AMD board.

[G_Pooba]

OK i know INTEL is on top atm. But AMD chips are coming down in price and who knows what 2007 will bring for the AM2 socket. I would like to know your guys option on the best AMD am2 board, i am looking for a NON SLI/Crossfire. And How much does the mainboard affect proformance ? Besides stablitiy, i would never get a cheap no name board. I have had very good luck with asus and even gigabyte. Anyhow, just thought i would see if AMD could get some love in this post :p

[rabb1t]

I would like to know your guys option on the best AMD am2 board, i am looking for a NON SLI/Crossfire.

Well, the "best" in terms of tech will be a dual GPU board. So you'd probably need to clarify "best".

For SLI, I'd say the Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131013) @ $140 is the "best" mainstream board.

If you really, for whatever odd reason, want to ignore dual PCIe x16 boards, I'd say that the Asus M2N-E (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131022) @ $93 is probably a very good bet.

But if you really want to talk "best" in terms of features and such, you need something with a 590 chipset. Asus (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131011) has one at $190

And How much does the mainboard affect proformance ?

I'd say, every part that is not your CPU/GPU is about 5% per part. (Which I guess just basically leaves MB, Ram and Sound Card, heh.)

It isn't so much about the difference between performance levels (at factory settings) as it is features and overclockability.

[Fozzik]

A motherboard isn't so much going to help performance...but it can certainly HURT performance if you aren't careful. Basically, the motherboard is the facilitator... it makes all your performance and future upgrades possible. You want to try and get a board that isn't going to hold your other components back (or hold them back as little as possible). You also want the board that provides all the functionality you need, like expansion slots, inputs/outputs, etc.

My question is similar to what rabb1t said... why would you not want a dual PCI-Express X16 board? That's like saying you want to try and find the one car that doesn't come with anti-lock brakes, when 90% of them come with it standard. Even if you never run dual graphics cards, there are plenty of other things that could potentially go in an X16 PCI-e slot.

[G_Pooba]

I just really think i would never use SLI or Crossfire. When the time comes to upgrade my graphics, i would just buy the newest single card.. plus in my mind, could be a pain to find another card with that same chipest down the road. Also to much power and noise and heat involved in 2 video cards, and not worth the reward in my world anyhow :D . I knows its a strange dark place.:pirate:

[Fozzik]

I just really think i would never use SLI or Crossfire. When the time comes to upgrade my graphics, i would just buy the newest single card.. plus in my mind, could be a pain to find another card with that same chipest down the road. Also to much power and noise and heat involved in 2 video cards, and not worth the reward in my world anyhow :D . I knows its a strange dark place.:pirate:

Actually, I pretty much feel the exact same way, for a lot of reasons. Yet...I have a motherboard with two PCI-e X16 slots.

Of course you don't NEED it...but it might come in handy and there is certainly no reason to rule out boards with the two slots just because you probably won't use them for graphics. :)

Give yourself the widest selection (and best possible prospects for potential upgrades) and I think you'll end up the most happy.

[G_Pooba]

Very True, But for myself i would never get a SLI board for the reason of.... my wife. She and i have to have the exact same computer build, and it gets really reallly expensive when buying 4 graphic cards.. and saving 100 bucks on 2 non-SLI boards(MB) is alot of money. If i just had to upgrade one machine, i would really think hard about the SLI. because its only like 50 bucks! =D

[Fozzik]

There are boards with two X16 slots that are just as cheap as those without. That's sort of the whole premise of our arguement. You're leaving out a bunch of motherboards that are probably in your price range simply because they have an extra slot.