Hey guys I'm new here and have got myself out of touch with the latest hardware info. Basically I'm gonna get me a nice upgrade. I currently have a Pentium 4 540 LGA 775. So I want to upgrade mobo, graphics card and ram, since I've currently got AGP Radeon 9800 and 1.5Gb of 200Mhz RAM both getting a bit outdated now. I'm looking for a motherboard which will take my current processor but be future proof for the Core 2 Duo once price drops. I'm not fussed about SLI or Crossfire. I think I might get me an Nvidia 7900 for the graphics card to fill the gap until dx10 is rolled out with Vista. Could anyone suggest some ram for any mobos suggested? I want to eventually have 4 Gig of ram so I am looking at getting 1 Gig DIMMs. Mobo must have SATA since thats what I'm using. Also anyone suggest a good quiet case, I like the look of the Lian Li's touch expensive though. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Well, "Conroe Capable" motherboards are a tad on the expensive side these days. You have to get a certain chipset which allows the motherboard companies to jack up the price. If you don't care about SLI or Crossfire then you would be best with the 975x chipset. The lowest price for a 975x motherboard on Newegg is $209.99, but if I were you I would get the MSI 975x Platinum for $229.99. Well, actually, if I were you I would wait to get a new motherboard. The prices will come down so I would wait a few months.
Yeah but I need to upgrade within the month before I go to University hence trying my best to ensure Core 2 Duo compatability. How about this for a nice setup. Mobo: Asus P5B Deluxe/WIFI-AP or MSI 975x Platinum Powerup Edition/ Graphics Card: 256Mb XFX Geforce 7900GT XTREME RAM: 2 x 1Gb Corsair TwinX Pro LED PC6400. Alternatively I could get 2 x 1Gb OCZ Gold Series PC5300 RAM, what sort of performance difference would I expect between these two different types? Considering price gap is just £40. Is it worth getting the faster stuff? Also anyone with ideas on a case?
If you're planning on overclocking then you want fast RAM. The Pro stuff is overpriced though. Unless you just really, really want the LEDs then get cheaper RAM.
