[Samjula]

I was recently thinking of upgrading my current system with a new gfx card or cpu, now i have decided to completely replace the motherboard, cpu, graphics and ram with new stuff. My current set up is as follows:

Asus P5LD2-VM Mobo
Intel P4 3.4ghz LGA 775
2gb Corsair Value Select 533mhz
EVGA 7800GT 256mb
several sata drives

I'm keeping my current case (antec nine hundread) and my hard drives as they are. The parts ive chosen are these:

CPU: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139584

GFX: http://www.ebuyer.co...product_reviews

RAM: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116755

I'm pretty certain on the graphics card and ram, would be willing to spend a bit more on the cpu if it was a substantial improvement.

But i have no idea which motherboard to choose. Ideally i would like 2 PCI express slots so i can have the option to upgrade to SLI in the future, i'd also like inbuilt Wifi and then obviously for it to be LGA 775 and support ddr2 and SATA. I'd like to spend around 80 - 100. I'd use the system mainly for gaming and then just everyday use. Can anyone suggest a suitable motherboard as i really don't know what to look for and have no idea about which chipsets are best and what not.

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If you game the E2200 is a low-end processor. If your budget can stretch to it then this would be better: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139967

Your memory will still work but you can't match it with the CPU speed of that processor (1333) as it would require DDR3 memory which is too expensive at the moment.

As for a motherboard, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143224 is a nice one and gives you eight SATA ports to fill. It doesn't have built-in Wifi but that's cheap enough to add as a PCI card anyway.

Edited by Neil Jones, 11 July 2008 - 02:20 PM.

[Neil Jones]

If you game the E2200 is a low-end processor. If your budget can stretch to it then this would be better: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139967

Your memory will still work but you can't match it with the CPU speed of that processor (1333) as it would require DDR3 memory which is too expensive at the moment.

As for a motherboard, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143224 is a nice one and gives you eight SATA ports to fill. It doesn't have built-in Wifi but that's cheap enough to add as a PCI card anyway.

Edited by Neil Jones, 11 July 2008 - 02:20 PM.

[Samjula]

I've decided that i might as well spend more and reap the benefits for longer otherwise i will just be upgrading again pretty soon. So the cpu i'm after now is this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139971.

Would this ram be a lot better? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130430, its only 30 quid more or so, i can stretch to that. Although i'd have to get a ddr3 motherboard.

As for motherboards, what are good, recent chipsets, decent for gaming that i should look out for.

Thanks for your info

[Neil Jones]

The board I linked to does not take DDR3 however variations on it are available that do take DDR3 memory. Having said that the benefits of DDR3 are not worth the asking price at this point in time in my opinion since a typical board can cost £150 on its own.

[Samjula]

I read somewhere that you can benefit greatly if your motherboard bus speed, cpu fsb speed and ram speeds all matched.

So would i be better off buying 2gb of the ddr3 ram at 1333mhz with this motherboard (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132275) so all the speeds were 1333mhz. OR would it be better for me to get 4gb of ddr2 ram at say 1066mhz, with probably a different motherboard.