First post, by KT7AGuy
- Rank
- Oldbie
My days of building expensive high-powered gaming PCs are long over. The last computer I built from the ground up was a Phenom II system designed around an Asus M4A77TD motherboard. Since then I haven't really immersed myself in the various array of motherboard products. I've also become seriously disillusioned with MS's current idea of what Windows should be. I switched to Linux Mint for 2020, then switched back to Win10 for 2021. With Win11 on the horizon, I'm ready to go back to Linux but I'd like to keep the ever-growing pile of old computers to a minimum. A WinXP /Linux dual-booter seems like a good idea, so an Ivy Bridge motherboard will be ideal. Can ya help a brother out and recommend a good motherboard?
Solid/polymer caps are a must for reliability and longevity.
Needs at least one PCI slot.
Must be fully WinXP compatible.
Must have PCIe 3.0
Onboard USB 3.0 ports with WinXP compatibility are a real plus
Must be able to operate in legacy (non-UEFI) mode.
Must be able to disable secure boot.
Must be able to enable/disable CPU cores.
Must be able to enable/disable hyperthreading.
I haven't followed any of the Ryzen products at all, but if any of those fit the bill please recommend them as well.
Thank you for any and all recommendations.