You know by comparing the socket of the motherboard and the socket of the cpu. As Blistrax said, the socket is what the cpu sits in, that's the unifying specification between the two components. In the parts that I listed, the motherboard is a socket AM3+. It is backwards compatible with AM2, AM2+, and AM3, in addition to AM3+. This is why I listed the 2 cpus (one is socket am3 and the other is am3+), it is compatible with both of them. Intel identifies their sockets by the number of pins in the (i.e. socket 1155). There's really no reason to discuss Intel much because at the price point you're looking at, AMD will give you much more for the money. The GPU is the video card. This is what outputs the video to your screen. Most games are heavily dependant on this. So this being a computer you want to use primarily for gaming this is where you're going to want to spend a good chunk of your funds (probably between $150-$250 would be a good price range to get you going). The other thing that you haven't mentioned is the PSU or the power supply. You're going to need to plan on buying one of these. Which one will depend on what type of GPU you end up deciding on. You're probably looking to get a 500-600w PSU (which will be anywhere from $60-$90 roughly).

Okay, nothing over $250 would be my budget, if that's reasonable. (preferrably under 200 if I can find it)

Tri-Soft

$40- G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231308)

$80- ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280)

$120- AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727)

or

$110- AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996)

$240 Total. (or $230 w/the FX-4100) and it doesn't include shipping.

Under $200 I think you'd be trading away too much performance for what you could get for this amount. The mb would allow a future upgrade to Piledriver when it comes out and it also supports both crossfire and sli.

EDIT- some of those are promotional prices so they may not last long.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="jpm27"]

Did anyone notice that it has 4 gtx 680's, but when they mention the 3 Asus monitors it says they are "Eyefinity Ready" :|

GS550L

Yeah, that concerned me. There were several references to Eyefinity on that listing, when there should be none with Nvidia GPUs in the build.

I'm guessing it's just a copy/paste mistake; you'll notice that some of the other parts don't match up in the pictures and description, like the aftermarket pump top, the motherboard, the power supplies, the including of two CPU waterblocks on a single processor motherboard, lack of HDD waterblock, etc.

[QUOTE="jpm27"]

Did anyone notice that it has 4 gtx 680's, but when they mention the 3 Asus monitors it says they are "Eyefinity Ready" :|

hartsickdiscipl

Yeah, that concerned me. There were several references to Eyefinity on that listing, when there should be none with Nvidia GPUs in the build.

Is there anything specific im looking for though? Like, is there anything thats not compatible with eachother or something? (Like say, the CPU can't attatch to the mobo or somthing)

Tri-Soft

Budget is always key, but you need more then a motherboard you do need a cpu and ram to get it going04dcarraher

Exactly. We need to know what you plan on building and how much you want to spend. How much are you willing to spend on the cpu/ram/motherboard in total? This will help us determine if you'll be going with an Intel or AMD cpu. Once we know that then we can help with the motherboard.

Newegg Shell Shocker deal right now is a 120GB SSD after MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=ShellShocker-_-20-233-191-_-04132012_2

BPoole96

Did anyone notice that it has 4 gtx 680's, but when they mention the 3 Asus monitors it says they are "Eyefinity Ready" :|

I'm looking into getting a new SSD for my rig.

Can you guys suggest me the best ones to get.

My budget is 100 euros. (130$)

Thanks :D

ArchDemon123