A Little Hardware Help

AllUrHiveRblong2us

<div class="IPBDescription">To make sure I don't make a mistake</div> Alrighty, I get my first full payckeck on Thursday, and my immediateplan is to buy a completely new PC, I have nearly all the parts want to buy picked out, but I want to check with you guys so I don't do anything really dumb.

Now, for what I am trying to build, it is of the upmost importance that all of the most important features be built into the mobo. I have heard some mixed things about onboard video/sound (ie, that it is most always terrible and a waste of money) but since my project absolutely requires it, I must ask you for recomendations. If I am forced to go onboard, what can you tell me that I need to know? Any particular mobos that stand out? Any issues between particular brands? Is there even more than one good brand? Would I want to perhaps wait a few weeks because of some impending new release? Speak to me as if I know very little about the subject, and up to a reasonable point money is no object, I could conceivably muster a few hundred to spend on any one part of my new box.

OttoDestruct

Don't even bother with onboard graphics, sound though I've never had a problem with. Stay away from nForce(1) boards.

AllUrHiveRblong2us

Well if I shouldn't bother with onboard graphics, do you know of any good cards that happen to be shorter than 3 inches?

[edit] I don't think the true sarcasm of that post came through, so here's a little notification, yes, indeed, sarcasm

Dorian_Gray

The only built-in video that doesn't suck is on laptops, that being the Radeon 9200s and such that came just before the upgradable laptop cards. As for desktops, its nearly always crap. For all practical purposes, it completely excludes the possibility of playing any 3D games at decent speeds, and excludes all modern games, since they require at LEAST 64MB graphics memory generally. Most of the onboard video you get is "Intel Integrated Graphics", and it sucks. I don't know of other brands, but I know they must exist since not all mobos use Intel chipsets. Also, mobos with onboard video rarely, if ever, include an AGP slot, so you can't upgrade unless you go with a PCI card (better, but only barely). Avoid like the plague.

As for onboard sound, I hate it. It's really not that bad, but I'm a perfectionist. Its kinda crackly and staticy, but other than that its not bad. I use my comp as my stereo, so that could have something to do with it too. This isn't as bad as the onboard video, since its actually usable. If you can, get a Turtle Beach or something, but a AGP video card would be a better investment.

As for new releases, they rarely if ever put a half-decent video chip on a mobo since it would:
(a) Require a big fan, separate RAM chips (both of which take up a lot of room, which mobos don't have an abundance of)
(b) Be obsolete by the time the mobo gets from the factory to the store and is purchased, and cannot be upgraded

So don't expect anything on that front. As for sound, if you're not a complete perfectionist its not that bad, but you're limited to a 2.1 speaker system at maximum. I've yet to see onboard 7.1 surround <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->

If you have a few hundred bucks to spare, you can get a Radeon 9200 (at least) and a half decent sound card. Its worth it in the long run.

Edit: gah posted while I was typing. Okay, if it has to be really small, then I guess onboard is what you're stuck with. There's not that much variety out there in the video department, but you can get a external USB sound card quite easily, and they beat the internal sound card hands-down.