Choosing a Motherboard

[LordHood2]

Hey everyone,

In the not so distant future, I'll be pulling the trigger on a pc build I've been thinking about undertaking for month now. I watch a lot of Youtube on other people who do it, and it made me want to do it(That and there's a few games I want to play on PC). I've given myself about $800 or so to play with on this build. Which is plenty seeing as how I already own a PSU(Corsair GS600). The only thing I've not fully decided on is the motherboard. Currently, it's the MSI 870A-G54 (FX) AM3+ board. The board will have to last a while, and also be robust and expandable to accommodate future upgrades. So I was just wondering if there were any other options similar in price (+/- $10-$15) that are at least as good as the 870A.

On a side note, which is better? A Radeon HD 6950 or 6870?


EDIT:

Guess I should've mentioned this earlier, just read the sticky here.

This rig will be used primarily as a gaming machine, single player and online games and such.
As far as brands go, I'm some-what partial to AMD/Asus. But dont let that curve your judgements.
If theres a better product from a different manufacturer, I'll consider it.
I'm in the United States, will probably order everything from NewEgg.

[kirbster]

If you are overclocking, teh lower end MSI boards are known to blow the VRMs. I would go with a Gigabyte or Asus and likely an 890FX or 990FX based board.
What CPU are you planning to pair this with?
Also, the 6950 is faster than the 6870, but the 6870 represents a very good value for the money.
Any reason you want to go AMD? Your budget might be able to gve you an i5 2500K, which is a pretty fast platform for everything.

[LordHood2]

I wasn't planning on doing any *serious* overclocking, but I was intending to overclock slightly. Speaking of which, the CPU in question is an FX4100. As far as going with AMD, I'm still remembering Athlon, and am convinced that the reason Bulldozer line CPUs have not-so-awesome ratings is because nothings really optimized to take advantage of the architecture within. I was actually considering going with an i-something, since those have raves all around. But I was waiting a while for Bulldozer and really wanted one instead.
And my very first motherboard choice was an Asus RoG Crosshair IV, but I probably don't need that kind of extreme board for my *first* pc build. Maybe for a second build...

[kirbster]

Trust me, there is no good reason to go Bulldozer. If you just want to play around with one, thats different, but for doing just about anything even teh older phenoms are better.....really, not kidding. I had an 8120 and it was crap.

[LordHood2]

Ah, well. Looks like I'll be going Intel on this build. Rather disappointed that Bulldozer wasn't all it was hyped up to be. However, I am glad to know this now rather than after I spent the money a Bulldozer only to find out that it can't do much of anything. Will also probably be changing my memory at this point as well, maybe. Patriot memory is a winner for me because its assembled in America, but I just dont know what memory to get with what I'm willing to spend on it.

[sswilson]

If you're sold on going BD (I won't bother trying to convince you otherwise, that's your decision to make), I'd stick with a 990FX chipset to ensure maximum compatibility and longevity.

If price is really an issue I'd be looking long and hard at that $130 Asrock, but then I've had much better luck with Asrock boards than many here have.... other than that... there are a couple of brand name boards listed around $150.....

Newegg.com - 990fx am3+

edit... heh... disregard that last bit... I just read your last post.

OTOH... tigerdirect is listing a 1035 hexacore PII for $100... that's a pretty decent price for a fairly decent AMD chip if you still want to leave a Piledriver option open..... :)

Buy the AMD Phenom II X6 1035T 2.60GHz AM3 Processor at TigerDirect.ca

[LordHood2]

I was considering an Asrock board, I'm actually running one right now (albeit an ancient k8upgrade nf3 board), but an Asrock none the less. I dont think I'm at a point in my computer building experience to get super picky about every minute difference in each motherboard.

And price is an issue, the motherboard I've picked out is $90, and my final price comes out to about $803. If I didn't have to include a copy of Windows 7 in that, I'd have a lot more options. Maybe I'll take out the OS and get it after I build my PC, and just run XP or Linux for a few days.
......

Yeah I think I'll do that. I shouldn't have to skimp on hardware just to get Windows.