Hi all I'm building a gaming computer and this is what I have so far P4 3.2ghz 1mg L2 cash with 800fsb 1gig PC3200 400mhz DDR Ram Sound Blaster Autagy 2 ZS Gamer 120 gig maxtor 7200rpm Harddrive Gforce fx 5200 256mg video card case with 400w power supply Win Xp Pro Now I need to choose a motherboard and I need some help. I need one that fits the stuff listed but has room to upgrade. I was looking for 4gig ram max and on board lan I dont really like MSI. Anyone have any ideas on what I should get? What has worked for you guys? Brian

If I had an opportunity to build my system all over again, you know what I'd wish i had spent a little bit more money on? A better Vid-Card, and mobo! First thing first for games, so a Fx 5200 256 is not gonna cut it, there is no game that reguires 256 megs of vid-ram, with the exception of Doom 3. 256mb only comes into play when your running at super high resolutions, that being said that 5200fx aint gonna run any modern game pass 1024x768. What you wanna look for in a VGP is the core and ram clock speed, interface (ex. AGPx8), and memory interface 256bit (not memory size). Oh and another area not to over look is your power supply, it takes a high quality PSU to run top notch components, an aspect most people skimp out on. never get a Computer case that provides the PSU, any builder will tell you that. Get a Brand name PSU with high quality capcitators, and make sure that its very heavy! Things to look for in a mobo, dual channel, socket 478 or socket T, Chipsets, if your going with 478, I recommend i875p or the i865pe, the former being a litte faster then the latter.

I'm not an Intel guy so I can't give any advice as to the best board, but I agree with Galileo - dump the FX5200 Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @ 8 x 210MHz 512MB PC3200 Asus Ti4200 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro

heres my 2 pennys if you want a gaming computer gat a athlon 64 socket 939 because u can upgrade procesors real soon for cheap MSI k8n neo2 with the nforce3 chipset provids more gaming hores power or asus a8v delux rev.2 with the via chipset bowth great overclockers athlon 64s are going down in price so if you get a 3000+ now you can upgrade in a year or so and still have muscle because amd wants to stick with s939 dich the fx 5200 crap crap crap geforce 6600gt or ultra agp are going down in price so in a couple of months you can get a 6800ultra for cheap or x800xt(better) Athlon 64 3200+ MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINEM ATI X800PRO 1024 PC 3200 RAM AUDIGY 2ZS 80GB 7,200 RPM MAXTOR HD 52X LG CD BURNER DRIVE 12X LG SUPER COMBO DRIVE 350W PINE DUEL FAN PSU

Thanks for your imput guys. I wish I had known about the vid card before I bought it. I just dont have alot of money left. I was told that this card would be good for a couple of years so I bought it five months ago for $130. Its an improvement over my old one a gforce 2 32mg. I need a motherboard around $50-$60 max. So thing that I can add to later. I chose Intel because I dont know much about AMDs. I heard its like a choise between Ford and Chevie, I have never owned an amd so.... I think with my price range I'm going to have to go with a 3 pci port 2 gig max mobo. thx alot Brian

Heres my 2 cents as well. What is everyone's obsession with getting $200+ sound cards? My motherboard comes with 8 channel sound and the majority of new motherboards come with at least 5.1 channel sound which does fine with gaming, movie and music playback. So my oppinion is, unless your a professional DJ running it off your home PC, forget the sound card, invest part of that money into a better motherboard and the rest into the GFX card. Especially since you already said it's a gaming computer. BTW just to back this up the only sound card i have EVER bought was for my old pentium III and it was $30 AU, and that was just to get 5.1 channel, which the motherboard didn't have. for example, my old pentium 4 2.66 motherboard, GA-8s648FX, which is pretty much a budget board had 5.1 ch surround and worked absolutely flawlessly. Im not trying to burn you but you would be better spending that money on a decent GFX card then on an unnecessary sound card. Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 Athlon 64 3500+ Dual - Corsair TwinX CMX512-3200XL Gecube X800 XT Platinum Seagate 200 Gig Coolermaster Wavemaster Silver

Since you've already sailed down the Intel river, don't skimp out now. Do NOT get a mobo with a chipset other than something of an Intel variety. Intel chipsets really allow the P4's to shine. Unfortunately, this means you're probably not gonna get off light on the bill. Don't spend only $50-60 on a motherboard. You can do that with AMD often times, but with Intel, that's gonna ensure you getting a crappy motherboard. Other things to look out for... Watch out for the newest Intel boards that use DDR2. DDR2 is good, but since you already bought regular DDR, that would be bad. ;-) Those boards are also typically coming with PCI-e slots instead of AGP - again bad in your situation since you already bought an AGP card...which you'll be replacing probably within six months if you're playing more complex games. I can't tell from what you listed which Intel CPU you got. Is it Socket 478 or LGA775? I'm hoping Socket 478... http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-174&depa=1 That's the least expensive motherboard with one of the good Intel chipsets without me scouring the net. "...but in my defense, it was dark, I was drunk, and it was delicious!"