How-To Geek

I would like to know which is the best motherboard to buy in a range of 50-60$ range for a core 2 duo processor and sata hard disk and a graphic card slot. and RAM ddr2 upto 4GB. Kindly tell me the brands as well as the models.

45nm

I should say, our forum member ScottW has a lot of knowledge on configurations, you might want to wait until he's followed up.

Are you talking to me? Oh yeah, it's me alright. I don't think I have a lot of knowledge on motherboard configs. I do know that there are a ton of different boards out there -- all manner of different flavor of chipsets and features. It seems as if all of the big motherboard makers have a vast selection of boards and it's very confusing.

The Geek has the right idea, though. Decide on what constraints are placed on the motherboard by the parts that you want to put in it. For a 45 nm Intel Core2 CPU, you do need at least a P35 chipset, but not every board with a P35 can support every 45 nm chip. If you want SLI, that puts another constraint on the motherboard and you will probably need an nForce chipset. And so on.

My advice would be to do research at Tom's Hardware on different boards with the chipset that you think you'll need. Typically, they have a roundup of several different boards with the same chips and compare the features. I would also suggest that you stick with the major brand names. I like Asus and I've heard good things about Gigabyte. I know the names MSI, DFI, Biostar, Abit, and so on, but I have no idea how good they are. Finally, check the retailers. Newegg has a long list of boards at varying prices and includes user reviews. Seeing the comments of others can help you decide what's right for you.

http://anandtech.com/mb/showdo.....38&p=1

To quote: "The recently released Intel P35, P31, G31, G33, G35, and X38 chipsets have native support for the 45nm processors. However, even though these chipsets fully support Wolfdale and Yorkfield, the motherboards based on these chipsets could require something as simple as a BIOS update, or - in the worst cases - a new board revision."