Which motherboard??

[74 Laguna]

Since everyone reading this is doing it from a computer and many of you may have built your own, I have a question. I am wanting to build a new computer and will be using a AMD Athlon 64, 3500+ socket 939 processor and was just wanting to know what motherboard you would use for this? I have been looking at Abit, Asus and Gigabyte. Has anyone used one of these or any other brand for a processor like this? Should I invest in the newer SLI board? I will not be playing any games with computer.

Thanks

 

[keith]

I have the Asus A8V Deluxe and am very happy with it. It's not SLI, but I'm not a gamer and don't care about SLI. Processor is AMD 64 3000+ overclocked to 4000 speed, runs rock solid on air cooling. Two sticks of RAM for 1G total. 5 HD, four of them in two RAID arrays, DVD recorder, HDTV tuner card, 6600GT AGP, ...

This PC is the fastest I have owned. It never crashes, and if it did I'd get something else. I run web and ftp and P2P and streaming servers all day long. The PC has a top of the line Antec 550W power supply and is on a SmartUPS 1400. Good power seems to cure a lot of PC problems.

 

[74 Laguna]

I also have another question. AMD recommends using a thermal pad when installing the heat sink to the processor. How many use a thermal pad and not thermal paste?

 

[keith]

I always use paste. Many years ago I bought a big tube of Thermalcote and use that. (Thermalcote is an industrial thermally conductive paste). Any good paste should be fine, just keep it a thin layer.

 

[seotaji]

a thermal pad is WAY more efficient than paste the first time you use it.

the paste is good for someone who removes their processor a lot (replacing HSF and whatnot).

i reccomend the using a thermal pad, but it can only be used once.