Upgrade time but kinda confused

[DrSteve]

Hello all.
I've finally decided to upgrade my main rig.
This is going to be a multipurpose machine. I do a bit of gaming and just got an 8800GT which should do the trick (1280x1024 monitor).
Planning to use this for Photoshop - working large RAW images - and also recently got an HD camcorder so Firewire is a must and going to go Q6600 with 2x2GB RAM and see how that goes.
Planning to overcock to at least 3GHz. I have custom water setup for my 939 system at the minute so would need a new block. Was going to retire the water at first and go air cooled.
So, the questions are...

1. Which motherboard??!?
Totally confused here. Not wanting to spend the earth. Under £100 hopefully. I was initially going to get an Asus P35 board but have been doing too much reading around and confusing mysef. Should I go X38? Nvidia chipset for future SLI? Still going to need a few PCI slots for TV card, sound card, wifi card (unless I go for on board).

2. Cooler - need good cooling performance and would like it as quiet as possibe.

3. Memory. I assume PC6400 would be fine. Had my eye on the Gskill stuff but it's sold out. Probably OCZ 4gig kit.

4. Anything else I've forgotten?

Thanks for any help or advice. Hoping to order this week.

 

[melbourne720]

1. If I were buying soon I would probably wait for the J&W/OCuk X48 board, failing that snap up a cheap P35 chipset board like the Asus P5K, or similar Abit or Gigabyte boards.

2. Tuniq Tower.

3. You assumed correct. At today's prices, any of the big brands would be a good idea.

4. Check your PSU is up to the challenge, and if you have a PS2 mouse you may have to get a new one as most new motherboards only have old keyboard connectors and USB ports.

 

[DrSteve]

Thanks for the reply.
The PSU is a 600W Seasonic which should be up to the job.

Have kinda decided on this...
Abit IP35 Pro
Corsair 4GB XMS2

Have been thinking about the cooling and now had a rethink. Seems to cost about the same for a decent air cooler as a new waterclock. Think I'll go for the D-Tek Fuzion V2 and keep the water setup.

Thanks for the heads up about the PS2 mouse. Wouldn't even have thought about that. Has got me thinking about my IDE drives now. Have 2 PATA HDDs and 2 optical drives. Looks like I'll need to lose a couple for the upgrade. Maybe I should add a new HDD to the order, just in case.

 

[melbourne720]

Thanks for the reply.
The PSU is a 600W Seasonic which should be up to the job.

Have kinda decided on this...
Abit IP35 Pro
Corsair 4GB XMS2

Have been thinking about the cooling and now had a rethink. Seems to cost about the same for a decent air cooler as a new waterclock. Think I'll go for the D-Tek Fuzion V2 and keep the water setup.

Sounds good

Thanks for the heads up about the PS2 mouse. Wouldn't even have thought about that.

Only reason it occurred to me was that I built a PC for someone and he mentioned that there was nowhere to plug in his mouse. That reminded me that most people are still using PS2 mice...

Has got me thinking about my IDE drives now. Have 2 PATA HDDs and 2 optical drives. Looks like I'll need to lose a couple for the upgrade. Maybe I should add a new HDD to the order, just in case.

There are a few solutions, but I would certainly get a SATA drive (or two) for the boot drive (Samsung F1 methinks). You could attach 1-2 IDE PATA drives via the motherboard, but the will have to contend for the same channel. Given the price of a SATA DVDRW drive, you might as well just get one of them, they're really good.