Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum
The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.

CPU and MoBo: Buy seperate or as a combo?

NickTheNewbieNickTheNewbie Registered User regular
edited November 2006 in Help / Advice Forum
The time for me to build a new computer is drawing nigh and I wanted to ask you guys something.


A lot of online shops (i usually go tiger direct or newegg) sell CPUs and motherboards either seperately or as bundles. I want to upgrade to a core 2 duo, and I'm not sure if I should pick out a specific cpu and mobo and buy them seperately, or buy a bundle.


Are the motherboards the usually come with bundles complete shite, or are they usually pretty good quality?

MAGFest, the Music And Gaming Festival.
eW7bOmh.png
NickTheNewbie on

Posts

  • theclamtheclam Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    You should be looking up reviews for your motherboard regardless. If the motherboard you want comes in a bundle for a good price, go for it, otherwise buy it separately.

    theclam on
    rez_guy.png
  • ClipseClipse Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    In general, go with whichever is cheaper. I've seen motherboard/cpu bundles (for instance at MWave) which offered very high end motherboards... but they tended to be $10 or so higher than just buying the cpu and motherboard separately at another site (Newegg). The best route is to decide on what features you want/need in a motherboard, find one that has all of those features and good customer reviews, and then compare bundles vs. separate purchases.

    Clipse on
  • NickTheNewbieNickTheNewbie Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Well then while we're on the subject can I ask you guys for motherboard suggestions? I'm looking for something that supports the core 2 duo, has pci-e (SLI not necessary) and preferably has the latest nforce chipset.

    NickTheNewbie on
    MAGFest, the Music And Gaming Festival.
    eW7bOmh.png
  • DeusfauxDeusfaux Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    NickTheNewbie wrote:
    preferably has the latest nforce chipset.

    then your choice is pretty much just the evga board.

    the asus striker should be available any day now if it isnt already too

    Deusfaux on
  • robaalrobaal Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    NickTheNewbie wrote:
    I'm looking for something that supports the core 2 duo, has pci-e (SLI not necessary) and preferably has the latest nforce chipset.

    ...why?

    Intel P965 is pretty good, and the newest nforce chipset doesn't seem to be any cheaper (though I've only seen the "premium" version).

    robaal on
    "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra when suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
    At night, the ice weasels come."
  • NickTheNewbieNickTheNewbie Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    robaal wrote:
    NickTheNewbie wrote:
    I'm looking for something that supports the core 2 duo, has pci-e (SLI not necessary) and preferably has the latest nforce chipset.

    ...why?

    Intel P965 is pretty good, and the newest nforce chipset doesn't seem to be any cheaper (though I've only seen the "premium" version).



    Ok let's back up even further! What do you guys suggest for chipsets?

    NickTheNewbie on
    MAGFest, the Music And Gaming Festival.
    eW7bOmh.png
  • vonPoonBurGervonPoonBurGer Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    robaal wrote:
    NickTheNewbie wrote:
    I'm looking for something that supports the core 2 duo, has pci-e (SLI not necessary) and preferably has the latest nforce chipset.

    ...why?

    Intel P965 is pretty good, and the newest nforce chipset doesn't seem to be any cheaper (though I've only seen the "premium" version).
    Yeah, I was just gonna say the same thing. To the OP, maybe you've got better sources than me, since I live in Canada, but the prices I'm seeing on nForce Intel boards are not attractive. On the AMD side of things, nForce all the way, sure, but Intel has been making decent chipsets to match their processors for years, and from what I've heard the P965 is no exception.

    Edit: I was only seeing the new 680 boards, the nForce 590s are pretty competitive with the 975X boards. Even still, the P965 boards beat the lot on price.
    NickTheNewbie wrote:
    Ok let's back up even further! What do you guys suggest for chipsets?
    If you're looking for a Core 2 Duo system, there are four choices I'd considers: nForce 590 or 680, Intel P965 or 975X. If you don't care about SLI now or down the road, the P965 is the stand-out choice. You can get a feature-competitive P965 board for a fair bit less than you'd pay for any of the others. Nvidia doesn't even make a midrange non-SLI chipset for Intel processors, hence the P965 really stands out on price.

    vonPoonBurGer on
    Xbox Live:vonPoon | PSN: vonPoon | Steam: vonPoonBurGer
  • NickTheNewbieNickTheNewbie Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    I'm new to buying intel boards, so I wasn't aware their chipsets matched their processors so well.



    So far that's 2 votes for the intel p965 chipset. Is that the general consensus?

    NickTheNewbie on
    MAGFest, the Music And Gaming Festival.
    eW7bOmh.png
  • robaalrobaal Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    If you'd want SLI then there are also nforce 570 SLI boards - not expensive (~$100) but also crap at overclocking and support only ddr2-667 memory and below; I also don't know if they'll support future Intel CPUs.

    OTOH newegg has the supposedly-great-overclocking Gigabyte S3 at $116.

    robaal on
    "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra when suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
    At night, the ice weasels come."
Sign In or Register to comment.
Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum