New motherboard - what to get?

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Ok i have decided that something electronically is up with my PC and currently its one of 3 things, memory motherboard or PSU soooooo Im gonna build myself a new PC.

now the only problem is with finding a motherboard that has enough connectivity for my needs.

I'm going to be going AMD chip wise, ATi graphics card maybe 2 using ATi Crossfire so I can buy a cheaper card now then later a monster so i can have them work together (id like to keep my current one but try finding a new board that has AGP and PCI express for video!) I'm after 4 slots for memory as I was looking at sticking 4-8gb of ram in(i like the idea of expansion even if sometimes I dont use it) I also need 2 IDE connectors as I have 2 IDE hard drives (3 months old) and an IDE DVD burner.

The problem I have been finding with most motherboards is they have crossfire & 4 ram slots but only 1 IDE connector! Is there any solution to this as I dont want to have to buy any SATA drives to replace my current set.

anybody know of a good m/board?

cheers

[bruceybonus]

I think thats the way it's going my friend.... It's going tobe a case of .. well I've held our for long enough, may as well bite the bullet and go for the whole kit and kaboodle!.. Ive just done it... got a reasonable bundle off the bay, core 2 cpu, gigabyte mobo, 4 gb of ram and an nvidia 8800 pcei card for 160 notes... well worth it in my opinion..

All the boards i've been looking at only have 1 ide slot, but i have a spare sata lying around so thats going in...

it's only a matter of time.. try finding a decent pci vga card now!

[Jimdefruit]

If it comes to it, you can always add a PCI card giving additional IDE connections.

[crossbones]

cant you get sata to IDE convertor cables?

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Originally Posted by crossbones

cant you get sata to IDE convertor cables?

I didnt really think about that before although it makes sense!

found this on ebay....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SATA-TO-IDE-10...QQcmdZViewItem

Infact I found a few different ones and they are only like 5 quid delivered! some say they are IDE to SATA, some (like that one) say SATA to IDE and some say you can use it for both I'm a bit unsure, but it would mean that way I could use my Operating system HD/DVD drive from the IDE and my 250gb IDE storage drive thought the SATA.

Food for thought as its cheaper to get a little gadget like that rather than fork out for new drives! if anyone has any suggestions about that let me know!

[willin]

Found this on another site, it may be of use, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...pset,1785.html
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14261/9

[gormo]

use any m/board that you fancy if you want more ide chanels just add a pc ide card for the extra ide slots, cards are cheap and easy to install