Hey all.. I am building a new machine, but am unsure what brand of ATX mobo to go with. I normally go with Asus or a larger company to insure support and bios/driver upgrades. Looking to spend around $100 for it. Am not sure which platform I'm going for yet.. Both AMD and intel have jacked around their product naming system, so its confusing which is better. Looking at getting i3 system. My budget for this machine is around $550. Any suggestions on what board to get? Thanks!
For that price range, you probably want to go with an AMD Phenom II X4. Better performance for the price. Intel makes some really beast processors, but they are significantly more expensive (especially if you have to buy DDR3 memory). I personally have an i7 975, so I'm not some AMD fanboy. Check out these processors: Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,CPUs / Processors,Processors - Desktops,Phenom II X4 I know several people who have used this line of processors, all positive reviews from everyone. Benchmarks will show those AMDs are faster than the i3s. As far as motherboards are concerned, I normally just read the NewEgg reviews on all of them and pick which seems the best overall.