Need Help Picking a Motherboard! (For Reals this Time)

[bicostp]

Note: Yes it's a long post. If your attention span won't allow for it, here's the real point: I need recommendations for Socket 775 ATX motherboards that support 45nm processors and (preferably) come with serial ports.

Okay so basically job = money = this thing's getting built. Seriously, this time. (It's pretty bad when Team Fortress 2's frame rate dips into the single digits on a regular basis. When there's more than 6 or so people on a server, forget about it. It's like playing a Powerpoint presentation. To top it all off, the graphics details are all on low, and it's running at 1024x768.)

The problem is, the only MicroATX boards I can find don't support PCIe 2, or only have one slot, so I'm looking at full ATX cases. Unfortunately, ATX HTPC cases are ugly, horribly reviewed, or way out of my price range. (Right $650 for a case with a 7" touch screen built in that's going to sit across the freaking room is reasonable. ) So, I figure I can build my own case. We have a bunch of scrap aluminum around, and a bunch of leftover furniture-grade plywood from remodeling.

I want it to look sort of like an old piece of stereo equipment, specifically a Heathkit unit we have in the garage. The problem is it's going to live on a shelf that's open on only one side (like a box tipped over), measuring 17" deep by 24" wide. In order to leave enough room for air to circulate, I'd like to keep it around 14" deep by 20" wide. Currently, I'd like to keep it around 6.5" tall.

This is the kind of design aesthetic I'm aiming for:

The difference is, it will have a fold-down plexiglass door on about half of the front, to hide the drives while allowing the lights to show through. (Sort of like the coin counter on Ben's Neo-Geo arcade cabinet. [link])

I tried using Sketchup to experiment with layouts, but it was annoying and counter-productive. (Especially when people don't make parts to scale, and you import a model of a hard drive that's the size of your average Home Depot.)

So I went into arts-and-crafts mode and broke out the paper, cardboard and utility knife. Now I have a 4" cube cardboard CPU cooler, 4" x 4" x 1" internal cardboard card reader, 9x12" paper motherboard, and a 8.5" x 4.5" x 1" dual slot cardboard video card to go with my 4 dead placeholder hard drives, power supply case, and CD-ROM drive. The idea is that these parts can act as dummies to experiment with different layouts with. I'll take some pictures later, after I've done some real fiddling with it.

As far as parts go, I've pretty much settled on a dual slot 8800 GT and an E8400, with 4 gigs of DDR2 RAM as a matching set of 2 gig sticks. (The Core i7s are coming out soon, but they'll be overwhelmingly expensive.) The motherboard is the only sticking point. I either need one with a serial port or to get a PCI serial port adapter in order to use my homebrew IR receiver. (WinLIRC, the software that reads the unit, doesn't work with USB to serial adapters.) Or, I could avoid that and get a USB remote that comes with a VFD, which would be pretty nice.

Here's the criteria for choosing motherboards:

• - PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. Preferably 2. I don't really care about SLI; it would be nice to have that option eventually, but the flexibility is what I'm most interested in.
  - Serial port. Gotta have a real one for the homemade remote control adapter. If the difference between a motherboard with no serial port and one with one is more than $50, I'll probably just get the VFD display and USB remote package; we like shiny displays.
  - 4 RAM slots. I'm using 4 gigs for the time being, and being able to go up from there is great. (Hey, RAM is cheap.)
  - PATA for the DVD+-RW drive.
  - Socket 775. I don't like AMD, never had very good luck with them. Plus they're lagging behind something awful nowadays; their lower prices don't justify the performance hit.

So far I've got the EVGA nForce 750i and 780i on the comparison list. Any other recommendations? I've heard the 750i is hit or miss when it comes to video card compatibility.

Also, are the stock Intel coolers good enough, or should I get an OEM processor and an aftermarket CPU cooler? (Bear in mind this is for a home theater PC, so fan volume is a factor. I don't want another jet-engine movie machine. ) At most I'd do a mild overclock, but most likely it's going to run at the factory clock.

I know the 9800 GT is just the 8800 GT with a new sticker, but I found one for $140 from the same manufacturer as the 8800 GTs I've been looking at, which is much less. Also, isn't the 9800 made with a smaller manufacturing process? I think it may be worth it...

My budget is around $700-$750, and things like extra hard drives may come later. I'll probably pick up a copy of Vista Home Premium 64-bit for it, mainly for Media Center, the extra memory space, and of course DirectX 10.

In case you're wondering, here's the current setup. Parts that will be reused are underlined.

3.2 ghz Celeron D Which, thanks to a PSU connector falling into the fan, overheated to over 75 Celsius once.
PC Chips P23G motherboard Piece o' crap. It never shuts the PS/2 ports off (so the mouse light is on after you shut down) and I've had random NIC problems with it. Aw well, it was only $50 a couple years ago.
DVD+-RW drive
1 GB of Corsair DDR 400 RAM Had 2 gigs, one stick died.
250 gig Samsung HD
200 gig Maxtor HD
Visiontek ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP card Not very good.
Masscool CPU cooler Loud and crap. It barely keeps the CPU under 40 at idle.
Ultra Micro Fly case with 400 watt PSU

And a video of it running 3DMark 06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtubYurefns

Thanks!

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

This motherboard looks like it would fit your needs well. It's pretty cheap ($140 at the moment on the Egg) and I've had good experience with Asus mobos.

Also, are the stock Intel coolers good enough, or should I get an OEM processor and an aftermarket CPU cooler? (Bear in mind this is for a home theater PC, so fan volume is a factor. I don't want another jet-engine movie machine. Razz) At most I'd do a mild overclock, but most likely it's going to run at the factory clock.

Stock coolers have been sufficient for the PCs I've helped build recently (E6550, Q6600, and a E8500, all at stock speeds), but I'm getting a Xigmatech S1283 for my new computer (parts should arrive Monday ) because I'm planning to overclock the hell out of my E5200. Stock cooling should be fine for you. (But if it's too loud, you can always add aftermarket cooling later.)

I know the 9800 GT is just the 8800 GT with a new sticker, but I found one for $140 from the same manufacturer as the 8800 GTs I've been looking at, which is much less. Also, isn't the 9800 made with a smaller manufacturing process? I think it may be worth it...

They're the same exact thing (process and all), but I think the 9800GT has better PureVideo support or something. Also, not all 9800GT's are equal. This Asus card, which is labeled as a "9800GT Ultimate" is apparently basically an overclocked 8800GTS (and significantly more powerful than an 8800GT).

My budget is around $700-$750, and things like extra hard drives may come later. I'll probably pick up a copy of Vista Home Premium 64-bit for it, mainly for Media Center, the extra memory space, and of course DirectX 10.

Ew, Vista.

[Flo]

So far I've got the EVGA nForce 750i and 780i on the comparison list. Any other recommendations? I've heard the 750i is hit or miss when it comes to video card compatibility.

If you can live without SLI support, get a board with an intel chipset*. The newer NVidia chipsets are known to produce excessive heat, which is not something you'll want to deal with in a system that's already struggling for airflow.

(* there are intel chipsets with SLI support coming out too, but they'll likely be over your budget)

[bicostp]

It seems like a lot of the Intel based boards out there that support PCIe 2.0 are expensive. (At least $100 more than that Asus board.) Looks like it's just the x38 and x48 chipsets that support it. On top of that, none of the ones I've looked at have serial ports so more expense would go into getting a remote control.

I know at the moment there isn't much of an improvement between 1.0 and 2.0, but things are always changing, and why not take full advantage of the video card's capabilities? Why pay more to get less? (I might as well get an Intel DG35EC and put it in the existing case if that's what I was going for...)

[timmeh87]

A USB-to-serial-bridge-in-a-cable costs $10, you could build it into the case using the extra usb pins on the motherboard.

Go with the intel X chipset that supports crossfire and get two ATI cards

perhaps 4850s.

(why does it need 2 cards?)

[bicostp]

1.The software I'm using (WinLIRC) doesn't support USB to serial adapters. I wouldn't have made a big deal out of the serial port if it did. (It's hard enough finding IR remote software; this si the only one that doesn't cost $75 and only supports one or two receivers.)

2. Screw ATI. I'm sick of their broken OpenGL shenanigans.

[timmeh87]

Oh yeah. You opengl people

Dosen't support them though? Mine just shows up like a serial port in device manager... I would have thought that means its good to go.

I am also frustrated by the lack of serial ports on anything these days : /

[bicostp]

Oh yeah. You opengl people

No, I use both. It's just that most emulators (PSX and N64, for starters) use OpenGL, or at least have better features on it. (epsxe's shaders, Glide wrappers for older games...) I've already been burned by broken support (Radeon HD 2600), and it's annoying.

http://savvygeek.com/2008/05/02/ati-fix-your-drivers/

Ew, Vista.

Fine then, I'll get Windows Mojave.

[bicostp]

Question about video cards:

I found an HDCP compliant XFX 9800 GTX 512MB card for $170 after rebates. Is it worth considering over the 8800 GT, given its higher clock speed and greater stream processors? (And of course the smaller manufacture process puts out less heat...)

EDIT: It's about $220 normally.

[totokan]

The 9800 and 8800 product lines are almost exactly the same. GTX denotes that is the higher level card, above the GT card in both cases, as well.

[timmeh87]

I read a review recently suggesting the 9800x2 was the best value on the market right now. It won a roundup of like 24 video cards, mostly from the latest generation.

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

Question about video cards:

I found an HDCP compliant XFX 9800 GTX 512MB card for $170 after rebates. Is it worth considering over the 8800 GT, given its higher clock speed and greater stream processors? (And of course the smaller manufacture process puts out less heat...)

EDIT: It's about $220 normally.

The GTX+ has the smaller process (55nm); the older GTX has the same as the 8800GT (65nm).

[bicostp]

Well, some case progress anyway.

I found a good-size piece of dark Plexiglas in the garage. It was originally a door for the equipment racks in the computer room for the company my dad works for. (This was in the mid 90s, they've since moved.) Somewhere along the line, someone realized that closing expensive network equipment into racks with almost no air circulation was a bad idea, so they scrapped them. Works great for what I want; it's dark enough to completely hide dark bezels but still transparent enough to let LEDs through.

Anyone know of a site with good scratch-built case examples? All the ones I can find might as well be made out of Popsicle sticks and paste.

[Rekarp]

Well, some case progress anyway.

Anyone know of a site with good scratch-built case examples? All the ones I can find might as well be made out of Popsicle sticks and paste.

bit-tech.net

I built a case from scratch several years ago to.....

found it!



so yes I can build cases out of something other then wood. This is thin aluminum bent with a small sheet metal brake.

edit

Oh i found my other case I made! My first ever use of wood!



Kinda neat to go through my old photobucket account.