mobo questions

[monte]

hey guys i am a complete noob at this stuff but i want to upgrade so here is what i have

gateway athalon 64x2 6000
factory mobo and factory 3 gig ram
geforce 8400gs grphx card

i would like to update my case for an atx board and keep my processor and graphx card for now . i am going to be using it for gaming and my budget for a board is around 150. i did look at some asus boards and this is what i kinda picked out but again i am clueless to what is better and not sure what is better if there is any difference between running sli or crossfire any help or insight would be great i only looked at asus because that was the only brand I've heard before from somebody i used to work with so brand is not all that partial to me

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

[XstollieX]

To be honest I wouldn't upgrade just the board. I would save your money and upgrade everything. Main reason being you will be stuck with DDR2 while DDR3 is becoming a standard, also the new AM3 processors run cooler, faster and are more energy efficient. If you are like me and have money burning a whole in your pocket I would upgrade to a better gfx card like the Radeon HD 5750. Just make sure you have a 6 pin pcie adapter and your power supply can handle it.

[kylepaddock]

My input is the asus crosshair II it is DDR2 and supports all the way up the a 965. I just dont see the real performance gain ind DDR3

[monte]

that board does look nice kyle but price is way out of my league right now but the Crosshair III Formula is around my price range in the open box form from newegg then just a few weeks after id be able to get the ram and processor.

[kylepaddock]

The crosshair II is cheaper than the III, and you can use DDR2-1066 RAM

[monte]

all i can find in stock is the crosshair 3 all the 2's are saying unavalable

[kylepaddock]

craigslist, i found 3 shrinkwrapped for 100 a piece. see, i had just bought 8GB of ddr2 and didnt want to go ddr3 u cant get 8gb or ddr3 under 85 new.

[monte]

could you post the links please so i can look it up please where are you located

[kylepaddock]

ohh they got sold about 2 months ago... I am in San Francisco. I will got DDR2-2333 when the i9 cpu comes out, just atm ddr2 is cheeper.

[pwcmed]

I'm with XstollieX, save your money. If you're itching to buy something buy a new video card that can be used in another system later down the road. You might be able to get away with a ATI 5670 and not have replace your power supply. I would check out the specs tho. I have a feeling that they are coming down in price so you might want hold off. If not the 4670 is a decent card. If your power supply is good enough check out the 9800 GT or a 4850. If you want to spend a little more you can get the 5750 which is pretty close to a 4850 but with more features and energy efficient.

[monte]

so hows this sound the crosshair 3 with an athalon 2 and the ddr3 my graphx card is a pcie

any advice on any other brand or boards that are for ddr3 would be apreciated and or what to look for in a good gaming type board

[monte]

well i guess I'm kinda screwed my original mobo only has a pci ex16 slot not a 2.0 or 2.1 so i doubt it is worth real updating the graphxs unless i try 2 cheep pci cards on sli but i would think that's just a waist of money

[XstollieX]

so hows this sound the crosshair 3 with an athalon 2 and the ddr3 my graphx card is a pcie

any advice on any other brand or boards that are for ddr3 would be apreciated and or what to look for in a good gaming type board

What type of budget are you looking at? Do you plan on overclocking at all? Currently I am using one of these boards and it is a very solid board. It is the first MSI board I have used and I have been impressed.

well i guess I'm kinda screwed my original mobo only has a pci ex16 slot not a 2.0 or 2.1 so i doubt it is worth real updating the graphxs unless i try 2 cheep pci cards on sli but i would think that's just a waist of money

Last time I checked nothing had been taking advantage of the full bandwidth of pcie 2.0. Your board should be fine if just wanted to upgrade your gfx card, if you do you might want a nice power supply, not sure what psu you are using though. You are right about 2 cheap gfx cards being a waste of money, I would invest in 1 good card.

[monte]

my budget is like 3 and change my plan was


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131392
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131392
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231277

and undecided on a 5670 or 5750 graphx card and what is the big difference between the 2.0 and the 2.1 cards or can you use the 2.1 in 2.0 slots