Help Choosing A Motherboard Or PC.

[kimboy]

Hi, could someone advise me on the motherboard + processor, complete with fan and heat sink, combo I should buy? It should be cheap (preferably between $150-$250). There's this one I found, I've forgotten the name but it has the following: VIA K8M800 Northbridge Chipset, Socket AM2 Connector, 2 DDR DIMM Memory Slots (Upto 2 GB), VIA VT237R Plus SB Chipset, 1 AGP Slot, 3 PCI Slots, NO PCI Express Slots, 1 IDE Header. It comes with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor. It costs $120. Is it any good? I mainly play games. Currently I have a Compaq D510F SFF PC with the following specs: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz, 512 MB SDRAM, Western Digital WD200 20 GB HDD, nVidia GeForce 4 MX 420 64 MB RAM Video Card(It's So pathetic). The motherboard has 3 SDRAM DIMM Memory Slots (it supports only PC133), 1 AGP 4x Slot (1.5 V only), 2 PCI Slots and nothing else. How does it compare to the one above? I'd be thankful if someone advised me on the kind of PC I should buy in case I drop the idea of building my own (around $400). Thanks.

 

[kimsland]

I mainly play games

I really think you should ONLY be looking at PCI-Express motherboards

Regards,
Kim !

 

[captaincranky]

The Question I Still Have is: Which X2....?

There are about a dozen. (Actually Newegg is claiming 28...!)

Here are a couple a boards for you to check out: This one (an ATI chipset) has onboard SATA RAID, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128079

This one (an Intel chipset) has dual channel memory, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128079

For a CPU, one of either of these; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128079

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115031 (in stock and on sale, at the moment)

The 2 Intel CPUs are supposed to be holy terrors for overclocking.

Both boards have onboard graphics AND PCI-E.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Build your own, since not only will it give you good experience, you'll also get warranty on each individual component rather than a single warranty for a pre-built one. That being said, here's a recommendation for a possible build:
GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $74.99 + $6.33 shipping
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail - $57.99 + free shipping
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $44.99 + free shipping
VisionTek 900203 Radeon HD 3850 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail - $169.99 + $5.84 shipping

Grand Total = $360.13 with shipping. It'll give you an excellent PC that will be way ahead of your current one. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[kimboy]

There's this one being sold by TigerDirect. It's a Gateway GT5453E with AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2 Ghz(Dual-Core), 1 GB DDR2 RAM, 320 GB SATA II HDD, 20x DVD-RW Dual layer drive and Flash media reader. It comes with Windows Vista Home Premium. Graphics is by an nVidia GeForce 6150 SE chip.It's being sold at $330. Is this system worth buying? It has 4 PCI Express slots on which I can install another video card to replace the crappy 6150 chip. Thanks for your replies.

 

[kimsland]

That's Refurbished, ie Not new.
Rage_3K_Moiz system is brand new for $30 more
And I don't think he'll lead you astray