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Advice on Mobo/Cpu Selection

M

Maelkor

n00b
Joined
Feb 4, 2007
Messages
11
After getting a new Video Card I have been having a heck of a time getting my system to run properly. I am not really sure what is going on but I have been reading up on things and have decided to go ahead and upgrade my Mobo/Cpu a year ahead of schedule to fix several issues at once.

Here is a list of what I currently have to attach to a new Mobo:

ATI x1950 xt 256 (PCI-E)
WD1200 JS Hardrive(Sata 2)
512 x 4 OCZ dual channel Ram (I think its 3200 speed)
A generic CD burner/DVD player
An Ultra 133 HD(but will probably scrap it with the new MOBO)
A floppy Drive(sits at the very top of the case so a connector that is not at the very bottom of the board would be nice)current Mobo has connection too far down to actually connect
I am also considering a new sound card but will post in that section to get advice was thinking of one of the Creative XFI cards just not sure which one to get.


I would like a motherboard that has a good solid Sata2 connection that will allow me to actually use my Sata2 drive to its full potential.
I also want a motherboard with a solid networking chip - wired not wireless.
I want a company that has a solid reputation and good technical support(preferably built in North America - do we still build Motherboards? :) ).

This is primarly for gaming purposes. I do not have a solid choice for AMD or Intel at the moment although in the past I have gone almost all AMD for pricing. I am thinking the Core2Duo at the moment though as most people seem to think thats the best bang for the buck.

My budget is $300-$400 I hope, less if I can swing it but at this point I want quality so am willing to pay a bit more. I do not need bleeding edge in terms of CPU speed, just something reasonable - IE $200-$300 for the cpu and $100-$150 for the Mobo.

Also I do not need a SLI board as I do not think I will ever have the money to buy two good cards at the same time and I do not plan on using any hardrives in Raid mode for the same reason.

Overall this all came up about a year earlier than expected so I am totally lost as to what to get and any help would be appreciated.

Edited:
Also if anyone can post a link to a good site explaining what all the different current CPU's are right that would be helpfull. I am looking at Toms Hardware Guide atm but do not see anything usefull explaining the differences. IE whats so special about the athlon FX that it would be more expensive than the athlon 64 x2 chips and what is the difference between the xeon dual core and the core 2 duo chips? Thanks in advance for any information.
 
Well, for one, you're going to be limited in your selection because of your memory. You have DDR1 and you need DDR2 for any of the newer CPU's.

I'd say CPU's go like this now (just my opinion).

Core 2 Quad > Core 2 Duo > X2/Opteron/FX > Pentium D > A64 > Pentium 4 > Sempron > Celeron

Ideally, if you're buying now, I'd get a Core 2 Duo (probably the E6400) and either an Intel 965 board or the 650i (if you want SLI). You're going to have to scrap the memory and get new stuff though.
 
you could get a Via board that supports DDR1 & Core 2, but I'd suggest you sell your DDR1 (which b/c dram prices are high across the board should fetch a decent price) and go to a 965 motherboard (approx $150) & Core 2 6400. ($220)
 
eww not what I wanted to hear about the ram sigh. I just bought the 2nd two sticks to upgrade my system to 2 gigs of ram before I started having all of these problems. I did not even think about the ddr1 - ddr2 issue.
 
also 4 sticks of ram can sometime cause problems.

usually they just limit you in overclocking potential, but sometimes even at stock speeds having all 4 dimms populated can cause problems.

Thats why when I see people who say they only have enough for 1Gb now. I tell them to buy 1 stick of 1Gb and wait until they can afford the other stick. You have a small performance penalty from not being dual channel, but its much better for the long term upgrade of having 2x1Gb instead of 4x512mb.

maybe you can just RMA the sticks. tell them that you were stupid and realized you needed ddr2. Then order 2x1Gb of ddr2 from that same vendor (to keep them happy). Then you only have to sell 2 x 512Mb.
 
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