Looking for some quick advice - my eight year old asus mobo died tonight. I want to replace it with an intel six core processor. Any advice for motherboards? And for that matter, who makes the best RAM these days? I've always used Corsair...

I'll be running both Windows 7 and Linux.

I was a big Asus fan for a long time but they've mostly shifted to a focus on gaming and features. For me, stability and computational reliability are paramount so I use ECC memory, Intel Xeon CPUs, and Tyan motherboards.

Since I tell this to everyone building a new computer, you will not be an exception - Do yourself a favor and spend the extra money for an SSD drive. It can be a small one and just for booting. You can have a big drive for all of your data/media. The difference in speed will be far greater than any differences based on which motherboard you wind up with.
Sorry that doesn't answer your question.

-d

I personally have an asrock board. Great bang for the buck, they come with a lot of features for the price. I also use corsair memory, great company, great products.

+1 to the ssd comment

This is my self-built system, mainly running Mepis linux:

Corsair PSU VX550W
Western Digital hdd 500GB Caviar Blue
AMD Asus M4A785TD-V EVO AM3
AMD Processor Athlon II X4 635, sAM3
2x4Gb DDR3 1600 Kingston

My experience is the Intel CPUs run hotter than the AMD hence my AMD choice.

The system is now.. I think 2.5 years old.. running like a charm and I haven't had a problem with it at all.


Also.. swappable drives. I have purchased mobile racks and a dock for my harddrives.

Fun part is.. when I want to try out a new install, I simply slide in another drive, install the system, and when I get tired of it I slide it back out and put the old drive back in. Easy as pie Best purchase I ever made for my system alright.

Intel has been beating AMD in both performance / watt and performance / dollar for several generations of CPUs. For the high-end CPUs the gap has been increasing.

The only market AMDs are still competitive in is the very low-cost, low-end mobile CPUs.

A few buddies of mine and I have a pet theory that Intel is choosing not to compete with AMD in the low-end market because they are concerned about anti-trust laws. If they're the only major CPU player they risk extreme scrutiny. I think this is also one of the reasons why Intel hasn't acquired Nvidia and one of the reasons why Intel has scrapped all of their major GPU efforts and doesn't make their existing line of GPUs competitive with the offerings of Nvidia and AMD (ATI).

The competition with Intel that AMD has provided in the last decade has been fantastic for consumers. We've gotten multi-core systems, 64bit computing (AMD64), on-die memory controllers, fast memory / system bus (HyperTransport forced Intel to do QuickPath), etc. AMD has also driven down consumer prices and forced Intel to focus on performance / watt rather than just MHz.

I have a soft spot in my heart for AMD and I don't want to see them leave the CPU market. I won't buy their CPUs though because by almost any measure, they're inferior products.

I had been an avid fan of Asus since early nineties. But after several Asus motherboard died on me about 8 years ago I switched to Gigabyte. Both of these manufacturers are good though. You still need to do your own research as some motherboards turned out better than others.

Another very important part of the system is the power supply. Before I had been buying Silverstone brand almost exclusively - until it disappeared. PC Power & Cooling is another excellent brand. Corsair's higher end models might be a good choice if you're not that concerned about this part. Good power supply provides all components with good current that is very close to specs, has minimal variation or spikes, and continues to be that way for a prolonged period of time. That is the one component that gives all other components a good, long and prosperous life.

As for the platform, I also buy exclusively Intel CPUs as they give the most power for the money. A CPU cooler and a good case with cooling fans in the right places are important as well.

Needless to say I completely disagree. Having also had Intel in the past and them breaking on me, and NEVER an AMD.. well.. yeah. Choice remains easy for me

Thanks for the advice. I'm already running on a 250gb SSD so I agree there... Other friends are telling me to go with Gigabyte as well. Regarding Intel vs. AMD - I've been with AMD for like the past 10 years, so I think it's time I give Intel another try... I'm really liking the looks of the i7 six core CPUS...