Motherboard Recommendations - please

[Bill le Chien]

Recommendations on choice of Motherboard would be appreciated.
I have been planning a new build for a while so spent most of yesterday reading this forum and ended up more confused and somewhat conserned reading the problems some have been having but they may not apply to to the level of spec I am planning.
I won't be going USB 3 in a hurry and when I see on/off charging on the newer boards this makes me cautious, a feature I'm sure I will never use and something else to go wrong.

This is to replace an Abit NF7, AMD Athlon XP 2500.
My other pc and last build was an Abit IP35, intel Q6600, I've had problems with this but it is now a lot more stable since I removed a couple of drives and upgraded to Win7 from Vista.
Upto building the Intel machine I have always preferred AMD but they were in the doldrums at that time.

Usage, other than the normal stuff I do some video editing off a HD camera, I get quite heavy with Photoshop at times, do not play games other than the occasional play with Flightgear.
I might add Video capture/TV tuner later.

What I have thought of so far

Motherboard
AMD Phenom II 550 or 555, I don't think 4 core would give any great advantage over price difference
DDR3 2x2, 4g, will check compatibility.
ATI Radeon HD 5570 1g, I do not favour integrated graphics.
PSU ??
HDD SATA, Samsung 1tg
OS Win7U64

A BIG thank you to the major contributors of this forum.
Mr Gigabyte would you please send absic115 some new toys to play with.

[Dark Mantis]

Well I will let absic discuss the details with you but I take it from your post that you will need a lot of memory. Power supply wise make sure that you get a decent one that will not let you down as we so often see on the forum. Something like a Corsair 650W or similar would be good.

[Bill le Chien]

The Intel M/C only has 2g and manages video in Sony Vegas very well.
Somewhat off topic, what I found was that XP Pro 32 bit was faster than Vista  32 bit and Win7 64 considerably faster than either, same hardware.

I have taken note of PSU recommendations, I guess when costing I usually try to go middle of the road, I might have to push the budget up a bit.

Thanks for the reply

[absic]

Well, it's always a bit difficult to say that you should go for this board or that one as what suits one person doesn't suit another.

I do a lot of Multi-track Audio recording along with some pretty intensive Video and Photographic work  using Adobe CS5 so I would recommend my own board, the GA-790XTA-UD4 as it has proved pretty solid. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigabyte-GA-790XTA-UD4-DDR3-AMD-790X-DDR3-1866(OC)-SATA-6Gb-s-and-3Gb-s-RAID-USB-30-and-20-ATX It does cost over £100 and that might be more than you want to pay at the moment but it also gives a bit of future by having a little of the newer technology on-board.

Alternatives would be the GA-MA785GMT-UD2H (a Micro ATX Board) http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigabyte-GA-MA785GMT-UD2H-AMD-785G-AM3-DDR3-1066-1333-1800-SATA-3Gb-s-RAID-Micro-ATX-VGA or it's bigger brother the GA-MA785GT-UD3H http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigabyte-GA-MA785GT-UD3H-AMD-785G-AM3-DDR3-1066-1333-1800-SATA-3Gb-s-RAID-ATX-VGA which both come in under £70 (before anyone comments that I haven't suggested one of the newer 8 series boards read the original brief regarding SATA3 & USB3)

A good PSU would be this one: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/650W-Corsair-CMPSU-650TX-SLi-XfireSingle-12V-Rail-80plus-Efficient-120mm-Quiet-Fan-ATX12V-v22 at around £60

I would disagree with your choice of CPU and an X4 or even an X6 (if money allows) are much better at dealing with the number crunching involved in Video/Photographic software. Also the more RAM you can invest in the better.

If you let me know which path you want to go down I can firm up the specs and also suggest which RAM to go for, depending on your final choice of motherboard.

Once again these links are for SCAN UK and you might be able to find your final choice cheaper at other retailers. I'm just lazy and can't be a***d to dig around too much.

[Dark Mantis]

I am totally in agreement with you about the operating systems although Window7 64bit does need a bit more memory to run happily. Regarding the PSU purchase it is a good investment for the future as well as now because a quality PSU will last for years and several upgrades probably. I am using a Corsair HX850w and it is brilliant also it has a 7 year warranty so that tells you the manufacturer is happy to stand behind it. As I said earlier it is best to let absic advise you on the AMD hardware as that is his domain.

[absic]

A BIG thank you to the major contributors of this forum.
Mr Gigabyte would you please send absic115 some new toys to play with.

Yes please!!! All donations gratefully received and I'm sure Dark Mantis would like some too! 

[Dark Mantis]

Yes please, never turn down any goodies I could do with a nice 58xx series graphics card

absic do I see a Golden Key looming? Do I have time for a smite or are you reading your mop?

[absic]

Got me 'ead stuck in a bucket as we speak.... pardon?

[Bill le Chien]

Thank you Dark Mantis and absic115,
Looks like I will have re-do my sums.
I'll take on board what you have suggested and post back when I have decided.
7 year warranty WOW I hadn't seen that before, that is confidence in your products.

Take Care both.

Best Regards, Bill.