Upgrade help needed, MS-6339 to.???

Leethal

Leethal

Leethal

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Joined
29 Jan 2006
Posts
170
Location
Oxfordshire, UK
Hey folks,

Just asking for a bit of help deciding on which motherboard i should upgrade to.

My current motherboard is an MS-6339
CPU: P4 1.8ghz (Max 2.0ghz, Socket 423)
Ramm: 512MB (Max 2GB)
Graphics card: Ati 9800 Pro Excalibur (128mb)

I would like suggestions on which board i should upgrade to, generally one that is not so expensive.

Ideally i would like a board that has:

AGP: 4x/8x
RAMM: upto 4gb
CPU: Pentium 4, more than 2.0ghz (Preferably 3.0ghz+)

I currently use IDE for my harddrives & cd drive & would like to continue using this unless it is better using sata for example.

The Ramm i am currently using is PC800-45 & it is very expensive, this is the main reason for me wanting to upgrade. I have upgraded my RAMM as much as possible with it not costing me too much but i'm now at a stage where i don't want to pay out loads of money for more when i can simply upgrade my MoBo, get a better CPU & pay a lot less for RAMM on a new set-up.

I am quite into PC gaming so this is another reason for me wanting to update also. I am going to update my Graphics card (Ati 9800 Pro Excalibur, 128mb) eventually to one that is at least double the Mega-Bytes but this is not a necessity at this moment in time as i would like a board that has AGP 4x/8x.

I am open to considering other set-ups as long as the price isn't too high.

Please help me out, any info would be much appreciated :)
 
The motherboard supports PCI-E graphice aswell as AGP, it also supports DDR1 and DDR2, and even though the the processor runs at only 1.60GHz it should out perform any Pentium 4 or Pentium D CPU runing at 3.0GHz.

compgi0.jpg


Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard

Corsair 2GB DDR2 Value Select PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) (VS2GBKIT667D2)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail
 
MicroATX case....

That lookz like a killer deal, very very tempting indeed. :eek:

I'm gonna definately keep that one in mind, cheerz for looking that up for me D.Chatten.
Will see what i get paid on friday and think about it...


I did forget to mention that i would like to keep my old case and it is a MicroATX case which wouldn't work with the suggested set-up...
but seeing the above layout i actually might get myself another case aswell to go with it because i need 2 set-ups ;) as i wanna have one pc for my Gaming/Net/Basic pc stuff & the other for my Music Creation "ReMixing"...

If anyone can suggest a Set-Up for a MicroATX case i would appreciate it...
 
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...

Also forgot to mention that i would like the board to have IDE connections, as if i was to go to SATA then i would have to get new hard drives & that would add more expense... lol

Keep the price low... if possible
 
What would the benefits be of having DDR1 & DDR2 on the same board if you can only use one or the other?

& since i would be buying DDR2 @ 2GB wouldn't that render the DDR1 useless from the get go?
 
Yea you wouldn't be able to use the DDR1 slots. This mobo is very good if you want to upgrade bit by bit over time. TBH i would get a MicroATX mobo with PCI-E and DDR2 and get a new graphics card, use your old case and put the cash you were gona spend on a new case towards the graphics card :D
 
Best bet is to buy that cpu and ram d.chatten showed you, look on the bay for a 2nd hand MicroATX mobo that has Core 2 DUO support. Then look around for a 2nd hand 6800GT or x850 they are going on the cheap.

*Note* if you need SM3 (games like lost planet need it :S ) then get 6800GT or higher from Nvidia or X1800 or higher from ATi.

I would move from AGP asap as its pritty dead and PCI-E is much cheaper now :)
 
Cheerz for that bud, i think you are bang on the money...

I've thought about it a lot regarding the "buying a new case" & i don't want to as i'm very near to finishing MoDDiNG it so i'm definately gonna stick with MicroATX, don't want my hard work to go to waste... & i'll put the money to a new Graphics card as you said.

Agp isn't gonna provide me with what i require now & it's definately a good time to move to PCI-E...

Do u think it's worth me looking for a board that supports/allows 2 graphics cards to run at once? so that i can eventually get 2 of the same GCs and get maximum performance?
I'm not totally sure of how this works but i do know that i'm liking the sound of running 2 at once...

The ATi x1800 is definately in my sights, liking the look of that a lot...


SO FAR DEFINATELY GETTING:

Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz
 
I'm going out of my mind trying to find a motherboard that i want!

Please HELP!!!

NEED:

PCI-E x16
PCI (At least 1 slot, maybe more if poss)
Socket 775 (Core 2 Duo compatible)
DDR2 SDRAM (4gbs or more)
Micro-ATX

Someone please help as i'm going stir crazy trying to find a board that i want...
 
What's your budget?

You could choose one of these, tho they are quite expensive for Micro-ATX boards, but they are fully-featured.

Or you can pick up an Asrock Conroe 1333-667 for £40 delivered, tho it only has 2 memory slots, but can take two 2gb sticks. And it won't take quad-cores either.
 
E2140 - £42 Incl.
Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 - £45 Incl.
OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 Vista Performance Gold (2x2GB) or Patriot 4GB PC2-6400 C5 Extreme Performance (2x2GB) or OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit- £118 Incl. for either kit

That will clock to roughly 2.8GHz with the E2140, or spend an extra £7 on the E2160 and it'll go to 3GHz. The RAM are the cheapest 4Gb kits I could find as the board only has 2 RAM slots. Basically £200 for a fast-ish rig with 4Gb of RAM.

I don't know of any decent mATX motherboards these days with 4 PATA channels. They all have just 2. The cheaper SIS and VIA chipset boards sometimes still have 2, but they won't clock, so I would tend to automatically discount them.
 
I've googled & googled your suggested MoBo, the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2
and it sounds like a good board & definately in my budget range but after looking at some reviews & one reviewer saying "gamers should give this a wide birth" i'm not so sure that this is the board for me...

Have you or do you know of anyone who has gotten good gaming results with this mobo?
 
Asrock Conroe 1333-667

I've looked into the above board also & it is quite a cheap board & seems to be what i'm after... however i'm unsure as i would like to have the option to use cross fire with dual graphics cards eventually & being a noob at dual gpus i'm unsure of what to look for on a board.
 
Leethal said:
I've googled & googled your suggested MoBo, the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2
and it sounds like a good board & definately in my budget range but after looking at some reviews & one reviewer saying "gamers should give this a wide birth" i'm not so sure that this is the board for me...

Have you or do you know of anyone who has gotten good gaming results with this mobo?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately you're never going to get what a reviewer would recognise as "good" games performance from a cheap motherboard. Bottom line - good games performance comes from a REALLY fast processor and a REALLY fast graphics card. The E2140 CPU will hold back most modern graphics cards, even when overclocked.

I really doubt you'll get good gaming perfomance for under £200, never mind the fact that you've chosen to hobble yourself with mATX. Sorry if that's blunt, but that's just how it is.

The difference between what are currently using and an E2140 is staggering though. I doubt you'll be able to miss the fact you've upgraded if you know what I mean, but you're not going to be playing Crysis.
 
Leethal said:
I've googled & googled your suggested MoBo, the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2
and it sounds like a good board & definately in my budget range but after looking at some reviews & one reviewer saying "gamers should give this a wide birth" i'm not so sure that this is the board for me...

Have you or do you know of anyone who has gotten good gaming results with this mobo?
Click to expand...

They're probably talking about the on-board graphics. They'll be terrible, as all on-board graphics are. But you'll be using a graphics card instead.

And I don't think you'll ever find a m-ATX board with two graphics card slots. Not that you'll ever need two graphics cards anyway.
 
nah i think they were using an ATi 1950.

Why do you think i wouldn't need 2 gpus?

I might get the ATi x1650pro as it has SM3 plus they are dual compatible :0), i know it's not the best out but it is definately better than my ATi 9800pro agp card
 
Cob said:
And I don't think you'll ever find a m-ATX board with two graphics card slots.
Click to expand...

EVGA did a S939 mATX SLi board and I have it on good authority that they sold less than 30 in the UK in about 18 months. That's why they don't make them - no-one buys them;)
 
i've googled this board until i went blue in the face...
i found it but it doesn't look like it's available anywhere :(
 
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Leethal said:
i've googled this board until i went blue in the face...
i found it but it doesn't look like it's available anywhere :(
Click to expand...

Which board? The Gigabyte or the EVGA? The EVGA is long gone.

I wouldn't use Google to find a product in stock somewhere, I'd use Froogle.co.uk, then order by price, surely?
 
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