[Asuko]

I plan on making a solid gaming rig once I save up enough money. I know enough about graphics cards, HDDs, processors, etc. I don't really know enough about motherboards to make a firm decision, though. What, including chipsets, should I know about them?

[jr2]

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/motherboard.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherboard

[Asuko]

You're all over the place tonight(or day), are you?

Thanks. I should've looked but HLP sounded alright for an initial look.

[Ashrak]

DQ6 SLI series by gigabyte is briliant

[CP5670]

None of the SLI supporting motherboards are "brilliant," considering the chipsets they use and their prices. They're only worth getting if you need the SLI capability.

I haven't been following the AMD chipsets much lately, but the P35 chipset is the still the way to go for Intel. The X38 chipset came out a little while ago but the boards based on it are quite expensive and are less than 1% faster than the P35 ones in real world situations.

The main thing to keep in mind with the P35 boards is not to spend too much. Many of the low end sub-$100 ones give you most of the features (and almost all of the useful ones) that the high end ones have and overclock just as well. Motherboards also become obsolete fairly quickly, faster than most kinds of hardware, so in general you don't want to spend much on them for that reason as well.

[Asuko]

So there is the X38 chipset that's the most common and the P35 which promises a bit more but is too costly.What chipsets do the SLI supporting boards use?

[CP5670]

It's the other way around. The P35 is the cheap and widely available one.

The SLI boards use either the Nvidia 650i or 680i chipsets. The latter has a few extra features like a second network interface, but they're mostly very similar. There are some decent deals on the 650i boards while the 680i ones are pretty much all overpriced. Both chipsets generally run hotter and don't overclock as well as the Intel ones though.

[Asuko]

Ah, my bad for that. Didn't read it right. I suppose if I go SLI, I'd need an especially good fan. Somehow, I'm also thinking heatsinks but I'm not so sure.

[miskat]

I know I have a chipset heat-sink on my motherboard, but chipset FANS?  Christ almighty, has the world changed so much?  First on GPUs now on CHIPSETS?  lol

Sounds like I need an upgrade.  >.>