Inexpensive Motherboard with build-in Video Graphics For Gaming

Getting a computer and using it only for surfing or playing occasional games is not that expensive now a days. You may want to purchase an entire packages or just get only the essential parts such as CPU, Motherboard, Video Card, CD-ROM, Hard Drive, Case and Monitor. By this you can cut your costs and you can even further cut it by purchasing motherboard with on-board video in which I will specify 3 motherboards here for you to choose.

You could have:

1. ECS AMD690GM-M Motherboard
2. Abit AN-M2HD
3. Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H

Those are among of the motherboards you could choose from with on-board video that you could play games such Counter Strike Source, FEAR, Far Cry, Call of Duty 2, Need For Speed Most Wanter or Quake 4. According to the test the Gigabyte scores top and second is ECS then Abit.

Specifications:

• Supports AMD AMD2+ Phenom*/AM2 Athlon 64 series processors.
• Dual Channel DDR2 800.
• Integrated ATI RAdeon X1250-based graphics.
• Dual PCI-E graphics interfaces to support ATI crossfire technology.
• Integrated SATA 3Gb/s with RAID Function
• High Speed Gigabit Ethernet and IEEE 1394.
• Integrated 8 Channel High Defintion audio.
• Supports Windows Vista Premium.
• Integrated HDMI interface with HDCP.

ECS (Elite Group) produces a motherboard and it is named the AMD690GM-M2. This is a socket AM2 micro ATX board, with graphics onboard by ATI (Radeon1250).

Specifications:

• Supports socket AM2 for AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core/Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64 processors.
• On-board graphics based on AMD 690G chipset with ATI Radeon X1250.
• Supports DDR2 800/667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM and upto 16GB.
• Supports PCI express

• 2 x Ultra DMA133/100/66 device, 4 x Serial ATA2 devices, RAID0,RAID1,RAID10 Configuration.
• Realtek ALC883 support Intel 8-ch HD Audio
• Realtek RTL8110SC Giga LAN Controller.

Specifications:

• Supports Socket AM2 Processors
• On board NVidia Geforce 7050PV/NF630a
• Supports Dual DDR2 800
• PCI-E X 16
• Supports SATA 3 GB RAID
• Integrated Gigabit LAN
• Integrated 7.1 Channel HD Audio
• Dual Monitors Support (HDMI & D-Sub)
• RoHS Complaint

The only drawback for those motherbaords is that it utilizes the system memory. But you may increase the memory to its full capacity to compensate the shared system memory.

I had this system in my home and I'm contented with it. For occassional games and surfing, this fits my need.