Which motherboard is best?

[fasteddie]

Hi folks, first time poster in this forum.

I've come to the crossroads of digital darkroom processing and must decide what PC motherboard/cpu are going to best serve me in the future. This new system will be used exclusively for Photo Editing (no gaming). I'm planning on upgrading to Windows Vista 64/PS4 and I'll need a faster, more powerful PC system that allows me expandable RAM (minimum 8 gigs but expandable up to 32 gigs). I'll also be using a dual monitor system so I'll need a motherboard that supports two video cards. What would you recommend I get?

Thanks in advance!.
Ed

[Take12]

Originally Posted by fasteddie

exclusively for Photo Editing (no gaming). [...] What would you recommend I get?

A Mac of course!

[fasteddie]

Originally Posted by Take12

A Mac of course!

No budget for that.

[Songman45]

It may be only me, but I dislike all the "resident" hardware on the motherboard, a trend that seems to have the monopoly. If you depend on the sound and video cards built on the board and you loose one element you stand the chance of loosing it all. I still like the idea of slots and cards. Maybe I'm old.

[cadmium]

I don't know of too many motherboards that support dual monitors. They may exists, but you are limiting yourself. You can pick up a video card that has dual dvi out for cheap. Since you don't need it for gaming, it won't cost very much.

Back to the motherboard, first pick which processor you want and go from there. That will be the most expensive part anyway.

Core 2 duo's are still pretty hot and coming down in price. Depending on your budget, the new Core i7's are nice. If you are on a very tight budget, AMD Athlon X2's are still a good value on the low end.

[fasteddie]

I have a core 2 now. I'm thinking of quad core. What can you tell me about i7?

[peterst6906]

Originally Posted by fasteddie

I have a core 2 now. I'm thinking of quad core. What can you tell me about i7?

Beagleman,

The January 2009 issue of PC Pro (UK mag), issue 171 has a review of the i7, running it on an Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard (which will be released soon).

The test smashed all their benchmarks and any other processor they've tested before, though I think with the i7 now out, it won't be long before there are a number of really good boards to couple it with (the Asus looks good though). You can see part of the review on their website here:

PC Pro: Product Reviews: Intel Core i7

I'll be building a new desktop with an i7-965 in the new year (just collecting the components at the moment).

The main issue with the i7 at the moment seems to be the cost and there are still some very good performing dual core processors available at much better prices.

On Ebay over the last few days I've seen good prices on the i7 from reputable ebay sellers and that might be an attractive route to take.

Regards,

Peter

[fasteddie]

Take a look at this link from the Intel website
Intel Product Comparison Chart
What I find most confusing is that there are so many PC processors options available. How does one decide which is best? There are 8 "core 2 quads" to choose from. There are 15 "core 2 duos" and 5 "dual cores" to choose from. Plus i7 extreme and i7 standard.
My present PC has core 2 duo and I'm running Windows XP and I can tell you it's slow as molasses. I obviously need to upgrade, but to what?

[matthewlrigdon]

Originally Posted by fasteddie

What I find most confusing is that there are so many PC processors options available. How does one decide which is best? There are 8 "core 2 quads" to choose from. There are 15 "core 2 duos" and 5 "dual cores" to choose from. Plus i7 extreme and i7 standard.
My present PC has core 2 duo and I'm running Windows XP and I can tell you it's slow as molasses. I obviously need to upgrade, but to what?

There's a reason that companies add a surcharge for going through all this crap and figuring out what to put in a case. I know everybody and his dog thinks he can build a computer, but if you want to do more than surf the web, it's a little harder than shoving parts in a case.

Back when I was still putting systems together, I pretty much stuck with ASUS for motherboards. They have a quality product and I never had any real problems with any of their boards. Intel, as the big daddy, makes good product, but they don't offer as many tweaks as ASUS does (overclocking, special features, etc.)

I'm thinking, though, that you're problem isn't so much the system you have now, but Windows. I'd recommend wiping the system out and reinstalling everything from scratch to make sure you haven't installed a bunch of crap that gummed things up. And if it buys back performance, remember to be vigilant about NOT downloading everything that comes across your nose. Windows machines can run very well, but you have to be very careful what you install.

As for new systems, cost becomes a factor in all those different processors. How much can you spend? How much do you want to spend on memory? There are at least three(?) different memory clock speeds for the various flavors of Core 2. The faster the clock, the more expensive the memory. But the additional cost may not be worth the performance boost. The different lines of Core 2 also have different amounts of cache memory inside, another factor in performance. An older chip may have more cache, but a slower memory interface, however it may be considerably cheaper.

If you plan on doing upgrades to this system on a regular basis, pick up an i7, as they have a new pin count and you won't be able to upgrade a Core 2 to i7 ever. You could buy a cheap Core 2 now, but the only upgrade paths are what you're looking at right now. Obviously the chips get cheaper as time goes on.

If you're never going to upgrade your own system, why are putting yourself through the hassle of building it yourself? My personal advice is that it isn't worth it unless you're willing to devote a fair portion of your life to keeping up with the technology.