Building A New PC

[bUlLeT_pRoOf]

Well, that's not completely true. I'm looking to build a new PC with old and new parts. I'm taking the hard drive, sound card, and graphic card from my old one. I need help in choosing a new motherboard and processor. I need something for gaming, that won't cost me a fortune. I'm looking to spend about 200-300 USD for both of them. The cheaper the better really. But, I'm looking for that perfect mix of price and power. Can anyone give me any suggestions?

 

[Emperor Pan I]

Well, that's not completely true. I'm looking to build a new PC with old and new parts. I'm taking the hard drive, sound card, and graphic card from my old one. I need help in choosing a new motherboard and processor. I need something for gaming, that won't cost me a fortune. I'm looking to spend about 200-300 USD for both of them. The cheaper the better really. But, I'm looking for that perfect mix of price and power. Can anyone give me any suggestions?

Throw away the sound card, modern motherboards all come with soundcards. Generally your motherboard dictates the hardware, or vice-versa. Like if you are keeping your hard drive and video card, your motherboards inputs have to be compatible with it.

Therefore you wanna base your motherbaord on two important factors, and that is if your Video card is PCI, VGA or PCI-E. Then if your Hard drive is either a Parallel ATA, or a Serial ATA. Then what you want to buy, and how much you want in your computer.

200$ for both a motherboard and a CPU, or 200$ each. Because both you are going to get a lame processor.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 (775) is a fairly solid CPU for a cheap price.
dual channel 2045GB ddr2 ram is fairly cheap and effective.

 

[bUlLeT_pRoOf]

Ah, I'm sorry I forgot to mention those details. My hard drive is a Serial ATA and my graphic card is a ATI HD200 PRO, which is a PCI-E X16. I'm keeping my sound card because it is a 5.1 high definition and I doubt the motherboard would have that built in. I was looking at the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor for about $190.00. I heard they run well and can be overclocked easily. I can spend about another $100.00 on a motherboard. I'll have to get the RAM at a later time, when I have more money saved up. I'm going to worry about the case and fans later. I don't mind waiting a month to get the computer running. Just as long as I get everything right.

 

[ManicHoliday]

A lot of motherboards come w/ 5.1 already built into it. You can probably save yourself some cash if you found a mobo w/o a graphics card built into it if you plan on using the other one.
As far as overclocking goes: I personally have never done it and my PC runs fine. All the games that I play have no trouble on the highest graphic settings and will not lag out. And remember that if you overclock too much, your stuff won't last as long as it could have.

 

[Dragnskull]

one important thing: what ram do you currently have? if its an older system (4+ years) it could very well be DDR ram. if your upgrading its not a smart thing to go with DDR (is it even possible lately? havnt looked) instead of DDR2.

basically u might have to replace ur ram as well.

 

[bUlLeT_pRoOf]

I just ordered a Intel Q6600 processor. I need a motherboard which can support either sli or crossfire graphics. I plan on buying new memory. So, don't worry. I'll most probably buy better graphic cards in a while, when I save up more money. I just need help in purchasing a new motherboard for now and I should be able to handle the rest (I hope). I'm trying to not spend more than 100 dollars.

 

[Theroy]

A lot of motherboards come w/ 5.1 already built into it. You can probably save yourself some cash if you found a mobo w/o a graphics card built into it if you plan on using the other one.
As far as overclocking goes: I personally have never done it and my PC runs fine. All the games that I play have no trouble on the highest graphic settings and will not lag out. And remember that if you overclock too much, your stuff won't last as long as it could have.

Don't use on board sound it kills processor speed. Same with on board video any requires math.

 

[Emperor Pan I]

one important thing: what ram do you currently have? if its an older system (4+ years) it could very well be DDR ram. if your upgrading its not a smart thing to go with DDR (is it even possible lately? havnt looked) instead of DDR2.

basically u might have to replace ur ram as well.

Anyone should mostly ask the question if they want to invest in DDR3, vs. DDR2, and not even mention the fact DDR isn't really sold anywhere.

 

[ManicHoliday]

We sell DDR at my work. And there are a lot of people coming in asking for SDR RAM so they can upgrade their machine and make it faster... lol!

 

[bUlLeT_pRoOf]

So, any motherboard ideas?

 

[Sogeking]

ive been thinking of rebuilding my pc around a q6600. if you have the cash, sprig for a lanparty. i think they usually support ati so thats something to think about.

 

[Theroy]

Umm your buying in the lower end standard boards get something by asus and you'll be fine.

 

[Sogeking]

asus is good...but i fucking hate reatek

on so many levels

 

[bUlLeT_pRoOf]

I heard a lot of good things about ASUS. But, they can be pretty expensive.