[Building a new computer] Need a good mobo for a the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300

trying to build a new computer - but having trouble putting all the pieces together without running into some dumb little thing

I've decided on a case (antec 900) and cpu (E6300 conroe) - but everything else is up in the air

Main problem i'm having is finding a motherboard - so if any of you built core 2 duo systems, what mobo did you get?

edit: here is what i have so far in my cart

- (Case) Newegg.com - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 1129021)

- (PSU) Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 7139001)

- (Ram) Newegg.com - APIDA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1682 0340029)

- (CPU) Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 9115005)

- (GPU) Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P2-N635-AR GeForce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 4130061)
(still debating that, kind of expensive when i may want to eventually upgrade to a dx10 card)

I'm going for cheap/budget gaming rig that will just at least be better than my current pentium 4 / agp set up.

Damn, just missed out on this deal

ClubIT Product - PNY GeForce 8800 GTS Graphics Card - nVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 500MHz - 320MB GDDR3 SDRAM - PCI Express x16 (http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno =A9670533)

$215.99 (after rebate that expires tomorrow :( ) for 8800 GTS PNY, stock clock but from what I've been reading it's not that hard to OC them.

update: clubit screwed up, still you can find pretty good deals on 8800's if you look.

Hi everybody. Let me start off by saying thanks for all the participation in this thread. Unfortunately, the $235.99 price listed over the weekend was a pricing error and we will not be able to ship at that price.

Our customer service team will be contacting each person by phone later on today. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up about this since I know some of you guys on this board placed orders. For those who placed orders, we apologize for the inconvenience and you guys can feel free to PM me with questions or concerns.





Two MB's that I'm looking at:

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 13128012)

Newegg.com - DFI INFINITY P965-S LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 13136034)

I don't care about SLI/Crossfire but I want a quality board (solid caps) that isn't a total pain in the ass to overclock.

Yep i bookmarked that DFI - but like you know, it's out of stock :(

i just ordered Newegg.com - ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681 3131070)

i just ordered Newegg.com - ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681 3131070)
can you link the memory you have/got with it?

all these clock frequency and mumbo jumbo you have to pay attention to with the intel chipsets and memory confuses me

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6320 1.83GHz 4MB 1066MHz $176.00 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 19115015)
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6420 2.13GHz 4MB 1066MHz $196.00 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 19115016)
PATRIOT PDC22G6400LLK 2GB DDR2 800 CL4-4-4-12 $123.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 20220144)
OCZ OCZ2P800R22GK 2GB DDR2 800 CL4-4-4-15 $117.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 20227139)
EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR 8800 GTS HDCP DL DVI GDDR3 320MB [320-bit] [96SP 20RP] [500MHz|1200MHz|1600MHz] PCI-E $259.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 14130082)

can you link the memory you have/got with it?

all these clock frequency and mumbo jumbo you have to pay attention to with the intel chipsets and memory confuses me

Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1682 0134125)

from what I understand, it will load as something slower by default, but you just have to set it manually to the specs and it'll work fine.

the older version of the motherboard I got supposedly can't set RAM above 2.1V, so this kingston rated for 4-4-4-12 @2.0V is a safer bet than the above patriot 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2V because you can't tell which board revision newegg will send you..

AnandTech: GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Roundup (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2953&p=1)

Reviews most of the main brand 8800 GTS cards, interestingly the so called Super Clocked or pre Over Clocked cards really don’t garner that much extra punch, you can easily enough tweak the settings of a stock card using nTune, yet to modify the stream processors independent of the graphics core you have to edit the bios.

NVIDIA plans to enhance nTune to make it more appealing for GeForce 8800 overclocking in the near future though. One feature that’s been mentioned is the ability to independently set the clocks for the graphics core and stream processors. Right now in nTune when you overclock the graphics core, you also overclock the stream processors by a fixed percentage.

We’d also like to see NVIDIA integrate GPU temperature monitoring on the same page as GPU clock speeds, as it has been done with Coolbits in the past. Currently the two are located in two totally different parts of nTune.


GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS Overclocking (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_8800_gtx_g ts_overclocking/)

That info is kind of old, don't know if nTune has been improved or not.

the older version of the motherboard I got supposedly can't set RAM above 2.1V, so this kingston rated for 4-4-4-12 @2.0V is a safer bet than the above patriot 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2V because you can't tell which board revision newegg will send you..

G.SKILL F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ 2GB DDR2 800 CL4-4-4-12 $154.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 20231065)

For the ASUS P5B-E VDIMM of 2.1V, I would recommend either the OCZ or G.SKILL depending on your gaming rig budget.

Reviews most of the main brand 8800 GTS cards, interestingly the so called Super Clocked or pre Over Clocked cards really don’t garner that much extra punch, you can easily enough tweak the settings of a stock card using nTune, yet to modify the stream processors independent of the graphics core you have to edit the bios.

Nvidia 8800GTX Overclocking (http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=133)

k so here is the cpu and mobo i'm getting

CPU - Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 9115005)

MOBO - Newegg.com - EVGA 122-CK-NF66-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 13188017)

best semi-budget combination i could find. And i here great things about the 650i chipset (i would get the 680, but i don't need sli 2x 16x just yet...don't have the money for 2 video cards)

whatcha think?

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6320 1.83GHz 4MB 1066MHz $168.00 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 19115015)

ended up going with the E6400...i couldn't resist upgrading for just a $21 difference

all order, was around $795 shipped (HD, mobo, cpu, video card, psu, ram)

Bloops E6420 has 4 meg cache instead of 2 meg on the E6400

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 19115016)

$1 more.

I think I read a review showing the performance difference and it wasn’t all that with the extra 2 megs.

$1 is too much

:) but i'm happy with my purchase....had some trouble with some stupid mastercard verification "key" that i swear i have never made before yet i was supposed to know.....but after like 10 times trying to input my postal code and it denying it, it failed - but then my new egg order status said my card has been charged (step 3) so i guess it worked

L2 cache makes an enormous difference.

L2 cache makes an enormous difference.
but 2mb -> 4mb isn't an enormous difference

Legion Hardware (http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=605&p=5)

So basically in gaming (all i care about) it either made no difference, or a few fps (4 max).

:shrug: too late for me to change my order - and since i don't do encoding/video editing and the what not (what they say the 2 extra mb of cache actually effects) i don't really care....i'm still coming out with a beastly set up compared to this pos computer (pentium 4 2.54ghz, 1gb shitty ddr ram, 6800gt (agp))

edit: ok so you convinced me, and i realized i still had time to cancel order :) (thank you newegg) - canceled, and reordered everything the same except swapped in the 6420 :) Thanks tw for heads up before it was too late

Post a linky to your purchase setup (Newegg allows this, right?), sounds about what I am thinking I need. I budget gaming system, that I can play with digital photos with as well...

Newegg.com - APIDA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1682 0340029) (89.99)

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1682 2135106) (42.99)

Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P2-N635-AR GeForce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681 4130061) (219.99)

Newegg.com - EVGA 122-CK-NF66-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681 3188017) (109.99)

Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681 7139001) (129.99)

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681 9115016) (189.00)

Subtotal: 781.95


Everything else i already have to bring from my current computer (dvd rw/cd rw drives, 160gb sata hd, sound card)

Still don't know why you would want to spend that kind of money on a DX9 card and not spend a little more for DX10 8800.

Still don't know why you would want to spend that kind of money on a DX9 card and not spend a little more for DX10 8800.

Maybe because by the time Vista is actually worth running, a new gen of DX10 cards will be out and worth upgrading to?