Yup, that was my choice, 1mb cache are hard to come by though

1024mb of RAM is a strong suggestion

Yea, 64-bit OS and chip will offer a good performance boost on the next iteration of any OS. 32-bit XP runs a little better or a little slower on AMD64s depending on where you read. The problem with Longhorn and XP, is that they were designed for 32 bit chips, meaning the true performance gain will not come until the next generation OS that is fully 64bit designed. Of course that will not arrive for probably 7 years or more.



I am guessing you are meaning AMD since all Intel PCI-E boards are 32bit.

If you wait too long into next year, the next gen SATA drives and boards will be coming coming out at 300Mbit. You will probably want them too.

Yeah, I knew about this already.
I don't know...I'm considering just waiting in general now.
I mean, how many games do I have that need more than the AGP 4X and ATI Radeon 9600XT I have? None. I can play HL2 @ 1024X768 without any problem. I don't even game that much.

But what I DO do a lot of is re-encode video, and that will only be helped by getting SATA drives, SATA motherboard, more RAM, and a faster chip.

I might forget the high intensity graphics and go for a Encoding machine. I don't game that much anyway.

I don't know. You make a good argument though.

Rome: Total War on full settings. Don't stand a chance when invading rome

I was wrong about PCI-E, not the two sizes, but the PCI compatability. I think you must need an adapter.. I was just browsing for motherboards, and here's one I'm considering getting

http://www.epox.org/cms/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=41

Has pretty much everything that's new, PCI-E for gfx, then 3 for nice devices, and 3 pci. Very nice gigabit ethernet w/ Hardware firewall. IDE support and SATA2 support

hmmm although I'd prefer one with two LAN slots, I don't know if this does... all other EPOX do which is odd.

That board has an interesting layout. The top PCI card is all but useless, and I dont know what you can do with the 1X PCI-E slots yet. Why they didnt put the 1X PCI-e underneath the 16X I dont understand.

But, what do you need with 3 PCI-E & 3 PCI slots anyway? One for a tvcard and maybe one for an extra lan slot like you want. Need one for a soundcard also, that is just about all I can think of anyone normal might need. The tv & extra lan card is a stretch, but no one ever said you were normal .

The ram and cpu placement could hurt your placement of internal accesories also unless you have a wide case to use it in, mine is very narrow, very cheap also

Actually there's loads of cards and addons that can fit with the pci slot, lets put it this way. I have 5 PCI cards in this machine, and 4 could fit even with a massive gfx card in there



because PCI-E are a damn sight more expensive for faster devices. You don't want one of those sitting next to your pci-E gfx card!!!!! I think the layout is spot on to be quite frank, especially concerning heat flow.

PCI-E cards are likely to be:
IDE controllers -> need to be near hdd bays so that's smart design
Gigabit ether cards -> doesn't really matter where

The rest are kind of generic regarding placement. I'm assuming that the real reason for placement is because of architecture, but the design is superb imo. The only problem I foresee is the CPU placement, however, sicne the layout is almost identical to the board I got now in terms of CPU, I don't see a problem unless you get a cramped case. I have a large Cheiftec tower and its perfect.

I'm sorry but you've got it completely wrong imo, the placement is very smart. That's what Epox normally excel at, smart and really overclockable mainboards, and why they get rave reviews most of the time. The only thing regarding placement that's of worry is the CPU, but if you cheap out on a case, then that's your problem hehe.. no there is a risk of large heat sinks getting in the way of the chasis, is mentioned in any competant reviews you'll read. However, it depends on the size of the heatblock you use, the rest of the design its very sound.

Epox boards are nearly always excellent and they are normally my first choice. Never had a problem with them, but I can't tell you how much trouble I've had with brands like ASUS (some of their mainboards have been dreadful) who are really hit and miss.

edit:
erm.. I'd also add they are the brand I check first, before going elsewhere if they don't meet the requirements, so they definitely get my recommendation, most highly infact

You should use all the built in/on controllers, no need for after market IDE or ethernet cards. The board should have enough for what you need to put into one case. If you need more, built a fileserver, not much more expensive & you probably have all need parts lieing around.

IF you are able to use the top PCI slot, you are using a sensible video card, not top of the line nVidia, not sure about new gen ATI cards. In my opinion, you would be a fool to buy the latest and greatest video card anyways, waste of money.

I like Abit myself, going the cheaper route, I would go with FIC. Cant kill those boards.

Oh yeah, I still think the layout is weird.

ATI 9800 XT actually