Roundup: Six Core 2 Motherboards Under $100

[Crashman]

As Intel’s Core i7 architecture starts moving down from the high-end, value seekers can build high-performance LGA775 systems cheaply. Low-cost motherboards compete for the value crown with added features, performance, and overclocking capability.

Roundup: Six Core 2 Motherboards Under $100 : Read more

 

[V3NOM]

interesting, although pretty much anyone building a P775 system these days would spend a bit more than $100... and somethings really weird with this commenting thing cos i can't read what i'm typing... it just ... doesnt fill the box? just when i type something it instantly goes to the left instead of filling the box... but anyway, interesting if a bit useless article.

 

[cangelini]

FWIW, the issue with text disappearing from the commenting box as you're typing is something I've reported and m waiting for a fix still. Thanks for confirming that it's still an issue.

 

[rjcorrin]

Yes - everyone has money shooting out of their pantless ass to buy more expensive motherboards. I use a gigabyte Ep35 DS3L and am very happy with it. What is a >$100 board going to give me? Is it just that you want to waste money? I'm guessing you are one of those people who carry a balance on your credit card and lease a Lexus - you debt-carrying phag.

 

[jsc]

"What is a >$100 board going to give me?

I have a DS3P becuae i need the exrta SATA ports.

 

[Guest]

I run the I.T. department for a couple small businesses, and the sub $100 motherboard is almost essential in today's economy. Sure I could use a $120-$150 motherboard, DDR3, 10000 RPM hard drive, and all kinds of other things, but I would end up with a system that is only marginal faster in business applications for 3+ times the price. Take one of the G3x or G4x motherboards, 2GB DDR2, Intel E7x00 CPU and 80GB+ HDD and you have a system that will meet the needs of a good majority of businesses and home users. I am personally a gamer and can see the value in the higher end components; but there are a lot of other market segments out there where this makes financial sense.

 

[rjcorrin]

"I have a DS3P becuae i need the exrta SATA ports."
The DS3L has 4 Sata ports which could easily handle 3 terabytes and a DVD drive. You could have saved money by editing down your porn collection and deleting your stolen .iso's of the entire "Friday the 13th" collection. Then you would have had enough space to install "Mavis Beacon Teaches Touch Typing". That would give you something else to do with your hands during your "adult film" marathons.
Did you happen to notice that the comment box detects your errors and underlines them in red?

 

[rjcorrin]

"I have a DS3P becuae i need the exrta SATA ports."
The DS3L has 4 Sata ports which could easily handle 3 terabytes and a DVD drive. You could have saved money by editing down your porn collection and deleting your stolen .iso's of the entire "Friday the 13th" collection. Then you would have had enough space to install "Mavis Beacon Teaches Touch Typing". That would give you something else to do with your hands during your "adult film" marathons.
Did you happen to notice that the comment box detects your errors and underlines them in red?

 

[gaiden2k7]

I got a Gigabyte UD3P for $99 during black friday... would that top this list?

 

[Noya]

I got a Gigabyte UD3P for $84.50 during Black Friday, pwned you ninja gaiden dearest comrade.

 

[malveaux]

Wait, no AMD stuff?

 

[gwolfman]

lol @ rjcorrin's 1st comment.

In reply: Maybe he already had HDDs laying around of smaller size and thought it best to save money by spending a few more dollars on more SATA ports than hundreds on new 3 x 1TB HDDs. You're reasoning is asinine and self contradicting.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]rjcorrin[/nom]Did you happen to notice that the comment box detects your errors and underlines them in red?[/citation]
Did you happen to notice you're using Firefox? It, not this comment box, does that.

[citation][nom]rjcorrin[/nom]"I have a DS3P becuae i need the exrta SATA ports."The DS3L has 4 Sata ports which could easily handle 3 terabytes and a DVD drive. You could have saved money by editing down your porn collection and deleting your stolen .iso's of the entire "Friday the 13th" collection.[/citation]
And what about Raid? And all the PC's I've had in this Millennium have had 2 Removable Disk drives.

Not to mention I have multiple OSes installed, and an extra drive I use for storage (I reformat often). So I have plenty of drives.

 

[gwolfman]

Ummm, maybe I missed it but I didn't see anywhere that said what video/graphics card was used in these test. Anyone!?! I'm curious because of the power consumption numbers. Thanks.

 

[cambion]

Attention to detail alert... The MSI Neo3-f has eight SATA ports not, as the article claims, six.

 

[rjcorrin]

[citation][nom]gwolfman[/nom]lol @ rjcorrin's 1st comment.In reply: Maybe he already had HDDs laying around of smaller size and thought it best to save money by spending a few more dollars on more SATA ports than hundreds on new 3 x 1TB HDDs. You're reasoning is asinine and self contradicting.[/citation]

I am suggesting he can reduce the bytes of crap he is retaining by legalizing his content. For all I know, he already has 8 terabyte SATA drives.
Seriously, running all 8 SATA ports is going to take a massive case and an equally massive power supply. This dude doesn't need more SATA ports, he needs a data center.

 

[rjcorrin]

[citation][nom]cambion[/nom]Attention to detail alert... The MSI Neo3-f has eight SATA ports not, as the article claims, six.[/citation]

This is the exact number of ports on the DS3P. So, again, what does a >$100 board going to give me?

 

[tmc]

Though this does give you an what our Taiwan & Chinese friends have in the goodie bin at the local computer store.. you will still want to wait to bu

 

[tmc]

[citation][nom]tmc[/nom]Though this does give you an what our Taiwan & Chinese friends have in the goodie bin at the local computer store.. you will still want to wait to bu[/citation]
Ugh, got cut off..
Wait to build your system until Q1, Q2 processor price cuts of 2009.. especially if you have your heart set on $ inTEL $ 775 vs amd.

 

[rjcorrin]

[citation][nom]Tindytim[/nom]Did you happen to notice you're using Firefox? It, not this comment box, does that.And what about Raid? And all the PC's I've had in this Millennium have had 2 Removable Disk drives.Not to mention I have multiple OSes installed, and an extra drive I use for storage (I reformat often). So I have plenty of drives.[/citation]

/Sarcasm
Maybe I should load up a few more OSes, Opera, IE (6 & 7) and Chrome to fully analyze the capabilities of this text box. I should probably hook up a raid array (mode 0+1 anyone?) to maximize my system performance and maintain the integrity of my porn collection prior to starting my full analysis of this text box.
/sarcasm
Do you get any real work done on that computer of yours? Seems like you're spending all your time loading operating systems, plugging in drives, reformatting, and flipping between your extensive collection of linux derivatives. Get a life dude!! You are a hacker-poser!

And...
Merry Christmas to EVERYONE!! (even the Jews)

 

[orangedrink]

Merry Christmas

 

[kamkal]

wow a lot of yelling over motherboards

i paid canadian $160 in jan 08 for my asus p5k-e/wifi p35 based mobo
i personally do not see the point of getting like a 300$ mobo when something half the price will do what you want it to do, hell that 160 is the most ive ever paid for a board lol

as long as the "budget" board doesnt have some sort of glaring issues i say save your money and put it into another component like gfx card or more memory

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]rjcorrin[/nom]Do you get any real work done on that computer of yours? Seems like you're spending all your time loading operating systems, plugging in drives, reformatting, and flipping between your extensive collection of linux derivatives.[/citation]
Aren't you clever, cause everyone knows you have to unplug the SATA cable for a drive when you're finished using it./sarcasm

I have slip streamed Discs for XP, XP x64, and Vista x64, so a reformat take about an hour tops, and I reformat once every few months. I only have one Linux Distro consisitently on my system, and that's Ubuntu. But other than that, that's it for Linux.

I use Ubuntu for 2D/3D work, coding, and general use, and I run Windows for gaming, and a little coding.

[citation][nom]rjcorrin[/nom]Get a life dude!! You are a hacker-poser![/citation]
....?

Are you insulting me for being a tech enthusiast on a tech enthusiast site? I don't remember mentioning anything about hacking, so why don't you go pretend to know someone else. Or better yet, grow up, and maybe next time when some logically hands your ass to you, you won't have to throw a fit and vilify them.

 

[JonnyDough]

I think I'll wait to upgrade from my Athlon X2 (939) boards until USB 3.0 comes out. Why bother going Core 2 Duo? There aren't any games that require such power really, maybe a couple. For everything else I use my PC for, there just really isn't a need to upgrade yet. A hopefully MUCH slimmer and more easily customizable Windows 7 (I hope they make a "game mode") USB 3.0, and better PhysX support, etc...THESE are reasons to upgrade.

Of course, PhysX could be over-rated...and AMD is cutting cost and power consumption of video cards. Then too, I could always get an add-on card for USB 3.0, although that of course uses up one of my PCI slots.

 

[onearmedscissorb]

[citation][nom]jonnydough[/nom]I think I'll wait to upgrade from my Athlon X2 (939) boards until USB 3.0 comes out. Why bother going Core 2 Duo? There aren't any games that require such power really, maybe a couple.[/citation]

You have quite a point, but I think it falls on deaf ears. There will always be "faster" components, but it reached a point of diminishing returns a good while back. A faster computer is no longer just plain faster.

On top of USB 3.0, there will also be PCIe 3 and whatever they call SATA III. Those things will all become much more important than a new type of CPU with improved SSDs and all the new uses being developed for GPUs on the way.