Need A Cheap AM2 Board

[apt403]

Im going to take a 4ft tall plastic snowman and turn it into a case. To save cash the pc housed within the plastic man is going to be AMD based, problem is, I know nothing about AMD boards. I need an AM2 mobo with integrated gfx, eventually im going to get a real video card, but not for a while. oc'ing ability would be nice, but not essential, since im going to be using the stock hsf. The cpu im going to use with this board is the 3600+ Brisbane.

It would be nice if I could get a board for about $50. But if thats completely unreasonable what about $70-80?

 

[SEALBoy]

Got these two:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138041

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138029

Their in your price range, have PCI-E and integrated graphics (as far as I know, nForce 5x0 chipsets don't have IGP), and come with 4 DIMM slots. One's cheaper with rebate, the other without. In addition, according to the Sanji guide floating around in the Forumz, the second one is a decent overclocker - something that should proabbly hold true for the first as well, considering how similar they are.

PS: I personally have an ECS C51GM-M (Newegg had those, can't find them now) - it's a decent board, with PCI-E and IGP. Forget about overclocking though. However, it'll be cheaper than the others (~$50).

 

[apt403]

Thanks. The 2nd one seems a little better then the 1st, slightly cheaper, and its an m-atx mobo, so I wont have to cut as big a hole in my "case".

This is the thing im using btw, by April I should have everything ready to go.

It already has several holes that are perfect for fans. One under the thing where im going to put a 140mm fan for exhaust (250mm isnt going to fit) after I get some case feet and one on the back where a 70mm fan is going. There's going to be a single intake fan, on the very top on his hat, im going to use a 120mm fan with red LED's. Just need to figure out how to cut the material without destroying it...

 

[nvalhalla]

Might I suggest doing the exact opposite? Hot air rises. Intake on bottom, exhaust on top.

 

[nvalhalla]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135039

$50 board, onboard graphics

it's bundled with the 3600 retail for $128.99

 

[apt403]

Ive been thinking about that, the main problem with an intake fan on the bottom is that I would be sucking up alot of dust and lint and crap from my floor. this thing cant go on my desk because of its height. I guess I could use a dust filter thing, but that wouldnt catch everything. If I just covered the bottom hole and put the psu there I could have the main intake fan on the side of the case.

Oh, I could just put the case on a sheet of metal or wood, that would pretty much take care of the dust problem.

 

[apt403]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135039

$50 board, onboard graphics

it's bundled with the 3600 retail for $128.99

Damn, that would help my budget alot, but I dont have the cash right now. Im planning to buy mid-late April, early May. I guess I could take advantage of that combo if I used the cash that I had reserved for the gfx card for the pc in my sig...

 

[adnoto]

Damn, that would help my budget alot, but I dont have the cash right now. Im planning to buy mid-late April, early May.

Is this project strictly for fun? In other words you really don't care about the board in terms of features or upgrading at some point? If so then yeah go cheap. But I have two thoughts for you. First if you just want to go cheap but aren't going to build for nearly another month why not just note some cheap boards and wait a few weeks. They are bound to go down in price. Also, the way AMD has been slashing prices on their CPU's you know those are probably going to be cheaper by the time you are ready to build.

Second, you might want to wait for the new chipsets to come out. The new 690G (AMD/ATI Radeon Xpress 1250) and the Nvidia MCP68 (7050-430) are both going to support HDMI and are supposed to be at least marginally better IGP's. The 690G is already out (1 board so far) with more coming out soon and the MCP68 is supposedly going to be available mid to late April.

Here is an Asus board that is already available and here is a Sapphire board. The Asus board doesn't actually have an HDMI port (DVI+D-Sub) but it is a cheaper model than what will be available soon.

As for the Nvidia chipset boards - my guess is that the Abit AN-M2HD is going to really be nice. I am waiting on that one myself.

The newer boards are going to be more expensive and carry some bugs at first but if you ever want to end up using it for an HTPC they might be worth considering. Hell I think it would be cool to have your snowman pump out some HD content. Anyway, just a thought. Good luck with your project.

 

[apt403]

Well, it is mainly for fun, but I do still care about upgrading, dont want to have a complete dead end config in the plastic man of snow. That Asus board looks pretty good though, Ive always liked Asus and perfered ATI over Nvidia. That Sapphire board would be perfect for me, since its white, but still kinda expensive. I wonder how much it'll be in a month or two?

As I said before, im not ordering the main components for a couple months, so I still have a bunch of time to think. This month im just going to get the fans, the optical drive, and maybe the psu. I still have to buy a replacment gfx card for my main pc after all.

 

[adnoto]

Ive always liked Asus and perfered ATI over Nvidia...

As I said before, im not ordering the main components for a couple months, so I still have a bunch of time to think.

Yep, obviously always good to do your research and choose accordingly. For what it's worth and to help you get a better handle on the actual IGP capabilities wrt the 690G chipset, here is a 690G vs. Nvidia 6150 and Intel P965 article. Again good luck with your project. Post something about it with some build pics when you get the chance. I, for one, would be curious to see Frosty do his thing.