New rig advice on chipsets, CPU, and motherboard?

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Whiplash73

I currently want to build a new systetm, that's a step up from my Athlon XP, WinXP system. It's been awhile since I have researched parts and what not, and found that there's a lot more Information out there to absorb.

I plan on going with a single video card, since I have Xbox, and really only play WoW, so I'm not needing SLI or anything.

After perusing Newegg for awhile, I'm finding that Asus seems to be having a lot of problems with their boards. I've used Asus boards in the past, but now I'm not sure which manufacturer to go with.

Could it be a problem with shipsets? Could it be that more relibable boards/chipsets are geared towards Intel, as opposed to AMD? I like AMD, since they're cheaper, and components are a little easier to match up, and it seems like Intel has waaaay too many CPUs to choose from.
Hearing that some chipsets are junk, I'm not sure what to do.

Any suggestions from anyone with experience with the new chipsets/MBs of what to stay away from would be helpful. I have enough experience to download the latest drivers, etc.

What I'm planning as the base....to Run Vista (obviously, but unwilllingly from what I have heard about it), video editing, media, the usual, and World of Warcrack
Dual or X3 Core CPU
MB
2-4 GB ram
Mid-range video card to run two monitors

Thanks for any help in advance. :)

PS: I do not plan to overclock
 
For starters, ASUS makes decent boards. People that give their mobos a low score usually have no idea what they're talking about, or they're expecting WAY too much from a $150 board. I have been using ASUS boards for awhile and I've never had any problems, always reliable when set up correctly. If you're looking to go with AMD, Abit and Gigabyte make a few good socket AM2 boards and so does ASUS. I'm not much of an AMD guru any more so I don't know a whole lot about their newer processors... other than they are cheaper than most of Intel's current line. For RAM, I would recommend Corsair, Crucial, OCZ, or G-Skill sticks. Most DDR2 memory is still pretty cheap. As for the video card, any mid-range to enthusiast ATi or nVidia card that has come out within the last year or so would probably be fine. Which graphics corp do you plan on using?
 
Intel provides an upgrade path that allows you to upgrade to very powerful CPUs that have no match from AMD. I'd advise going with an Intel chipset motherboard, preferably a Gigabyte motherboard with the G31 or a P35\P45 chipset. The GA-EP45-DS3L and GA-G31M-S2L are excellent motherboards that fit this description, among others.

As for a CPU, the Intel Pentium Dual-Core E21xx series line is excellent, and the E2180 is my personal recommendation.

For a video card, go with an HD 3650. It's a decent card, will play most games well and allows for a dual-monitor setup much more easily than with an NVIDIA card. I say this from experience though, so if others know otherwise, please do add your wisdom to the mix. :)
 
I forgot to mention that the second monitor is just an el-cheapo LCD from Officemax. As long as I get an SVGA port along with the digital port, I'm set. I guess I'm partial to nVidia graphics. Since I'm only going with one card, I can research that. The current card I have is an AGP card, so it won;t work in a new MB.

I just looked at a couple Intel processors, and there repeated complaints of temp readings being false, and dead chips outta the box. Didn't see any of that with the AMD chips. Guess I'll stick with AMD.

I did see some MBs with integrated graphics and sound, but that to me can take away from reliabilty of other aspects of the board.

Guess I'll have to research some more.
 
You can easily upgrade from AGP graphics without breaking the bank, if that's something you want to do. To run any of the newer AMD processors you will need a newer board anyways and motherboard manufacturers don't use AGP slots anymore so you'll be forced to upgrade. Onboard graphics is a joke, you need a dedicated graphics adapter in order to make the upgrade worth it. Integrated sound is alright if you don't mind very little features and control. Any dedicated add-in card is going to provide more functionality and performance.
 
Looking at this setup so far.....

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2
ASUS M3A AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb (Raid 1)
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit

The option for SLI will be there in case I decide to go with an additional video card.

Still looking into video card and case. I thought about getting the triple core, since it would still be in my budget.....just not sure how an OS would handle the cores.
I'm going to use my two existing LCD monitors...viewsonic as the main, and an Acer cheapy.

My question is this.....I've heard a lot of people move back to WinXP as opposed to Vista. Just wondering how this setup would perform with the 32 bit XP OS. Any advice? I've seen there is a 64-bit edition of XP, but is it reliable?
 
I agree with Rage, intel is probably better but with a low end build like this, it doesn't matter as much.

What was your budget? i can't find it anywere, but i think the 8800gt is cheep and cannot be beat in price / performance.

Nothing BAD will happen with 2x2 gigs of ram on XP - 32bit but you won't be able to use as much ram. I think XP - 64bit has much less supported apps and programs.
 
I've had good luck with AMD, and Asus.

So should I just get a cope of Vista-64bit? Will there be a problem with 32 bit drivers for some of the older stuff I have?

The 8800GT....I'll check it out. =)
 
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