BleepingComputer.com: Please Help A Newbie Pick Out A Motherboard! (and Other Hardware)

Hey everyone, this is my first post. I enjoy message boards, am a member at a few...hoping this one is a good time too. Basically I am gathering components to build my first computer. So far I have purchased a case, a monitor and have decided on a processor. Now I have to pick out the rest. I guess my next step is the motherboard.

My goal for this computer is that it will be affordable, won't be used much for gaming (but would like to be able to have the option in the future...right now I haven't played a game on my PC since Age of Empires), and be fast at the start-up. I am doing my shopping at newegg.com.

So far I have:

SAMSUNG 2220WM Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB Black SECC STEEL ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

and I have settled on this processor:
Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116052

I would like to be able to use my monitor as a TV and my friend has told me about this thing he has that will record to his hard drive and send TV to the monitor although I don't know what it is.

My next step is the motherboard I think...any suggestions? I would like to spend less than $100 on it and my main preference is stability. I am lost when I look at them, they are very confusing to me. If there is a motherboard with a decent built in graphics I would be open to spending a little more to replace the graphics card.

If you have the time to suggest to me other ideas to outfit the rest of my first homebuilt, that would be sweet too!

I look appreciate any advice you can give me and look forward to talking with ya'll!

i think the two most popular boards under 100 are the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and the ABIT IP35E

Links
Abit

Gigabyte

Personally I like Gigabyte boards, I don't know if you can find a good board with built in graphics anymore, but you would still be better off buying a CARD, IMHO. As for watching TV, you will need a TV Capture card, simalar to THIS ONE.

Lucky23, on Feb 7 2008, 10:06 PM, said:

Thanks for the help, I think I am going with the gigabyte board

Wildabeast, on Feb 8 2008, 01:49 AM, said:

Thanks for the links, I didn't know I could get a graphics card that cheap. What is your opinion of the Tv capture cards? i have heard the software is hard to use on them but don't have any first hand knowledge?

Quote

I have one, unfortunately I can't use it since I have a grounding problem with my modem. But.. I have used one and watched TV while messing around on the computer. You can record to your hard drive, you can hook up a VCR and record to your hard drive, but not if it's copy protected. So say you have a video of your family, you can record that, convert it over to MP4 (I think that's it) and then burn it to DVD..