[TOOLS] Motherboard and CPU

[Bryan Sherman]

Sounds like you have a good start. Tom's Hardware is a great resource, just
don't get seduced into getting the absolute best, look at the cost/benefit
ratio. Some tips:

1. Check the support sites for the products you are considering. If you can
find a support forum that can be an awesome way to scout out the product
before purchase.

2. Look to expandability. I recently bought a barebones ASUS setup. It can
support up to a Core 2 Duo. I don't need to spend the cash for that now, but
I can latter.

3. Avoid bleeding age. I actually put a 3 ghz celeron in it. More than
enough for my current needs, and $60 instead of over $200.

4. Check out how you can redeploy exisiting components. I had a nice 120 GB
hard drive. The board suports ESATA, but also has an IDE adaptor I could use
my existing hard drive, but am not locked out of the future with the ESATA
drives.

5. Don't fear built-ins. I can remember avoiding the built in Video Cards.
For most uses the built in video features are more than enough. This system
is for a Sharepoint server, I could care less about video performance.
Obviously if I was doing video editing on it, whole 'nother ball of wax.

6. Have fun. What can I say, I am an unrepentant geek. That combined with
being a cheapskate who is concerned about quality makes me a good fit for
these projects... :-)

You may want to chack out Newegg.com. They have good prices, and the
customer reviews are helpful as well.

Good luck.


On 2/27/07, Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan at safenet-inc.com> wrote:
>
> So, for example, between Intel and AMD, there are various approaches to
> 64-bit processors, multi-processor, multi-core,
> multi-core-multi-processor... egad.
> Motherboards tend to support just one flavor (possibly family) of memory,
> but (from my reading so far) it seems that a given processor might mate
> satisfactorily with several motherboards (socket-this, socket-that,
> socket-the-other) that support very different memory variants.
>
> <snip>


For what it's worth, I've been to some distributor sites (like TigerDirect,
> and followed links to vendor sites, and read reviews on Tom's Hardware and
> other sites, but it all feels like gobs of info with not much perspective.
> I'd really hate to misunderstand the implications and buy a crippled
> variant
> (remember the old Intel Celery... er Celeron), or get a bleedin'-edge
> thing
> that would never have Linux drivers.
>
> So you with perspective, and recent experience, speak up!    :-)
> Talk to me off-line if you figure other techwriters wouldn't be
> interested.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kevin in Ottawa, Canada
>
>