Upgrade advice please

[Yozz76]

I'm looking to upgrade my motherboard which is currently an Asus P5NSLI and primarily because I'm having to underclock my new ram that I received as a gift (4gb PC2-6400 OCZ stuff)! I would also like to cool my PC more efficiently as my e6400 cpu and 8800gt gfx do get rather toasty.

Was wondering what you guys would suggest given a max budget of £100?

Also, if I replaced the mobo would i have to re-install Win XP?

 

[elpedro]

OK, a new motherboard will require a fresh install as far as I know.

For £100, are you looking for an SLi motherboard? I would strongly recommend looking for an Intel P45 chipset mobo. Excellent for overclocking, the P5Q-E supports 1200MHz DDR2 RAM and has PCI-E 2.0 for your graphics card.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

 

[pastymuncher]

Why do you need to underclock the ram? It should run PC2 6400 with no problems. Have you played with the memory dividers in the bios to get the most out of them? Is the cpu overclocked?

Changing the motherboard will have a minimal effect on cooling the pc down and most boards are hot running these days anyway. Invest in a half decent cooler for the cpu (if you don't already have one) such as the Akasa 965 which is every bit as good as the more expensive Freezer 7 Pro. For the GT about the only thing you can do is to change the cooler to a third party one such as the Akasa Neo Vortexx . Apart from that make sure the airflow in your case is unobstructed and that you cables are tucked out of the way.