to dell but I did build a pc about 15 years ago.

In general I am thinking....

#1 work - Vista 64, DDR2, Raid 1, NVidia 9500 gt

#2 game - Vista 64, DDR2 or DDR3, Raid 0?, NVidia 9800 gt

Intel, Asus, or Something else?

Is the P45 chipset the right idea?

Any suggestions or ideas would be great.

Thanks,
Kevin

[saltynay]

P45 is a good chipset and Intel cpu is best if overclocking (there motherboards are generally overpriced and bad at OC) if not then a couple of the AMDs come into the running. Want to go into detail about budget? size constraints? Are these two seperate pcs as they don't have to be...

Eww dell you should of known better as a veteran builder

[kbaird]

Thanks for the info.

I do prefer two pc's.

Just set up a Asus P5Q + Q9300 + 4gb DDR2 800.
Am I correct that this is kind of weak for gaming?

I am looking for a better mobo, cpu, & mem
combo for gaming for about $500-750.

Maybe I am clueless and a SLI board
with q9300 and DDR2 would be better.

Any ideas?

[saltynay]

Your clueless .

That would be great just add a decent graphics card like the 4870 (possibly a 4870x2) and you will gaming like the best of us. With a $750 budget you can get a decent gaming computer but adding a gpu to your current one would be much better performance.

[kbaird]

How about a gtx 260?
They are really marked down.

I do need two pc's but I could
build a slower one for work.

[thirdshiftdj]

e8400 or e8500 for gaming

[saltynay]

The Gtx 260 is ok but get the Evga 216 version if you want to go nvidia way. The 4870 is the best single gpu on the market. In a dual gpu environment (crossfire/ sli) nvidia 280's win if you go to Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews and look up the latest gpu charts it may help you decide

Btw ignore the last comment from third shift I think he just read the first post non of the details

[thirdshiftdj]

no I read it. Why a q9300?


edit: He wants two pc's so how is a q9300 good for gaming???

[saltynay]

Multi-threading is becoming more present in modern games and with a Q9300 its a 45nm so virtually the same as the E8400 in terms of manufacturing process therefore it should reach similar clocks (less 100-200mhz due to the heat from the extra cores).

"Just set up a Asus P5Q + Q9300 + 4gb DDR2 800"

He already owns it which would make it an ideal platform to add a gpu to and convert into a gaming pc. Coding and programming doesn't normally need such hardcore hardware as a gaming pc.

kbaird what OS are you running atm? what resolution is your monitor? do you have an aftermarket cpu fan?

[thirdshiftdj]

similar clocks? no. Its a quad. You'll need a good board and the low multi will not let that happen. 3.7 is about where it stops