Hellow I was wondering if somebody would be able to give me a suggestion on what I should do. I'm planning on building a custom PC, but I unfortunatly have a rather limited budget. I'm trying to find a low cost but decent quality motherboard, but I would like to have your opinions on the following brands: PcChips (lowest price about $87 CAD) Biostar (lowest price about $89 CAD) Gigabyte (lowest price about $210 CAD) Mach Speed (lowest price about $89 CAD) MSI (lowest price about $106 CAD) The Gigabyte mobo is just cutting what I'm willing to pay, so I'm hoping I could get something cheaper that should perform decently. Any input on these brands would be greatly appreciated! Daniel

Scratch PCChips off your list immediately. Biostar has been putting out some decent boards lately, especially their TForce series. Gigabyte is a well know brand. I believe Mach Speed is actually Jetway...probably best to avoid them. MSI is another well known brand. It would help if you told us your CPU preference (AMD or Intel) & what other parts, if any, that you already have. Newer boards require different RAM & video cards than just a year or two ago, plus the power supply requirements have changed.

It would help if you also told us what CPU you are thinking of using or the specific motherboards you were looking at. Of those brands MSI and Gigabyte are the only decent ones. Mattwizz3 : ) Sempron 2600+ @ 2.2GHz 1Gb DDR400 Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe 200GB SATA 2X 80Gb IDE 256Mb MSI 6800 Ultra

Heh, jam beat me to it. Sempron 2600+ @ 2.2GHz 1Gb DDR400 Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe 200GB SATA 2X 80Gb IDE 256Mb MSI 6800 Ultra

Alright, well, I'm not completely sure of what CPU I would like, as I'm not sure what the differences are, other than clock speed. The AMDs all have lower clock speeds than most Intels, but from what I understand they perform as good, often better. Would anyone be able to help me with this as well?

Hello, I've been very happy with the motherbards Biostar produces. Jetway is another very good board and so is MSI, their support is better than most. My recommendations are based on experience not through advertising hype. Most all new boards will perform well since most are made under the umbrella of one company. There are always differences in motherboards. I never found one that 'does it all'. All of them have features that others don't.

You can't judge a CPU by clock speed alone anymore. AMD CPUs have used a "performance rating" system for some time now. For example, an A64 3200+ (2.0GHz) performs as well as, if not better than a P4 3.2GHz. The difference in AMD architecture made them more efficient. Intel has totally revamped their CPU architecture for the new Core 2 Duo. The E6600 Conroe (2.4GHz) beats just about anything that AMD currently has to offer & clobbers the P4 3.8GHz Prescott. http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.h... 1st decide on the CPU, then the motherboard...then you can pick the RAM, video card, & power supply.